Steve Jobs

The whole point of the book of Job is that life is unfair. God is fair. Don't get the two mixed up.

I could not stop thinking about Job. Old Testament Job.

So often it seems like we hear the stories of like the Steve Jobs, and I really enjoyed that book by Walter Isaacson and that story very impressed by his contributions, always complicated person as is often the case with people that make big contributions it seems.

Once he started working on this book with me, he just wanted to talk on and on, which was great.

He also said, you know, I'm famous for being brutally honest with people. I want you to be brutally honest in this book.

I read Steve Jobs' book pretty much the day it came out.

Once he started working on this book with me, he just wanted to talk on and on, which was great.

He also said, you know, I'm famous for being brutally honest with people. I want you to be brutally honest in this book.

I read Steve Jobs' book pretty much the day it came out.

My favorite story is the book of Job.

I heard it's a great book.

I tried to get it on audio, but I can't find it anywhere.

The story of Job.

I think about things like, you know, the book of Job. Where in the book of Job, there was a natural testing that happened all throughout the entire book.

If you haven't read Walter Isaacson's books on Steve Jobs, on Da Vinci, on Einstein, read them. Those guys have failed so many times.

And if you haven't read Walter Isaacson's book on him, it's amazing.

And so Steve Wozniak is looking at Steve Jobs and having an argument. And he says to Steve Jobs, he goes, well, what do you even do? And imagine looking at Steve Jobs and going, what do you even do?

And so Steve Wozniak goes, you're not an engineer. You're not a coder. You're not an artist. You're not a marketer or whatever he says. What do you even do?

And Steve Jobs says, musicians play their instruments. I play the orchestra.

When I read about Steve Jobs and his biography by Walter Isaacson, who we've also had on the podcast, I learned about something which is a term called RDF, Reality Distortion Field.

It's when someone distorts reality to suit their narrative.

I believe it's in Walter Isaacson's book or maybe in one of the other stories of Steve Wozniak looking at Steve Jobs and he's saying what do you even do? You're not a coder.

Like I said, your biographies on Steve Jobs and Einstein particularly go down as two of my favorite books of all time.

I put the Steve Jobs biography into my top three books of all time.

Well, that's because of Steve Jobs. I just tried to report and he's the one who led the interesting life.

No, absolutely. But you captured it splendidly and beautifully.

When he was a young kid, his dad was building a fence around the backyard of the house, and young Steve was helping with his hammer. His father said, we have to make the back of the fence just as beautiful as the front. Steve said, well, it faces these woods and marshland. Nobody will ever see it. Nobody will know. His father said, well, you will know.

I mean, every word I put the Steve Jobs biography into my top three books of all time.

Well, that's because of Steve Jobs. I just tried to report and he's the one who led the interesting life.

No, absolutely. But you captured it splendidly and beautifully.

I wish more of them had rubbed off on me. I'd love to be more like Steve Jobs, although perhaps kinder and gentler at times.

It was a book on the concept that our minds are tapped into a higher power. We can download insights and we can shift the fabric of the world.

If you read Steve Jobs' biography by Walter Isaacson, you know, Isaacson literally writes, Steve Jobs believed in prana or an intuitive way of living in the world.

Yeah, absolutely. And I love that book. It's right behind the big light. Beautiful book.

Isaacson said Jobs' ideas were so brilliant, so revolutionary. They seem to come from magic.

And I spent about two years at his side Doing a biography of him

With Musk it was three or four weeks Per month sometimes

Steve Jobs was interesting But he was mainly interested in the beautiful Design and conceptualizing of products And so we'd spend a lot of time in Johnny Ives Wonderful design studio at Apple headquarters Where Steve would spend the afternoon Hour after hour walking around Even looking at things like The European plug for a charger And how it was going to be different From the American plug But how curved, you know He just cared about God being in the details Of each design

When he was dying I was in his backyard with him And he says, I regret

Also, two more chapters from the book of our friend Job, Job 37-38.

The Book of Job chapter 37 and 38.

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

And so we're at almost the end, almost the very end of the book of Genesis and almost the very end of the book of Job.

And we're also reading Job chapter 27 and 28 and then Proverbs chapter 3 verses 25 to 27.

This one, Steve Jobs' book is massive.

Again, Steve Jobs, you know, biography, I think again, you know, experience what the thought process reached that poor that, I think is an interesting way into understanding.

the other wisdom books like Job and Ecclesiastes show us what those exceptions look like. For instance, Proverbs may make it sound like the wise and godly will avoid pain and suffering, but Job proves the exception.

As I was reading through some of the curses, a lot of it reminded me of Job. One of the things we learned there is that you can't always look at someone's struggles and determine the reason for them.

because we covered Job this month, we've now finished two of the longest books of the Bible.

I like Patience of Job. I'm a Job guy. You like the Patience of Job or the Book of Job? Yeah, the Book of Job.

I know he loves Steve Jobs. And the first thing I did was handed him a book this thick and I said, Kanye, this is for you. I know you're a huge fan. He said, no disrespect, but I'm never going to read that.

He said, I love Steve Jobs. He's like Jesus to me. He said, but look how thick that book is.

Walter Isaacson is one of America's best-known historians, whose books include best-selling biographies of Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and a contributor to the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin.

Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs The Exclusive Biography said that this idea applied, quote, whether he was getting a license plate that let him use handicapped parking or building products that people said weren't possible.

And over the next few months I was drawn to the book of Job because I felt something resonating inside

I felt that if I could somehow understand what was going on at the end of the book of Job, I would have reached that place of insight and breaking through into something else.

And so what happens to him in my version, which I feel is in the Hebrew, is very far from what happens in the King James version where he becomes a kind of kind of penitent, sniveling little worm at the end who's given into God's authority.

There's a great difference between submission and surrender. Surrender is an opening of the heart into what the Western tradition calls the divine.

I've entered into a process with each of these texts that I fall in love with or could be an image when I've written fiction.

And over the next few months I was drawn to the book of Job because I felt something resonating inside the end of the book of Job that seemed to me a true encounter with human suffering and the deepest insight and western tradition.

And I felt that if I could somehow understand what was going on at the end of the book of Job, I would have reached that place of insight and breaking through into something else.

And so what happens to him in my version, which I feel is in the Hebrew, is very far from what happens in the King James version where he becomes a kind of kind of penitent, sniveling little worm at the end who's given into God's authority.

There's a great difference between submission and surrender. Surrender is an opening of the heart into what the Western tradition calls the divine.

So in the context of that, in your life at that time, how did you think about prayer then? I mean was that a text that you would meditate upon?

One of the things your dad has quoted in a biography is by Walter Isaacson was that your interest in biotech was a silver lining of his getting sick. What did you think when you read that? You don't have to comment on the book, but in general, do you think that was the case to get you here?

It is a silver lining. I don't think that's a bad way to put it at all. Again, most people who work in cancer do it for very personal reasons.

You read the Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson biography. It's day to day.

You read the Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson biography. It's day-to-day you're pushing stuff. It's poker playing. It's bluffs. It's a bit of a grift.