10 Golden Lessons from Steven Jobs

I think we’re having fun. I think our customers really like our products. And we’re always trying to do better.” - Steve Jobs

His accomplishments and character helped define a generation and change the world. He is co-founder of the fairytale company we now know as Apple Computers. And he is the visionary of the personal computers world that led the entire computer hardware and software industry to restructure itself.

This man with boundless energy and charisma is also a master of hype, hyperbole and the catchy phrase. And even when he’s trying to talk normally, brilliant verbiage comes tumbling out.

Here’s a selection of some of the most insanely great things he said, golden lessons to help you succeed in life, Jobs-style:

1. Steve Jobs said: “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

Innovation has no limits. The only limit is your imagination. It’s time for you to begin thinking out of the box. If you are involved in a growing industry, think of ways to become more efficient; more customer friendly; and easier to do business with. If you are involved in a shrinking industry – get out of it quick and change before you become obsolete; out of work; or out of business. And remember that procrastination is not an option here. Start innovating now!

2. Steve Jobs said: “Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”

There is no shortcut to excellence. You will have to make the commitment to make excellence your priority. Use your talents, abilities, and skills in the best way possible and get ahead of others by giving that little extra. Live by a higher standard and pay attention to the details that really do make the difference. Excellence is not difficult – simply decide right now to give it your best shot – and you will be amazed with what life gives you back.

3. Steve Jobs said: “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”

I’ve got it down to four words: “Do what you love.” Seek out an occupation that gives you a sense of meaning, direction and satisfaction in life. Having a sense of purpose and striving towards goals gives life meaning, direction and satisfaction. It not only contributes to health and longevity, but also makes you feel better in difficult times. Do you jump out of bed on Monday mornings and look forward to the work week? If the answer is ‘no’ keep looking, you’ll know when you find it.

4. Steve Jobs said: “You know, we don’t grow most of the food we eat. We wear clothes other people make. We speak a language that other people developed. We use a mathematics that other people evolved… I mean, we’re constantly taking things. It’s a wonderful, ecstatic feeling to create something that puts it back in the pool of human experience and knowledge.”

Live in a way that is ethically responsible. Try to make a difference in this world and contribute to the higher good. You’ll find it gives more meaning to your life and it’s a great antidote to boredom. There is always so much to be done. And talk to others about what you are doing. Don’t preach or be self-righteous, or fanatical about it, that just puts people off, but at the same time, don’t be shy about setting an example, and use opportunities that arise to let others know what you are doing.

5. Steve Jobs said: “There’s a phrase in Buddhism, ‘Beginner’s mind.’ It’s wonderful to have a beginner’s mind.”

It is the kind of mind that can see things as they are, which step by step and in a flash can realize the original nature of everything. Beginner’s mind is Zen practice in action. It is the mind that is innocent of preconceptions and expectations, judgements and prejudices. Think of beginner’s mind as the mind that faces life like a small child, full of curiosity and wonder and amazement.

6. Steve Jobs said: “We think basically you watch television to turn your brain off, and you work on your computer when you want to turn your brain on.”

Reams of academic studies over the decades have amply confirmed television’s pernicious mental and moral influences. And most TV watchers know that their habit is mind-numbing and wasteful, but still spend most of their time in front of that box. So turn your TV off and save some brain cells. But be cautious, you can turn your brain off by using a computer also. Try and have an intelligent conversation with someone who plays first person shooters for 8 hours a day. Or auto race games, or role-playing games.

7. Steve Jobs said: “I’m the only person I know that’s lost a quarter of a billion dollars in one year…. It’s very character-building.”

Don’t equate making mistakes with being a mistake. There is no such thing as a successful person who has not failed or made mistakes, there are successful people who made mistakes and changed their lives or performance in response to them, and so got it right the next time. They viewed mistakes as warnings rather than signs of hopeless inadequacy. Never making a mistake means never living life to the full.

8. Steve Jobs said: “I would trade all of my technology for an afternoon with Socrates.”

Over the last decade, numerous books featuring lessons from historical figures have appeared on the shelves of bookstores around the world. And Socrates stands with Leonardo da Vinci, Nicholas Copernicus, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein as a beacon of inspiration for independent thinkers. But he came first. Cicero said of Socrates that, “He called philosophy down from the skies and into the lives of men.” So use Socrates’ principles in your life, your work, your learning, and your relationships. It’s not about Socrates, it’s really about you, and how you can bring more truth, beauty and goodness into your life everyday.

