Board member Arthur Rock, a venture capitalist who helped found Intel, among other outfits, dubbed Jobs and his co-founder Steve Wozniak as “very unappealing people” in the early days. “Jobs came into the office, as he does now, dressed in Levi’s, but at that time that wasn’t quite the thing to do” [....] “I’m not sure, but it may have been a while since he had a bath.”

Crisp recalled how undisciplined Jobs and the original Apple crew could be—enough so that they didn’t shrink at defacing the home of David Rockefeller. [....] He says Rockefeller told him the following day that he enjoyed the party with Jobs and other top Apple managers, but added, “Next year, ask them not to put logos on the mirrors in the lavatory.” Some of the Apple faithful, it seems, had come armed with stickers of the company’s multicolored emblem.

I have no doubt the author cherry picked these quotes to make these folks look clueless. But I found so surprising is I can’t see any  regret in the actions they took (outside of Scully). It is kind of staggering actually.

We have a strategic plan, it’s called doing things.

— Herb Kelleher, Southwest Airlines

I’m only about 75 pages into The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, but it is every bit as good as Moneyball, Liar’s Poker, and almost as good as the The New New Thing. I just really like the way he tells a story.

Movies, music, and games top a new list from Nielsen of the different types of content that consumers are most willing to pay for online. The data, taken from a survey of 27,000 consumers across 52 countries, also indicates that content created online—like blogs, social networks, and podcasts—are the least likely to attract consumer’s dollars.

Initially the findings might seem like good news (finally) for “traditional” media organizations that are eying paywalls as a source of  additional revenue, as consumers did indicate more of a willingness to pay for online newspapers, magazines, and radio than their user-generated counterparts.

However, Nielsen also found that, “Nearly eight out of every ten (79%) would no longer use a web site that charges them, presuming they can find the same information at no cost.” Or put another way, unless you are a top-tier media outlets with tons of exclusive content, nobody is going to pay for your content.