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Dan Salzman
@dansalzman1
Intellectually curious and prone to distraction:Passion for marketing at the intersection of art and science: Accelerator of amazing people:Opinions are my own
San Diego
Joined January 2009
354 Following
382 Followers
352 Posts
Gotta love Philly fans. Go Birds!
Taylor Swift's Music Banned from Philadelphia Radio Station Ahead of Travis Kelce's Eagles-Chiefs Game https://t.co/0YXUC1EiT8 via @people
Happy Four Seasons Landscaping Day, to those who celebrate.
Good reminder on the power of simplicity
Shortly after Steve Jobs returned as the CEO of Apple in 1997, he met with Jony Ive, Apple’s Senior VP of industrial design.
Apple had 40 products on the market.
“Jony, how many things have you said no to?” Jobs asked.
Ive was confused.
“You have to understand,” Jobs said,
“There are measures of focus, and one of them is how often you say no.”
“What focus means,” Jobs taught Ive, “is saying no to something that you—with every bone in your body—think is a phenomenal idea, and you wake up thinking about it, but you say no to it because you're focusing on something else.”
Jobs walked up to a whiteboard and drew a 2 x 2 grid. On top, he wrote “Consumer” and “Professional.” Down the side, “Portable” and “Desktop.”
Four products—meet Apple’s new radically focused product line, Jobs said.
After that meeting, over the next two decades, Jobs and Ive—focused on making a few high-quality products while saying no to everything else—transformed a dying, near-bankrupt company into one of the most valuable companies in the world, worth over $2.9 trillion.
Takeaway 1:
The philosopher Marcus Aurelius pointed out that the focus of doing less “brings a double satisfaction.”
You get the satisfaction of having fewer things to do. And…you get the satisfaction of doing those fewer things at a higher level.
You get “to do less, better.”
During Steve Jobs’ first visit to Jony Ive’s design studio, he looked around, and then he said, “Fuck, you’ve not been very effective, have you?”
It was clear to Jobs that Ive was full of ideas and potential he wasn’t able to execute or fulfill under Apple’s previous leadership.
In the Jobs era of “doing less, better,” Ive was very effective.
Some products he designed include: iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and AirPods.
Takeaway 2:
Even though he slashed the product line down to four products, Jobs loved to have and hear ideas.
“Steve used to say to me,” Ive said, “and he used to say this a lot, ‘Hey, Jony, here’s a dopey idea.’ And sometimes they were: really dopey. Sometimes they were truly dreadful.
But sometimes they took the air from the room, and they left us both completely silent.”
It made me think of what Jerry Seinfeld identifies as the ultimate skill of the artist: “taste and discernment.”
“It’s one thing to create,” Seinfeld says. It’s one thing to have ideas.
“The other is you have to choose. ‘What are we going to do, and what are we not going to do?’” What are we going to add to the product line, and what are we not going to add?
“This is a gigantic aspect of [artistic] survival,” Seinfeld continues.
“It’s kind of unseen—what’s picked and what is discarded—but mastering that is how you stay alive.”
- - -
“Everything just got simpler. That’s been one of my mantras—focus and simplicity.” — Steve Jobs
Follow @bpoppenheimer for more content like this!
![bpoppenheimer's tweet photo. Shortly after Steve Jobs returned as the CEO of Apple in 1997, he met with Jony Ive, Apple’s Senior VP of industrial design.
Apple had 40 products on the market.
“Jony, how many things have you said no to?” Jobs asked.
Ive was confused.
“You have to understand,” Jobs said,
“There are measures of focus, and one of them is how often you say no.”
“What focus means,” Jobs taught Ive, “is saying no to something that you—with every bone in your body—think is a phenomenal idea, and you wake up thinking about it, but you say no to it because you're focusing on something else.”
Jobs walked up to a whiteboard and drew a 2 x 2 grid. On top, he wrote “Consumer” and “Professional.” Down the side, “Portable” and “Desktop.”
Four products—meet Apple’s new radically focused product line, Jobs said.