9. Steve Jobs said: “We’re here to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise why else even be here?”

Did you know that you have big things to accomplish in life? And did you know that those big things are getting rather dusty while you pour yourself another cup of coffee, and decide to mull things over rather than do them? We were all born with a gift to give in life, one which informs all of our desires, interests, passions and curiosities. This gift is, in fact, our purpose. And you don’t need permission to decide your own purpose. No boss, teacher, parent, priest or other authority can decide this for you. Just find that unique purpose.

10. Steve Jobs said: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Are you tired of living someone else’s dream? No doubt, its your life and you have every right to spend it in your own individual way without any hurdles or barriers from others. Give yourself a chance to nurture your creative qualities in a fear-free and pressure-free climate. Live a life that YOU choose and be your own boss.

Each lesson might be difficult to integrate into your life at first, but if you ease your way into each lesson, one at a time, you’ll notice an immediate improvement in your overall performance. So go ahead, give them a try.

Imaging agents offer new view of inflammation, cancer

 by Biomechanism 

“Study describes first COX-2-targeted PET imaging agent”

A series of novel imaging agents could make it possible to “see” tumors in their earliest stages, before they turn deadly.

The compounds, derived from inhibitors of the enzyme cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and detectable by positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, may have broad applications for cancer detection, diagnosis and treatment.

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a test that uses a special type of camera and a tracer (radioactive chemical) to look at organs in the body, and is often used to find cancer, to check blood flow, or to see how organs are working.

Vanderbilt University investigators describe the new imaging agents in a paper featured on the cover of the October issue of Cancer Prevention Research.

“This is the first COX-2-targeted PET imaging agent validated for use in animal models of inflammation and cancer,” said Lawrence Marnett, Ph.D., director of the Vanderbilt Institute of Chemical Biology and leader of the team that developed the compounds.

COX-2 is an attractive target for molecular imaging. It’s not found in most normal tissues, and then it is “turned on” in inflammatory lesions and tumors, Marnett explained.

“As a tumor grows and becomes increasingly malignant, COX-2 levels go up,” Marnett said.

To develop compounds that target COX-2 and can be detected by PET imaging, Jashim Uddin, Ph.D., research assistant professor of Biochemistry, started with the “core” chemical structures of the anti-inflammatory medicines indomethacin and celecoxib and modified them to add the element fluorine in various chemical configurations.

After demonstrating that the fluorinated compounds were selective inhibitors of COX-2, the investigators incorporated radioactive fluorine (18-F) into the most promising compound. Intravenous injection of this 18-F compound into animal models provided sufficient signal for PET imaging.

The researchers demonstrated the potential of this 18-F compound for in vivo PET imaging in two animal models: irritant-induced inflammation in the rat footpad and human tumors grafted into mice.

They showed that the 18-F compound accumulated in the inflamed foot, but not the non-inflamed foot, and that pre-treatment of the animals with celecoxib blocked the signal. In mice bearing both COX-2-positive and COX-2-negative human tumors, the 18-F compound accumulated only in the COX-2-positive tumor.

The studies support further development of these agents as probes for early detection of cancer and for evaluation of the COX-2 status of pre-malignant and malignant tumors.

“Because COX-2 levels increase during cancer progression in virtually all solid tumors, we think these imaging tools will have many, many different applications,” Marnett said.

Bone marrow cells migrate to tumors and can slow their growth

 by Biomechanism 

Bone marrow cancer is called multiple myeloma. Frequently the first sign of multiple myeloma is bone pain due to the presence of many malignant cells in the bone marrow.

Bone marrow-derived cells (BMDCs) participate in the growth and spread of tumors of the breast, brain, lung, and stomach. To examine the role of BMDCs, researchers developed a mouse model that could be used to track the migration of these cells while tumors formed and expanded. Their results, published in the November issue of The American Journal of Pathology, strongly suggest that more effective cancer treatments may be developed by exploiting the mechanism by which bone marrow cells migrate to tumors and retard their proliferation.

“Our results provide an excellent in vivo experimental model where the temporal dynamics of tumor-infiltrating BMDCs may be monitored in an immunocompetent host and novel therapies targeting BMDCs for the inhibition of tumor progression may be investigated,” commented lead investigator Wafik S. El-Deiry, MD, PhD, Professor and Chief, Hematology/Oncology Division at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center and Associate Director for Translational Research at the Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute. “In the future, it may be possible to use specific identified tumor-infiltrating BMDCs to deliver therapeutic cargo.”

