Under Steve Jobs, Apple became more than a computer company.
It became more than a technology company.
It became more than an entertainment company.
More than a design company.
You name it.
Steve Jobs took Apple wherever he wanted to take it.
And sometimes the category didn’t even exist. Read more »

A while back I saw a whole page ad in the paper.
It was for Marks & Spencer.
It said, for every item of used clothing you donate to Oxfam, Oxfam will give you a free £5 Marks & Spencer voucher.
This voucher entitles you to £5 off any purchase over £20.
Now why would M&S do that?
Why would they give all those vouchers to Oxfam, for free?
Sure it makes them look like a nicer, more caring company.
So it’s good for PR.
But is that all there is to it?
Is it pure altruism?
Well not quite.
In order to donate used clothing to Oxfam you need to get rid of some clothing.

Read more »

The philosopher David Hume, defines two main types of reasoning.
Deductive Reasoning and Inductive Reasoning.
For Hume, all true reasoning is the deductive kind.
Deductive Reasoning is based on purely observable fact.
Facts alone with nothing added.
The other kind, Inductive Reasoning, is when we infer something that isn’t actually there.
For Hume, Inductive Reasoning is fallacious and misleading.
And yet most of our thinking, Hume says, is based on Inductive reasoning.
I think we can learn a lot from this.
So let’s start by following Hume’s thinking, as I see it. Read more »

My wife’s an art director.
Recently, her agency got J K Rowling’s publisher in to give a talk.
Cathy says it was fascinating.
He talked about how Rowling’s real name was Joanne.
But it was changed to J K. because publishing experts believed young boys wouldn’t buy a book written by a woman.
Rowling wrote the first book when she was living in near poverty in Edinburgh.
She was a single mother living on unemployment benefits and child support payments. Read more »