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Myths About Apple Design, From An Ex-Apple Designer

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Re: Myths About Apple Design, From An Ex-Apple Designer

#11

Post by CanSpice »

bluthru wrote: post #9
jarrett wrote: post #2

The part about being dedicated enough to donate weekends and vacation time struck me. I'm of multiple minds about that mentality when it's applied to a large company. On the one hand, there's something beautiful about having a day job so meaningful you'll happily do more of it for free. On the other hand, I wonder if there's something exploitative about the following situation: Both employees and owners give over the…

>On the other other hand, if the employees enter into that deal consciously and happily, then maybe nobody loses. Society loses. Friends and family lose. Health is probably compromised. Other businesses lose from the employees not being able to spend their money as frequently. Maybe I wouldn't be so critical of it if we in American had the same amount of days off as other first world countries.

The key point is "consciously and happily". Different people have different situations going on in their life. If you're a 23-year old single employee, you might decide that you are willing to work 60 hours a week because you really like your work. If you're a 38-year old married employee with kids, you might decide that you're only willing to work 40 hours a week because you value time with your family. Having a company that realizes that there's a difference between people, and not everybody has the flexibility or willingness to put in 60-hour weeks, that's the key.

Re: Myths About Apple Design, From An Ex-Apple Designer

#14

Post by [deleted] »

j10t wrote: post #3
jarrett wrote: post #2

The part about being dedicated enough to donate weekends and vacation time struck me. I'm of multiple minds about that mentality when it's applied to a large company. On the one hand, there's something beautiful about having a day job so meaningful you'll happily do more of it for free. On the other hand, I wonder if there's something exploitative about the following situation: Both employees and owners give over the…

I am not exceptionally smart, but I am a "hard worker." I often work nights and weekends, and I don't hate it. As a result of my efforts, I am more skilled, and consequently enjoy a more lucrative position than I otherwise would. If I were a mediocre developer I could earn half as much as I do, or less. My nights & weekends developing software for my employer are investments in myself.

[deleted]

Re: Myths About Apple Design, From An Ex-Apple Designer

#15

Post by Gracana »

_random_ wrote: post #4

"MYTH #1 Apple Has The Best Designers" - don't want to be a troll, but it's enough to say "iOS7" as an anwser (e.g. http://www.nngroup.com/articles/ios-7 )

I don't think it makes a difference whether or not you want to be a troll when you're writing troll comments.

Re: Myths About Apple Design, From An Ex-Apple Designer

#16

Post by normloman »

nsxwolf wrote: post #10
Retr0spectrum wrote: post #5

That site works great on mobile devices! http://i.imgur.com/W9ouzFS.jpg

I see this everywhere now and it's driving me nuts. Who thought using up that much space on a mobile device was a good idea?

Verizon probably thinks it's a good idea. Their banner ad dominates the layout.

Re: Myths About Apple Design, From An Ex-Apple Designer

#18

Post by stcredzero »

"For Apple, having a small, really focused organization made a lot of sense when Steve was there, because so many ideas came from Steve. So having a smaller group work on some of these ideas made sense," Kawano says. "As Apple shifted to much more of a company where there's multiple people at the top, I think it makes sense that they're growing the design team in interesting ways."

If anything turns out to be Apple's downfall, it is embodied in this paragraph. In most companies, to beat your competitors, you first have to defeat the other corporate divisions. The presence of Steve Jobs probably prevented this and resulted in a significant part of Apple's competitive advantage. The key here is not Steve Jobs per se, but that a single individual could champion particular ideas and see them through to completion without opposition and interference.

Amazon currently enjoys something like this, I suspect.

Re: Myths About Apple Design, From An Ex-Apple Designer

#19

Post by cstejerean »

[deleted] wrote: post #14
j10t wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not exceptionally smart, but I am a "hard worker." I often work nights and weekends, and I don't hate it. As a result of my efforts, I am more skilled, and consequently enjoy a more lucrative position than I otherwise would. If I were a mediocre developer I could earn half as much as I do, or less. My nights & weekends developing software for my employer are investments in myself.

[deleted]

That works great when you need inspiration or a fresh perspective to get you unstuck. Those opportunities certainly arise in programming too, but additional time spent doing actual development are going to help too, both from a learning and practice point of view. If you want to become a better guitar player you need to spend a lot of time playing the guitar. Putting half of what could be your playing time into taking long walks in the woods or taking long showers will probably not be as helpful as actually playing the guitar. Programming is in many ways very similar, depending on exactly what it is you are doing when coding on nights and weekends.

Re: Myths About Apple Design, From An Ex-Apple Designer

#20

Post by opendais »

j10t wrote: post #3
jarrett wrote: post #2

The part about being dedicated enough to donate weekends and vacation time struck me. I'm of multiple minds about that mentality when it's applied to a large company. On the one hand, there's something beautiful about having a day job so meaningful you'll happily do more of it for free. On the other hand, I wonder if there's something exploitative about the following situation: Both employees and owners give over the…

I am not exceptionally smart, but I am a "hard worker." I often work nights and weekends, and I don't hate it. As a result of my efforts, I am more skilled, and consequently enjoy a more lucrative position than I otherwise would. If I were a mediocre developer I could earn half as much as I do, or less. My nights & weekends developing software for my employer are investments in myself.

> My nights & weekends developing software for my employer are investments in myself.

No offense, but if they were investments in yourself I think you'd be either:

A) Moonlight for $$

B) Working on a startup idea you were thinking about [you are on HN after all]

The skill gain from doing stuff for your employer for $0, at least to me, doesn't seem equal to the return from things that my benefit me financially one day.

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