The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 97 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 1 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Steve Jobs's 13 years of struggle were essential to his later success
“Without that 13 years of struggle, he wouldn't have nearly been the leader and the entrepreneur that he was later in his career.”
Steve Jobs Stayed Out of Story Decisions at Pixar
“At Apple, he had the reputation of being deeply involved in the most minute details of every product, but at Pixar, he didn't believe that his instincts were better than the people here, so he stayed out.”
Senra: Steve Jobs became a billionaire from Pixar, not Apple
“Steve Jobs was, this actually is the first thing that makes Steve Jobs a billionaire. He was a billionaire off of Pixar stock, not Apple stock.”
Tiger Woods' extreme focus mirrored Steve Jobs' intense concentration style
“The way that people describe Tiger's level of focus and intense level of focus is very similar to how Steve Jobs, where Steve would, people around him in Apple would say he was focused so intently on one thing that you could talk, you could snap your fingers, …”
Steve Jobs: I Am Totally Dependent on Human Civilization for My Work
“I did not invent the transistor, the microprocessor, object oriented programming, or most of the technology I work with. I love and admire my species living and dead and am totally dependent on them for my life and wellbeing.”
Jobs (1984): Every future computer will inevitably work like the Macintosh
“I remember the week before we launched the Mac, we all got together and we said, every computer is going to work this way. You cannot argue about that anymore. You can argue about how long it will take, but you can't argue about it anymore. It is inevitable.”
Jobs: Taking creative product risks requires strict fiscal conservatism in business
“You need a risk taking creative environment on the product side. And that requires a fiscally conservative environment on the business side.”
Senra: The iPhone succeeded because Jobs built a product for himself
“The most successful consumer product of all time came from just the fact that he was just building a product for himself.”
Moritz: Turnarounds are doubly difficult in technology companies
“While turnarounds are difficult in any circumstances, they are doubly difficult in a technology company.”
Senra: Enduring quality brands always trace back to an obsessive founder
“Inevitably, whenever you hear a brand that is known for quality, a brand that in many cases outlives the original founder, right? Whether it's a Ferrari, a Rolls-Royce, an Apple, An Estee Lauder, a Chanel. You can always tie it back to one insanely dedicated a…”
Apple products evolved through stepwise iteration rather than sudden eureka moments
“We never waited around for brilliant flashes of insight that might solve problems in one swoop, and we had very few actual eureka moments. Instead, this is the main point of the book. Instead, we move forward in stepwise fashion from problem to design to demo …”
Product design must prioritize functionality over superficial aesthetic appeal
“Shallow beauty in products does not serve people. Product design should strive for depth, for a beauty rooted in what a product does. Not merely in how it looks and feels. Form should follow a function, even though this might seem like a strange notion for pix…”
Steve Jobs believed in immediately starting the next project after a success
“At first, Steve attempted to brush off the question, but when Williams pressed him, Steve said, I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful and not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what's ne…”
A single bad customer experience can undo dozens of positive ones
“One bad experience might undo Dozens are a hundred positive experiences that a customer previously had with your company.”
Apple combined technology and liberal arts to ensure products adapt to users
“The reason that Apple is able to create products like the iPad is because we've always tried to be at the intersection of technology and liberal arts to be able to get the best of both. To make extremely advanced products from a technology point of view, but a…”
Studying historical masterworks is essential for calibrating design taste
“Studying great work from the past provides the means of comparison and contrast and lets us tap into the collective creativity of previous generations. The past is a source of the timeless and enduring.”
Steve Jobs believed software must speak for itself without an engineer's explanation
“He believed that stripping away non-essential features made products easier for people to learn from the start and Easier to use over time. He wanted products and their software to speak for themselves. He realized that nobody would be standing over the should…”
Senra: Steve Jobs in his twenties could not have led mature Apple
“Like, the Steve Jobs at 25 or 29 could not be, lead the quality of an organization that Apple became when Apple, when Steve came back when, you know, he's in his late forties.”
Apple's Acquisition Pricing Negotiation With Steve Jobs Took Five Minutes
“The whole pricing discussion took five minutes.”
Steve Jobs Opened Apple Acquisition Negotiation at $500 Million
“Steve opened, offering the company at 12 dollars a share, which would have made the total acquisition price five hundred million dollars.”
Steve Jobs adopted Edwin Land's arts and technology philosophy
“The idea is that you should build a company at the intersection of arts and technology. That is Edwin Land's idea. That is an idea that Steve Jobs learned from Edwin Land that Steve used when he was in his twenties, his thirties, his forties, until he died.”
Jobs raised Apple's market cap from $1.8B to $4B in one year
“And so in about a year, he raised Apple's market cap to four billion from 1.8 billion.”
Jobs decided to act like Apple's permanent CEO from day one
“And so I went back there as interim CEO and I decided right up front that I was going to act like I was the permanent CEO.”
Jobs: After a success, move quickly to the next wonderful project
“I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should just go do something else wonderful. Not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what's next.”
