Tempus Fugit

“I hereby resign as CEO of Apple.”

Those words, written two days ago by Steve Jobs, shouldn’t hit as hard as they do. Jobs’ health issues have been public knowledge for a long time, and he has taken multiple indefinite hiatuses. But it unsettles me seeing it spelled out as plainly as that (“I hereby resign”). I could talk about Jobs and what a remarkable person and leader he is, but you can go elsewhere for that. That’s all been said. I have one simple observation.

It occurred to me that as unsettled as I was about Jobs’ resignation, I have no doubts that Apple’s future is bright. Although Jobs singlehandedly saved the company from disaster when he rejoined, its success in recent years (iPod onward) has seemed more of an all-company effort. There weren’t enough hours in the day for Jobs to lend his magic touch to every product and every feature and every marketing campaign. Yet every product and every feature and every marketing campaign seemed as if he’d personally influenced it.

So here’s my observation: leadership isn’t just about raw navigation. It’s not about the executive decisions you make. Leadership is about principles. A leader who has a vision, can condense that vision into principles, and infuse the entire organization with those principles, will have a lasting effect long after they’ve left.

I think about that concept a lot within the context of WordPress. While technical merit is obviously valued, we wouldn’t give more responsibility to someone just because they were technically skilled. They have to “get” the project. They have to know, understand, and be able to communicate the philosophies that guide the project. Without this guide, it would just be a bunch of warring egos. Having this philosophical base creates a stronger sense of contributing to something greater than yourself. And it guides our debates.

Can you summarize Apple in a single sentence that contains the kernel of their vision?

Apple — Create magical computing experiences. Easy enough.

Do your own for Zappos and 37signals. No problem.

Now try to do that for Microsoft, or HP, or Adobe, or RIM. Actually, don’t. You might hurt yourself. With those companies, a leadership change might be a calamitous event. But if your organization is guided more by principles than individuals, you can easily weather a leadership change. Apple will be just fine.

Atticus and Becket. It turns out the urge to dress your children alike is very, very hard to resist.

Cory Maye will be released from prison and escape death row, in a plea agreement. In 2006, Maye was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death, for the shooting of a police office who barged through his door in the middle of the night, unannounced (according to Maye’s testimony).

While it’s wonderful that the father of two will be finally going home to his family, it doesn’t excuse that he was locked up for 10 years and threatened with execution for what, on the evidence, was clearly an accident. The details of the case are shocking… a racist informant (who multiple times has called Maye a “nigger”) who lied, police who handled the raid like amateurs, an hack “expert witness” who gave extremely misleading testimony, and a bumbling defense which inadequately argued the complete lack of motivation for the alleged crime. And our immoral, misguided, murderous war on drugs that has claimed or destroyed countless lives. This sucks on so many levels.

Our second child, F. Becket Jaquith (“Becket”), was born at 1:50pm on June 13th, 2011.

Vitals:

• Boy
• 7 lb, 3.5 oz
• 20 in
• Sparse, light hair
• Blue eyes
• 2 dimples!

He’ll go by Becket — named after Thomas Becket, the principled and stubborn Bishop who stood up to King Henry II, even though it cost him his life. The “F” stands for Francis, after F. Scott Fitzgerald, a literary idol of Sarah’s. We decided to stick with the “call him by the middle name” strategy we started with Atticus, his brother.

Some more shots:

Again, Sarah did great. As with Atticus, she was induced three weeks early due to blood pressure worries. Her pressures are coming down, as expected, now that he’s out. Her labor went much faster this time. He came out after the second push! He’s doing great, and didn’t have to spend any time away from us.

For those who are counting, Atticus and Becket are 13.5 months apart. We hope that their closeness in age will serve them well as they grow up together! Atticus met Becket this afternoon. He thought he was funny, stuck his finger in his mouth, and tried to remove his hat.

All of the time-lapse videos of the stars are taken from a fixed perspective on earth, which makes it look like the galaxy is spinning around us. This video has been edited to hold the stars stationary. Quite a powerful way to illustrate that we’re all riding a rock that’s hurtling through space.

Believers weren’t “raptured” up into heaven on May 21st, 2011, like Harold Camping had predicted. That’s no surprise. Camping was a fringe kook. Right?

Don’t be so quick to judge. A 2010 Pew Research poll found that a staggering 41% of Americans believe that Jesus of Nazareth will probably return to earth by 2050. That’s not 41% of evangelical Christians, or even 41% of Christians. That’s 41% of all Americans.

The only difference between Harold Camping and that 41% percent is that Camping picked a one-day span, and they picked a 40-year span. Many of the Christians who mocked or decried Camping’s prediction were not doing so because they thought the prediction was wrong, but because it wasn’t as vague as their prediction. Harold Camping isn’t fringe. He’s just more specific.

Fascinating. Certainly nails why I am a gun owner, despite being non-violent and non-confrontational. I’m extremely invested in ideals of independence and autonomy.

If you are one of the people who creates amazing experiences and unforgettable moments on the web, watch this video. Go ahead, feel proud. You’ve earned it.

You may remember Nick Pitera from the video where he sings both the male female portions of A Whole New World from Disney’s Aladdin. It has, as of this writing, over 22 million views. Go watch that first, if you’re one of the few who missed it.

Well, he’s back. And this is mind-blowingly awesome: