Reading Room: Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs
by Walter Isaacson

I am not a huge fan of fiction. My point of view is, “why read a made up story when the real ones are so compelling?”

Case in point, Walter Isaacson’s new biography of Steve Jobs.

I know, I know, the coverage about Jobs has been nothing short of worshipful…but after reading this book and using Apple products, I don’t know if it can ever be worshipful ENOUGH.

We have all heard the stories of the kids from California, Jobs and Wozniak, who built a computer in their parent’s garage and then became wildly rich…but the story of Apple and Steve Jobs is so much more than that.

It is the story of how Steve Jobs, through pure genius and intuition, created and recreated not one, but several industries — personal computers, animation, music, phones and perhaps even retail stores. His work has set the foundation for a revolution in education as well. No longer will our children drag around backpacks of books…the iPad will change and vastly improve how we all learn with the touch of a finger, the swipe of a screen.

Mind blowing.

But here is the one quote that keeps running through my mind as I wonder about what I can learn from Jobs and how I can apply it to my own work:

“The main thing in our design is that we make things intuitively obvious.“

This is the quote that I have printed and pasted over my desk. This is my new mantra. To communicate data and information in a way that makes the message, the story, the opportunity, “intuitively obvious.”

I invite you to join me in my efforts to “Think Different.”