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The Pirates Abandon Ship Upon his return from Europe in August 1985, while he was casting about for what to
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Walter Isaacson |
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He did, however, invite Jobs to visit him at his hotel before the concert. Jobs recalled: We sat on the patio outside his room and talked for two hours. I was really nervous, because he was one of my heroes. And I was also afraid that he wouldn't be really smart anymore, that he'd be a caricature of himself, like happens to a lot of people. But I was delighted. He was as sharp as a tack. He was everything I'd hoped. He was really open and h..
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Walter Isaacson |
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The most successful endeavors in the digital age were those run by leaders who fostered collaboration while also providing a clear vision. Too often these are seen as conflicting traits: a leader is either very inclusive or a passionate visionary. But the best leaders could be both. Robert
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Walter Isaacson |
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atomic power, radar, and the Internet--were spawned by the military.
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Walter Isaacson |
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Einstein loved Aarau. "Pupils were treated individually," his sister recalled, "more emphasis was placed on independent thought than on punditry, and young people saw the teacher not as a figure of authority, but, alongside the student, a man of distinct personality." It was the opposite of the German education that Einstein had hated. "When compared to six years' schooling at a German authoritarian gymnasium," Einstein later said, "it made..
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Walter Isaacson |
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ndm tzHf khnfs `my fwq fr` shjr@ mnHn, fhy l tlHZ 'n lmsr ldhy qT`th mnHn blf`l, lqd knt mHZwZan b'n lHZt m lm tlHZh lkhnfs
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Walter Isaacson |
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Kissinger would probably be outraged even if he reread his own memoirs, on the grounds that they are not favorable enough.
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ego
humility
reflection
self-criticism
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Walter Isaacson |
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n fDwly ytdkhl m` `mly
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Walter Isaacson |
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His fingerprints are all over today's technologies. Photoelectric cells and lasers, nuclear power and fiber optics, space travel, and even semiconductors all trace back to his theories.
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Walter Isaacson |
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employee, developed graphics for the Macintosh. C
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Walter Isaacson |
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there many afternoons to seek him out. He was entranced
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Walter Isaacson |
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On the day he unveiled the Macintosh, a reporter from Popular Science asked Jobs what type of market research he had done. Jobs responded by scoffing, "Did Alexander Graham Bell do any market research before he invented the telephone?"
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Walter Isaacson |
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'n nHtfZ blqdr@ `l~ lndhsh kl'Tfl, wlt`jb mn l'shy l`dy@ mthl sqwT ltfH wlmS`d , hy lSf@ lty tsm bh ynshtyn wGyrh
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Walter Isaacson |
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But what truly devastated Jobs was that he was not, after all, chosen as the Man of the Year.
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Walter Isaacson |
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wanted to be like an orphan who had bummed around the country on trains and just arrived out of nowhere,
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Walter Isaacson |
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the world are the ones who do. --Apple's "Think Different" commercial,"
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Walter Isaacson |
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I always thought of myself as a humanities person as a kid, but I liked electronics," he said. "Then I read something that one of my heroes, Edwin Land of Polaroid, said about the importance of people who could stand at the intersection of humanities and sciences, and I decided that's what I wanted to do." It was as if he were suggesting themes for his biography (and in this instance, at least, the theme turned out to be valid). The creativ..
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Walter Isaacson |
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Portfolio of Diana Walker Photos For almost thirty years, photographer Diana Walker has had special access to her friend Steve Jobs. Here is a selection from her portfolio.
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Walter Isaacson |
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His embrace, however, did not extend to people who were pretentious or pompous (with the exception of Wiener). When he thought a speaker was spouting nonsense, he would stand up and ask what seemed to be innocent but were in fact devilish questions. After a few moments, the speaker would realize he had been deflated and Licklider would sit down. "He didn't like poseurs or pretenders," Tracy recalled. "He was never mean, but he slyly pricked..
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Walter Isaacson |
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tkhfy lTby`@ srh bsbb shmwkhh wlys bGrD lkhd`
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Walter Isaacson |
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Josiah practiced the art, which his son would perfect, of marrying public virtue with private profit: he made money by selling candles to the night watchmen he oversaw.
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Walter Isaacson |
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Just because you can't act EVERYWHERE doesn't mean you don't act ANYWHERE. - Madeleine Albright
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humility
job
leadership
priorities
stewardship
vocation
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Walter Isaacson |
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Some people say, "Give the customers what they want." But that's not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they're going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, "If I'd asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, 'A faster horse!' " People don't know what they want until you show it to them. That's why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page." --
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Walter Isaacson |
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Maybe there's a better way, a gentlemen's club where we all wear ties and speak in this Brahmin language and velvet code-words, but I don't know that way, because I am middle class from California.
