Biographer Isaacson discusses Jobs, Einstein

Both Isaacson and Thomas are well-known for their stature in the magazine world. Isaacson is the former managing editor at Time, and Thomas is the former editor-at-large at Newsweek. The pair collaborated in 1986 to author “The Wise Men,” a look at six foreign policy leaders in the period following World War II.

As the author of biographies on Henry Kissinger, Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin in addition to Jobs, Isaacson started by describing the common quality that these influential people had: creativity.

“When you start off thinking about smart people, you realize there are a whole lot of smart people in this world, and they really don’t matter much,” Isaacson said. “What really matters is creativity.”

Isaacson noted that this creativity — especially in technology and the sciences — contributed to America’s success in the 20th century, but that the location of this technological drive doesn’t really matter.

“In terms of the digital and biotechnology economy, the U.S. is in a very good place, but I think it’s irrelevant where it’s coming from,” Isaacson said. “The great divide will be between those who are comfortable with the technology of the information age and those who aren’t.”

Isaacson next talked about a set of real lessons from Jobs’ career that older people often fail to focus on when reading his book. Jobs’ focus and sense of simplicity, which he shared with other great people Isaacson studied, drove Jobs’ success.

“Einstein had a great line on simplicity, that ‘everything in the world should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler,’ ” he said.

Isaacson noted Jobs’ passion for perfection as another of his key characteristics. When Jobs was a child, Isaacson explained, his father told him that the back of a project should be as perfect as the front. Even if no one else knew, Jobs’ father told him, he still would.

While an ability to think out of the box was a key characteristic of the great people Isaacson profiled, including Jobs, Isaacson also noted the importance of a good education.

“People say, ‘I’m like Einstein; I think out of the box,’ ‘I’m like Steve Jobs; I think different,’ ” Isaacson said. “It’s important to know what’s in the box before you figure out what’s outside.”

When asked about Jobs’ noted controlling personality, Isaacson answered that this was in fact a key aspect of Jobs’ success. Isaacson said he was initially surprised when Jobs didn’t ask for control over the book.

“I have succeeded because I am brutally honest,” Jobs told Isaacson. “I want a book that is brutally honest.”

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Isaacson noted that, despite Jobs’ brutal honesty, his employees remained loyal, and Jobs claimed that if people didn’t like his brutal honesty they would have left, but they didn’t.

“That brutal honesty was something I tried to bring to the book and was the most difficult thing to bring to the book because I liked him,” Isaacson said. “I decided to try to be as honest as he was honest.”

Despite focusing on some of Jobs’ defining characteristics, Isaacson cautioned audience members not to read too much into Jobs’ life path.

“I’m not writing a how-to manual on how to live your life,” Isaacson said. “This is a biography of the most amazing guy you’re going to read about.”

Isaacson spoke before a crowded Whig Senate Chamber.