If you've never seen it, I highly suggest you look up this comedy bit Bill Burr did about Steve Jobs. In it, he refers to Steve as "tech Jesus" and portrays his creative and leadership style as that of a narcissistic twat, eating pretentious fruit (like a pear) while berating everyone around for not executing his ideas as per his rarefied "vision". It is irreverent, hilarious, and after reading this book, it turns out it is also quite accurate.

Now, let me get this out of the way immediately-I do not revere nor admire Steve Jobs, the person. I find him to be a complex character much in the vein of Odysseus; brilliant, manipulative, resourceful, committed, and a bit of an SOB-on-a-mission. And yes, flawed. Likable? Nope.

What I do admire is the type of leader he embodied, though not every aspect of his particular rendition. Founder-CEOs (like Bill Gates, Zuckerberg, Musk, Ellison, Dorsey, Bezos, Hastings, etc.) are first and foremost, creators. Unlike professional CEOs, such as the Sundar Pichai(s) and Bob Iger(s) of the world, who must rely on acquisitions and derivative extensions of someone else's ideas, founder-CEOS bring the spark that ignite revolutions, be it in the personal computing space, or cloud computing, retail, EVs, etc. They build the fire and the rest gather.

Such dogged determination sometimes comes at a cost, and what is compelling and tragically poetic about the character study that Isaacson crafted, is the steep price Jobs ultimately paid in order to pour himself into his products.

Some people seem to come into this world to realize one idea, and somewhere along the way they decide that it is ok if it's the thing that should kill them too.

Anyways, not much else to say here about this book that hasn't already been covered by much better reviewers. Highly recommended!