Book Review

Author: Karen Blumenthal

Title: The man who thought different

Genre: Nonfiction

Sub Genre: Biography

Date Started: 10 March 2016 Date Finished: 15 March 2016

About the writer: Karen Blumenthal is a former Wall Street Journal reporter and editor.  She writes nonfiction for youth and young adults now.  Her background in business and financial matters gave her the tools to analyze the Jobs story with a uniquely keen eye to the intricate dealings that make up his career.  She has written a number of other successful nonfiction books for youth and is one of a handful of such writers who call this arena their niche as authors. “In more than two decades with The Wall Street Journal, she covered retailing, oil and gas, housing, mergers, and bankruptcies, and was Dallas bureau chief for eight years, supervising a dozen reporters covering an eight-state territory. In that role, she coordinated and edited one of the Sept. 11, 2001, stories that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for spot-news reporting,” according to Blumenthal’s website (2013).

Synopsis: The book is based on the three stories of Steve Job’s life which he delivered in the commencement speech of Stanford University’s class of 2005. First was ‘connecting the dots’, second was ‘love and losses’ and finally the ‘death’. Karen Blumenthal successfully covers all the three stories and gives an insight into the life of the ‘technology rock star’ Steve Job.

Review: The book begins with the first story- connecting the dots. The story starts with Steve Job’s adoption, dropping out after first semester, started making computers in his father’s garage and ending up with the world’s one of the leading company in technology Apple. Steve Job’s biological mother was an undergraduate student who got pregnant and her parents didn’t approve so she chose to give the baby for adoption. But she had a condition that her parents should be a graduate. When she found that the couple who came for adopting the child had not gone to a graduate school she was reluctant to give the child for adoption but later she agreed when the couple promised to send the baby to a graduate school. Steve Job’s was difficult child for both the parents as well as the teachers. He didn’t like the routine school which restricts the student’s creativity. He always played pranks with his teachers. He had a friend Woznaik who was a partner in crime as well as his innovation. His father taught him how to fix the cars but soon he found that his son was least interested in mending cars. He taught his son that suppose you make furniture, the back end might not be visible to everyone and you might use the material of any quality but you know that it is there so never do that. Perfection and honesty is important which we can see in his work. After his schooling, Job joined a college in Oregon at Reed University which was not within

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the limits of his parents. But he left the college after first semester giving an excuse that he didn’t like the subjects and the monotonous way of teaching. Then he was free to do anything he liked. He joined a calligraphy class which he had no use at that time but when he developed computer he introduced the first computer with different font style features. This was how he connected the dots. Job was artistic, talented, passionate and jerk. He wanted all his employees to give his 100% in whatever they are doing. He never appreciated anyone’s work. He always pointed out the flaws in everyone’s work. He was not liked by his colleagues and employees due to such behaviors. Even after his dedication and hard work he was thrown out of Apple for his behavior. His second story love and losses starts form here. After he was out of Apple he was shattered because it was Job who had founded the company and now he was thrown out of his own company. He still saw some positivity in this. He tried to connect the dots. Now he will have time to build his machine ‘Macintosh’ which he could not give attention due to work pressure. In this story the author talks about the personal life of Steve jobs. How he met his wife, his affairs from his first girlfriend till he met his wife and issues regarding his biological mother. He started understanding the importance of family and lived under the same roof with everyone- his biological mother, sister, wife and children. In 1996, Apple was in trouble and Therefore Steve Job’s was called back to bring the company to stability. Apple agreed to purchase NeXT from Job and named his as an interim CEO. In his 2005 speech to the Stanford graduating class, Jobs promised three stories. He shared a personal philosophy that he was warned to live each day as if it were his last because someday it would be the last. He told that about his cancer surgery to the students. But it was unfortunate that he could not be cured because of his rare cancer, diet, treatments and pain medication. On October 5, 2011, with his wife, his children, and both of his sisters near, Steve Jobs passed away. Though he had battled cancer for years, somehow his death felt unexpected. It was as if a world-famous movie star or a rock star had died. There was an outpouring of grief around the world. In 1998 interview at Stanford Graduation he recalled The Whole Earth Catalog publication that had caption “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” And he wished that for Tim Cook.

The reason I chose this book because I was eager to know about Steve Jobs after hearing his speech at Stanford University. I liked Steve Jobs personality because he trusted that the dots would connect. He believed that the reward was in the journey. He followed his heart. He didn’t settle for okay. He did what he loved. And if he didn’t love what he did, if he didn’t believe it was great work, he redid it again and again. He tried to live each day as though it really mattered, even before he had cancer.

Book Location: Library

Star Rating: 3.94