Steve Jobs' reality distortion takes its toll on truth • Hacker News Board

Re: Steve Jobs' reality distortion takes its toll on truth

#211

Post by fluidcruft » Thu, Mar 03, 2011, 10:38 PM UTC

tvon wrote: post #177

fluidcruft wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Allow me to appropriate a quotation from a person who's legacy Apple has had no shame appropriating for marketing: "First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." This was plainly an exercise in ridicule by Jobs.

Of course you realize how easy it is to apply that quote to completely absurd things, e.g. the Flat Earth Society or pretty much anyone who has reached the ridicule stage. It gets significantly harder as you go along (ignored, ridiculed, fought, victory), and the first two are relatively easy... It's basically a rallying cry for the severe underdog (which I don't think Android is in this case).

It's also about how power behaves when threatened (which I think does describe Android's relationship to Apple).

Re: Steve Jobs' reality distortion takes its toll on truth

#212

Post by lwhi » Thu, Mar 03, 2011, 10:39 PM UTC

bonch wrote: post #209

lwhi wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a difference between over-hyping and telling lies.

I saw nothing that constituted a "lie." This is an article from an obvious Android fan (looking at Seth Weintraub's other articles, it's all Google, all the time) who didn't like that Apple took some shots at competing tablets. I have to agree with one of the comments to the article that says Android fanboys are as bad as Apple fanboys, maybe even worse because they act like the fact Android is open source is some gr…

I often wonder whether there's anything that Apple could do that might make the faithful admit they've done something wrong. Once again, this is one of those times.

Edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

Re: Steve Jobs' reality distortion takes its toll on truth

#213

Post by dedward » Thu, Mar 03, 2011, 10:41 PM UTC

stcredzero wrote: post #51

jonhohle wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Quite a few years ago, Apple was one of the design leaders in the laptop space, then others caught up, more or less. The same thing happened in the smartphone space. Who are these companies? Seriously. Have you used an Apple product side by side with a non Apple equivalent? Does any company come close to the build quality or original design of Apple? If other companies are almost catching up, it still means they ar…

Who are these companies? Seriously. Have you used an Apple product side by side with a non Apple equivalent? Does any company come close to the build quality or original design of Apple? "Close" is a very subjective term. I like the looks of my coworker's phones sometimes. I haven't played with one for very long. I really love the design of my iPhone 4. Nothing else is as good from a tactile perspective, I'll grant y…

can't execute yet..... it's only a matter of time. Apple has to keep moving forward.....

Re: Steve Jobs' reality distortion takes its toll on truth

#214

Post by pdaviesa » Thu, Mar 03, 2011, 10:47 PM UTC

nowarninglabel wrote: post #173

tvon wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The truth is calling someone a "fanboy" is childish and virtually guaranteed to send the discussion in a bad direction.

What are we supposed to say? I don't think I'm the only one who is tired of what basically amounts to Apple marketing being posted constantly on HN (and sure maybe the rate of those posts is lower than sites like Techmeme but it's still quite high, see for example Ipad 2 posts http://www.google.com/search?q=site:news.ycombinator.com+%22... ) There has to be some way to identify this group of people, and say, look it'…

You're all fanboys of some kind or another - "my apple product is sooo much prettier than yours" - "I'm way too cool for apple, I have android" Whatever. Show me the guy who has a Dell monitor, Toshiba laptop, droid smartphone, Apple iPad, and Sony flat screen.

Re: Steve Jobs' reality distortion takes its toll on truth

#215

Post by rkudeshi » Thu, Mar 03, 2011, 10:51 PM UTC

orangecat wrote: post #85

pmjordan wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do any of the Kindles, etc. have touch sensitive main screens? 'Tablet' isn't exactly a new term and has implied a large touchscreen for a long time now. Seems a reasonable distinction considering the difference in how you interact with the devices.

The Nook is literally a 7" Android tablet. (Capacitive multitouch screen, same CPU and GPU as Droid X). And a pretty good one once you root it, which consists of inserting an SD card and turning it on.

That's the Nook Color, actually.

The Nook (the original one, which goes by simply 'Nook') is an e-reader with a 6" eInk screen (a Kindle clone, if you will).

Re: Steve Jobs' reality distortion takes its toll on truth

#216

Post by gamble » Thu, Mar 03, 2011, 10:58 PM UTC

I was surprised to see Jobs hit Samsung with the repudiated 'quite small' quote, but at the same time Samsung hasn't exactly been eager to release their sell-through numbers. They haven't been shy about claiming their tablets are big sellers, though. Where is the condemnation of their claims that the Tab represented a third of tablet sales, when it's obvious from the near-total absence of them in the real world that they're nowhere near those numbers?

If Samsung is bothered by Apple's claims, they're easy to refute - just release the numbers.

Re: Steve Jobs' reality distortion takes its toll on truth

#217

Post by martythemaniak » Thu, Mar 03, 2011, 11:02 PM UTC

rbarooah wrote: post #206

martythemaniak wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know what really helps debate? Not lying and not defending liars.

So that justifies your abusive behavior?

Yeah, because calling out someone's bullshit is now "abusive behaviour".

Listen, people here aren't retarded - they don't need someone to try and explain why Jobs lied. He lied because he can make himself and Apple look better if he told the truth. It's the same reason most other people lie and it's so transparent a toddler can see through it.

No one's gonna stop you from posting low quality Apple fluff, but don't expect not to get called out on it.

Re: Steve Jobs' reality distortion takes its toll on truth

#218

Post by tptacek » Thu, Mar 03, 2011, 11:05 PM UTC

martythemaniak wrote: post #217

rbarooah wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So that justifies your abusive behavior?

Yeah, because calling out someone's bullshit is now "abusive behaviour". Listen, people here aren't retarded - they don't need someone to try and explain why Jobs lied. He lied because he can make himself and Apple look better if he told the truth. It's the same reason most other people lie and it's so transparent a toddler can see through it. No one's gonna stop you from posting low quality Apple fluff, but don't ex…

The problem with your comment is that it begs for a response in kind. The tone on the thread changes, from tendentious to outright hostile. Users click into threads and see high-ranked comments with that tone. They write their own comments like that. Oh, look. Now we're Reddit.

Re: Steve Jobs' reality distortion takes its toll on truth

#219

Post by bonch » Thu, Mar 03, 2011, 11:06 PM UTC

jokermatt999 wrote: post #10

scott_s wrote: post #4

You see, Apple loves to talk about specs when it is in its best interest (speeds and feeds). Generalizing, You see, [companies] love to talk about [what] is in its best interest.

And thankfully, good journalists will call them out on it. I'd argue that's an important function of journalism, even.

Good journalist? Look at this guy's article history. He writes about nothing else but Google and Android. Of course he's going to be critical of one of Google's major competitors.

Re: Steve Jobs' reality distortion takes its toll on truth

#220

Post by jhen095 » Thu, Mar 03, 2011, 11:09 PM UTC

tnorthcutt wrote: post #20

Kylekramer wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ESL was the real culprit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN_w0mcDayI

How did anyone get "small" from that? Sounded pretty clear to me. I'm a native English speaker, and do not speak or understand any other languages.

Perhaps a case of selective hearing or hearing what was expected/wanted?