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Apple avoids job cuts because it didn’t overhire like Google and Amazon

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Re: Apple avoids job cuts because it didn’t overhire like Google and Amazon

#201

Post by cinericius »

sanderjd wrote: post #178
Patrol8394 wrote: post #156

It all comes down to Apple being a very focused company. They know their customers, what they want and they have a much better business model. Steve Jobs once explained it by saying they say no to a lots of things even to those who seem on paper great ideas. All that to stay focus. On the other hand, Google is all over the places, they are very distracted and confident that they will always be the indisputable kind i…

> On the other hand, Google is all over the places, they are very distracted and confident that they will always be the indisputable kind in ads and search so they didn’t invest much in generating other long term major revenue streams. I think this is a very muddled analysis. You seem to be saying that the lack of focus is caused by the perception of a permanent easy revenue stream. But I think the causation is actua…

> You seem to be saying that the lack of focus is caused by the perception of a permanent easy revenue stream. But I think the causation is actually the reverse of that. The lack of focus is more like a breadth first search for additional sustainable revenue streams undertaken because they know the golden goose can't lay eggs forever.

I think the difference is urgency. They probably do know that the golden eggs will stop coming at some point, but they don't believe it'll happen for a long while. Perhaps as a consequence of this, they very rarely commit to projects in a life-or-death way. At this point it's a HN trope to state this, but I do believe the reputational damage done by this lack of commitment to any of its fledgling projects is doing massive harm to Google's ability to find new revenue streams.

Re: Apple avoids job cuts because it didn’t overhire like Google and Amazon

#202

Post by guhidalg »

sam0x17 wrote: post #91
etempleton wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Growing too fast is damaging to both culture and productivity. You have a bunch of people starting that are still learning. Depending on the job and the person it can take a full year to be fully competent in a job. Apple was smart to move slower. They are probably one of the best run companies in the world.

> They are probably one of the best run companies in the world. I would disagree with this. Although their risk is spread much better than it was in the early 00s, a huge amount of their recurring revenue right now teeters on the brink of destruction in the form of their 30% app store cut and the walled-garden nature of their app store. All it would take is a morally principled, non-lobbied regulator to step in and r…

Commenting on the campus bit.... Apple makes devices, not just software. Good luck developing device from home and dealing with the constant headache of shipping samples around the world. The campus was not a mistake.

Re: Apple avoids job cuts because it didn’t overhire like Google and Amazon

#203

Post by giantg2 »

danudey wrote: post #162
giantg2 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Depending on the job and the person it can take a full year to be fully competent in a job." Some of us never become competent.

Ideally it takes a full year for them to realize that you're not competent, at which point you hit your 1 year cliff and can snag 25% of your options or RSUs before you get PIP'ed out.

I've been at my company for 10 years. It went: competent -> high performer -> competent (promotion) -> high performer -> competent -> low performer

Re: Apple avoids job cuts because it didn’t overhire like Google and Amazon

#204

Post by dmitriid »

sofixa wrote: post #158
dmitriid wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Amazon, Google, and Meta all seem to make riskier bets, too. What are those risky bets I wonder? Meanwhile Apple rolled out a completely custom CPU and transitioned all its hardware to it.

> Meanwhile Apple rolled out a completely custom CPU and transitioned all its hardware to it. Amazon literally did the same with Graviton (to be fair they acquired a company doing this and used their work as the basis, but still). Google literally developed TPUs in the same timeframe, while also trying a few other things (Stadia, rip, comes to mind).

Neither of those were risky in the sense of "if it fails, it takes the company with them".

Re: Apple avoids job cuts because it didn’t overhire like Google and Amazon

#205

Post by blitz_skull »

Based on my reading, it sounds like these job cuts are happening because other job cuts are happening. Google didn’t layoff 8% of its workforce (or whatever the percentage was) because they were in financial straits.

They did it because everyone else is doing it.

IMO that makes Apple even more commendable. If my understanding is correct, that would imply they have more of a spine than these other morally ambiguous companies. Not saying Apple isn’t morally ambiguous, but in comparison it seems like a fair conclusion.

