Dear Commons Community,

Maureen Dowd in her NY Times column today, looks at the personality of Steve Jobs.  Using Walter Isaacson’s recently released biography, in typical Dowd long-fingernail-fashion, she paints a not-so-complimentary picture of the Apple icon.  She titles her column, The Limits of Magical Thinking, and while acknowledging his genius, she dwells on his flaws.  “Certainly, Jobs created what Shakespeare called “the brightest heaven of invention.” But his life sounded like the darkest hell of volatility.”

Dowd draws on sad examples of how he treated his employees, children, wives, and associates.   For instance:

“Andy Hertzfeld, a friend and former Apple engineer, lent [Jobs’ daughter] Lisa $20,000 when she thought her father was not going to pay her Harvard tuition. Jobs paid it back to his friend, but Lisa did not invite him to her Harvard graduation.”

I think Isaacson will soon be on the Times best-seller list again.

Tony