Ellen Petry Leanse: Imagine

Stayin' Alive in Tech

The word that keeps coming up in this episode is “audacity.” Ellen Petry Leanse joins Melinda Byerley to talk about her experiences in the early days of Apple, when she served as Apple’s first User Evangelist. Proclaimed the “nerd queen,” she led the company’s first online debut in 1985 with one of the first BBSs. Her career is a parable of what happens when you are willing to take risks, work hard, and don’t worry about looking back.

Ellen touches on how she views art as an integral part of product design, science, and business, and raises the question of whether today's atmosphere of innovation is truly letting curiosity reign.

Greatly respected throughout Silicon Valley for her achievements, Ellen has been featured on CNN, CNBC, and NBC and in the pages of Time, Forbes, Vogue, and Business Insider. Currently, she teaches “Unleashing Creative Innovation and Building Great Products” for Stanford University Continuing Studies.

MUSICAL INSPIRATION FOR THIS EPISODE ON SPOTIFY:"Imagine" by John Lennon

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Ellen’s essay on the word “just”: "Google and Apple alum says using this word can damage your credibility"
• “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”? Albert Einstein
• Ellen's bestselling book: The Happiness Hack: How to Take Charge of Your Brain and Program More Happiness into Your Life
• Happiness by design | Ellen Petry Leanse | TEDxBerkeley (video)
• “What I Learned About the Brain by Writing a Book About It” from Stanford University @ Fifteen Seconds Festival 2017 (video)

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

Stayin' Alive in Tech is an oral history of Silicon Valley and technology. Melinda Byerley, the host, is a 20-year veteran of Silicon Valley; and the founder of Timeshare CMO, a digital marketing intelligence firm, based in San Francisco.

We really appreciate your reviews, shares on social media, and your recommendations for future guests. And check out our Spotify playlist for a playlist for all the songs we refer to on our show.