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Walter Isaacson |
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They kept evolving, moving, refining their art. That's what I've always tried to do--keep moving. Otherwise, as Dylan says, if you're not busy being born, you're busy dying.
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Walter Isaacson |
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They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.
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Walter Isaacson |
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Tribble recalled that he adopted the phrase from the "Menagerie" episodes of Star Trek, "in which the aliens create their own new world through sheer mental force." He meant the phrase to be a compliment as well as a caution: "It was dangerous to get caught in Steve's distortion field, but it was what led him to actually be able to change reality."
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Walter Isaacson |
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Amazingly, the reality distortion field seemed to be effective even if you were acutely aware of it. We would often discuss potential techniques for grounding it, but after a while most of us gave up, accepting it as a force of nature.
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Walter Isaacson |
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It was a self-fulfilling distortion," she claimed. "You did the impossible, because you didn't realize it was impossible."
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Walter Isaacson |
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I've learned over the years that when you have really good people you don't have to baby them," Jobs later explained. "By expecting them to do great things, you can get them to do great things."
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Walter Isaacson |
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From his father Jobs had learned that a hallmark of passionate craftsmanship is making sure that even the aspects that will remain hidden are done beautifully. One of the most extreme--and telling--implementations of that philosophy came when he scrutinized the printed circuit board that would hold the chips and other components deep inside the Macintosh. No consumer would ever see it, but Jobs began critiquing it on aesthetic grounds. "Tha..
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Walter Isaacson |
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I want it to be as beautiful as possible, even if it's inside the box. A great carpenter isn't going to use lousy wood for the back of a cabinet, even though nobody's going to see it." In an interview a few years later, after the Macintosh came out, Jobs again reiterated that lesson from his father: "When you're a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you're not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the ..
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Walter Isaacson |
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No one would ever see them, but the members of the team knew that their signatures were inside, just as they knew that the circuit board was laid out as elegantly as possible.
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Walter Isaacson |
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He pretended to be interested in technology, but he wasn't. He was a marketing guy, and that is what marketing guys are: paid poseurs.
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Walter Isaacson |
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Jobs later said that he never read the novel. "I heard it was about me," he told me, "and if it was about me, I would have gotten really pissed off, and I didn't want to get pissed at my sister, so I didn't read"
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Walter Isaacson |
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We didn't know much about each other twenty years ago. We were guided by our intuition; you swept me off my feet. It was snowing when we got married at the Ahwahnee. Years passed, kids came, good times, hard times, but never bad times. Our love and respect has endured and grown. We've been through so much together and here we are right back where we started 20 years ago--older, wiser--with wrinkles on our faces and hearts. We now know many ..
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Walter Isaacson |
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When you have feelings," he said, "like sadness or anger about your cancer or your plight, to mask them is to lead an artificial life."
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Walter Isaacson |
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We talked a lot about focus. And choosing people. How to know who to trust, and how to build a team of lieutenants he can count on. I described the blocking and tackling he would have to do to keep the company from getting flabby or being larded with B players. The main thing I stressed was focus.
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Walter Isaacson |
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Jobs's intensity was also evident in his ability to focus. He would set priorities, aim his laser attention on them, and filter out distractions. If something engaged him--the user interface for the original Macintosh, the design of the iPod and iPhone, getting music companies into the iTunes Store--he was relentless. But if he did not want to deal with something--a legal annoyance, a business issue, his cancer diagnosis, a family tug--he w..
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Walter Isaacson |
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The nasty edge to his personality was not necessary. It hindered him more than it helped him. But it did, at times, serve a purpose. Polite and velvety leaders, who take care to avoid bruising others, are generally not as effective at forcing change. Dozens of the colleagues whom Jobs most abused ended their litany of horror stories by saying that he got them to do things they never dreamed possible. And he created a corporation crammed wit..
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Walter Isaacson |
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What Einstein appreciated in Mozart and Bach was the clear architectural structure that made their music seem "deterministic" and, like his own favorite scientific theories, plucked from the universe rather than composed. "Beethoven created his music," Einstein once said, but "Mozart's music is so pure it seems to have been ever-present in the universe." He contrasted Beethoven with Bach: "I feel uncomfortable listening to Beethoven. I thin..
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Walter Isaacson |
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plow deep.
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Walter Isaacson |
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The creativity that can occur when a feel for both the humanities and the sciences combine in one strong personality was the topic that most interested me in my biographies of Franklin and Einstein, and I believe that it will be a key to creating innovative economies in the twenty-first century.
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Walter Isaacson |
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stories on the company's woes. "NeXT is incompatible with other computers at a time when the industry is moving toward interchangeable systems," Bart Ziegler of Associated Press reported. "Because relatively little software exists to run on NeXT,"
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Walter Isaacson |