In my head, that letter was narrated by Richard Dreyfuss as I read it. It feels very much like their advertizing. My gut reaction would be to simultaneously be excited about the possibilities and worried over what I had gotten myself into, since i was clearly being sold to in such a manner. That's pretty much what I imagine working at Apple is like, though - potentially awesome, fun, exciting, and interesting work, stressful, difficult, and somewhat abusive company culture and demands. So, I guess maybe it's accurate.
Apple's inspirational note to new hires
71–80 of 141 posts
Re: Apple's inspirational note to new hires
#72Apple is a cult? I believe it. Not that I'm complaining, as I type this on my MacBook Pro, with my iPhone beside it and my iPad 3 and iPod Nano in the backpack on the floor. Cult or not, they make high quality products at high prices. I've drunk the Kool-Aid just like many of you.
> I've drunk the Kool-Aid just like many of you. There's a difference between drinking the Kool-Aid and knowing why people drink the Kool-Aid
True. I respect what they have created, even as I'm skeptical of some of the aspects of it (walled gardens, etc).
The fact that I'm able to use a Unix workstation - that also runs common office apps (MSFT, etc) for interoperability with the non-hacker world - solidified my (guarded, skeptical) loyalty to the Apple platform.
Their "one way to do it" approach can be exasperating but it's generally a smart and lucrative business strategy.
Re: Apple's inspirational note to new hires
#73nice, but how many of you are ready to sacrifice your life (weekends) for a company's profit. - Curing cancer: yes - Saving lives : yes - Building an outlet for yet spending more money : no As much a I love my work, I won't love it more than my wife, or my future children.
> As much a I love my work, I won't love it more than my wife, or my future children.
Steve Jobs clearly did, and wanted people with that level of commitment. Can't fault him for trying to find people willing to give him their lives.
Re: Apple's inspirational note to new hires
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
The relatively recent Apple valuation proves irrevocably that those devices could've came in helluva cheaper than they did and are. I'm not denying the pinnacle acchievements and innovations at Apple here. I'm denying they're in it for the "computer accesibility and development of the world".
You're contradicting yourself. Your first statement indicated that their pricing meant that they weren't making computers accessible to everyday people. Now you're just attacking their motives (that you can't really know).
I'm not sure I see the contradiction here. He appears to be suggesting that Apple neither makes computers accessible to the world, nor does it attempt to.
Re: Apple's inspirational note to new hires
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd go further, and say that Apple is significantly worse than many other corporations in our industry, in terms of how they treat their people, how they treat their customers, and how they view the world and the ecosystem in which they operate. When Apple has power, they abuse it. When they don't have power, they fight tooth and nail to obtain it, while playing the underdog card. And, there are corporations in our i…
Apple was only about one thing Fulfill Steve Jobs's vision . Throughout history men who made others work for their dreams with a religious zeal and discipline always did good. Note: they did good, and not always the ones who worked for them. That is why dictatorship looks so good from the outside, because you can see the results. But internally someone somewhere is living in most miserable conditions to make things h…
Did well, or did good, or do you distinguish the two?
Re: Apple's inspirational note to new hires
#76Man, every post I'm reading is negative, it's just a motivational poster, I liked it. You only have on life, give it 100%. Whatever you are doing, do it like you only have one day left to do it with. I'm disappointed that HN would blow out of proportion the one cloud on the beautiful day.
> it's just a motivational poster Here's my favourite quote about motivational posters, DeMarco & Lister "Peopleware": "These motivational accessories, as they are called (including slogan coffee mugs, plaques, pins, key chains, and awards), are a triumph of form over substance. They seem to extol the importance of Quality, Leadership, Creativity, Teamwork, Loyalty, and a host of other organizational virtues. But the…
Yes, if you go to eBay and order a couple of motivational posters this will only lower morale. Everybody will notice the BS
But this is something different. It's what the company truly believes. Or do you see something not matching Apple's beliefe there?
If you don't believe that, you certainly won't be a good fit.
Now, RedHat can put a poster like "The Power is in the Community" and if you don't like or understand that you certainly won't be able to blend in. Even if you're management.
Now, do you think Google could honestly put a poster "Don't be evil" today?
Re: Apple's inspirational note to new hires
#77some people are so mean.
It is just a inspirational note.
someone behaves like apple owe him a lot.
Re: Apple's inspirational note to new hires
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's thoroughly disappointing to see such anti-achievement vitriol on HN. HN is getting a bit too popular and populist, I guess. Reminds me of /. This is a site dedicated to entrepreneurialism, why would members be throwing so much rotten fruit at one of the (if not THE) most successful entrepreneurial effort of all time. Jobs showed the world through his initial time there and then his return to save the dying compa…
'Enterpreneurial' is defined as 'willing to take risks in order to make a profit.' Yes, I've quit my nice day job to run a company on what was basically a bluff. Yes, I was literally hungry on more than one occasion. Yes, I don't have a clue how things will pan out within more than 3+ months with my company. Yet, I go on, and I'm not without an option to go back to comfort cave. There's nothing enterpreneurial in get…
No-one has said otherwise. Some people do not want to take the risks that you have. That doesn't make them any less of a person or less ambitious, it means that they have different goals and priorities to you. If you weren't so wrapped up in hubris you might actually learn something from it.
Re: Apple's inspirational note to new hires
#79Let me write my own version based on experience:
"There's work and then there's my life's work.
The kind of work that will make me millions. You'll work weekends while I'm at my 5000 sqft "green" house in Portola Valley or Tahoe on Friday through Monday. You will do that work here at Apple.
We don't want people to come here and play it safe. We want people to come here that want to drink the kool-aid. We want their work to add up to something for us. If it doesn't, prepare to be screamed at once a day or more.
I want your work to add up to something. Something big. Something that results in wealth for me.
Welcome to burnout. You'll only last 3 years and then I'll replace you with new kool-aid.
Re: Apple's inspirational note to new hires
#80Honest question: is it really possible to do that sort of work as a cog inside a huge corporation? I'm asking because I'm looking at very likely being gobbled up by such a large corporation ...
Apple is famously lean. The Safari version which shipped with the original iPad 2010 was done by only two people. I find that remarkable. But I too wonder how it is to work there. From other companies like Google or Microsoft there are more stories available, from the hiring process to rants from happy or disgruntled employees. Compared to that Apple is even post-Steve an enigmatic black box. Like, how many hacker ne…
If you go back through my comment history you'll see that I've written a few, but I left for the same reasons as the negative responses here.
The company was making billions and I didn't even have stock options, whereas the executive team was getting paid several thousand times as much me. They always said "our pay is competitive with the valley", but it didn't feel right. It came out later that Apple and other Silicon Valley firms were involved in an illegal wage fixing agreement.
As an immigrant, I can't start my own business in the US so I went into finance, where the employees are generally more cognisant of their market value. I got a 50% base-pay and 125% overall increase right off the bat as finance is desperate for anyone who is genuinely passionate about technology.