Steve Jobs (not really helping people or the planet) by Walter Isaacson
/The book is well written and provide insights to some of the thinking of Jobs and the processes resulting in th
e products that we all know of, but for me the most interesting is what's NOT in this book and what was never part of the brilliant presentations Steve gave… I’m talking about the most important challenges of our time. He was a brilliant mind and he had people around him that looked into ways to make a real difference when it came to the important issues, so he must have chosen to ignore these issues. Would be interesting to think about what kind of impact he could have made if he cared for more than music, videos, books and stuff that looks nice.
This is how many times some key words are mentioned in the book
Climate change: 0
Environment (in the meaning natural environment): 0
Aging: 0
Transparency: 0
Equity (as fairness not finance): 0
Poverty: 1 (and nothing that Steve does, but in the context when telling about a person who asked for money and support to a foundation that Steve decided not to support)
The only mentioning of something “bigger” is a paragraph when we are told that Steve during his freshman years read “Diet for a small planet” and Steve became vegetarian. However the reason for this seems to have been for his personal health, not for care about the planet.
I don’t think Walter Isaacson would have left discussions, thoughts and ideas about the important issues of our time out unless Steve did not really mention them. So until we know more we have to assume that Steve did not want to share his thought about these things with the world. And maybe even assume that he did not care, at least not enough to do something significant about it.
The absence of the words above can be compared with some other words: Design: 432 Passion: 82 Profit: 39 Innovation: 30
To me it is very difficult to see how you can use the words Steve did and not link them to the greatest challenges and most important questions of our time. That one person, in this case Steve Jobs, did not make the connection is not bothering me very much even if I think it is a waste of creativity, but that so few discusses this gap makes me worried.