I find it very odd that Steve would cooperate with a project like this without so much as the right to read it before it's released. Honestly I wonder why Steve would agree to that. Any theories?
This is a man who is staring his mortality in the face. A man with a truly fascinating story – which can be seen in many, many lights, not all of them positive.
I think he knows he won't live forever and wanted the opportunity to have his story told with his input, instead of it leaving it to chance once his voice was silenced by human impermanence.
1) Trust. Jobs trusts this author. Many have wanted to write this book, this is the man Jobs trusted to do it.
2) Jobs isn't going to live forever. In some sense I think he rightfully understands that this book will partially define his legacy and he wants the record to understand that it isn't filtered through his lens.
In 100 years he may well be the only technologist of our era people readily remember. He's our modern Edison. I'm glad he's taken this book seriously.
Maybe Steve realized when you give up control, you can let someone else shine (Walter) as the artiste.
Steve probably believes Walter was the best writer to tell his story, and you can't discount the fact that he is thinking about his legacy. In fact, I think the interviews may become part of some Apple internal library.
You get better quality journalists and journalism if you don't demand final approval. Wanting final approval means that you want a puff piece, and who wants to write that?