After that meeting, over the next two decades, Jobs and Ive—focused on making a few high-quality products while saying no to everything else—transformed a dying, near-bankrupt company into one of the most valuable companies in the world, worth over $2.9 trillion.
Takeaway 1:
The philosopher Marcus Aurelius pointed out that the focus of doing less “brings a double satisfaction.”
You get the satisfaction of having fewer things to do. And…you get the satisfaction of doing those fewer things at a higher level.
You get “to do less, better.”
During Steve Jobs’ first visit to Jony Ive’s design studio, he looked around, and then he said, “Fuck, you’ve not been very effective, have you?”
It was clear to Jobs that Ive was full of ideas and potential he wasn’t able to execute or fulfill under Apple’s previous leadership.
In the Jobs era of “doing less, better,” Ive was very effective.
Some products he designed include: iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and AirPods.
Takeaway 2:
Even though he slashed the product line down to four products, Jobs loved to have and hear ideas.
“Steve used to say to me,” Ive said, “and he used to say this a lot, ‘Hey, Jony, here’s a dopey idea.’ And sometimes they were: really dopey. Sometimes they were truly dreadful.
But sometimes they took the air from the room, and they left us both completely silent.”
It made me think of what Jerry Seinfeld identifies as the ultimate skill of the artist: “taste and discernment.”
“It’s one thing to create,” Seinfeld says. It’s one thing to have ideas.
“The other is you have to choose. ‘What are we going to do, and what are we not going to do?’” What are we going to add to the product line, and what are we not going to add?
“This is a gigantic aspect of [artistic] survival,” Seinfeld continues.
“It’s kind of unseen—what’s picked and what is discarded—but mastering that is how you stay alive.”
- - -
“Everything just got simpler. That’s been one of my mantras—focus and simplicity.” — Steve Jobs
Follow @bpoppenheimer for more content like this!](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzeinZYWYAEzlYI.jpg)
Don't forget to turn your clocks....forward
A PSA about turning your clocks forward this weekend. Where do you stand on this issue?
Who to follow
Anne Wojcicki
@annewoj23
CEO and Founder, 23andMe Research Institute
theREALmarvin 
@theREALmarvin
VP Global Product Marketing @Google 👉 All the Search and Gemini things + @GoogleDeepmind @GoogleAI #GoogleIO. Previous @nike
Georgina Goode
@GeorgieC
Strategy, Formulation & Comms @NASAJPL. Former Vice President, Comms, Global Brand & Digital @boeing | Head of Digital @gdsteam @GOVUK. London, Chicago, now LA
Best White Elephant gift ever!
I love this! This is a mission that everyone benefits from. If “accurate” is a mandate for truth and not a license for both-siderism which opens the door for wholly untrue views around vaccines, rigged elections and holocaust deniers, this would be an incredible accomplishment!👏🏻
We got the best fans.
(via reedlandgren & i.frank357/IG)
Perfect crisp morning walk by our beautiful little lake in the mountains. Peaceful getaway!
I miss this guy
I think, 25 years later, it’s pretty goddamn safe to say that nobody made an entrance like Chris Farley.
Wow
The embedded multiple layers of digital art as seen by super zooming
Great work by our HP team! https://t.co/FWjUJ0fngS
Ugh
This is Zelensky's message to Europeans for an oil and gas embargo. Not pulling any punches:
So important to get the value proposition exactly right. This space will be key as what we buy and sell will move much more to a subscription/service model.
https://t.co/gqUZLVpM7K
Interesting development in what was once the hottest sector out there. Loss of cookies will only make this worse! Will we see these brands double down on brick and mortar additions?
The direct-to-consumer craze is slamming into reality https://t.co/DFXwTsrTay
Wordle 264 4/6
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This is so funny! Almost as awkward as the original
Some said an open-world experience this immersive wasn’t possible. But it’s already here. And you don’t even need silly VR headsets.
Introducing, ✨Icelandverse✨
#icelandverse
Super insightful analysis of the challenge for Faebook --oops--Meta https://t.co/HBMPu5PO70
Look forward to a great discussion with @ronguerrier and @philkirschner on the future of work. Come join!
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