Notes on

Steve Jobs

by Walter Isaacson


"The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do." — Apple's "Think Different" commercial, 1997

Steve meditated a lot.

Also got very much into extreme diets. Fasting. Vegetable/fruit heavy. Vegan.

"(...) You should never start a company with the goal of getting rich. Your goal should be making something believe in and making a company that will last." — Steve Jobs, p. 78 (about something someone taught him)

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" — Leonardo da Vinci (p. 80)

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it." — Alan Kay (p. 95)

"People who are serious about software should make their own hardware." — Alan Kay (p. 95)

"Good artists copy, great artists steal" — Steve Jobs, quoting Picasso (p. 98)

I’d go out to the factory, and I’d put on a white glove to check for dust. I’d find it everywhere—on machines, on the tops of the racks, on the floor. And I’d ask Debi to get it cleaned. I told her I thought we should be able to eat off the floor of the factory. Well, this drove Debi up the wall. She didn’t understand why. And I couldn’t articulate it back then. See, I’d been very influenced by what I’d seen in Japan. Part of what I greatly admired there—and part of what we were lacking in our factory—was a sense of teamwork and discipline. If we didn’t have the discipline to keep that place spotless, then we weren’t going to have the discipline to keep all these machines running.

“Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do” — Steve Jobs

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

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