Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson

Steve Jobs was an asshole. He was brutally honest, took credit for other people's work, and believed ordinary rules didn't apply to him. (My "favorite" example of this last attribute is that he never put a license plate on his car and always parked it in a handicap spot.) For someone that is renowned as an artist and visionary, he ironically saw the world in black and white: everything was either "genius" or "bullshit." Despite all this, he changed the world in a profound way that hasn't been seen since Thomas Edison.

Isaacson does an excellent job of describing this mercurial and complicated person. Jobs comes across as temperamental and unsympathetic, but his passion for his work shined through allowing his friends and employees to forgive a lot of his behavior. He had the uncanny knack of seeing to the heart of a problem, but still allowed himself to be swayed by psychics, herbal therapies and natural healers, and bizarre diets and cleanses. He raged against Microsoft and Google, often accusing them of stealing his work, when in reality he himself stole virtually everything unique about the Macintosh from Xerox. Isaacson takes the difficult task of describing an unlikable man and achieves something amazing: at the end I found myself admiring Steve Jobs.

First Sentence:

When Paul Jobs mustered out of the Coast Guard after World War II, he made a wager with his crewmates.

Leonardo da Vinci, by Walter Isaacson

Before reading this biography I'll admit I didn't know a lot about Leonardo da Vinci other than being the painter of the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, and the Vitruvian Man. Now I know he was a true Renaissance man—arguably the first Renaissance man—and a man ahead of his time. Centuries before minds like Newton, Galileo, Bernoulli, and Valsalva were experimenting, da Vinci was discovering concepts in a huge number of fields: relativity, motion, metallurgy, fluid dynamics, cartography, anatomy, optics, geology, ichnology, and even stagecraft just to name a few. The reason we don't associate Leonardo with all these topics is that he largely kept his discoveries in his personal notebooks rather than publishing. When he died these notebooks were scattered amongst collectors, not being catalogued and available for general study until well after other luminaries had rediscovered what he already knew.

Isaacson does an amazing job examining much of da Vinci's art in detail, discussing the approach to light and shade, perspective, and color and pointing out how the pursuit of science (especially anatomy and geology) was accurately reflected in his work. While impressed at the detail, I admit that after the first few my eyes would glaze over a bit as it all seemed a bit repetitive; I apparently don't have the right genes to truly appreciate art at this level. I much more enjoyed the history of the paintings, learning which pieces were actually finished (not many!) and which have been lost to time.

Many, many of Leonardo's notebook pages are reproduced here as well, and these are the true heart of the book. The detail in everything from horses in motion to deconstructed machines to muscular and skeletal body parts is both amazing and beautiful. His notes are on nearly every page as well, sometimes right over the drawings or in the margins. da Vinci wrote in mirror script (right to left) and in Italian, giving even a simple paragraph a look of beauty.

Isaacson's admiration for da Vinci's genius shines through nearly every page, causing a sense of wonder for the reader. Weighing in at over 500 pages this isn't a quick read, but well worth the time it takes. I could have done with less art criticism and more actual history (topics like his homosexuality and his intense rivalry with Michelangelo are only briefly covered, and the oft-changing politics of Europe at this time even less so) but this is still a wonderful book.

First Sentence:

Leonardo da Vinci had the good luck to be born out of wedlock.

Einstein, by Walter Isaacson

I knew Einstein was a genius, but this book demonstrated just how inadequate that description really is. He helped prove the existence of atoms, devised a revolutionary quantum theory of light, explained Brownian motion, produced the world’s most famous equation, E=mc², and turned the concept of space and time on its head—all in 1905 alone. There is a popular myth that he failed math in high school, but in fact, before he was fifteen he had mastered differential and integral calculus. Even as a child Einstein created thought experiments to give him insights into how our universe works, such as wondering what it would be like to ride alongside a beam of light. Isaacson also does an excellent job of juxtaposing this massive intellect with Einstein’s personal relationships, showing how he was passionate and yet often emotionally distant towards his family. This second focus is really what makes the book so interesting and keeps it from too strongly resembling a physics text.

Einstein was born into a Jewish family in the German Empire at the close of the 1800’s, so his politics are interesting as well. He was a pacifist from a young age; as a boy he cried when watching military troops march through the streets accompanied by fifes and drums, later explaining, “When a person can take pleasure in in marching in step to a piece of music it is enough to make me despise him. He has been given his big brain only by mistake.” (As a former marching band member, I found this quote particularly amusing.) Despite his pacifism, Einstein saw no alternative other than war to stop the Nazi power structure. After WWII, he was a strong proponent for the creation of Israel, and in fact was offered the Presidency of that country in 1952. Einstein became friendly with many Soviets when we were allies against Germany, and combined with his view that we needed a single world government, during the McCarthy era he became a target of the FBI. His genius came from challenging conventional wisdom, but posing challenges in politics was not popular in America in the 1950’s.

Despite being a biography at the core, this book contains many detailed technical explanations about the scientific advances Einstein made. The physics discussions are not only accessible and understandable, but entertaining as well. When discussing time dilation, Isaacson says, “In fact, if you spent almost your entire life on an airplane, you would have aged merely 0.00005 seconds or so less than your twin on earth when you returned, an effect that would likely be counteracted by a lifetime spent eating airline food.” Another bon mot is in a discussion on the expansion of the galaxy: “...we are at the center of the universe, something that since the time of Copernicus only our teenage children believe.” Funny stuff for a biography about a physics pioneer! Overall, I found this book to be a very thorough, witty portrait of a charming genius.

First Sentence:

“I promise you four papers,” the young patent examiner wrote his friend.