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Archives for August 24, 2011

Walt Mossberg on Steve Jobs' Resignation

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Here’s the last sentence of Mossberg’s article:

And that’s why the day Steve Jobs resigns as CEO of Apple isn’t like the day a typical CEO resigns.

Read the whole thing.

Here’s his resignation letter, along with some more details, including some speculation (which seems right) on the reason:

We have no additional details yet on why Jobs is leaving, although the spot assumption is that it’s related to the pancreatic cancer for which he received a liver transplant in 2009 (during which time Cook was in charge). The fact that Jobs is taking over as board chairman, rather than resigning that seat too, would seem to indicate that his condition isn’t imminently debilitating — but there also is a strong possibility that the chairmanship is more symbolic than operational.

Remember to pray for Steve Jobs’ health, if you think of it. Not because he’s well known. I’ve always thought it strange, for example, when a well-known person has a problem and people say “pray for so and so.” To be honest, one of my first thoughts (and perhaps this is sin) is: “I don’t even pray for my neighbors the way I should; it seems like favoritism to pray for this person when the only reason I even know about his problem is because he’s famous.”

But I think the best principle is, to take a variation on one of Wesley’s quotes, to “pray for everyone we can.” Whenever we know of any need, we should take the opportunity to pray if we can.

And, right along with that, we should also be proactive to seek out the needs of those who aren’t well known but are, rather, the very opposite, giving extra effort to praying for “the least of these” who are so often overlooked.

iPad 3 Likely to Have High Resolution Display

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From Mike Allen’s Playbook the other day:

TOP TALKER –Supply-chain leak on iPad 3 — WSJ.com (not in print edition!):  “Apple … has ordered … display panels and chips for a new iPad it is aiming to launch in early 2012 … The next generation iPad is expected to feature a high resolution display – 2048 by 1536 compared with 1024 by 768 in the iPad 2 … One component supplier to Apple said the company has already placed orders for parts for about 1.5 million iPad 3s in the fourth quarter.”

This is great news. 2048 x 1536 is a huge improvement. This would make the iPad far more usable, in my view. And it’s great to know, if the WSJ is accurate here, that the iPad 3 will likely be coming in early 2012.

6 Principles for Making Ideas Stick

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In Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath point out that bad ideas often keep circulating, while good ideas often have a hard time succeeding.

Why is that?

That’s the question their book — which most have probably heard of by now — answers.

To make an impact, your idea has to stick. A “sticky” idea is one that is understood and remembered, and has lasting impact. A sticky idea changes the audience’s opinions or behavior.

How do you make your ideas sticky? They give six points. Here they are, from my notes on the book:

  1. Simple. This gets people to understand.
  2. Unexpected. This gets people to pay attention and maintain interest.
  3. Concrete. This gets people to understand so they remember.
  4. Credible. This helps show that your idea is true.
  5. Emotions. This gets people to care.
  6. Stories. This gets people to act.

The rest of the book unpacks each of those ideas. It is well worth a read if you haven’t already.

9 Core Principles of Writing

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Last summer, in preparation for writing my book, I read 15 or so books on writing and publishing. I then went back through the books and typed up the most important points from them into a single document (which came to 66 pages).

Out of all of this — and based also just on what I already knew about writing from classes (especially from two incredible English and composition teachers in high school) and just plain writing a lot — I pulled together what I take to be the top 9 core principles for effective writing.

Here they are:

  1. Omit needless words
  2. Use the active voice
  3. Be clear
  4. Be concrete and specific, permeating the work with details. For non-fiction, interviews are a helpful way to do this.
  5. Build your work around a key question
  6. Create tension
  7. Be yourself
  8. Write with nouns and verbs, not adjectives and adverbs
  9. Give the reader room to play their role (for example, when you state an amazing fact, don’t then say “that’s really amazing.” Let readers do their own marveling)

If you have other core principles that you think should be included in this list, I’d love to hear them.