If you want to live your life in a creative way, as an artist, you have to not look back too much. You have to be willing to take whatever youโve done and whoever you were and throw them away. The more the outside world tries to reinforce an image of you, the harder it is to continue to be an artist, which is why a lot of times, artists have to say, โBye. I have to go. Iโm going crazy and Iโm getting out of here.โ And they go and hibernate somewhere. Maybe later they re-emerge a little differently. (Steve Jobs)
Walter IsaacsonLeonardo da Vinci was comfortable being illegitimate, gay, a misfit, a heretic. But he also respected other people. He didn't get into disputations. He was a genius but he had a certain humility. In his notebooks you see lists of people he wanted to grill about things like how the water diversions in Milan work; he was always interested in learning from other people.
Walter IsaacsonSo thatโs our approach. Very simple, and weโre really shooting for Museum of Modern Art quality. The way weโre running the company, the product design, the advertising, it all comes down to this: Letโs make it simple. Really simple.โ Appleโs design mantra would remain the one featured on its first brochure: โSimplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
Walter Isaacson