In many endeavors these days, outsiders have a louder voice than the people doing the hard work. It's so bad that scientists have to take classes on public speaking.  The same goes for Apple. The employeees inside of Apple, designing and selling great products that are snapped up immediately, are under a barrage of criticism by outsiders who boast loudly. John Martellaro explains some of the reactions to WWDC's Keynote.

There are varying perspectives on what the next Mac Pro should be like.  But everyone seems to agree that it should look beautiful, be insanely fast, have stupendus graphics power, be customer upgradeable to ridiculous amounts of RAM, boot from an SSD and be cooled by liquid helium if necessary in order to run rings around any everyday iMac. A WWDC announcement would stun and stagger us.

Given the complexity of the high technology marketplace, changing demographics, new technologies, cutthroat competitors, and product design and positioning, it's a miracle that a CEO and his or her executive team can build and maintain a profitable, admired company. This week's Particle Debris looks at how difficult that really is.

We hear a lot about about CEO charisma and seat-of-the pants navigation of the modern tech industry challenges. However, are the forces in the modern marketplace too complex for one CEO or even a small team of executives to analyze successfully? There is a tool that can come to their aid that we know works.  It helped the Allies win World War II.

Apple and Google are engaged in a fight for our technological souls. With a temporary lull in activity from Apple, it looks as if Google is winning the war. But really? What will determine the winner in the long run not simply new product announcements. It's something else. John Martellaro takes the 30,000 ft view.

Now that Google Glass is being widely tested and written about, reactions are all over the map -- as they should be. That's a good sign for a new technology: our inability to come to consensus on the technical and social aspects at first. But in the long term, the technology always settles out.

Often, it's good to be reminded of things that get lost in the Internet storms.  This week, we were reminded by some calm, cool heads about things we have forgotten to appreciate about Apple. John Martellaro recaps.

This week's news events remind us that there is a conflict between the need for organizations to attract people's attention and the work necessary to be authoritative. In the technology world, especially with Apple, that work means understanding and explaining how opposing forces interact.
 

Some notable executives who have worked for Apple fail when they leave and go to work for another company.  Why does this happen?  It's the paradox of power for Apple VPs. John Martellaro explains what he learned for himself at Apple.

Facebook continues to fascinate us with its ability to tap into the psychological mechanisms of human beings, the need for a human connection and the need to share -- even if what's shared is not so great.  FaceBook Home has refined that technique such that it has transitioned from worrisome to treacherous.