 |
More of my sitesWinInfo Daily News
|
About this siteFor six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul Sunday, May 22, 2005iCannot Believe I Read this CrapOK, I admit it. I had high hopes for iCon: Steve Jobs. However, I've probably read more computer industry books than anyone, and I have to say, this book is utter crap. I read it a bit differently than most books, starting with the end of the book (the return of Jobs to Apple) because that was the part of his life that's been described the least so far. Oddly enough, however, large parts of it were oddly familiar, including descriptions of how Jobs' biggest early successes at Apple--returning the company to profitability and the iMac--should, in fact, be credited to Jobs' predecessor, Gil Amelio. OK, fine.Then, I started reading the book normally. The parts dealing with Jobs' early life, and his first run at Apple through 1985, were well known to me, and this book offered no new information. But when I got to the part about Jobs' years at NeXT and Pixar, that odd feeling returned. I'd read this stuff before. I mean, I had read exactly this stuff before. Turns out I was right. And Alan Deutschman, author of the excellent The Second Coming of Steve Jobs, explains why in his well-written review of iCon. It turns out iCon's authors--Jeffrey S. Young and William L. Simon--have not only heavily plagiarized Deutschman's book, they've even plagiarized On the Firing Line, Gil Amelio's autobiography, which was, not coincidentally, actually written by iCon co-author Simon. Incredible, simply incredible. In his review, Deutschman gives excellent examples of the plagiarism, so I won't repeat any of that here. But check out the review. And skip this steaming turd of a book. If you're looking for a good biography of Jobs, by an author who actually talked to people very close to the man himself, The Second Coming of Steve Jobs is the way to go. Which brings up an interesting final point: Though the subtitle of iCon declares that Jobs is the "greatest second act in the history of business," Jobs is really in his third act. His second act--as CEO of NeXT--was an almost utter failure (though one might successfully argue that he atoned for that somewhat by selling NeXT to Apple and then taking over the company). iCon stinks. Related: Buy The Second Coming of Steve Jobs at Amazon: Hardcover | Paperback [ Posted at 7:42 PM | Permalink ]
|
|
Nexus Home | Nexus Archives | Email Paul
|