Quotes from Walter Isaacson

Such a leader knows how to empower groups to self-organize. When it's done right, a governance structure by consensus naturally emerges, as happened both with Linux and Wikipedia. "What astonishes so many people is that the open source model actually works," Torvalds said. "People know who has been active and who they can trust, and it just happens.

taking a long walk was his preferred way to have a serious conversation. It turned

Sketches Einstein: His Life and Universe A Benjamin Franklin Reader Benjamin Franklin: An American Life Kissinger: A Biography The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (with Evan Thomas)

As Osborne famously declared, Adequacy is sufficient. All else is superfluous. Jobs found that approach to be morally appalling, and he spent days making fun of Osborne. This guy just doesn't get it, Jobs repeatedly railed as he wandered the Apple corridors. He's not making art, he's making shit.

As a well-spent day brings a happy sleep," Leonardo had written thirty years earlier, "so a well-employed life brings a happy death.

market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.

Leonardo was not content merely to measure every aspect of every body part. In addition, he felt compelled to record what occurs when each of these parts moves.

What is it you don't understand about the universe?" Jobs replied, "I don't understand why all of a sudden my dad is so broke.

The school as at fault for trying to make me memorise stupid stuff rather than stimulating me

He was not a model boss or human being, tidily packaged for emulation. Driven by demons, he could drive those around him to fury and despair.

What drives people to do good things is recognition.

Vidich, Paul, 363–4, 366, 367 Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 117 Vietnam War, 31 "View from the Top" lectures, 245 Vincent, James, xv, 306, 335, 360, 361, 366, 381, 385, 389–90, 459–61, 480, 481, 483 Visa, 378 VisiCalc (finance program), 77 VLSI Technology, 331 "Wade in the Water" (song)

The first instinct that he indulged was his passion for design. The name he chose for his new company was rather straightforward: Next. In order to make it more distinctive, he decided he needed a world-class logo. So he courted the dean

In 1482, the year he turned thirty, Leonardo da Vinci left Florence for Milan, where he would end up spending the next seventeen years.

The firm changed its name from frogdesign to frog design in 2000 and moved to San Francisco. Esslinger picked the original name not merely because frogs have the ability to metamorphose, but as a salute to its roots in the (f)ederal (r)epublic (o)f (g)ermany. He said that "the lowercase letters offered a nod to the Bauhaus notion of a non-hierarchical language, reinforcing the company's ethos of democratic partnership.

That seemed a bit odd. I didn't yet know that taking a long walk was his preferred way to have a serious conversation. It turned out

He also flowered intellectually during his last two years in high school and found himself at the intersection, as he had begun to see it, of those who were geekily immersed

And you can't win on innovation unless you have a way to communicate to customers.

In September 1998, one month after they met with Bechtolsheim, Page and Brin incorporated their company, opened a bank account, and cashed his check. On the wall of the garage they put up a whiteboard emblazoned "Google Worldwide Headquarters.

A few days after he unveiled the iPad in January 2010, Jobs held a "town hall" meeting with employees at Apple's campus.

Ward Cunningham's wiki software.

Under Steve Jobs, there's zero tolerance for not performing, its CEO said. At another point, when VLSI Technology was having trouble delivering enough chips on time, Jobs stormed into a meeting and started shouting that they were fucking dickless assholes. The company ended up getting the chips to Apple on time, and its executives made jackets that boasted on the back, Team FDA.

Fish and guests stink after three days.

Steve believed it was our job to teach people aesthetics, to teach people what they should like