Thursday, October 27, 2011

Steve Jobs at college (and typos)

I like this brief exchange, Steve Wozniak visiting Steve Jobs at Reed College:

[Jobs] liked being at Reed, just not taking the required classes. In fact he was surprised when he found out that, for all of its hippie aura, there were strict course requirements. When Wozniak came to visit, Jobs waved his schedule at him and complained, “They are making me take all these courses.” Woz replied, “Yes, that’s what they do in college.”

Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011).
I’ve only been able to take a few quick glances at this book. The index does not inspire confidence: Jonathan “Jony” Ive is identified therein as “Sony” Ive (page 612). There’s also an entry for Jobs’s “topography [read typography] obsession” (page 614). Imagine Jobs’s reaction to such errors.


[Grainy images from Amazon’s “Look Inside.”]

comments: 9

Elaine Fine said...

Shouldn't it be obsession WITH topography? Anyway, if Jobs did have an obsession with topography, the mac would certainly feel quite different.

In an alternate universe this might be called a "topo."

Michael Leddy said...

The of makes sense, as the line comes under the entry for Jobs: in other words, typography obsession of Steve Jobs. But I’m wondering how many more mistakes the book contains.

Elaine Fine said...

The index (and the production of the book) was probably done too quickly.

Sean said...

Ouch. Perhaps this is a result of their rush to publish?

Michael Leddy said...

“Anyway, if Jobs did have an obsession with topography, the mac would certainly feel quite different”: I missed that the first time around. Funny.

Yes, I would imagine that they were rushing and did the index quickly (and cheaply). Could a spellchecker account for these mistakes? Pages suggests Sony (and much more) for Jony, and topography is the first suggestion for tpography, followed by typography.

Sean said...

Taking a second look at this, you may be a bit too kind in calling them all 'typos'. Some are just outright spelling errors (as opposed to errant keystrokes, printing defects, etc.).

Michael Leddy said...

Ives’s name is correct in the body of the text (or at least often correct), as is typography. Are you spotting other misteaks [sic]?

Adair said...

Reading about Steve Jobs doesn't make him at all sympathetic---another overblown individualist, another sociopath, full of a sense entitlement, the kind of bully that late Capitalism is so good at creating. He dismissed 65 nurses because he didn't like the design of their uniforms; he honked at a policeman (who had stopped him for driving 100 miles per hour) because the officer was taking too long to write up his ticket...You can only wish he had been stopped by a Jim Thompson-type sheriff, who would have pulled him out of the car by his little black turtleneck, knocked out every tooth in his mouth, then gone home to fix a second breakfast...

Michael Leddy said...

Adair, I agree — there’s really nothing (so far) in this book that shows Job a sympathetic character — it seems to be pretty much manipulation, self-pity, and tantrums. And of course a powerful sense of intuition about where technology would go.