Re: Apple avoids job cuts because it didn’t overhire like Google and Amazon

#206

Post by eitally »

dumpsterdiver wrote: post #146
bell-cot wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>...more on short-term gains instead of long-term quality... Considering that Tim has been CEO for 11 1/2 years now, and things are still going incredibly well for Apple...it seems pretty hard to argue that he is too focused on the short term. (FWIW, I mostly agree about their software quality.)

Speaking of software quality, anyone notice in Apple Music how the categories all start with Apple? Apple Dance music, Apple Country, Apple Pop... like are they trying to make it intentionally difficult for me to use my eyes to find music? I know that I'm using Apple Music... why does every category need to remind me of that while simultaneously impeding my ability to locate things alphabetically? Of course, when I u…

It could be worse. If you were on Android, about half of Google's 1P apps start with "Google", and about half don't, even ones that probably should (like Google Home).

Re: Apple avoids job cuts because it didn’t overhire like Google and Amazon

#208

Post by bgm1975 »

smm11 wrote: post #176
simonh wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, people have been lamenting the poor quality of Apple software and how much better it was in the old days since I got my first Mac in 2007, at least that's when I became aware of the complaints. If it was really on a substantial continual down trend from then, by now nothing would work at all. Apple continues to invest massively in software, that means a ton of new code, which means a ton of new bugs. Yo…

It was a very dark era for Apple, but the Power Computing years were the best time to be an Apple fanboy IMO. You had commodity firebreathing PC hardware running OS 8 better than Macs did, more ports and connectivity, the software was best-in-class, and this was the era with no spyware, telemetry and all the BS we face now. And yes, I was still buying legit Macs and software, and a lot of stock when it was at $11. It…

Uhh, speak for yourself. As a fanboy myself back then, it was kinda terrifying. Sure Power Computing was able to bump the bus speed beyond what Apple seemed to to able to do, but they also cannibalized Apple’s hardware market which they needed to stay alive. Also it became clear that the wheels were falling off the “new” OS rewrite (Rhapsody) project with no real plan for remedying. It was scary times when Microsoft had to help bail them out. Honestly, buying NeXT was the accidentally smartest move Apple executives made. I remember how cool BeOS was but was glad they chose NeXTStep over it. Mostly, because I was a Unix fanboy by that time too.

Re: Apple avoids job cuts because it didn’t overhire like Google and Amazon

#209

Post by traceroute66 »

smm11 wrote: post #176
simonh wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, people have been lamenting the poor quality of Apple software and how much better it was in the old days since I got my first Mac in 2007, at least that's when I became aware of the complaints. If it was really on a substantial continual down trend from then, by now nothing would work at all. Apple continues to invest massively in software, that means a ton of new code, which means a ton of new bugs. Yo…

It was a very dark era for Apple, but the Power Computing years were the best time to be an Apple fanboy IMO. You had commodity firebreathing PC hardware running OS 8 better than Macs did, more ports and connectivity, the software was best-in-class, and this was the era with no spyware, telemetry and all the BS we face now. And yes, I was still buying legit Macs and software, and a lot of stock when it was at $11. It…

> the Power Computing years were the best time

No, it really wasn't.

I know people who were techs for retail stores at the time.

The sheer volume of shit cheap-ass clones that crossed their workbenches during that era....

Re: Apple avoids job cuts because it didn’t overhire like Google and Amazon

#210

Post by eitally »

jimbokun wrote: post #168
Patrol8394 wrote: post #156

It all comes down to Apple being a very focused company. They know their customers, what they want and they have a much better business model. Steve Jobs once explained it by saying they say no to a lots of things even to those who seem on paper great ideas. All that to stay focus. On the other hand, Google is all over the places, they are very distracted and confident that they will always be the indisputable kind i…

Which is interesting because the whole purpose of setting up Alphabet was to diversity revenue streams. But I don't think any of those efforts have generated significant revenue relative to their core business.

Verily is a $1b+ business now.
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