Isaacson's insights into genius
— -- Walter Isaacson is well acquainted with genius.
As the author of critically-acclaimed, best-selling biographies of Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin and Henry Kissinger, Isaacson has had keen insight into some of the brightest minds ever.
But it was Steve Jobs who "mesmerized" Isaacson with his "brutal honesty" and "basic contradictions" of blending deep beliefs in hippie counterculture and technology.
Like Isaacson's other bio subjects, Jobs was "willing to think different."
"They weren't just smarter, but more ingenious," Isaacson said in a phone interview Monday. "They think outside the box, connecting creativity and scientific thinking. Jobs saw poetry in processors."
It was Jobs who approached Isaacson in the summer of 2004 about writing an authorized biography. Isaacson, who met Jobs in 1984 during the Macintosh launch while Isaacson was at Time magazine, said he wanted to wait 20 to 30 years until Jobs retired. Unbeknownst to Isaacson and everyone else was that Jobs had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
It was only at the urging of Jobs' wife, Laurene, in 2009, that Isaacson took on the job.
"I liked him," Isaacson said. "I was mesmerized by him and, yes, fell into his reality-distortion field" of influencing and manipulating people. "If I didn't say that, I wouldn't be telling you the truth."
Isaacson said he respected Jobs' "openess" about his whole life and the "brutal honesty" in which he acted. "He believed that people who wear velvet gloves rarely made good companies," said Isaacson, who has yet to decide on his next biography project.
"His favorite artist was Bob Dylan, and his songs of rebellion and beauty became, for Steve, the soundtrack of his life," Isaacson says.
Related Stories
ABC News Live