A first group of mice expressing a fluorescence gene served as donors of the bone marrow cells. A second group of mice, whose marrow had been destroyed by radiation, were injected with the donated fluorescent bone marrow. The transplanted bone marrow cells were allowed to proliferate for 8 weeks. Then, colon cancer cells were injected into the same mice and tumors formed over the next 3 weeks.

Monitoring tumor growth by optical imaging, researchers found that the tumors contained numerous types of BMDCs. Notably they also found that tumor growth is reduced in animals that received the bone marrow transplants, compared with untransplanted host mice.

According to the authors, cancer has long been viewed as a disease in which transformed cells grow and invade tissues. However, they believe that it is becoming clear that cancer is a more complex disease in a heterogeneous microenvironment where many cellular interactions are occurring in the malignant tissue.

“This type of mouse model allows scientists to actually see in living color the complicated relationships and interplay between the…tumor’s own cells and the immune system cells within the host…” said El-Deiry, who is also an American Cancer Society Research Professor. He added: “this ongoing war on cancer within this tumor microenvironment has surprising twists and turns.” El-Deiry and his colleagues hope to steer patient outcomes “with additional treatments that can help [them] overcome the cancer.”

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The article is “High-Resolution Imaging and Antitumor Effects of GFP+ Bone Marrow-Derived Cells Homing to Syngeneic Mouse Colon Tumors” by Niklas K. Finnberg, Lori S. Hart, Nathan G. Dolloff, Zachary B. Rodgers, David T. Dicker and Wafik S. El-Deiry (doi: 10.1016/j.ajpath.2011.07.028). It will appear in The American Journal of Pathology, Volume 179, Issue 5 (November 2011) published b

y Elsevier.

Featured Video: Adhesion, Signaling and Cancer

New study confirms genetic link to suicidal behavior

 by Biomechanism 

A new study from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health has found evidence that a specific gene is linked to suicidal behaviour, adding to our knowledge of the many complex causes of suicide. This research may help doctors one day target the gene in prevention efforts.

In the past, studies have implicated the gene for brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in suicidal behaviour. BDNF is involved in the development of the nervous system.

After pooling results from 11 previous studies and adding their own study data involving people with schizophrenia, CAMH scientists confirmed that among people with a psychiatric diagnosis, those with the methionine (“met”) variation of the gene had a higher risk of suicidal behaviour compared to those with the valine variation.

The review, published in the International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, included data from 3,352 people, of whom 1,202 had a history of suicidal behaviour.

The news coincides with Mental Illness Awareness Week, October 2-8, and World Mental Health Day, October 10.

“Our findings may lead to the testing and development of treatments that target this gene in order to help prevent suicide,” says Dr. James Kennedy, director of CAMH’s Neuroscience Research Department. “In the future, if other researchers can replicate and extend our findings, then genetic testing may be possible to help identify people at increased risk for suicide.”

As the low-functioning BDNF met variation is a risk factor for suicidal behaviour, it may also be possible to develop a compound to increase BDNF functioning, Dr. Kennedy says.

About 90 per cent of people who have died by suicide have at least one mental health disorder, the researchers note. Within the studies they reviewed, participants had schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder or general mood disorders. In each case, the researchers compared the genotypes of people who had attempted or completed suicide with those who were non-suicidal.

“Our findings provide a small piece of the puzzle on what causes suicidal behaviour,” says Dr. Kennedy.

“When assessing a person’s suicide risk, it’s also important to consider environmental risk factors, such as early childhood or recent trauma, the use of addictive drugs or medications and other factors.”

Raising ‘good’ cholesterol levels reduces heart attack and stroke risk in diabetes patients

 by Biomechanism

“Kaiser Permanente study also finds heart attack and stroke risk increase when ‘good’ cholesterol levels go down”

Increasing levels of high-density lipoproteins, better known as HDL or “good” cholesterol, reduced the risk for heart attack and stroke among patients with diabetes. That’s according to a new study appearing online today in The American Journal of Cardiology.

The observational study, one of the largest of its kind, examined the medical records of more than 30,000 patients with diabetes and also found that patients whose HDL levels decreased had more heart attacks and strokes.

Researchers studied patients with diabetes because they are more prone to heart disease with a lifetime risk as high as 87 percent, according to a paper from the landmark Framingham heart study published 2008. While there is considerable evidence that reducing the amount of low-density lipoprotein, also known as LDL or “bad” cholesterol, can reduce the risk of heart disease, the relationship between HDL cholesterol and heart disease is less clear.

