Review: Insanely Simple by Ken Segall

Insanely Simple: The Obsession that Drives Apple’s Success by Ken Segall.

Ken’s the guy behind the i. As in the iPad, iPod. He worked with Jobs at NeXT, then at Apple again. He knows the man, the company. (Note, he worked for an agency, not Apple itself.) As a history of Apple, it supplements. If you’ve read the Isaacson bio you’ll be fine. There’s a couple unique stories of personalities but its not really the premise.

Taking a note from Steven Pressfield’s War of Art: Complexity is given life as a creature of such evil that it deserves a swift but utter demise. Kill it, and you will be victorious.

Is that true? Kind of.

Complexity is creating a business and sustaining it. Simplicity is creating a product and selling it to people. Two very different approaches that probably need to be balanced.

Still,  simplicity is not base. It is not easy. It is complex and messy and the result of slashing and cutting every thing you can while keeping  something whole and real and worthwhile.

And that’s stuff Ken gets at and wants you to think about. Which is why this book is useful.

The one thing this book struggles with is, Ken’s passion for advertising selling product is on every page. Does advertising sell stuff? Of course. Do amazing, well designed products that solve problems sell stuff? Of course. Which comes first?

The egg.

-Shlok
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