This is how Apple rolls | Tablets | Macworld →

They take something small, simple, and painstakingly well considered. They ruthlessly cut features to derive the absolute minimum core product they can start with. They polish those features to a shiny intensity.

Not surprisingly, a great take from Chairman Gruber about Apple’s focus on getting the core of a product right, eliminating features in the process, and making small and incremental additions from there. There’s a lot here to unpack and take away for use in our own computing situations. Why not treat your computing environment the same way?

Try this with your next Mac (or, for the daring who wish to clone, wipe and start from scratch): Instead of using Migration Assistant to transfer Applications and Settings from the old Mac, try using the machine fresh out of the box. Then, install and transfer applications and settings only when absolutly needed. My bet is, most will be surprised at how little they end up adding back. It could be an interesting experiment at least.

I have been doing this with my iPad. After receiving it, I did not opt to install already downloaded applications and settings from my iPhone, nor did I randomly download Applications from the store just because I heard they were cool. I have been downloading and installing apps as I need them – and only after all of the options have been carefully considered and the one I’m installing I feel is the right one for me. Someone recently asked me what I thought the 5 “killer apps” for the iPad were** and I had to think for more than a little bit if I had installed more than five apps outside of the built in ones. Apple does a pretty good job of providing the basics of what most people will need in all of their products and my needs are pretty basic.

My point is that we may want to take a lesson from Apple here with most things in life. Make choices that have been painstakingly considered, reduce that choice until it is the bare minimum one can start with, then add to it incrementally from there after having lived with that choice for a while.

** Answer: “Simplenote, Instapaper, Simplenote, Instapaper and… Hmmm… This is a tough choice but… Simplenote!”