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'Steve Jobs' Becomes Amazon's Best-Selling Book of 2011
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I have been enjoying this book for it's insight to key decision points that Jobs made throughout his career. Less exciting is the realization that he was an epic ******. I sort of already knew that, but figure that maybe it was just reduced to his work life. But, no. He was a complete jerk to so many people around him. Especially when he was younger. Its tough to read such harsh details about a person who's life impacted you so much.
I also find it interesting the notes about the invention of GUI interfaces in mass micro computers. Noticeably, they never mention the Amiga or really even the Commodore 64. Both were far more successful than Apple for each of the respective niches. Frankly, the Amiga completely handed IBM and Apple their butts for YEARS when it came to the GUI, graphics, and sound capabilities.
But the insight that was available was fascinating. Jobs thought Commodore's management was full of a bunch of "Bozos." And he was right. The guys who made the Amiga awesome weren't the guys in charge at Commodore. And if Commodore empirically proved over the years, they were the kings of mismanagement. They had the best products. Their products were better than the Apple II or the Mac. But what makes Apple come out on top, is the way in which Steve Jobs, especially in his second term at Apple, cultivated people who thought like he did. They were passionate about what they do.
One of my favorite phrases in the book, so far, is about the Zune. To paraphrase: "The Zune is what you get when you care about money. The iPod is what you get when you care about music."
I also find it interesting the notes about the invention of GUI interfaces in mass micro computers. Noticeably, they never mention the Amiga or really even the Commodore 64. Both were far more successful than Apple for each of the respective niches. Frankly, the Amiga completely handed IBM and Apple their butts for YEARS when it came to the GUI, graphics, and sound capabilities.
But the insight that was available was fascinating. Jobs thought Commodore's management was full of a bunch of "Bozos." And he was right. The guys who made the Amiga awesome weren't the guys in charge at Commodore. And if Commodore empirically proved over the years, they were the kings of mismanagement. They had the best products. Their products were better than the Apple II or the Mac. But what makes Apple come out on top, is the way in which Steve Jobs, especially in his second term at Apple, cultivated people who thought like he did. They were passionate about what they do.
One of my favorite phrases in the book, so far, is about the Zune. To paraphrase: "The Zune is what you get when you care about money. The iPod is what you get when you care about music."
Steve had worked out a killer marketing plan beforehand. Shameless self promotion really.
Trying to buy but can't find a copy of it for a reasonable price though.
For up to the time before Steve Jobs left Apple, Infinite loop is suppose to be better. But the new bio has info about what happened next.
Stereotype much?
What stereotype? It was a question showing that you cannot extrapolate from one set of data.
Sorry to kill your Euro-pride, but there is no way in hell that Amazon Euro sales > Amazon US sales. Not to mention if you read my OP, you'd see that I said in many of the Euro countries it is #2-5 in sales, and when you combine that with a very powerful #1 in US sales (and also as I said in my OP, the Euro countries don't have the #2 US book that high on their charts) means an aggregate worldwide #1.
Stereotype much?
we have this really cool thing called a bookstore.
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shhhh, don't poke the animals. whateva you do, don't tell them there is more than one type of dollar
You mean "Heaven is for Suckers: A Father's Fraudulent Story of His Son's Imaginary Trip to Oz and Back?"I'm glad Steve's Bio finally beat out that cash cow about that kid's phony religious experience.
I didn't say I think it isn't the number 1 book in amazon worldwide. It is probably the most international of the books in the bestseller lists.
I just said that it is not obvious that the US is amazon's biggest market, and that you cannot simply extrapolate that number 1 in the US means number 1 globally.
Not so sure ....
I'm pretty sure Hollywood would screw up this type of movie and ruin it .... but you could DEFINITELY make a great movie about the man and his life.
Really, the "Pirates of Silicon Valley" movie was pretty entertaining and interesting, despite only covering one portion of Jobs' life and doing so on a pretty low budget.
