At the used bookstore in Mountain View today, I found a book from 1997 by Jim Carlton called Apple: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania and Business Blunders. It has some amazing quotes on the back, including these:

  • “This is the story of a true American tragedy … [t]here are lessons here for everyone.” - Jeff Bezos

  • “This … compelling and cautionary tale of a brilliant American icon gone wrong.” - Jeff Berg

  • “A detailed and authoritative telling of one of the most fascinating and instructive failure stories of the century.” - Jim Collins

Obviously, in 1997, no one knew what was coming next (though the last chapter of the book is entitled NeXT: A Founder’s Return). The book, which had a $27.50 cover price in 1997, sold today for $5. Had you, in 1997, invested your $27.50 in Apple shares (which were trading at about $4 a share for most of that year), today, you’d have about $3,000 instead of a worthless book.

“Correction: An article on Monday about Jack Robison and Kirsten Lindsmith, two college students with Asperger syndrome who are navigating the perils of an intimate relationship, misidentified the character from the animated children’s TV show “My Little Pony” that Ms. Lindsmith said she visualized to cheer herself up. It is Twilight Sparkle, the nerdy intellectual, not Fluttershy, the kind animal lover.”
Navigating Love and Autism. Best correction of 2012.

2011: Year In Cities

  • Napa, CA
  • Mountain View, CA*
  • Albany, NY*
  • Scottsdale, AZ
  • Los Angeles, CA*
  • Chicago, IL*
  • Park City, UT
  • Boston, MA*
  • New York, NY*
  • Las Vegas, NV*
  • London, England*
  • Greenwich, CT
  • Portland, ME*
  • Newport, RI
  • North Adams, MA
  • Rochester, NY*
  • Tokyo, Japan*
  • Lambertville, NJ*

A * means multiple nights.

Super interesting talk by a Jeopardy champion about how he developed a computer program to help him analyze previous Jeopardy questions and study for the game.