
Insanely Simple
By Ken Segall
There are few individuals who enjoyed extensive access to the mind of Steve Jobs. Ken is among that elite number.
Of all the books bejewelled with the Jobs philosophy, only this and Walter Isaacson’s biography cut the mustard and made a home on my hallowed shelf.
Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success is a beauty. It’s not a book. It’s an experience. It’s exactly what Steve would have wanted from a thesis on his method of execution.
Noone need be dissuaded from the notion that simple is something sought by us all. The first thing I ask of all my clients is to pretend I’m a six year old and explain to me why what they do, matters.
Let us not forget that a very small child or a trumpet of monkeys might scribble the innards of a book about Apple and gain at least moderate applause. Apple is technology’s Burgundy with a vintage year, every year.
Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success is a beautiful contradiction being both relevant and admirable by anyone, whether Microsoft-biased or otherwise. And it’s credit to Segall that he’s crossed the chasm and brought thousands of unbelievers into the Apple way of thinking by showing how simple sells.
But everything in today’s business world is complicated and obfuscated. I recall a recent article by Lucy Kellaway in the Financial Times reciting the failure of this correspondent despite a quarter-century campaign to convince business leaders to arrest the surge in bullshit being trotted out in meetings.
Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success proves that Steve Jobs wasn’t just a paradox in his leadership abilities. He was quite unlike anyone else in ruthlessly demanding everything adhered to a mise en place principle espoused by the finest chefs. Nothing needs be extraneous. No superficialities. Everything must function as we expect. Everything must be extraordinarily simple, and simply extraordinary.
This book is a gallop through the times of Jobs and how he built and rescued his beloved Apple. With simplicity at the core.

