The book I am currently reading is "Inside Steve's Brain" by Leander Kahney. From his website, "about the book":
Most of what is written about Apple CEO Steve Jobs is negative. Recent biographies are catalogs of tantrums and abuse. They paint a portrait of a sociopath who does little but scream and shout. There’s very little coverage of what Steve Jobs does right, and clearly, he’s doing everything right.
It’s hard to believe that one man revolutionized computers in the 1970s and ’80s (with the Apple II and the Mac), animated movies in the 1990s (with Pixar), digital music in the 2000s (with the iPod and iTunes), and now communications (the iPhone). No wonder some people worship him like a god. On the other hand, stories of his epic tantrums and general bad behavior are legendary.
Inside Steve’s Brain cuts through the cult of personality that surrounds Jobs to unearth the secrets of his unbelievable results. It reveals the real Steve Jobs, not his heart or his famous temper, but his mind. So what’s really inside Steve’s brain? According to Leander Kahney, who has covered Jobs since the early ’90s, it’s a fascinating bundle of contradictions.
Jobs is an elitist who thinks most people are bozos — but he makes gadgets so easy to use, a bozo can master them.
He’s a mercurial obsessive with a filthy temper — but he forges deep partnerships with creative geniuses like Steve Wozniak, Jonathan Ive, and John Lasseter.
He’s a Buddhist and an anti-materialist — but he produces mass-market products in Asian factories, and he promotes them with absolute mastery of the crassest medium, advertising.
In short, Jobs has embraced the traits that some consider flaws — narcissism, perfectionism, the desire for total control — to lead Apple and Pixar to triumph against steep odds. And in the process, he has become a self-made billionaire.
In Inside Steve’s Brain, Kahney distills the principles that guide Jobs as he launches killer products, attracts fanatically loyal customers, and manages some of the world’s most powerful brands.
The result is a unique book about Steve Jobs that is part biography and part leadership guide, and is impossible to put down. It gives you a peek inside Steve’s brain, and it might even teach you something about how to build your own culture of innovation.
From Wikipedia: Snow White design
ReplyDeleteApple: The Snow White design language was an industrial design language developed by Hartmut Esslinger's Frog Design. Used by Apple Computer from 1984 to 1990, the scheme has vertical and horizontal stripes for decoration, ventilation, and the illusion that the computer enclosure is smaller than it actually is.[citation needed]
The design language boosted Apple’s global reputation, set design trends for the computer industry, and molded the perception of computers in the manufacturing and business world.[citation needed]
Among other design features, Esslinger's presentation of the Apple logo — a three-dimensional logo inlaid into the product case with the product name printed onto its surface — was included on nearly every product for several years.
Design features of Snow White Language:
ReplyDeleteThe distinguishing characteristics originated by the Snow White design language, in contrast to the original Apple industrial design style, include the following:
minimal surface texturing
colored a light off-white (Fog) or light gray (Platinum)
inlaid three-dimensional Apple logo, diamond cut to the exact shape
zero-draft enclosures, with no variances in case thickness and perpendicular walls
recessed international port identification icons
silk-screened product name badging
shallow horizontal and vertical lines, 2 mm wide, 2 mm deep, spaced 10 mm apart on center, which run along any and all of the surfaces of the product, some of which act as vents and setback 30 mm from the front and 4 mm from the back.
Fog products have beige accents and cables, Platinum products have uniform color (no accents) and Smoke gray cables
3mm radius, rear and 2mm radius, front corners
simple unadorned ports and slots
Any or all of these features indicate a Snow White Frog Design influence over an otherwise Apple designed product. In particular the first official implementation, the Apple IIc does not represent the complete set of design elements, while the Macintosh II includes all of them. Later, the Macintosh LC began to phase out some of the design elements.