It's interesting to compare this biography of Steve Jobs with the previous book I read, In The Plex which is essentially a biography of Google. While the drive at Google seems to be rigorous intellectual pursuits of the impossible, the drive at Apple was the pursuit of perfection.

And this book is as much about Apple as it is about Steve Jobs. While it does cover his personal life, there really isn't that much of it. Jobs, by his own admission spent less time on his children than he did on his work.

Isaacson does a good job of portraying both the brilliant drive that Jobs had and also his remarkably bratty personal side. From his earliest years he appears to have been convinced that he was simply cleverer and more important than everyone else. His actions were consistently selfish and inconsiderate of all around him. As a human being he fails again and again.

And yet. His accomplishments can't be ignored. They are many and remarkable. His obsession with perfection resulted in products that no one else will likely ever replicate.

I was already familiar with his early years at Apple, but the inside perspectives on the alter years were interesting and showed that it wasn't really maturing that allowed Jobs to hit his creative peak with the iPhone and iPad, but rather the fact that he finally surrounded himself with a group of people who were both equally talented in their own areas of expertise, not overwhelmed by Jobs and able to get a little respect out of him.

In the end it's a sad story. His own hubris and refusal to accept reality (traits that had served him well over the years) were his final undoing.