“Our study adds to the growing body of evidence that raising HDL levels may be an important strategy for reducing heart attack risk,” said study lead author Gregory Nichols, PhD, senior investigator with the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore.

“This is promising news for patients with diabetes, who already have an increased risk for heart problems. Raising their good cholesterol may be one more way for these patients to reduce their risk,” said Suma Vupputuri, PhD, co-author and investigator with the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Atlanta.

The study included 30,067 patients who entered Kaiser Permanente diabetes registries in Oregon, Washington and Georgia between 2001 and 2006. These patients had at least two HDL cholesterol measurements between 6 and 24 months apart. Most patients (61 percent) had no significant change in HDL levels; in 22 percent of patients, HDL levels increased by at least 6.5 mg/dl (milligrams per deciliter of blood); in 17 percent of patients, HDL levels decreased by at least that same amount.

After obtaining the cholesterol measurement, researchers followed the patients for up to 8 years to see if they were hospitalized for a heart attack or stroke. Patients whose HDL levels increased had 8 percent fewer heart attacks and strokes than patients whose HDL levels remained the same, while patients whose HDL levels decreased had 11 percent more heart attacks and strokes. This study was observational so there was no intervention to change HDL levels, and although many patients were on statins to reduce their “bad” cholesterol, very few were on medications to improve HDL.

Past studies on this topic have reached contradictory conclusions. A study published in 2009 in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that for every 5 mg/dl improvement in HDL cholesterol level patients saw a 21 percent decrease in heart attack risk. But a systematic review of more than 100 clinical trials published in the British Medical Journal in 2009 found that increasing HDL cholesterol did not reduce the risk of heart disease or death.

Earlier this year the National Institutes of Health stopped a clinical trial using large doses of the B Vitamin niacin to boost HDL levels because the patients, who were already taking statins to reduce their “bad” cholesterol, saw no added reduction in heart attacks when they added niacin. Niacin is one of very few medications to increase HDL, but it can also have side effects such as flushing, vomiting, dizziness and itching.

People can raise their HDL levels without medication by keeping their weight down, changing their diet, avoiding tobacco smoke, and increasing exercise.

Medical experts believe that HDL or “good” cholesterol carries the “bad” cholesterol away from the arteries and back to the liver where it is processed and passed from the body. According to the American Diabetes Association, a good target for women should be at least 50 mg/dl of HDL and for men at least 40 mg/dl. Levels of 60 mg/dl or higher are thought to protect against heart disease

Fish jump into picture of evolutionary land invasion

 by Biomechanism 

Research sometimes means looking for one thing and finding another. Such was the case when biology professor Alice Gibb and her research team at Northern Arizona University witnessed a small amphibious fish, the mangrove rivulus, jump with apparent skill and purpose out of a small net and back into the water.

This was no random flop, like you might see from a trout that’s just been landed. The rivulus seemed to know what it was doing.

The time-elapsed image above, taken by researchers at Northern Arizona University, shows the mosquitofish's ability to move outside of water with apparent skill and purpose. The study suggests that vertebrates may have invaded land more frequently than previously thought. Photo: NAU

They hadn’t expected to see that behavior, even from a fish known to spend time out of the water. So before long, what began as a study on the evolution of feeding behavior was shifted to a study of how fish behave when stranded on land. And considering what is implied by the truism “like a fish out of water,” the results came as another surprise.

Some fully aquatic fishes, as the author’s video clipsshow, also can jump effectively on land even without specialized anatomical attributes. This has significant implications for evolutionary biology, Gibb said, because the finding implies that “the invasion of the land by vertebrates may have occurred much more frequently than has been previously thought.”

The study is summarized in a paper, “Like a Fish out of Water: Terrestrial Jumping by Fully Aquatic Fishes,” that appears online in the JEZ A: Ecological Genetics and Physiology.

Gibb said the study “supports a big-picture theory in evolution,” which is that the nervous system, in its control of bones and muscles, can allow a new behavior to appear without necessarily bringing about a physical change.

In the case of aquatic fish, Gibb said, “This shows that you don’t have to have legs or rigid pectoral fins to move around on land. So if you go back and look at the fossil record to try to say which fish could move around on land, you’d have a hard time knowing for sure.”

