Tim Cook’s Message to 2019 Graduates: ‘My Generation Has Failed You’

The Graduates to Tim Cook:

No kidding.

Made me think about Bruce Sterling's comments in this year's WELL State Of The World about the current depressive mood making headway among the world's richest people. Here's him riffing on Gates -

>"Here in 2019, there are more Americans alive over 60 than Americans who are under 18. So for a brisk, road-ahead, forward-looking viewpoint, it might be time for us to check in with that widely-noted retired guy, Bill Gates.

>Despite his advancing years, Mr Gates hardcore grinds it out more in a week than I ever do in a year. And, although he's not a facile TED-talk optimist, he's always got his eye on the deliverable. That's why it's a little weird to see him tacitly admitting so much defeat in his recent screed.

>To begin, Bill quotes his best pal Warren Buffett, claiming that the bottom line of human good behavior is "Do the people you care about love you back?" This seems an odd scheme to promote, considering the Sage of Omaha's polygamous lifestyle. Buffett's motto should have been, "If your wife leaves for California and sends her best friend over instead, go for that." Let's hope they were all happier.

>Then there's this prediction: "software will be able to notice when you’re feeling down, connect you with your friends, give you personalized tips for sleeping and eating better." Something downright ominous here, because obviously Gates is tacitly conceding that it's not your nearest and dearest but rather the software that ought to be caring about you and loving you back.

>First, I don't think that's ever gonna work. Second, I'm getting concerned about Bill's mood. Is he so personally unhappy now that he would want to digitally monitor his own mental state?"...

>..."finally, "Melinda and I are working on our next Annual Letter. The theme is a surprise, though it is safe to say we’ll be sharing some positive trends that make us optimistic about the future."

>Why does Bill even have to say that bullshit? It's because he's got nothing that he's genuinely enthusiastic about, that's why he says it. Whenever people are truly positive, they never whine about how, just any minute now, they're gonna lift their sorry heads and say something positive. "I'm not gonna be depressed about it, I'm gonna say something really upbeat here," that never works! It's like a poker tell, something Bill ought to get since he plays so much poker.

>You can't scold yourself about not talking properly, you have to take action in some aspect of life that actually makes you enthusiastic. Then you don't have to tell people that you and the wife will be cheerful any minute now. If you're really making any headway, people will show up on their own. You'll have to chase 'em off with a stick.

>In any case, this new-dark malaise I was talking about earlier? He's got it. Yeah, even him."

https://people.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/506/State-of...

I guess I'm considered a millennial, but messages like this sound like misconceived pandering. Firstly, I don't think any generation necessarily "owes" anything to future generations. But, even if we accept the premise, I am the beneficiary of absolutely mind-boggling amounts of technological advancement, culture, progress, infrastructure, science, and on and on and on even just over the course of my own lifetime (approaching 30 years). "Boo hoo, things aren't absolutely perfect in every way." That doesn't mean that any generation has "failed" another. Sure, there might be some setbacks and difficult problems to solve or adjust to in the future, but come on. As Steven Pinker has I think convincingly pointed out, things have been reliably getting better for a long time, and even when we think "the world is going to hell", it simply doesn't.

Not to mention, there is something extraordinarily presumptuous about the CEO of one tech company thinking he has the standing to either criticize or speak on behalf of literally billions of people.

Props to the intern that wrote some bullshit speech making it to HN front page, I guess...

The whole consumer electronics industry is stuck. Everyone has a phone. PC sales are flat and mostly to business. (Desktop PCs are now like commercial trucks. Every business uses them, but nobody gets excited about them. They're expected to last a long time and have low operating cost.) Tablets were a niche. 3D TV was a total flop. VR headsets are a niche. IoT turned out to be mostly voice terminals for services.

No new must-have product is in sight.