Steve Jobs biography: First thoughts on the opening chapters

Jobs meets the Woz, does acid and starts his first stint at Apple

Like most of the technology world, V3 was eager to get its hands on a copy of Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs and, thanks to the nifty powers of Amazon's Kindle system, we've been enjoying the biography since yesterday afternoon.

The opening chapters provide a swift but thorough overview of Jobs' early life as he discovers that he was adopted, meets tech whiz Steve Wozniak, and eventually founds Apple, all while accidentally getting his on/off girlfriend pregnant and doing a lot of acid.

Jobs' voice comes through little but often in the opening chapters, Isaacson instead setting the scene and using information from those who knew him at the time to paint the background of his life, with hints at how these formative years would shape the success of Apple.

This involved Jobs' fascination with Buddhism that fed his desire for clean, intuitive technologies, to the ethos instilled in him by his father of ensuring that each and every component of a product is designed with love and care.

What also comes through a lot in the early chapters is just how pivotal Wozniak was to the early success of Apple, and how well the two Steves worked together. Woz's enduring love for HP for its research philosophy also shines through, something he told V3 about last week.

Yet the book is about Jobs and from the opening chapters there's a clear sense of destiny around him: the way he was able to bend those around him to his will, landing jobs at Atari, securing funding for Apple, making deals with resellers.

Isaacson admits that he tried hard to avoid the influence of Jobs' famous "reality distortion field", and perhaps here and there he succumbs. But it's impossible not to imagine a wiry, manic Jobs aged 22 acting in the manner described and getting his way.

This, of course, also means that there was an ugly, ruthless side to Jobs, and many recall being insulted, dismissed and overlooked by Jobs even at that young age, traits well known throughout his distinguished career.

For those interested in Apple and Jobs the book is clearly going to be something of a must-read. The early chapters suggest that it will live up to the hype, magnified by Jobs' death on 5 October and the access to the Apple founder and those around him granted to Isaacson.

We'll have a full review on V3 when we've finished the 600-page epic.