Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success

Very interesting ideas and some good stories about Steve Jobs from inside the business during a revolutionary time at Apple

An easy read with a lot of useful information and ideas. It is a privilege to be allowed a close up view of Steve Jobs in action written by someone who was actually there. The philosophy should be followed by all. The disciplines that Steve Jobs demanded of himself and others may not always have made him the most popular man on the block, but they resulted in some of the greatest products of all time. Thank you Ken for sharing your insights. David Ferrers, author of SWAP, The Best Way to Make Your Dreams Come True

For me the test of a good business book is whether it gives me some inspiration and ideas for applying in my own work / business. By this measure "Insanely Simple" is a great business book. Although the examples are, well, simple, it had my synapses firing over and over again with ways to apply the messages in the book. Simply the best business book I have read for a long time. Ken Segall makes a strong argument that one of the keys to Apple's success is a fierce adherence to the custom and practice of Simplicity. To back this up he takes 10 facets of simplicity and uses a story from his history with Steve Jobs and Apple to illustrate each point. He uses stories from his experience with Dell, IBM and others to show what happens when you embrace complexity instead. The book is simple, the stories fascinating but it's enough to provoke a lot of serious thought about how you run your business and whether making it simpler would make it more effective. For students of Jobs it's also a useful book, one of the first written by a close insider who can explain a little of HOW Jobs was able to both inspire fierce loyalty and demand freakishly high standards. Segall also makes good case for much of Jobs behaviour being reasonable when viewed in context of what he wanted to achieve. In this respect it's a much better book than the relentlessly tabloid approach taken by Walter Issacson in Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography .

I bought this book at the airport, gave my copy away to someone in a cafe, then re-bought here. I have read the other reviews, and can understand some giving it 3 stars, but for me it's 5. Some say it's repetitive, or the author explains the obvious. Well, with a subject as important as defining the essence of your business and products, that is no bad thing. I already believe in the power of simplicity, and reading about a company that aspires to this provided me with insights and ideas for my own company. As one reviewer said, their synapses were firing. Yes, the insights may be obvious, but only obvious once you know them. I'm not an Apple fan in normal life, and don't care about learning about Steve Jobs, but I do care about simplicity as the guiding light in my business, and in that respect, this book is great. If you've read lots of books and have them on bookshelves somewhere (I will go digital soon...), how many of them can you look at and sum up in a sentence or two a number of years after reading them? I think this one will stand the test of time: Complexity creeps in unnoticed, until it strangles the good work. Be aware of this, and always look to simplify.

As an insight into the company this book is great, especially after reading Steve Jobs' biography by Walter Isaacson recently. There are many anecdotes from Segall throughout focusing mainly on advertising, but some insights into design are given too. These fill in some of the gaps around the story told in Isaacson's book which is nice. After reading this book it has resonated with me, and I do think about what I have read in this book in my day job. It's quite inspiring, and if the company I worked for took on a little more of Job's attitude we would all work a lot faster. However this book is frustrating at times. With almost every point made, the author feels he needs to explain how this point links perfectly back to simplicity which quickly becomes tedious. These 5-10 lines read like an essay a 16 year old might write. The points made are mostly sound but I can see the simplicity in the points for myself; it doesn't need explaining every single time especially as each section is so short and the point is made essentially twice. It's like someone explaining a joke when the punch line is obvious; it just isn't required. I think the author needed to have a little more faith is the intelligence of the reading audience. In addition, the capitalisation of the 'S' in simplicity throughout the book is just strange. More annoying is that the links back to simplicity become ever more tenuous as the book goes on. For example, Segall says that the product names of Dell (Vostro, Latitude, Precision) are confusing in terms of understanding the walk up the range. Yet he claims that Apple's iPod range is a bastion of simplicity with Shuffle, Nano, Touch and Classic. Sorry, no. That is not a valid point as the same issue exists with both Dell and Apple there. This happens at other times in the book, sometimes it is downright biased towards Apple and many times I found myself stopping and thinking 'what the hell?'. Despite these faults though, my first two paragraphs are true. It is a great book even with the many blips along the way.

Ahhhh The beauty of Apple's corporate, marketing and design philosophy. JUST WOW! Makes me understand the power of Vision and sticking to it means a lot of NO. Wish my company would streamline and realize that complicated is cumbersome. I LOVED THIS BOOK and am incorporating it into my personal strategy for a satisfying life.

A great insight into how particular Steve Jobs was in keeping things simple and he's ability to boil it down to the essence of why a customer would love it. The interactions between Steve, colleagues and Ken's team are also a great view to how much work has to go in to keep things simple.

With all those management consultants out there and the complexity that leaders are exposed to running companies, the clarity, the dedication and simplicity is the key to success. While others are planning, strategizing, discussing, others that are clear are in execution mode. 60% is good to make a decision, 90% puts you light years behind the competition.

I am very much thankful to Ken for this book. This is an incredible book. It unearthed all the stupid mistakes that I have been doing. Every chapter is about deep learning. The book is simple to understand. It is a guiding light. I am really inspired to take action. Thank you, Ken!

O ponto positivo do livro é conter as histórias pelas quais, o princípio da simplicidade é utilizada e quando não são utilizadas, tal leitura te convida a pensar de forma simples e nos intriga em identificar como tornamos processos tão complexos, sem necessidades. The positive point of the book is to contain the stories for which the principle of simplicity is used and when they are not used, such reading invites you to think in a simple way and intrigues us to identify how we make processes so complex, without needs.