February 2022

Book Summary: Creative Selection by Ken Kocienda.

February 28, 2022 In Book Summaries 11 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

Get busy. Decide what it means to do great work, and then try to make it happen. Success is never assured, and the effort might not be easy, but if you love what you’re doing, it won’t seem so hard.

Ken Kocienda worked as a software engineer and designer at Apple for over fifteen years. In Creative Selection: Inside Apple’s Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs, Kocienda takes the reader on a journey of how some Apple Inc. products such as the Safari Web browser, iPhone and iPad were built, the design thinking, the key players, Apple’s innovative DNA, working with Steve Jobs, dealing with corporate politics and what it feels like working in an innovation baised company like Apple.

Apple is a top-down leadership, bottom up Contribution organization.

Quotable Quotes from James Dyson’s – Invention: A Life Autobiography

February 27, 2022 In Quotes 6 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

Invention: A Life is a great book about invention, risk taking, entrepreneurial initiative, guts, perseverance, resilience and a never give up attitude. James Dyson’s story is very fascinating, thought provoking with lots of ups and downs, false turns and many failures.

“It is a story told through a life of creating and developing things, as well as expressing a call to arms for young people to become engineers, creating solutions to our current and future problems.”

The book is a journey of an entrepreneur, the ups and downs, the value of having a supportive partner or spouse (Deidre), the importance of have a mentor (Jeremy Fry) that longs to want you to succeed, a dedicate financial institution or bank manager that is ready to take the plunge with you. His story how far determination, willpower, dedication, persistence and perseverance can take someone with a commitment to succeed.

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Dyson made 5,127 prototypes of his Cyclonic and Bagless Vacuum Cleaner before he got to a model he could set about licensing.

Quotable Quotes from James Dyson’s – Invention: A Life Autobiography

Masterclass: Marc Jacobs teaches Fashion Design

February 26, 2022 In Masterclass 8 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

Marc Jacobs is an American fashion designer from New York City. After graduating from the High School of Art and Design in 1981, Marc entered Parsons School of Design, where he stood out among his classmates by winning both the Perry Ellis Gold Thimble Award and Design Student of the Year in 1984. In 1997, Marc was appointed creative director of luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton, where he created the company’s first ready-to-wear clothing line. He is now the head designer for his own eponymous fashion label, Marc Jacobs. Marc is a five-time recipient of the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s Womenswear Designer of the Year Award.

Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products by Leander Kahney.

February 25, 2022 In Biographies 8 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

The thing is, it’s very easy to be different, but very difficult to be better.—JONY IVE

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple as CEO, he developed a partnership with British designer Jony Ive. Their collaboration produced some of the most iconic Apple products such as the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad. Jobs referred to Ive as his soul mate. The products revamped Apple to become a highly value company and venturing into different industries. In the process; Ive won various design awards, and got knighted by the Queen.

Technology author Leander Kahney writes about British-American industrial and product designer Jony Ive, who developed a very tight relationship with late CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs. Born in London, Ive rose to become Chief Design Officer (CDO) of Apple Inc.

On Deep Work and getting things done.

February 24, 2022 In Insight 7 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

Deep Work is a concept described by the author and professor Cal Newport in his 2016 book: Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.

What is Deep Work?

Newport describes Deep Work as the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It’s a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. Deep work will make you better at what you do and provide the sense of true fulfillment that comes from craftsmanship. In short, deep work is like a superpower in our increasingly competitive twenty-first-century economy. And yet, most people have lost the ability to go deep—spending their days instead in a frantic blur of e-mail and social media, not even realizing there’s a better way.

Tim Cook’s 2018 Duke University Commencement Speech.

February 23, 2022 In Speech 9 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

Fearlessness means taking the first step, even if you don’t know where it will take you. It means being driven by a higher purpose, rather than by applause. It means knowing that you reveal your character when you stand apart, more than when you stand with the crowd.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, a Duke Fuqua alumnus delivered the commencement address to the graduating Class of 2018. Tim implored the students to be fearless, courageous, and to be the change they want to be in the world.

Tim Cook’s 2018 Duke University Commencement Speech Transcript:

Dreams by Langston Hughes.

February 22, 2022 In Poem 1 Min Read By Lanre Dahunsi

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

Book Summary -Hyperfocus by Chris Bailey.

February 21, 2022 In Book Summaries 8 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

Keep one important, complex object of attention in your awareness as you work.

In Hyperfocus: How to Be More Productive in a World of Distraction, Canadian writer and productivity consultant Chris Bailey describes strategies for maintaining and controlling focus, determining priorities, and minimizing interruptions in order to increase productivity.

