There are parts of his life and personality that are extremely messy, and that's the truth Walter Isaacson More Quotes by Walter Isaacson More Quotes From Walter Isaacson The Mona Lisa, to me, is the greatest emotional painting ever done. The way the smile flickers makes it a work of both art and science, because Leonardo understood optics, and the muscles of the lips, and how light strikes the eye - all of it goes into making the Mona Lisa's smile so mysterious and elusive. Walter Isaacson emotional eye art On the day he unveiled the Macintosh, a reporter from Popular Science asked Jobs what type of market research he had done. Jobs responded by scoffing, "Did Alexander Graham Bell do any market research before he invented the telephone? Walter Isaacson telephones done jobs Steve has a reality distortion field.” When Hertzfeld looked puzzled, Tribble elaborated. “In his presence, reality is malleable. He can convince anyone of practically anything. It wears off when he’s not around, but it makes it hard to have realistic schedules. Walter Isaacson schedules fields reality Leonardo da Vinci was lucky to be born the same year that Johannes Gutenberg opened his printing shop. As a young person, he could get information about whatever struck his curiosity. The Internet is to our age what Gutenberg's press was to his, so he would have loved being alive today. Walter Isaacson live-for-today curiosity age Terrorism is a horrible thing that is the great threat to civilization on our planet. Walter Isaacson planets terrorism civilization I've asked Jobs why he didn't get an operation then and he said, 'I didn't want my body to be opened... I didn't want to be violated in that way.' Walter Isaacson body want jobs I think that we shouldn't be fixated all the time on the ups and downs of the weekly ratings, of the quarter-hour ratings. Walter Isaacson quarters hours thinking Polite and velvety leaders, who take care to avoid bruising others, are generally not as effective at forcing change. Walter Isaacson take-care care leader I think when money starts to corrupt journalism, it undermines the journalism, and it undermines the credibility of the product, and you end up not succeeding. Walter Isaacson journalism succeed thinking I think one problem we've had is that people who are smart and creative and innovative as engineers went into financial engineering. Walter Isaacson engineering smart thinking Smart people are a dime a dozen. What matters is the ability to think different... to think out of the box. Walter Isaacson smart what-matters thinking So that’s our approach. Very simple, and we’re really shooting for Museum of Modern Art quality. The way we’re running the company, the product design, the advertising, it all comes down to this: Let’s make it simple. Really simple.” Apple’s design mantra would remain the one featured on its first brochure: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Walter Isaacson simple running art Leonardo da Vinci did not take received wisdom - whether from ancient classical thinkers or medieval scholars or from the Bible - without questioning it. And this was the beginning of the scientific method. This is another lesson for our time: that when we have evidence that contradicts a certain belief, we should be willing to change it. I think this made Leonardo, in some ways, a person who better understood the beauty of God's creation than a person who just takes all received wisdom from the Bible on faith. Walter Isaacson ancient belief thinking I am a fruitarian and I will only eat leaves picked by virgins in the moonlight - Steve Jobs Walter Isaacson moonlight virgins jobs I was on one of my fruitarian diets" Steve Jobs recalled "I had just comeback from the apple farm. It sounded fun, spirited, and not intimidating. Apple took the edge of the word 'computer', plus it would get us a head of Atari in the phone book. He told Wozniak if a better name did not hit them by the next afternoon, they would just stick with apple and they did. 1 Apr 1976 Walter Isaacson fun jobs book Sometimes, to relieve stress, he would soak his feet in the toilet, a practice that was not as soothing for his collegues. Walter Isaacson stress practice motivational Leonardo da Vinci was comfortable being illegitimate, gay, a misfit, a heretic. But he also respected other people. He didn't get into disputations. He was a genius but he had a certain humility. In his notebooks you see lists of people he wanted to grill about things like how the water diversions in Milan work; he was always interested in learning from other people. Walter Isaacson notebook gay humility He had the attitude that he could do anything, and therefore so can you. He put his life in my hands. So that made me do something I didn't think I could do.... If you trust him, you can do things. If he's decided that something should happen, then he's just going to make it happen. (Elizabeth Holmes) Walter Isaacson attitude hands thinking It seems perverse to focus too much on the casualties or hardship in Afghanistan ...[Showing the misery of Afghanistan ran the risk of] promoting enemy propaganda...we must talk about how the Taliban are using civilian shields and how the Taliban have harboured the terrorists responsible for killing close up to 5,000 innocent people. Walter Isaacson risk focus people I think right now we need to look back at the founding values of our country. Rise above partisanship, be less bitter when it comes to important matters that have to be solved. Walter Isaacson important country thinking
