[danso]

A little OT from the actual content, but I have to say, this is an excellent example of web storytelling format, much more illuminating than the usual journalistic method of "here's some selective quotes, if you want more, here's a dump of emails for you to read in Acrobat Reader." And just as importantly, it's simple to implement: blockquotes, image tags, and subheads

[larrys]

Agree. Although I think the titles are prejudicial "Jobs goes in for the kill" in terms of telling someone the conclusion they should be drawing like the Elton John song Candle in the Wind "all the press had to say is that Marilyn was found in the nude". The paragraph commentary of course is a version of this as well (color) but I don't see it as bad since there are more words there.

[zseward]

(I'm the author.) That's a totally fair point about the subject headings, Larry. They're intended to make the emails more accessible and scannable, but of course they oversimplify things. On the other hand, these emails are ultimately more about being Steve Jobs than winning a negotiation.

And thanks, Dan. Much love to DocumentCloud for making the OCR of those PDFs super easy.

[larrys]

I liked the piece but my take is a bit different since I practically make a living by doing negotiations primarily by email. (Email is perfect it allows you to remove facial expressions and tone of voice which can be a drawback if not perfectly executed. Not to mention having to think on your feet and not be able to do what I describe below).

One thing that I do do is to very very carefully choose my words and analyze and interpret the words of others to divine meaning and hidden meaning. [1]

As such I simply don't believe that Jobs just fired these emails off I can almost assure you that as much effort went into this as goes into writing a Presidential speech or a chapter in a novel or a scene in a movie.

I do that, it works for me quite well, so I can't believe that at this level it isn't being done and I am somehow unique.

While it's entirely possible that Jobs wrote this on the fly more than likely it was a much thought out or even team effort where every thing was discussed and considered or Jobs perseverated.

I did like the format and you should definitely do more of this.

[1] A small example is this statement "Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see any other alternatives. Do you?"

The addition of the "do you?" and the "Maybe "I'm" is critical in that sentence. Without both the emotion on the part of the recipient is much different and would be more negative and consequently less likely to come to an agreement.

[ScottBurson]

Very interesting post.

For most of us, I'm sure writing such an email would take the kind of effort and consideration you describe. (It would probably take me a week.)

But I wouldn't be surprised if Jobs spent so much of his time negotiating and was so talented at it that he could pretty much just dash something like that off -- with every detail right.

[larrys]

Side suggestion for you. You are using bountyoss.com for what you do, I strongly suggest you lock up both bountyboss.com and bountyos.com as well. (bountybos.com and bontyos.com might also be a good idea but the other two definitely.)

[ScottBurson]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't think I understand. You really think those are likelier typos than, say, "buontyoss.com"? Where does one stop? (I do have "bounteoss.com".)

In any case, the site has had $0.00 in revenue to date. I don't think protecting variations on the domain name is my biggest problem :-)

[q_revert]

also, there isn't a single typo in jobs' emails (at least anything immediately obvious), whilst in comparison murdoch's responses seem sloppily written and careless.. as you've pointed out, it does seem as though a lot of effort went into jobs' emails.. and in the end, it would seem the effort paid off..