Josh Quittner, "Apple's Latest Fruit," Time.com, 14 Jan 2002

"The way we're going to survive is to innovate our way out of this."
....
Apple's secret, which doubtless comes from Jobs' early flirtation with Zen Buddhism, is knowing what to leave out, understanding that in the complex world of computers, less is way more.
....
"We can take full responsibility for the user experience. We can do things that the other guy can't do."

Vanessa Hua, "Three in one," SF Chronicle, 6 Jan 2001

"You can sit around and argue for another hour, but with the prototype, it becomes obvious where you screwed up."

Cecelia Holland, "Staying Ahead of the Curve," Communication Arts, Dec 2001

The irony is that the more the politicians heed the polls, the less they really understand the country. Because the polls are lies. There’s a difference between asking people how they like Coke and asking people for more abstract judgments, like whether they support capital punishment. In a poll, how the question is asked often predetermines the answer. And many people answer moral or political questions according to how they want to see themselves, not by who they really are. Such factors combine with the natural lag time between the appearance of an issue and the popular response to reduce most political polling to garbage.

Mark Bernstein, "Business Community," markbernstein.org, 4 Jan 2002

Another lesson from these entrepreneurs[Chinese entrepreneurs in Singapore]: good business relations are built on knowledge, skill, competence, and hard work. This isn't just for managers, or even for employees, but also applies to a firm's vendors and its customers. A good business requires good customers; a business that serves lazy, ignorant customers won't thrive. In software, we made a blunder in spreading the canard that everything should (or can) be easy, friendly, idiot-proof. Software should be as simple as possible -- and no simpler. It's time we expected people to learn how to use their computers.

Joe Clark, "Symbolizing Accessibility," joeclark.org, 3 Jan 2002

After half a decade of attempts and a misapplication of the “classic” wheelchair icon, we finally have something that might work as a generic indicator of accessibility – from Apple, of all places.

Jim Hopkins, "When designers ignore consumers, products can flop," USA Today, 31 Dec 2001

  Sometimes, the problem with faulty designs is that no one wants to say no to a bad idea. It might be the pet project of an overbearing CEO who ignores the advice of his development team. Or a company invests millions in a gizmo only to have consumers, brought in at the 11th hour, reject it. At that stage, the company doesn't want to write off its investment.
  "Saying no is just as important as saying yes," Cogliandro says. "In fact, it's more important."

Scott Kirsner, "Homepage Improvement: Ten resolution that will wring more results from your website," Darwin, Jan 2002

5. Stop taxing your customers' patience. If your homepage includes a zoomy 974K Flash movie that visitors are forced to watch every time they come to your site, ask your designers why people who already are interested in your company must be required to watch an ad for your company before they can get information from your company.

Noah Adams, "New Voice in Folk Rock: Singer Mason Jennings Traffics in Love and Melancholy," npr.org, 1 Jan 2002

  ...he learned about the power of space in music: The feeling created when a breath ends or when a guitar stops for a moment, and silence lingers.
  "In today's age you go into a studio and people always tell you to put all of these instruments into your record," says Jennings. "I just like to write with economy and try to set up an architecture in the song where I don't need to add anything."
More thoughts on doing just the essential.