Apple Park Opens to Employees in April • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple Park Opens to Employees in April

#81

Post by quux » Wed, Feb 22, 2017, 5:45 PM UTC

gist wrote: post #41

Considering that Jobs single handedly saved Apple when he returned I would think he would get a bit more of an honor than a theater named after him.

Steve didn't want anything big named after himself. For instance:

While being given a tour of the rapidly advancing Apple Campus 2 site, Fry suggested it should be named after Jobs, who died in 2011 but was heavily involved with the early stages of planning.

“Oh, Steve made his views on that very clear,” said Tim Cook — hinting that the idea was discussed, but that Jobs wasn’t a massive fan of it.

Source: http://www.cultofmac.com/323857/apples-new-spaceship-hq-coul...

Re: Apple Park Opens to Employees in April

#82

Post by cicero » Wed, Feb 22, 2017, 5:48 PM UTC

webwielder2 wrote: post #15

dcmininni wrote: post #10

It's literally a walled garden. Oh the irony.

Why is that ironic?

I think he meant "iconic".

Re: Apple Park Opens to Employees in April

#83

Post by barnacs » Wed, Feb 22, 2017, 5:51 PM UTC

jpeg_hero wrote: post #68

Great Newspeak for their Office Building. In this "Office Building" approximately 70% of all the employees' time will be 1) writing emails and 2) having meetings in conference rooms. But instead it is "Apple Park" where work is leisure and being inside working is actually frolicking.

Quite a fancy labor camp, isn't it?

Re: Apple Park Opens to Employees in April

#84

Post by rolodato » Wed, Feb 22, 2017, 5:58 PM UTC

sergiotapia wrote: post #2

This is so beautiful and inspiring. A real legacy. Imagine a world without Apple computers pushing the envelope. We'd still be using wired mice and ugly black boxes. If only Steve Jobs had taken the traditional medicine route he would have been with us for another 50 years.

> We'd still be using wired mice

I very much enjoy the worry-free experience with zero environmental impact and maintenance cost of wired compared to wireless mice and keyboards. You can pry them from my cold, dead hands.

Re: Apple Park Opens to Employees in April

#85

Post by dmix » Wed, Feb 22, 2017, 6:03 PM UTC

nodesocket wrote: post #19

Matthew Roberts (not me) has been posting awesome drone flyover videos of the construction. The video is absolutely stunning and filmed in 4k. Highly recommended. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvkh5udzKds

Woah, that looks way bigger than the pics in this PR indicate. It will look great once all of the trees a finished being planted. Looks a bit muddy still, which is expected.

I'm curious what their physical security will be like considering their secretiveness.

Re: Apple Park Opens to Employees in April

#86

Post by coldcode » Wed, Feb 22, 2017, 6:04 PM UTC

If I could I would work there tomorrow. Sadly I am 3000 miles away and don't work for Apple today (I left a year before Steve came back, my bad).

Re: Apple Park Opens to Employees in April

#87

Post by bluthru » Wed, Feb 22, 2017, 6:05 PM UTC

trevyn wrote: post #9

Wow, for all of Apple's perfectionism, I'm surprised the distorted reflections on the circular sunshades aren't driving someone bonkers.

Yeah, they should have been matte to disguise the "oil canning".

Re: Apple Park Opens to Employees in April

#88

Post by bluthru » Wed, Feb 22, 2017, 6:07 PM UTC

devwastaken wrote: post #5

sergiotapia wrote: post #2

This is so beautiful and inspiring. A real legacy. Imagine a world without Apple computers pushing the envelope. We'd still be using wired mice and ugly black boxes. If only Steve Jobs had taken the traditional medicine route he would have been with us for another 50 years.

As much as Steve gets credit, the real credit goes to the thousands of engineers that were the ones who created the envelope of which to push, and then kept pushing that one as well. Its never one man. Its unfortunate he chose to not use proven medicine as a treatment, though.

No, the real credit really does go to the guy with a unique vision of how computers should relate to humans.

Re: Apple Park Opens to Employees in April

#89

Post by getpost » Wed, Feb 22, 2017, 6:09 PM UTC

Building a fancy corporate HQ is often a signal that management has lost touch with the core business.

EDIT: I can easily make the case this has happened at Apple. Look at their iPad lineup, for example. How do I figure out which model to buy? IIRC, this lack of focus on the product line was one of the first things Jobs addressed when he returned to the company in 1997.

This is not to say that Apple isn't one of the most successful businesses ever. It argues against bigness. When you're that successful, you can't (it seems) help but make very expensive decisions rooted in hubris and grandiosity. Imagine what could have been done instead with a $1 billion new building and $4 billion in venture capital, for example.

The US government has the same problem. The amount of wealth captured from the overall economy gives government leaders/lobbyists too much power, and we get the f-35.

Re: Apple Park Opens to Employees in April

#90

Post by russellbeattie » Wed, Feb 22, 2017, 6:11 PM UTC

My only issue is that I bet the center of the building is going to be a complete waste and totally deserted except for employees occasionally taking a shortcut between sides (if the doors are set up to do that). The building is big (I drive by it regularly), but not so big to give the central area any sense of privacy, so when you walk out into it, you're going to sense that 12,000 eyes are watching you. I've been in large central courtyards like that before (in square configurations, of course) and the feeling of being watched is always palpable. Maybe the trees they plant in there will help, but I doubt it.