I'm about
halfway through Walter Isaacson's very long Steve Jobs biography and I am
riveted.
Although this
is Jobs' officially-sanctioned biography, it isn't completely flattering.
Apple's founder was a 21st century visionary unlike any other, but he was also a
strange, petulant control freak. History can be juicy reading indeed.
It's
fascinating to see how pot-smoking LSD-taking visionaries have shaped how we
use electronics and computers today. Aside from the biggest eccentric Jobs
himself, you'll meet the Atari CEO, a mentor to Jobs, who would hold meetings in his hot tub while
smoking dope. Or that Apple engineer who absent-mindedly drove his car into a
truck nearly killing himself trying to figure out how to make those overlapping
windows that are standard in any Mac today.
So far, one of
the things that stands out for me is how Jobs way of thinking was so out of
synch with the traditional education system. Of his first years in school he said, "I encountered authority of a different kind than I had ever encountered
before, and I did not like it. And they really almost got me. They came really
close to beating any curiosity out of me." According to Jobs,
both his parents "knew the school was at fault for trying to make me
memorize stupid stuff rather than stimulating me."
His father had
a passion for restoring old cars and re-selling them for a little profit. He'd
often let his son tag along looking and bargaining for parts. Meantime,
the young Steve showed an early fascination with electronics indulged by
Heathkits—those do-it-yourself kits that would let you build radios or
oscilloscopes. Jobs said, "I was very lucky, because when I was a kid
both my dad and the Heathkits made me believe I could build anything." Ah really, there is nothing like
experiential learning especially for visual learners like Steve Jobs. Or
Einstein. Or Oppenheimer, whose mind was allowed to wander and flourish in a
progressive school.
And what a
testament to child-centered education when one of the greatest minds of the
21st century considers one of his grade school teachers as his most
significant. "I learned more from her than any other teacher, and if it
hadn't been for her I would have gone to jail."
So if you love
your iPod, Macbook, iPhone and iPad you should also be grateful to Ms. Imogen
"Teddy" Hill. She was Steve Job's 4th grade teacher.
Anyway, back to
reading the book!
