Jobs never lost sight of human nature
09.10.11
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
The genius of Steve Jobs was the genius of a kitchen toaster.
Following his death Wednesday, the Apple co-founder and CEO was lauded as a technological seer, a marketing maestro and a cultural icon - a man who showed us the digital future, then delivered it to our desktops, laps and pockets.
More than once, Jobs was likened to a prophet - or maybe just a magician, albeit one in mom jeans and a black turtleneck - for giving us what we wanted before we knew we wanted it.
Only that assessment isn’t quite accurate.
A small, sleek music player. A cellphone-cum-computer. A touch-screen media tablet. These things were new. But the human needs and desires they answered?
Anything but.
Such was the real genius of Jobs : He never lost sight of what people always have wanted in the first place.
Again, consider the average kitchen toaster.
A toaster could come equipped with a thermometer. It could have a window on the side, the better to see just how brown one’s bread has become at any given moment. It could have a host of different buttons for bagels, wheat bread, English muffins, or built-in butter and jelly dispensers, like the soap shooters in a car wash.
Source: Washington Times
Stop Procrastinating and Dash Through Tasks with a Timer
14.09.11
Trick yourself into starting by deciding to work on the task for just a handful of minutes and guarantee yourself a break at the end of that time. For example, commit to work on your task for 10 minutes. Ten minutes! That's one minute for each finger on your two hands. Anyone can work on anything for 10 minutes, and that includes you and that thing you're putting off.
Starting your novel is a daunting task, one most people put off for their entire life. But typing something—anything—for 10 minutes? No problem. This book was written in short bursts of writing regulated by the beep of my favorite kitchen timer. This hack explains how to take timed dashes through your work.
Do Your First Dash
First, get a timer—an egg timer, a digital watch, a cell phone timer, a software timer, the kitchen timer, whatever's available. Pick your biggest, scariest, most put-off task. Choose the next action, set your timer for 10 minutes, start the timer, and begin.
Source: Lifehacker
