Ken Segall is a former Apple ad man who worked closely with Steve Jobs for more than a dozen years. Segall is the guy who put the “i” in iMac and worked on the famous “Think Different” campaign.
The big lesson he learned from Steve Jobs was keeping things simple. But easier said than done. How exactly do you keep things simple?
Segall went out and found 40 business folks who keep things straightforward. His new book based on those interviews is called Think Simple:How Smart Leaders Defeat Complexity.
In a new podcast, Kahney’s Korner, Segall talks about some of those lessons, how Steve Jobs kept things uncomplicated and about how Apple is doing these days without him.
This episode of Kahney’s Korner is supported by TunnelBear, an award-winning service that gives you fast and private access to the internet.
Photo: Portfolio/Penguin Publishing Group
Segall worked closely with Steve Jobs at NeXT and Apple, naming the iMac and working closely on the famous “Think Different” campaign, among many other things. Segall was always impressed how Jobs kept things uncomplicated, from Apple’s products to its advertising.
Segall worked his experience into a book about his career called Insanely Simple, which led to a very successful second career on the lecture circuit.
But while he was telling people how Steve Jobs kept things uncomplicated, they’d always say, ‘Well, that’s great, but what about me? How do I apply that to my company or my life?’
It’s a good question, so Segall went out and interviewed dozens of business leaders who have found ways to keep things simple. His book based on those interviews was launched earlier this week.
In this first episode of Kahney’s Korner, Segall talks about some of those lessons, about working with Steve Jobs and how Apple is more complicated these days.
About Kahney’s Korner
Kahney’s Korner is a new weekly podcast. Every week I’ll be interviewing a guest from the world of Apple. I’ve got some great guests lined up, including a bunch of ex-Apple staffers who will talk about their work and working with Steve Jobs. I’ve also got people like an iPhone case maker, who’ll spill the beans on the competitive and shadowy world of case making. Being first to market is worth millions of dollars and these guys do some crazy things to get the specs of Apple’s upcoming devices and get the jump on the competition. I’ll also talk to app makers, and IT guys, and recyclers — it’s a big Apple world out there, and there’s tons of great, fascinating stories to tell.
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Episode
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Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander is an expert on:
Apple and Apple history
Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Tim Cook and Apple leadership
Apple community
iPhone and iOS
iPad and iPadOS
Mac and macOS
Apple Watch and watchOS
Apple TV and tvOS
AirPods
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
2 responses to “Ex-Apple ad man Ken Segall talks Apple and simplicity [Podcast interview]”
I can’t believe you started a new podcast behind Erfon and Buster’s back! Why would you do this? Your cheating on The Cult Cast Leander. Have fun hosting Kahney’s Korner all alone by your lonesome self in your korner! Do you think your too high class for the Cult Cast now? so your just going to abandon? who do you think you are? Alex Heath?
Despite the obsession over piracy, Apple needs to get away for its walled garden routine. Apple has been being blindsided repeatedly by Android for the past two to three years now. The problem with that obsession over security, and ridiculous complexity trying to manage it. It is doing the exact thing Apple doesn’t, won’t, and shouldn’t do, that obsession is killing individuality, and creativity. If Apple really wants to get hackers to stand with them, instead of against them, they need to actually look and see what actually is desired, wanted, and needed. They already included a feature that used to require a jailbreak. They need to allow users to choose for themselves what they want to use their devices for, and how to use them the way they like. If they truly wanted to get backed by hackers working towards improving iDevices, instead of trying to find ways to break them. There are a number of completely free things Apple could include in iOS. First, allow user customization of their devices, to be as creative as they would like. Give access to the Springboard ala Winterboard. Allow users the ability to use whatever theme or skin they would like, including the lock-screen. Allow use of custom icon packs. Allow user created widgets for the lock-screen, and notification screen. Allow users the ability to use whatever font they choose for whatever app they like, including epubs like Bytafont. A create idea would be for Apple to tap Stardock. With their decades of Windows theming experience, it would be a no brainier to see an IconPackager, WindowBlinds, etc. done mobile. That way they can still enforce certain requirements to maintain Apple obsession over control, while allowing creative artists the chance to be artists again, to allow them the ability to create icon packs, skins, themes, and widgets, so long as they meet certain requirements. For power users, allow users the ability to be as nit-picky as they like with including Flux, so users can modify what any app does, how it does it, when, how, and why, based on user choice. Get over itself, and stop the obsession of forcing every browser on the AppStore be nothing but a skin thrown on top of Mobile Safari. Allow alternatives like Gecko from Mozillia, so we could get a real Firefox. Yes I know, Apple might cringe at the thought, but stop claiming linking apps together as being extensions. It’s a sad abuse of the name. Allow real extensions for browsers, including, but not limited to, AdBlock Plus, NoScript, HTTPS-Everywhere, and GreaseMonkey. Include WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, AOL/AIM, and Yahoo Messenger with iMessage, similar to what can be done with Pidgin or Adium on Mac OS X. That way anyone can communicate with anyone, with one unified messenger app, instead of trying to get outdated, and often broken messenger apps to work. Show that Apple truly isn’t just a dog and pony show for the press, and actually show Apple cares about user privacy and security. At a grand total of $0.00, for completely 100% free, 100% open-source, include Off the Record (OTR) encryption with iMessage, and OpenPGP with the default mail app. These aren’t things Apple couldn’t do, but should do, so they stop being blindsided by Android, it really wouldn’t be that complicated, challenging, or difficult to do. Most of which would cost nothing to incorporate into iOS. If Apple did by any possible way do these things, it would be a miracle, but I hope and pray they one day do what they have done years ago.