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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

#291

Post by red-iron-pine »

apetresc wrote: post #220
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they can't hire competently, why do yoy think they can fire competently?

I think it's easier to identify a low performer after a year of work than it is to identify a high performer after an hour of whiteboarding.

While you're generally right, you'd be surprised. You can go pretty far by throwing out a few buzzwords and sitting through youtube how-tos.

IME, it's when the crunch time hits, or an outage, or some other nasty surprise or fire, where you see the competency show itself (or not).

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

#292

Post by strangattractor »

wand3r wrote: post #33

> Apple, meanwhile, was more cautious. Its headcount increased just 20% from 2020 to 2022 At Apples size this is still pretty huge. At least, I thought it was until I saw that Amazon, Meta and Salesforce basically DOUBLED in 2 years. If this data is correct isnt that insane? How can you effectively double orgs of this size over a 2 year period? Its not like a startup with 50 people or something. I guess I was out of…

If your attitude is adjust your workforce at will then who cares. If I can hire twice as many people and get X done twice as fast then do it. At some point it is likely X is done and I don't need the people. Dump them on the streets. Unethical maybe but not irrational.

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

#293

Post by red-iron-pine »

rcarr wrote: post #117
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.

"I think Apple is one of the strong companies and will stay a strong company, I think it's ungodly well-managed." - Charlie Munger

> I think it's ungodly well-managed.

So satan is involved? That might explain how Jobs came back after getting boot #1.

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

#294

Post by red-iron-pine »

brnt wrote: post #254
dumpsterdiver wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Soon in supermarkets near you: the Apple Apple. Beautiful, healthy, tasty; no buttons!

Cutting it into quarters requires a special knife that costs $500

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

#295

Post by rightbyte »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #150
r00fus wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me know when someone has solved the "glasshole" creep factor. Clearly Apple is the most capable in shifting consumer sentiment but that's a challenging hurdle.

I've personally solved it by striving to care less about what other people think. I realize that doesn't work for everyone in all circumstances, though.

> I've personally solved it by striving to care less about what other people think.

Google Glasses was lunched before Google was widely known as a creepy spyware company too. I don't even think computer geeks would be impressed anymore.

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

#296

Post by kefirlife »

etempleton wrote: post #53
wand3r wrote: post #33

> Apple, meanwhile, was more cautious. Its headcount increased just 20% from 2020 to 2022 At Apples size this is still pretty huge. At least, I thought it was until I saw that Amazon, Meta and Salesforce basically DOUBLED in 2 years. If this data is correct isnt that insane? How can you effectively double orgs of this size over a 2 year period? Its not like a startup with 50 people or something. I guess I was out of…

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.

Apple does a lot right. However, I find their insistence on keeping their teams in an office to be strange. My experience with Apple internally was an overly positive and optimistic culture, to the point where they had a hard time identifying, or discussing, what did not work well.

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

#297

Post by cjohnson318 »

kefirlife wrote: post #296
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.

Apple does a lot right. However, I find their insistence on keeping their teams in an office to be strange. My experience with Apple internally was an overly positive and optimistic culture, to the point where they had a hard time identifying, or discussing, what did not work well.

Aside from all the talk about the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, etc. I found Apple to be very conservative and buttoned up, which I found very reassuring. I've never worked anywhere else in the FAANG-sphere, but it seemed like the polar opposite of "Googley".

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

#299

Post by lnsru »

jsnell wrote: post #244
dmitriid wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Apple making their own CPUs would also not have taken down the company. They took small incremental steps; at any point, a failure of their own CPU program would at worst have meant using a commercially available SOC (with probably great terms), or alternatively skipping the SOC refresh for a year. In fact, by your criteria, I doubt that Apple has made a single risky bet this millennium. Even the iPhone failing would…

Look, if you want some new hardware using latest node it’s expensive. You must sign nice expensive contract with foundry and pay pay pay before anything comes out. It’s risky, there is no guarantee, that all produced chips work as expected. And it’s done in secret for years with insane stress for engineers. They can leak or chip can be a failure. There is no way to get any SoC on the marked in desired quantities for Apple with short lead times. Changing processor was risky for them.

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

#300

Post by brookst »

inetknght wrote: post #229
brookst wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually people decrying short-termism mean focuses on quarters rather than years. Are you saying Cook’s 10+ years that took the company from $100B/year to $400B/year are the short term, and it is at the expense of the next 90 years?

> Are you saying Cook’s 10+ years that took the company from $100B/year to $400B/year are the short term Yes, however it's clearly successful. > Are you saying Cook’s 10+ years that took the company is at the expense of the next 90 years? Apple is slowly pulling away consumer ownership of their devices and is turning into an advertisement company. I honestly believe that is at the expense of the next 90 years. And th…

> turning into an advertisement company

Apple 2022 revenue: $398B[0]

Apple 2022 ad revenue: $4B[1]

It is possible, with a lot of effort, that Apple could go from advertising representing 1% of revenue to maybe 10% over the next 10 years. I don't think that's realistic, but maybe. "Turning into an advertising company" is maybe overstating?

Besides, the whole reason Apple is in advertising is that free-with-ads is an important business model for media and developers, and the other players are pretty horrible. Me, I hate ads and will always pay directly for apps/media, and I don't like what Apple's doing in ads. But I think you're being a little over-dramatic there.

0. https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/AAPL/apple/revenue

1. https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/12/22/23513061/apple-iphone-...

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