I bought the Jobs biography, but haven't yet had a chance to read all of it. So far though, I agree with some of the people who commented that it's not exactly "quite good".... The overplayed "reality distortion field" thing is mentioned numerous times, for example, where once (with accompanying explanation) would have been sufficient.
I also understand the book ends without even mentioning that Jobs, in fact, died. Maybe that's partially the result of the book being largely completed before his death -- but it feels odd they'd leave it out when the book is obviously being purchased in mass quantities largely BECAUSE he just died.
Personally, I think there's at least an entire chapter someone could write about Jobs' final days and death. For example, it strikes me as rather odd he died the next DAY after the iPhone 4S was released. (If you recall, there were rumors flying that he passed away a week or two earlier, but they quickly vanished. There's a potential "conspiracy theory" here, at the very least, that maybe Jobs actually DID die a week earlier but it was kept a secret, so the release of the last product he directly influenced and directed could be completed without distraction?)
I'm pretty sure Hollywood would screw up this type of movie and ruin it .... but you could DEFINITELY make a great movie about the man and his life.
Really, the "Pirates of Silicon Valley" movie was pretty entertaining and interesting, despite only covering one portion of Jobs' life and doing so on a pretty low budget.
I bought the Jobs biography, but haven't yet had a chance to read all of it. So far though, I agree with some of the people who commented that it's not exactly "quite good".... The overplayed "reality distortion field" thing is mentioned numerous times, for example, where once (with accompanying explanation) would have been sufficient.
I also understand the book ends without even mentioning that Jobs, in fact, died. Maybe that's partially the result of the book being largely completed before his death -- but it feels odd they'd leave it out when the book is obviously being purchased in mass quantities largely BECAUSE he just died.
Personally, I think there's at least an entire chapter someone could write about Jobs' final days and death. For example, it strikes me as rather odd he died the next DAY after the iPhone 4S was released. (If you recall, there were rumors flying that he passed away a week or two earlier, but they quickly vanished. There's a potential "conspiracy theory" here, at the very least, that maybe Jobs actually DID die a week earlier but it was kept a secret, so the release of the last product he directly influenced and directed could be completed without distraction?)
I found that Biography quite good. A quick read actually as the text is quite large.
However, a movie would be totally crappy.
Guaranteed.
Also, George Clooney has really gone down the crapper since Syriana
Why on earth would you even make this claim? It really doesn't make sense. Even if Amazon does more business in Europe than in America (which it doesn't), you're comparing 10+ countries to 1! Amazon is an American company that cannibalizes American retailers (Best Buy, Walmart, Target, Barnes and Noble, etc.) I'm sure it's the same across the pond, but not to the same extent.
And 91.9 billion Euros = 123.09086 billion U.S. dollars, which is still less than $197B USD. People seem to forget that the Euro doesn't have the value it used to!
Yeah, that one.
It will be back at 1.5 USD, as soon as we finish establishing and marketing our rating agencies. I still don't know why people listen to the American agencies. China's agency is in the process of downgrading the US rating, FWIW.
And the US economy is on its way back to being perfect.
The world economy blows, period.
Amazon Europe is one entity with several localized sites.
Someone assumes amazon.com is the biggest just like that. Having seen all the fulfilment centers Amazon Europe has, I required more proof. I didn't claim it was bigger.
Again, you graphic shows all retail. It doesn't show only online book sales.
I think in the US people buy more "brick and mortar" items from amazon than in Europe, and they have more categories because .com started first.
Someone assumes amazon.com is the biggest just like that. Having seen all the fulfilment centers Amazon Europe has, I required more proof. I didn't claim it was bigger.
Again, you graphic shows all retail. It doesn't show only online book sales.
I think in the US people buy more "brick and mortar" items from amazon than in Europe, and they have more categories because .com started first.
I'm also "strongly considering" writing the screenplay. The problem is that Sony isn't "strongly considering" me as a contender.
American author. American publisher. American seller.
Steve Jobs was an American. Apple is an American company.
Everything in the book took place in, you guessed it, America.
I guess the quality of public education isn't what it used to be over there, is it?