Jobs predicted every future computer would work like the Macintosh
“I remember the week before we launched the Mac, we all got together and we said, every computer is going to work this way. You cannot argue about that anymore. You can argue about how long it will take, but you can't argue about it anymore. It is inevitable.”
In 1998, Dell surpassed IBM and Apple as the #2 PC maker.
“In 1998, with over twelve billion in sales, we surpassed IBM and Apple to become the second biggest PC company in the world. Only Compaq now stood above us, and we had them in our sights.”
Ortega Holds a $20B Real Estate Portfolio Leased to Tech Giants
“He's actually one of the largest tech company landlords in the world. Tech companies like Facebook, Google, Apple, Spotify, Amazon, All lease property from Ortega. In fact, his commercial real estate portfolio alone is worth around twenty billion dollars.”
Steve Jobs considered Apple keynote presentations to be a competitive weapon
“In fact, in this book, he said that he considered his keynote presentations competitive weapon and he considered a competitive weapon for Apple.”
Charlie Munger: Trust is one of Earth's greatest economic forces
“Right before Charlie Munger died, he said something that's so important. And he said that trust is one of the greatest economic forces on earth.”
Steve Jobs capped the original Macintosh team at exactly 100 people
“So when he was building the first Macintosh, he's in his twenties, he limited the team to a hundred people. If you wanted to add a person, if you say, Hey, we need, you know, this person's help. You act, you first have to find the person that was unnecessary a…”
Jobs attempted to get Apple to acquire Lucasfilm's computer division in 1985
“And so he actually tries to get Apple before he gets kicked out to buy these guys.”
Jobs: Every customer interaction accumulates or withdraws reputation credits
“Steve understood that every interaction a customer had with Apple could increase or decrease his or her respect for the company. As he put it, a corporation could accumulate or withdraw credits from its reputation, which is why he worked so hard to ensure that…”
Jobs: Becoming protective after failure prevents achieving ambitious goals
“When you have something that doesn't work out, a lot of times people reaction is to get very protective about never wanting to fall on their face again. I think that's a big mistake, because you never achieve what you want without falling on your face a few ti…”
Steve Jobs reduced Apple's product line from 17 to four after returning
“Soon after he returned, he slashed the company's product offerings from 17 to four.”
Senra: Jobs and Dyson excelled by targeting markets of second-rate products
“One of his talents was spotting markets filled with second rate products. Same with James Dyson, right?”
Senra: Atari founder Nolan Bushnell rejected 30% of Apple for $50,000
“Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari, recounts in his book and a bunch of other interviews I've seen with him biggest regret in his life, he was offered 30% of Apple, I think for like 50,000 or a 100,000, it was something like that, and he said no.”
Senra: Jobs had $70M upon leaving Apple, equal to $200M today
“He had about seventy million dollars at that time. Ok, so, if you adjust for inflation in our present day, that's like being 30 years old and having two hundred million dollars today.”
Steve Jobs made raw speed the sole success metric for Apple's Safari
“Steve Jobs himself had decided how he would judge our browser as a product. The focus would be on one thing, speed. Steve wanted our browser to be fast, to be really fast, much faster than Microsoft Internet Explorer, which is the product that we aim to replac…”
Steve Jobs rehearsed keynote presentations for weeks until he knew them cold
“Three, three weeks or a month before the keynote itself, Steve would start rehearsing with portions of his slide deck. Slowly, day by day, he would build the show by stepping through it As he wanted to present it at the keynote. This was one of Steve's great s…”
Great user experience requires actively preventing negative friction
“Designing an excellent user experience was as much about preventing negative experiences as facilitating positive ones. Great products make people happy almost all the time and do the opposite rarely, if at all.”
Steve Jobs drove product development through physical demos, not hypothetical meetings
“Steve did not want to sit around and have a bunch of meetings and talk about hypotheticals. He wanted to physically see the work, so they pushed all their work forward through a series of demos, and in many cases, him telling you specifically, hey, what I want…”
Steve Jobs modeled Apple's tech-and-liberal-arts ethos directly after Polaroid's Edwin Land
“Building a company at the intersection of technology and liberal arts is literally something Edwin Land talked about and did, something Steve Jobs learned from Edwin Land, and then Steve Jobs used it at Apple.”
Steve Jobs disbanded Apple's Advanced Technology Group upon his return in 1997
“Steve Jobs famously disbanded such an organization at Apple, which was called the Advanced Technology Group, shortly after he reasserted control over the company in 1997.”
Customers demand extreme simplicity because they do not care about your product
“People just do not care about your product as much as you do. You have to make it simple and easy to use right from the get go. And so this idea of putting yourself in the customer's shoes and even attaching like a specific example of a customer helps you Make…”
Steve Jobs banned employees from product demos if they lacked valuable insight
“And Ken talks about, hey, when you're doing demos to Steve, this is the price to be in the room. If he feels you have no valuable insight, you're never going to see him again. Ken was able to demo several times. He says you have to make substantial contributio…”
Michael Dell famously advised shutting Apple down in 1997
“That year, Michael Dell famously said of Apple, what would I do? I'd shut it down and give the money back to shareholders.”