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Bret Victor on working at Apple.

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Re: Bret Victor on working at Apple.

#43
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to provide a counter-point, from a usability point of view I found that article terrible. On the 1920 pixels wide screen at work, more than half the horizontal width became buttons (previous and next). As soon as the mouse pointer was outside the white background for the linked-to article, a click lead to navigating away from the article. It took me at least two or three times of wondering where the fsck the art…

>On the 1920 pixels wide screen at work, more than half the horizontal width became buttons (previous and next) I think my adoration may have been influenced by the fact that my monitors are in portrait orientation. And I use a trackball. I'm a sucker for contrarianism. Maybe I should start using visual studio?

Please, a little consideration. I just finished breakfast, and it was tasty. I'd prefer to keep it down.

Re: Bret Victor on working at Apple.

#44
post #32
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Q - But that box is empty! It's an empty box! A - Yes, exactly. Q - Oh, okay, I thought you had made some sort of mistake. A - Yes, exactly.

I'm not sure how so many people are missing this. Not reading through or simply not getting it?

When something is left up to interpretation, no matter how obvious, many will simply not get it.

Re: Bret Victor on working at Apple.

#45
Man signs contract containing NDA before starting work then seems to object to the fact that he's being held to an NDA.

If he made a mistake surely it reflects on him rather than Apple?

If you don't like the terms, don't sign the contract. If he's good enough to get a job at Apple I suspect it wasn't his only option.

Re: Bret Victor on working at Apple.

#46
Honestly, it sounds like a pretty interesting job, but reminds me of the adage about choosing between doing something awesome and being to tell no one, and doing something (more) mainstream and telling everyone.

Sounds like he'd prefer the latter. And maybe he's right, at least from a portfolio perspective.

Re: Bret Victor on working at Apple.

#49

The title really should be changed to reflect the actual message (or lack of one). Nowhere in the post does he say that he didn't have a good time working at Apple. Nowhere does he advise not working there (like the title suggests). From what I infer, anyway, his actual message is that he can't show what he worked on at Apple - not that it's a bad place to work.

That's what I also thought at first, but the second question of the FAQ on the site lends itself to the interpretation that working at Apple was a "mistake". But yeah, the title is somewhat editorializing...

Well, that, or it could also mean that the mistakes are the reasons none of his products are available on the market today, and therefore he can't show them off.

Re: Bret Victor on working at Apple.

#50

Man signs contract containing NDA before starting work then seems to object to the fact that he's being held to an NDA. If he made a mistake surely it reflects on him rather than Apple? If you don't like the terms, don't sign the contract. If he's good enough to get a job at Apple I suspect it wasn't his only option.

I'd guess he expected a 99% failure rate in exchange for a few highly polished gems that might be featured in a MacWorld keynote, or at the very least make it into a shipping product he could show off to his family and or friends.

I think anyone should be allowed to feel disappointed at a 100% failure rate over three years, no matter how many NDAs they signed.

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