Steve Jobs by Aaron Sorkin, based on the book by Walter Isaacson

Steve Jobs by Aaron Sorkin, based on the book by Walter Isaacson

A different version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:

-              https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVa4_CsRStSBBDo4uJWT8BSWtTTn0N1E  and   http://realini.blogspot.ro/

Steve Jobs was one of the most fascinating people in recent memory.

And his story has almost all the ingredients needed for a compelling narrative.

Yet, I was not all that thrilled.

Compared with Jobs and other films, this is much better.

Danny Boyle is a good director and some films stand proof of that:

-          Trainspotting and 127 Hours

-          Slumdog Millionaire and The Beach have not done the trick for me though

Michael Fassbender is also an excellent actor and he has been nominated for two Academy Awards, one for his role in Steve Jobs and the other for a supporting role in 12 Years a Slave.

Hate Winslet has been nominated for…Seven Oscars.

She won for The Reader, was nominated for her supporting role in Steve jobs and performed marvelously in so many of her other roles

Then there is Aaron Sorkin.

He won an academy Awards for the brilliant screenplay for The Network.

And the Golden Globe and other great prizes for Steve Jobs.

                                                                      All the ingredients, the protagonists, the circumstances were in place for a fabulous masterpiece.

-          “Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus”?

-          Not exactly, but we are not looking at the Godfather either

Steve Jobs was a genius, with a brilliant mind, creative, determined, with a filed distorting personality.

His other side was dark, mean, controlling, vengeful and petty.

I do not understand his position on the treatment for his illness, where he chose alternative solutions that did little good.

My understanding is that he could have lived longer, had he chosen a more traditional approach and consecrated treatment.

Yes, having a positive outlook and being optimistic has been proved to increase life expectancy and help with cronical diseases.

In fact, the hero of the film is said to have regretted his choice:

-          “Steve Jobs died regretting that he had spent so long attempting to treat his cancer with alternative medicine before agreeing to undergo surgery”

It is astonishing to witness the extent of the fall from grace, the abyss to which Steve Jobs had to descent.

Only to have the chance of extreme Redemption and the ascent to the ultimate positions of power in the biggest company in the world today.

At the stock market Apple has reached at various moments – I am not sure what happened yesterday- the position of the most valuable company in the world.

And yet Steve Jobs was fired from the company he has created.

Which brings to mind Professor Tal Ben Shahar from Harvard, who has the most popular lectures on Positive Psychology.

When asked about what he wishes for his students he offers what seems to be an outrageous proposal:

-          I wish you fail more…because this is the truth:

-          Learn to fail, or you fail to learn

It has worked in the case of Steve Jobs.

He came back from misery, the shame of being demoted to become not just a billionaire but the creator of the iPhone.

The genius of the man who has invented the smart phone- with a team of people and inventors obviously is explained in the classic of psychology Outliers, by the magnificent Malcolm Gladwell and this is a quote:

“Here is the most telling slip-up in Outliers, in a passage about Steve Jobs. "Wait. Bill Hewlett gave him spare parts? That’s on par with Bill Gates getting unlimited access to a time-share terminal at age thirteen." No. The incredible thing isn’t that young Steve was given spare parts. It’s that he asked for them. It was "lucky" that Bill Hewlett said yes to his request, but how many young people demonstrate that kind of initiative, that fearless impulse to make their own luck?”