Why people recommend it
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson is a comprehensive biography exploring the life, career, and complex personality of the co-founder of Apple. The book has drawn commentary across numerous podcasts, with Andrew Huberman on Huberman Lab reflecting on Jobs's clear sense of mortality and how it shaped his life choices. Michael Shellenberger noted on The Joe Rogan Experience that the biography portrays Jobs as intensely demanding, while Bill Maher referenced Jobs's well-documented health decisions and alternative treatments explored in the text. On Behind the Bastards, Robert Evans and his co-hosts discussed Jobs's strict aversion to styluses, citing Isaacson's account of his philosophy. Morgan Housel referenced the biography on The Jordan Harbinger Show to examine Jobs's unique traits, and Jason Calacanis pointed to an early mockup of a Tesla robotaxi featured in the book during an episode of All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg. Additionally, Chamath Palihapitiya shared a poignant anecdote on the Lex Fridman Podcast regarding Jobs's final words as recorded in his sister's New York Times obituary, highlighting the enduring cultural footprint of Isaacson's biographical work.
Who recommended it
- Joe Rogan Discussed
- Michael Shellenberger Discussed
Joe Rogan — 1 mention
“well i always think of steve jobs who said um you know he got pancreatic cancer which is the worst kind and he did a lot of um you know juice cleanses that kind of stuff yeah and i think i mean i may be wrong about this but i do think i remember him saying toward the end i”
Michael Shellenberger — 1 mention
“Walter Isaac who's writing a book about Elon right now by the way but Walter Ison in his biography of Steve Jobs he was like he was like look Steve Jobs was just too much of an [ __ ]”
Mentioned on the show without a named speaker — 8
“And the reason I say this is, um, you know, I remember when Steve Jobs was alive because I was a postdoc in Palo Alto then and would see him occasionally around Palo Alto, um, there; and then, you know, read the Walter Isaacson biography about him, and it seemed like he had a very clear sense that someday he”
“Isaacson writes, 'God gave us ten styluses,' he would say, waving his fingers. 'Let's not invent another.'”
“I've not seen the movies, I've not read the book, because the idea of Walter Isaacson telling me anything is kind of annoying as a preface.”
“I definitely think just based on Isaacson's biography, which is all I know of the man, that that's what happened. And I don't know, it'd be interesting to ask Walter Isaacson what he thinks, although he'd just say read the book, because my opinion is basically in there.”
“Also, you have to build all the cars; if Elon does get out this Robo-taxi vehicle for $25k, which he seems like is well on the way with the Model 3, to getting to this—this was an early mockup from Walter Isaacson's book, which looks pretty sharp, and it doesn't have—it's like a two-seat car, so these things zigzagging around”
“Like, I've told this story many times, and I have put, again, my own narrative fallacy on top of this, but you know Steve Jobs's sister wrote this obit in the New York Times when he died, and she ends it by saying his last words were, ‘Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow,’ that seems like an awesome way to”
“you've got the best-selling biographies of leonardo da vinci einstein steve jobs benjamin franklin and benjamin frank”
“walter is the author of best-selling biographies on leonardo da vinci einstein and steve jobs and has a new book out today which is called the code breaker jennifer doudna gene editing and the future of the human race”