Make Something Wonderful

An edited collection of speeches, interviews, and emails, available to read freely online. Use a passage to trace a decision, question its reasoning, and make a small change in your own work.

What kind of book is this?

Released on April 11, 2023, this posthumous collection brings together Jobs’s words, with an introduction by Laurene Powell Jobs. The Archive notes that the material was excerpted and edited for clarity and privacy.

Keep the date and occasion beside what you read. A public speech, a private exchange, and a story told years after an event offer different kinds of evidence.

Three ways into the book

For a crowded project: read the September 1997 employee speech. Use Opportunity Cost to examine the best alternative you give up by keeping a commitment.

For a stale design: read the Stanford calligraphy story alongside the Macintosh typography page. Use Reschema to identify a relationship worth transferring, then name a mismatch that could invalidate it.

For an idea you love too much: read the Tevanian exchange. Write the strongest objection you would want a colleague to raise before you commit.

A record to think with

Choose a short item and separate the situation, decision, and reason offered. Distinguish what the person knew at the time from what became clear later.

An edited record can reveal stated reasoning. It cannot by itself establish how often a principle failed, whether it explains a team’s success, or whether copying it will help a different project. Other contributors’ accounts and your own attempt can change the reading.