“One of the easiest ways to shoot down good ideas, interesting policies, or worthwhile experiments is by injecting the assumption that whatever you’re doing needs to last forever and ever. Which means that the concept has to scale from 5 people to 5,000 or from 100,000 users to 100 million. That’s a terrible way to get from those 5 people to 5,000 or reach those 100 million users.”

“In an exclusive interview, Apple’s CEO talked with Fortune senior editor Betsy Morris in February in Kona, Hawaii, where he was vacationing with his family, about the keys to the company’s success, the prospect of Apple without Jobs, and more. Here are excerpts.”

“I’ve been thinking about a number of new product ideas lately. In doing so, I’ve been trying to come up with a way more structured way of evaluating them. Here’s a first attempt at defining that. It’s not as clear as I’d like it to be. But perhaps you’ll find it useful.”

“Recession is in the air. It isn’t here for sure, but, damn, when you pay $50 for two coffees and a tart in Paris you know your economy isn’t healthy. Add in the latest energy prices and you see we’re almost definitely going to have a problem over the next year with inflation (compounded since many of our goods come from overseas and our dollar is buying less and less — dramatically less we found on our latest trip to Europe).

If recession and/or inflation is coming, now is the time to prepare. How?”

“Natural disasters, revolutionary technology, pro-athlete scandals and national calamities marked 2007 as an unforgettable year.

Yet, amid these major happenings arose stories that were overlooked, unseen or ignored altogether: tales of our nation’s work force. Understandably, these pieces weren’t as newsworthy as Michael Vick’s dog fighting charges or Paris Hilton going to jail. But these stories held an angle unlike any other: They were just plain weird.

Here are 15 headlines that exemplify the strange happenings that took place in the workplace in 2007.”

“Bringing together leaders in visual thinking for the first time in one location, the VizThink ‘08 Conference (http://www.vizthink.com) is an opportunity for executives to understand ways of incorporating visualization processes into business, learning and communications strategies to gain faster and more effective results. Hosted by Portland, Ore. based VizThink LLC, the conference will include breakout sessions and forums facilitated by some of the most recognized names in the visual thinking space, including the distinguished Bob Horn from Stanford University, renowned author and artist Scott McCloud, award winning designer Nancy Duarte of Duarte Design, most notably known for her work in Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth, and Nigel Holmes formerly with Time magazine. The conference will be held at the Westin San Francisco Market Street Hotel from January 27-29. Registration (http://www.vizthink.com/reg.html) is open now.”

“Faced with a lack of resources in the areas of dashboard design and best practices, The Dashboard Spy set out a few years ago to collect examples of the budding new business intelligence technology known as the Digital Dashboard. After asking his many fellow UI designers, information architects, project managers, IT experts and business users for example screenshots, he decided to post the examples on the web. Well, that started a site that has since grown to be the largest collection of BI interfaces available.”

“A few days ago, New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell noted that he’s almost finished with his third book. I’ve learned that the subject of this book is the future of the workplace with subtopics of education and genius.”

“Managers always get cautious during recessions. The only ideas that appeal are how to cut costs. Gone is the interest in innovation and building the top line. Of course, this is an attitude that prolongs the downturn for the overall economy, and it slows the rate at which particular companies emerge from the fiscal funk. The best companies, like General Electric and McKinsey, accelerate innovation during recessions. They know that their people have a little more time to think, and they encourage them to think boldly and creatively.”

“So my advice to a young businessperson is to save ten minutes a day by not reading the domestic news, and spend them on reading the international news properly. Within six months of the graduate program you’ll see I’m right, not least because at least once or twice you’ll quite likely be asked to prepared an analysis of international comparisons by a senior executive who got where he is by following my method.”

“Just about every journalist I’ve talked to recently asks about the growth at 37signals. ‘You’re still just 8 people, how do you plan on growing?’ ‘When will you begin to really grow the company?’ ‘Why have you decided not to grow the company?’

The answer is always the same: We are growing, but not physically. You can grow without ‘growing.’ In fact, I think it’s a healthier path.”

“Think ‘great place to work,’ and big companies like Google typically spring to mind. But across the country, many small businesses and nonprofits have built workplace environments and cultures that rival — or even outshine — the big names.”

“Imagine three people who have landed new jobs, each at a different company. All three come to work on their first day breathing fire and decide to read their employers’ mission statements.”

“We’ve compiled 100 rules of business. Now it’s your turn. Do you have wisdom to share with [Harvard Business School] alums?”

“…if you run across someone who just really wants to stand their ground on ROI, suggest that to improve your estimate you’d like them to provide examples of the top ROI estimates that most closely matched the results (…watch for the response). Why bother creating an ‘estimate’ that isn’t going to be validated and/or has no consequence? How is an unsubstantiated estimation model superior to one in which we try out very simple things and measure the results, and don’t invest more without desired results?”