Books and writing
Stanford Commencement Address: Speech (2005)
Stanford University. His best-known speech, given on 12 June 2005. Three stories: dropping out and the calligraphy class, being fired from Apple, and facing death. It ends with “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”
Stanford News: ‘You’ve got to find what you love,’ Jobs says (12 June 2005)
Thoughts on Music: Open letter (2007)
Apple. Posted on 6 February 2007. He said Apple used DRM only because the record labels demanded it. He noted the labels sold over 20 billion unprotected songs on CDs in 2006. He said Apple would embrace DRM-free music. TidBITS found his claim that DRM did not lock in customers weak for heavy iTunes buyers.
Engadget: Steve Jobs calls for an end to DRM · TidBITS: Steve Jobs blasts DRM (12 February 2007)
Thoughts on Flash: Open letter (2010)
Apple. Posted on 29 April 2010. He explained why the iPhone and iPad would not run Adobe Flash. He cited battery drain, crashes, poor mobile performance, security, lack of touch support and a third-party layer between Apple and developers. Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen called the issues “really a smokescreen”. In November 2011 Adobe stopped developing mobile Flash.
Make Something Wonderful: Steve Jobs in his own words (2023)
Steve Jobs Archive. A curated book of his speeches, interviews and emails. Some had never been seen before. Edited by Leslie Berlin with an introduction by Laurene Powell Jobs. It is free to read online. It opens with his 2007 wish to “make something wonderful and put it out there”.
Steve Jobs Archive: Time to make something wonderful · Steve Jobs Archive: Make Something Wonderful
Steve Jobs: The authorised biography by Walter Isaacson (a book about him) (2011)
Simon & Schuster. Not written by Jobs. Isaacson drew on more than 40 interviews with him over two years and more than 100 with family, friends, rivals and colleagues. It came out on 24 October 2011, 19 days after his death. Amazon’s top-selling book of 2011. Tim Cook later said it did Jobs “a tremendous disservice”.
Wikipedia: Steve Jobs (book) · Macworld: Apple gives stamp of approval to new Jobs biography (23 March 2015)
Becoming Steve Jobs: By Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli (a book about him) (2015)
Crown Business. Not written by Jobs. It traces his evolution from a reckless upstart into a visionary leader. Apple helped the authors because it felt it could do more for its founder. Eddy Cue of Apple called it the “Best portrayal” of Jobs.
Wikipedia: Becoming Steve Jobs · Macworld: Apple gives stamp of approval to new Jobs biography (23 March 2015)
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