The original feeding study began with guppies, then moved to a relative, the mangrove rivulus. Once the rivulus exhibited the tail-flip jumping maneuver, Gibb shifted the focus of the research. Eventually, the guppy came back into the picture. Literally.

“When you do a study like this, you have to ask what your control is,” Gibb said. “If a known amphibious fish is a good jumper, then what’s a bad jumper?”

Enter the guppy, a fully aquatic fish 

“The guppy jumped almost as well as the amphibious fish did,” Gibb said. “And no one has ever suggested that a guppy is an amphibious fish.” As a result, “we put everything we could get our hands on” in front of a high-speed camera, Gibb said. Some of those additional subjects included the mosquitofish, which has been introduced into tributaries of Oak Creek, and a common pet store zebra fish, which is a very distant relative of guppies and mosquitofish.

The mosquitofish “has become our lab rat,” Gibb said. “It’s accessible, it comes from a group that has other jumpers, and it’s been reported that this fish jumps out of the water to get away from predators and then jumps back in.”

That particular escape behavior, Gibb said, has never been filmed. Similar stories about other fish add to mostly anecdotal literature on the topic that “tends to be old and very diffuse.”

Today’s high-speed video systems give Gibb an opportunity to change that. What the cameras reveal is that both species produce a coordinated maneuver in which the fish curls its head toward the tail and then pushes off the ground to propel itself through the air.

Gibb and her team have discussed going into the field to capture video of fish performing this behavior in the wild. But for now Gibb and her colleagues are endeavoring to determine if there is directionality to voluntary locomotion on land and to investigate the genetic basis of the jumping behavior.

“Maybe fishes that are very good at jumping are poor swimmers,” Gibb said. “We want to look at the compromises that may have been made to favor one behavior over another.”

பாம்பு தலையுடன் கூடிய பிரமீடு கண்டுபிடிப்பு

மெக்சிகோ நகரின் புகழ்பெற்ற அரச சிதைவுகளில் பாம்புகளை எரிப்பதற்காக உருவாக்கப்பட்ட சிறப்பு மேடை கண்டுபிடிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது. மெக்சிகோ நகரின் Templo Mayo சிதைவுகளிலேயே அகழ்வாராய்ச்சியாளர்கள் இதனை கண்டுபிடித்துள்ளனர். இரு பிரமீடுகளுக்கிடையிலும் பல ஆன்மீகம் தொடர்பான Hispanic Aztec இராச்சியத்தின் முக்கிய இடமாகவும் இருந்த இடத்தில் இந்த பாம்புத் தலைகளிலான சிலை வடிவமைக்கப்பட்டிருந்தது. பாம்பின் தலை வடிவத்தில் அமைந்த அமைப்பு புதிதாகக் கண்டுபிடிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது. அப்பகுதியில் ஏதாவது அரச பரம்பரையினரின் புதைகுழி இருக்கலாமென 5 ஆண்டுகளாகத் தேடிவந்திருந்தனர். ஆனால் அப்படியான எந்தவிதப் புதைகுழியும் அங்கு கண்டுபிடிக்கப்படவில்லை. இப்பகுதி 15 யார் விட்டத்தில் காணப்பட்டதுடன் கி.மு. 1469 இலும் கட்டப்பட்டிருந்தது என ஆய்வாளர்கள் தெரிவித்துள்ளார்கள். இப்பகுதி மெக்சிகோவின் Teochtitlan என்ற நகரின் தலைநகரான Aztec பகுதியில் அமைந்திருந்தது. இங்குதான் ஆட்சியாளர்கள் எரிக்கப்பட்டார்கள் என வரலாற்றுப் பதிவுகள் கூறுகின்றன. அப்பகுதிதான் தற்போது கண்டுபிடிக்கப்பட்ட இடமாக இருக்கலாமென அகழ்வாராய்ச்சியாளர்கள் கருதுகின்றனர். இந்தப் பிரமீடு பகுதியில் தான் அக்காலத்து மதகுருமார்கள் பாம்புடன் இறங்கி, அந்தப் பாம்பு மேடையில் வைத்து எரித்திருக்கலாம் என இவர்கள் நம்புகின்றார்கள். இங்கு 19 பாம்பின் தலைகள் மேடைகளாக வரிசையாகக் கட்டப்பட்டுள்ளன. இப்பகுதி 2006 இல் கண்டுபிடிக்கப்பட்டிருந்தாலும் தற்போதுதான் முழுதாக இந்த பாம்பு மேடைகள் கண்டுபிடிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளன.