The following quotes from the late Steve Jobs have been selected on the basis of their relevance to the genes list. Many more could retain similar interest for the purpose of this book. However, the authors encourage referring to the many appropriate Websites as well as to the reference bibliography.

“I wish developing great products was as easy as writing a check. If that was the case, Microsoft would have great products.”

CNET, May 10, 2007.

“We did iTunes because we all love music. We made what we thought was the best jukebox in iTunes. Then we all wanted to carry our whole music libraries around with us. The team worked really hard. And the reason that they worked so hard is because we all wanted one. You know? I mean, the first few hundred customers were us.”

Fortune, March, 2008.

“The people who built Silicon Valley were engineers. They learned business, they learned a lot of different things, but they had a real belief that humans, if they worked hard with other creative, smart people, could solve most of humankind’s problems. I believe that very much.”

Wired, Feb. 1996

“Companies, as they grow to become multibillion-dollar entities, somehow lose their vision. They insert lots of layers of middle management between the people running the company and the people doing the work. They no longer have an inherent feel or a passion about the products. The creative people, who are the ones who care passionately, have to persuade five layers of management to do what they know is the right thing to do.”

Playboy, Feb., 1985

“Software is what will distinguish products in the next 10 years. And I think the technology for software is just starting to come into its own.”

Newsweek, Sept. 29, 1985

“It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough – it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing, and nowhere is that more true than in these post-PC devices.”

Seattle Times, March 3, 2011.

“Microsoft has had two goals in the last 10 years. One was to copy the Mac, and the other was to copy Lotus’ success in the spreadsheet – basically, the applications business. And over the course of the last 10 years, Microsoft accomplished both of those goals. And now they are completely lost. They were able to copy the Mac because the Mac was frozen in time. The Mac didn’t change much for the last 10 years. It changed maybe 10 percent. It was a sitting duck. It’s amazing that it took Microsoft 10 years to copy something that was a sitting duck.”

Rolling Stone, July 16, 1994.

“Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. It’s very fortunate if you can work on just one of these in your career. Apple’s been very fortunate in that it’s introduced a few of these.”

Msn.com, Jan. 9, 2007.

“[Design is] not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”

New York Times Magazine, Nov. 30, 2003

“The desktop computer industry is dead. Innovation has virtually ceased. Microsoft dominates with very little innovation. That’s over. Apple lost. The desktop market has entered the dark ages, and it’s going to be in the dark ages for the next 10 years, or certainly for the rest of this decade.”

Wired, Feb. 1996.

“You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology – not the other way around.”

World Wide Developers Conference, May 1997

“That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end, because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

BusinessWeek, May 25, 1998.

“We’re always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it’s only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.”

BusinessWeek, Oct. 12 2004

“You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.”

Inc. Magazine, April 1, 1989