Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tim Cook's Impeccable Timing

stratechery.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 438 posts

Re: Tim Cook's Impeccable Timing

#181

Post by rootusrootus »

throw0101d wrote: post #29
doitLP wrote: post #18

> Cook was, without question, an operational genius I’ve seen this quoted time and again. In this article the evidence is that he outsourced manufacturing to a JIT chain in China. That doesn’t seem very genius to me. Yes they were able to uphold high standards and get preferential production and pricing but what else? Can anyone point me to what he does, on a day to day basis, that makes him and operational genius? H…

> Yes they were able to uphold high standards and get preferential production and pricing but what else? Ask Boeing, who outsourced a lot of stuff (for the 787, and other things) and had all sorts of problems. To the point they re-integrated a company they spun out in the first place to try to save money with: * https://boeing.mediaroom.com/2025-12-08-Boeing-Completes-Acq... * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_Aer…

> Ask all the companies that outsourced IT and software development to (e.g.) India, etc.

Ha, we keep on asking that at my current company, and they keep on doing it anyway. What is it they say the definition of insanity is, again?

Re: Tim Cook's Impeccable Timing

#182

Post by jmyeet »

HardCodedBias wrote: post #112

Impressive Tenue, IMO. Apple Watch, AirPods, M1 Silicon, services. A few flops, like Apple Vision Pro and their confusion with AI. But that's ok given the wins. Overall, as a non-founder he's near the tops in CEOs over the last couple of decades. The only non-founders I would put above him are Satya (although he has a had a couple of rough years), Bob Iger, Jamie Dimon and maybe Andy Jassy. Taking a fair lens to this…

At least the Vision Pro wasn't a $70 billion boondoggle like the Metaverse was.

The flops include the mid-to-late 2010s thinness era of Macbooks. Touch Bar, butterfly keyboard, 12" Macbook, no Macbook Air. At least this got corrected but it was a flop era.

I think AI is Tim Apple's biggest flop. Apple can make their own hardware. Apple could've invested in their own hardware like Google's TPUs. Siri has really stagnated. If anybody should be doubling down on an AI assistant, it's Apple.

Re: Tim Cook's Impeccable Timing

#183

Post by alex7o »

vel0city wrote: post #157
alex7o wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fight me but I miss the touchbar, it was customizable to be super useful with better touch tool

I think the touch bar was a neat idea with a lot of potential but IMO they should have kept the row of physical function keys as well.

The thing is I have never used the function keys on my laptop so that was not a problem form me, but also some of the custom functions I hard can just be mapped to fn keys so it is bit like it it us a huge loss

Re: Tim Cook's Impeccable Timing

#184

Post by MaysonL »

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #127
ryandrake wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I do think the challenge for Apple going forwards (but also for Android) is going to be how to best take advantage of AI. IMO one of their great advantages so far is that they have not blindly bought into the AI hysteria and wasted $billions on it. They've shown you can still have a great company without chanting the "AI is the future" mantra day in and day out. It would be pretty disappointing for a new CEO to dra…

You can’t compare Apple to any other company. Apple is the only successful consumer hardware company (with Samsung being a distant second). They can afford to sit out the AI arms race. You can’t be a software company without an AI story to tell.

Apple _is_ a software company: everything it sells is based on a Mac OS X foundation.

Re: Tim Cook's Impeccable Timing

#185

Post by shimman »

pjc50 wrote: post #51
zenapollo wrote: post #47

I don't think Cook gets enough credit for this [0] - Book: Apple in China. (Author Interview [1]) It's an undisputed damning account of how Cook was used by China to train millions of Chinese electronics manufacturers, managers, and engineers. The US took the most advanced industrial electronics manufacturing tech, and handed the expertise on a silver platter it to a long term strategic enemy. Frankly, he shouldn't l…

When people discuss this subject, I wonder what they think the counterfactual world would have looked like. Do people think China could have been kept backwards forever? I notice nobody goes around accusing Maurice Chang of doing this. Or W Edwards Deming.

No, but it's kind of pathetic that the elites in America hallowed out our manufacturing capabilities and condemning tens of millions to abject poverty so their shares can be worth slightly more as a sign of societal sickness.

Re: Tim Cook's Impeccable Timing

#186

Post by wpm »

jmyeet wrote: post #139
foobarian wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of missteps, there was a period in late 2010s where MacBook Pros really took a bad turn IMO chasing some "thinness" fetish, but recovered nicely afterwards. My M4 is a glorious device built like a tank

This was the last gasp of Johnny Ive. And yes, it was terrible. It got us ending the incredibly successful Macbook Air for the too-compromised 12" Macbook (1 port, remember?), the pointless Touch Bar and the terrible butterly keyboard (remember how dust could kill it and I'm sure Apple spent a fortune on replacements?). Why did we get all these things? It wasn't just thinness. It was to raise to Average Selling Price…

They did not take the MacBook Air off the market when the retina Macbook 12" was released. The MacBookAir7,1 was released a month before the MacBook8,1. The 7,2 came out 2 years later as a spec bump not because Apple abandoned the product, but because this was the same time Intel's tick-tock schedule went completely off the rails.

Re: Tim Cook's Impeccable Timing

#187

Post by varjag »

a012 wrote: post #117
foobarian wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of missteps, there was a period in late 2010s where MacBook Pros really took a bad turn IMO chasing some "thinness" fetish, but recovered nicely afterwards. My M4 is a glorious device built like a tank

And dont forget the scissor keyboard and the fucking touchbar

Have to say I really prefer butterfly keyboard (as long as it works).

Re: Tim Cook's Impeccable Timing

#188

Post by epolanski »

a012 wrote: post #117
foobarian wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of missteps, there was a period in late 2010s where MacBook Pros really took a bad turn IMO chasing some "thinness" fetish, but recovered nicely afterwards. My M4 is a glorious device built like a tank

And dont forget the scissor keyboard and the fucking touchbar

My finger tips literally becoming purple colored due to the insane heat of that aluminum's thing in the i9 era. still hurts.

Re: Tim Cook's Impeccable Timing

#189

Post by BugsJustFindMe »

lateforwork wrote: post #89
aworks wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likewise he can probably defer his Social Security payments until 70, in order to get the higher benefit... +1 for Medicare for the non-rich, though. I'm a retiree and the monthly payment is about 1/4 of what I was paying for health insurance before I was eligible.

But is Medicare as good as the insurance you had before?

I can't speak for aworks, but most of the people I've spoken to on it, like my mother, say it's better than the private insurance they had before.

Re: Tim Cook's Impeccable Timing

#190

Post by momojo »

doitLP wrote: post #69
jinushaun wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you underestimate what he does. It seems simple and obvious in hindsight, but if it were so easy, others would not be so far behind. A difficult thing done well looks easy. Reminds me of when Toyota disrupted auto manufacturing. Under Tim Cook, Apple has pretty much exclusive access to certain parts and suppliers. Apple buys up all the silicon. Competitors can’t compete at the same quality without paying a pr…

I’m not underestimating what he does, I’m asking what does he actually do to make it happen beyond setting priorities and holding subordinates accountable? I’m not questioning that he does many things well and right and even genius, I just want to know what those are! I’m sure Isaacson will cover it well in his bio!

I bet it's more about what he didn't do. Like how a stable marriage seems boring but is the accumulation of many many right (by necessarily genius) decisions.
Post reply on HN