The Top-Shared Stories on LinkedIn (10/6-10/13): Lessons from Steve Jobs, PwC and more
Steve Jobs' speech at Stanford University's 2005 commencement was filled with strategies for how to live life and how to stumble and still succeed. "Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose," he told the graduates.
When Jobs died last week, the 6-year-old video went viral. It was shared across LinkedIn so quickly that it grabbed the top spot on LinkedIn Today at almost the same time as the news that Jobs had died. Watch the speech and it's easy to see why the business world instantly listened in.
Top 5 most-shared articles on LinkedIn (Oct. 6, 2011 – Oct. 13, 2011)
- 5 Things To Do Every Day For Success, 3/1 (Fast Company)
- Steve Jobs: How to live before you die, 10/2011 (TED)
- The Top Ten Lessons Steve Jobs Taught Us, 10/5 (Forbes)
- 10 Things to Thank Steve Jobs For, 10/5 (Entrepreneur
- Okay, Now I Get It: Here's Why Apple Launched The iPhone 4S Instead Of The iPhone 5, 10/10 (Business Insider)
A few of the other top stories were also old pieces that took on new life after Jobs' death. Entrepreneur's 10 Things to Thank Steve Jobs For was originally posted in August. The top most-shared story, Fast Company's 5 tips on how to succeed, was from March. There was nothing Jobs-related about the Fast Company article and the tips were quick instead of deep. (Jobs: "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;" vs Fast Company blogger Dayna Steele: "Wake up early.") But the message was still one that many people were in the frame of mind to hear: How they could reach their full potential.
While Jobs stories dominated the most-shared list, there were niche headlines that took off among professionals in particular industries.
• Accountants widely passed along "American Idol: The PwC accounting edition," a story from Fortune about PricewaterhouseCoopers's $100,000-in-prize-money innovation contest. Despite a looming Oct. 17th tax deadline, accountants took time out to focus on the management issues the profession faces. For instance:
We have an average age of 27, but we have roots in tax and assurance," says [PwC] U.S. chairman Bob Moritz, using the industry jargon for auditing and related functions. "So how do you make this place feel like a Google or a Facebook?"
Read the full piece -- including how PwC avoided "Jennifer Hudson syndrome" -- to see the firm's solution.
• Lawyers had a different question: How do you determine the value of a patent? The Financial Post's article on a 2-day conference about the subject was a big hit at a time when companies like Google are scrambling to corral patent assets. The money quote comes from Marshall Phelps Jr., a former IP policy and strategy executive at Microsoft and IBM:
All of a sudden we have some recognition that all this stuff is out there, but we don’t even know exactly what we’re talking about or what it is,” Mr. Phelps said. “So you’ve got everybody scurrying for hegemony in this world while half of them don’t know what it is that they’re scurrying after.”
• Staffing and recruiting professionals turned to ere.net's "8 Skills Recruiters Should Have."
•And computer software makers were fascinated with Wired's scoop about a computer virus that had "infected the cockpits of America’s Predator and Reaper drones, logging pilots’ every keystroke as they remotely fly missions over Afghanistan and other warzones." Posted Satnam Narang, whose profile lists him as an associate threat analysis engineer at Symantec:
Wow...just..wow."