Last night, in keeping with my YES Woman mantra, I attended an Aspen Institute Leadership Series event with some colleagues. It was a Q&A with Walter Isaacson covering his most current book, Steve Jobs.
The biography was the number one bestselling book for all of 2011, despite having only been on the market for less than two months. Obviously Jobs’s demise and huge public profile had a lot to do with the book’s popularity. For myriad reasons, it was as a story whose time had come.
That said, Isaacson’s esteemed profile as a journalist, storyteller and biographer long preceded this particular subject. Undoubtedly his masterful biographies of Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin are what prompted Jobs himself to seek Isaacson out to write his own life’s story. I read the Einstein bio years ago, and have had the Jobs one on my list, though I’ve been tabling it until I got around to it. I like to read and enjoy at my own pace and not be biased by all the press chatter and book reviews.
Turned out the conversation last night, conducted by SPY magazine co-creator Kurt Andersen, echoed a lot from the 60 Minutes interview from last Fall. Not that I minded – it was fascinating both times I heard Isaacson recount details … and will be once again when I finally get around to reading the book.
The evening of spirited conversation reminded me of how exciting it is to be around fellow intellectuals. Over the past few years I have downplayed this aspect of my personality. It doesn’t fit neatly into my current professional and social existence. I work in mass communication — speaking and catering to the mainstream on a daily basis — and am leery of elitism and snobbery. Yet we are all multi-dimensional beings, and being a THINKER is a fundamental part of who I am. Time to get back to feeding the brain by reading more and participating more in events of this sort!
