Can Turtles Fly?

Steve Jobs on Life (h/t: " The Secret of Life from Steve Jobs in 46 Seconds " by Maria Popova. Brain Pickings)

I just joined Twitter and I can see how people's identities can be co-opted by others. I remember once when Malcolm Gladwell responded to someone asking about a comment of his on Twitter, that he doesn't even have a Twitter account (the point being that whoever that was tweeting using his name was a fake account). It's really hard to tell who is real and who isn't. This isn't a problem for no-name people but it's hard to tell with prominent individuals. Twitter does appear to verify some identities as authentic—for instance, Bill Gates is easy to find and follow —but I'm not sure if the user has to pay for this or not. In any case, it's an interesting world on Twitterland. It is also easy to fall prey to information overload. Having said all that, here are some articles you may find worthwhile reading... " The End of Borders and the Future of Books " (Bloomberg Businessweek): I can't believe William Ackman wanted to merge Borders and B...

Steve Jobs was born in 1955, into an era of rotary phones and room-size computers. He died on Oct. 5, 2011, having put a computer inside a phone and that phone into 120 million pockets. — Bloomberg Businessweek Unlike many others out there, I am not a huge fan of Steve Jobs. His demanding personality doesn't sit well with me and if I was working for him, I may not survive for long. I was sort of a "geeky" guy who grew up with computers in the 90's but I was a PC user and hence not too familiar with Apple products. Having said all that, I do respect Steve Jobs as one of the most influential people of all time. He was an entrepreneur and a designer and a salesperson and a leader and an executive. He is, without a doubt, one of the top executives in American history. His resurrection of Apple may be one of the biggest business turn-arounds in modern history. One of the most remarkable lessons about the life of Steve Jobs is how he battled failures and ...

Computer Industry Pioneer... Consumer Electronics Industry Pioneer... One of a Kind... Image Source: Esquire (Diana Walker/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images) Harishragunathan's Blog (photographer unknown) Dribble.com ("Goodbye" by Robert Padbury. Oct 5 2011) Technoedge.com arvino's posterous Blog (photographer unknown. Jan 3 2010) Edible Apple blog (April 20, 2009) Cult of Mac Apple

Inflicted with a painful wisdom tooth problem... hopefully your life is feeling better... Here are some articles I found interesting. Hope you find them worth checking out. As usual, some articles may be old so aware of that. Wireless payments via smartphones (Bloomberg Businessweek): One of the reasons the mobile phone industry is attractive—one key reason I'm still closely following companies like Nokia—is because it has potential to revolutionize society beyond communications. This article presents the scenario of carrying out payments through NFC (Near-Field Communications) embedded in smartphones. Futuristic, out-of-reach, concepts like 'virtual wallets' are so close to reality. Not sure who profits from all this though. (Recommended) Understanding overall market P/E ratios - Part 1  - Part 2 (Ed Easterling for Advisor Perspectives): Very good explanation of P/E ratios. Anyone interested in evaluating overall market valuation based on P/E ratios should check out ...

Most of you probably already saw the news but Steve Jobs handed in his resignation letter to Apple . The content of the letter is quoted below. This ends one of the biggest corporate turnarounds of all time and likely ends the executive duties of one of the top CEOs in American history. If health wasn't a problem, I'm sure Steve Jobs would still be running Apple. But alas, the health issues has finally got to him. Steve will still likely carry out some board director responsbilities but I suspect it will be quite limited. It remains to be seen how Apple performs with the new leadership. Steve Jobs wasn't an easy guy to work for but he was exceptionally talented when it came to sales and design. He cannot be replaced. Steve Jobs' Resignation Letter To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community: I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfo...

Some articles, including some important ones summarizing the Berkshire Hathaway meeting held a few weeks ago. (Highly Recommended) Warren Buffet 2011 shareholder meeting notes (Ben Claremon for GuruFocus): Very detailed and extensive notes from last week's shareholder meeting. Too bad it's in scribd format (am I the only one on the planet without a Facebook account yet? ;) ) (Recommended) Summary of Warren Buffett 2011 shareholder meeting (Epic Investor): Another pretty lengthy summary of the shareholder meeting from earlier in the month. (Recommended) TV interview of Warren Buffett and Ajit Jain (NDTV via GuruFocus): First time I've seen the publicity-shy Ajit Jain... I wish someone would ask Buffett to walk through one of his past investments. The canned questions and short TV-oriented questions have been repeated a million times and are a complete waste of time for people like me. Oh well. Maybe Alice Shroeder will write an investment book soon. (Recommended) ...

Steve Jobs and John Sculley during the good times (Photo by Diana Walker for Countour/Getty Images) I ran across a very good interview in Bloomberg Businessweek (brought to my attention by Yahoo! Finance) with John Sculley, discussing Steve Jobs of Apple. John Sculley was the CEO of Apple in the 80's/early-90's and given how he worked closely with Jobs for many years, this is good reading if you are into business, technology, or corporate strategy. Steve Jobs is a very tough guy to work for—I would hate working for him. But he is brilliant and extremely talented. Sometimes you have bosses who are ruthless but don't know what they are doing; but at other times you have bosses who are knowledgeable—and right! Steve Jobs is the latter. This is a fascinating interview and I'm going to throw in my opinions below, but if you don't want my views, read the original interview. (source: " Being Steve Jobs' Boss ," Leander Kahney for Bloomberg Businessweek...