Ideas
Technology married to the liberal arts
He placed Apple where technology meets the humanities. In 1996 he spoke of bringing a liberal arts point of view to computers. He traced the Mac’s beautiful typography back to a calligraphy class he audited at Reed. Walter Isaacson lists combining the humanities with the sciences among his core lessons.
It’s in Apple’s DNA, that technology alone is not enough.
iPad 2 launch (March 2011)
Fortune: Live blog of the iPad 2 event (2 March 2011) · Steve Jobs Archive: Make Something Wonderful · Stanford News: ‘You’ve got to find what you love,’ Jobs says (12 June 2005) · Harvard Business Review: The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs (April 2012)
Focus means saying no
Back at Apple in 1997 he cut projects hard. He told developers that year that focus means saying no. In 2004 he said innovation comes from saying no to a thousand things. Isaacson puts focus first in his list of Jobs’s leadership lessons.
it’s only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important
BusinessWeek interview (October 2004)
MacTech: Apple CEO Jobs talks innovation (12 October 2004) · Kottke: Focus means saying no (WWDC 1997) · Harvard Business Review: The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs (April 2012)
Simplicity and clean design
Apple’s first brochure in 1977 carried the line “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” At Aspen in 1983 he asked designers to help make computers beautiful. He predicted Sony’s dark high-tech look would give way to a cleaner Bauhaus style. He also found Japanese Zen “aesthetically sublime”.
bright and pure and honest about being high-tech
International Design Conference, Aspen (June 1983)
Smithsonian Magazine: How Steve Jobs’ love of simplicity fuelled a design revolution · Steve Jobs Archive: The objects of our life (Aspen 1983) · Steve Jobs Archive: Make Something Wonderful
Connect the dots and remember death
His Stanford speech gave three lessons. Trust that the dots will connect later. Find work you love. Live as if time is short. He called death “Life’s change agent” that clears out the old for the new.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Stanford commencement (12 June 2005)
Stanford News: ‘You’ve got to find what you love,’ Jobs says (12 June 2005)
A-players and small teams
He believed great products come from great people working closely together. He wanted teams who demanded perfection of one another. Isaacson lists tolerating only A-players and engaging face to face among his lessons.
There are no shortcuts around quality, and quality starts with people.
Interview for In the Company of Giants (1990s)
Steve Jobs Archive: Make Something Wonderful · Harvard Business Review: The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs (April 2012) · CBS 60 Minutes: Steve Jobs revelations (23 October 2011)
Own the whole experience
He wanted Apple to control hardware, software and services together. The iPod worked with iTunes and the iTunes Store. In Thoughts on Flash he refused a third-party layer between the iPhone and its developers. Isaacson calls this taking responsibility end to end.
Harvard Business Review: The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs (April 2012) · Apple Newsroom: Apple launches the iTunes Music Store (28 April 2003) · Wikipedia: Thoughts on Flash
A bicycle for the mind
He saw the computer as a tool that multiplies human ability. In a 1990 film for the Library of Congress he said humans are tool builders. A condor moves more efficiently than a walking human. A human on a bicycle beats the condor. The computer does the same for the mind. The Archive notes he later called computers this.
it’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds
Memory & Imagination (1990 film)
The Marginalian: Steve Jobs on the bicycle for the mind (1990) · Steve Jobs Archive: Make Something Wonderful
Intuition from India and Zen
He told Isaacson that people in the Indian countryside use intuition instead of intellect. He said that had a big impact on his work. Isaacson said Zen’s simplicity shaped his design sense. In a 1996 school talk he said we are never taught to listen to our intuitions.
Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect
To Walter Isaacson, on his time in India
The New Republic (1 November 2011) · CBS 60 Minutes: Steve Jobs revelations (23 October 2011) · Steve Jobs Archive: Make Something Wonderful · Wikipedia: Steve Jobs
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