Jobs biographer on his admiration for Mark Zuckerberg

Walter Isaacson, the author of Steve Jobs’ official biography, was on stage with Facebook board member Don Graham this morning at Fortune’s annual Brainstorm Tech conference. And as usual, the topic turned to the Apple founder.

Graham mentioned what a big impact Steve Jobs had on Facebook’s young CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, and he asked Isaacson if Jobs had ever mentioned him. As you might have guessed, the writer’s response was pretty interesting…

Via BusinessInsider:

“I once asked Jobs who [he] admired in the Valley,” Isaacson responded. “Mark’s was the first name on his lips.” Jobs admired Zuckerberg for his “intuitive feel” for what Facebook needed next, for his passion and willingness to “do stuff that allows him to be on shifting sands—his willing to cannibalize old things. He felt an odd kinship to Mark.” Isaacson said.”

Isaacson went on to say that Jobs never managed to crack social networking, pointing to the dying Ping network. And when he asked the CEO why he hadn’t tried again, he responded: “Maybe because Mark did it so well. There’s not a need for a whole lot of social networks and Facebook has got it licked.”

It’s kind of cool to know that these two titans of Silicon Valley shared a mutual respect for one another. And also to know that there won’t be a Ping 2 anytime soon.