Top Quotable Quotes from Phil Knight’s Biography – Shoe Dog.

February 20, 2022 In Quotes 5 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

The cowards never started and the weak died along the way—that leaves us.

At 24, Phil Knight had a crazy idea based on a paper he wrote while enrolled as a student at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In the paper, he asked the following question: “Can Japanese Sports Shoes Do to German Sports Shoes What Japanese Cameras Did to German Cameras?”. After a trip around the world, he decided to setup Blue Ribbon Sports (later Nike) with the goal of importing high-quality, low-cost running shoes from Japan. With that humble beginning, Nike is today the world’s largest supplier of athletic shoes and apparel and with revenue of $44.5 billion in its fiscal year 2021 (ending May 31, 2021). ¹

“Can Japanese Sports Shoes Do to German Sports Shoes What Japanese Cameras Did to German Cameras?”

Masterclass: Steve Martins teaches Comedy

February 19, 2022 In Masterclass 6 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

Steve Martin was born in 1945 and raised in Inglewood, California. An imaginative youth, Steve nurtured a love for performing at an early age and became a talented musician and magician in college before turning his focus to comedy. He began writing for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour while in college, and in 1969 won an Emmy Award for his work on the show.

Steve cultivated a small but dedicated fanbase in the 1970s for his stand-up routines, but it wasn’t until his 1976 appearance hosting Saturday Night Live that he became a renown comedian. Following his breakthrough, Steve transitioned from stand-up to acting and cemented a reputation as a blockbuster movie star with films like The Jerk (1979) and All of Me (1984). To date, he has acted in over 45 films and written 11.

Tim Cook: The Genius Who Took Apple to the Next Level by Leander Kahney.

February 18, 2022 In Biographies 10 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

Technology writer Leander Kahney, author of numerous books about Apple subcuTechnology writer Leander Kahney, the author of numerous books about Apple subculture and products, chronicles the journey of Apple CEO Tim Cook as the leader of the most valuable company in the world. When the founder and former CEO of Apple Steve Jobs died in 2011, there was a lot of skepticism surrounding the selection of Tim Cook as the new Apple CEO.

It’s easy now to look at Cook’s ascent to the head of the world’s biggest tech company as the markings of a new era for Apple, but in 2011 it felt more like an ending than a new chapter.

Tim Cook has steadied the Apple ship, leading the company to become the world’s first trillion-dollar company. Drawing on access with several Apple insiders, Kahney reveals how Cook have been able to maintain the Apple culture of innovation by taking some tough decisions, humane leadership, reinventing Apple’s supply chain and committing to his core values. In January 2022, CNBC reported that Apple first U.S. company to reach $3 trillion market cap.

Review your Goals.

February 17, 2022 In Life 4 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

As British writer C.S.Lewis once noted “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” The road to achieving any worthwhile goal is usually rocky, messy and somewhat chaotic. The distractions are always there, especially in our social media, fear-inducing and anxiety creating 24/7 news cycle. There is always something ready to grab our attention- comedy skits, tweets, trending topics, insta stories & reels, tiktok videos etc. Energy & attention goes wherever your focus goes.

John Fisher’s 2018 University of San Francisco Commencement Speech.

February 16, 2022 In Speech 9 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

Silicon Valley entrepreneur and CEO of medical technology company, CrowdOptic Jon Fisher delivered the 2018 commencement address to the graduating students of the University of San Francisco.

John Fisher’s 2018 University of San Francisco Commencement Speech Transcript:

Antidotes to Fear of Death by Rebecca Elson.

February 15, 2022 In Poem 1 Min Read By Lanre Dahunsi

Sometimes as an antidote
To fear of death,
I eat the stars.

Those nights, lying on my back,
I suck them from the quenching dark
Til they are all, all inside me,
Pepper hot and sharp.

Book Summary – Radical Compassion by Tara Brach.

February 14, 2022 In Book Summaries 12 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. And between the two, my life flows. – SRI NISARGADATTA

In Radical Compassion: Learning to Love Yourself and Your World with the Practice of RAIN, American psychologist and mindfulness teacher Tara Brach describes a four-step meditation practice for dealing with difficult emotions and limiting beliefs. Each step in the meditation practice are: Recognize, Allow, Investigate, and Nurture.

Brach is the author of one of my favourite books on dealing with trying times: Radical Acceptance: Awakening the Love that Heals Fear and Shame.

Favourite Takeaways – Radical Compassion by Tara Brach.