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Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?

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Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?

#131

Post by reagency »

tsunamifury wrote: post #55
logicallee wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's actually a funny statement given the definition of a product manager... it's like saying the CEO has a lot of sway over company policy. well, yeah.

PMs of old were supposed to be the smartest or most experienced people in the room. Now, mostly due to microsofts export of thousands of poorly trained politically savvy, they are infecting other companies.

IIRC, when Simonyi invented the term "product manager", he was referring to what is now called tech lead or architect.

Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?

#132

Post by [deleted] »

TylerE wrote: post #64
javier2 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do people do that? I'm fairly new in the game, but right after Christmas I had to work 3 weeks, about 70 hours each in a row. I was _exhausted_ after that. By the end of the third week, my head was just spinning and I went on a low morale and creative drought for 3 months... I could barely code deserialisation functions without losing focus.. So basically, how do you do it and keep sane?!

You don't, it's just that cuz EVERYONE is doing no one sees the insanity.

[deleted]

Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?

#133

Post by [deleted] »

TylerE wrote: post #64
javier2 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do people do that? I'm fairly new in the game, but right after Christmas I had to work 3 weeks, about 70 hours each in a row. I was _exhausted_ after that. By the end of the third week, my head was just spinning and I went on a low morale and creative drought for 3 months... I could barely code deserialisation functions without losing focus.. So basically, how do you do it and keep sane?!

You don't, it's just that cuz EVERYONE is doing no one sees the insanity.

[deleted]

Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?

#134

Post by jsjohnst »

threeseed wrote: post #120
jsjohnst wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are definitely right, I focused more on the "go home to family" part. Many I know at Apple have had relationship issues with significant others and family due to the sometimes grueling pace and "CIA spy" level secrecy some teams are forced to have even with their spouses.

It's more the long hours / weekend work for months on end that causes problems. The secrecy is never an issue.

Never is a rather bold word choice, especially as I know of a few examples that disprove it.

Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?

#135

Post by kbwt »

wtetzner wrote: post #98
PMan74 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also scratching my head, Advertising and ? - Youtube, Gmail - really just advertising - Android - is it a cash cow, there's some lic fees I guess but not huge - Google Apps - is that big money?

Maybe the Google Play store? I have no idea how much money it makes though.

They made 3 billion USD from Google Play in 2014. (30% cut on all sales)

http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2015/02/a-new-way-to-...

Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?

#136

Post by beambot »

threeseed wrote: post #120
jsjohnst wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are definitely right, I focused more on the "go home to family" part. Many I know at Apple have had relationship issues with significant others and family due to the sometimes grueling pace and "CIA spy" level secrecy some teams are forced to have even with their spouses.

It's more the long hours / weekend work for months on end that causes problems. The secrecy is never an issue.

I wouldn't underestimate how much secrecy plays a role psychologically. Not being able to talk to friends, family, and loved ones about what you work on can be a real drain.

(Spoken from some experience; I did classified work at a DOE nuclear lab in the past.)

Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?

#137

Post by Retric »

jgmmo wrote: post #54
Retric wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pixar did not start up from a few random people leaving a company with a new idea. Jobs paid the company 5 million for the IP and then invested another 5 million to get things started. Granted, he sat on the board instead of being the CEO, but he was far from a hands off invester. Regularly investing more money and eventually becoming the CEO.

But you do understand Steve Jobs != Apple. In the argument about whether or not Apple has produced startups you said Pixar was an example, but that is not true. It's an example of Steve Jobs being entrepreneurial.

Sure, but if your going to use the Nest example as an Apple company when the only link is ex apple people + Apple Money then other companies with those sorts of links qualify.

Jobs clearly got his money from Apple as well as polishing his stills. So, really if Nest qualifies then clearly Pixar does as well.

PS: IMO, it would be reasonable not to include Nest as an Apple startup, but if one qualifies then clearly the other does as well.

Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?

#138

Post by thesnider »

ridiculous_fish wrote: post #126
throwaway4343 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Throwaway account, because I work there) Just a correction, Apple does indeed forbid employees from working on side projects, including selling software on the AppStore and most contributions to open source projects. This is made very clear during the employee's initial (and yearly) Business Conduct training. To me it's one of the major drawbacks of an otherwise great place to work.

Open source contributions are in general acceptable, as long as it's not to a competitor's product. You should reach out to legal, they'll probably OK it.

This is extremely dependent on your org, and is subject to approval from marketing.

Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?

#139

Post by zak_mc_kracken »

gumby wrote: post #45
Eric_WVGG wrote: post #18

(I really hope I don’t offend any Apple people saying this) My impression, which comes from meeting a handful of Apple employees and several friends who took jobs and later left, is that the culture of Apple is that of “show up, do good work, cash the paycheck, and go home to your family.” It is not one of “Let’s conquer the world and become bazillionairres while we’re at it” — the Google culture — which is more pron…

> My impression, which comes from meeting a handful of Apple employees and several friends who took jobs and later left, is that the culture of Apple is that of “show up, do good work, cash the paycheck, and go home to your family.” I have a lot of friends and former colleagues who are at Apple and you're wrong about the 'go home to your family.' At least the friends I have (mostly nerds admittedly) are routinely in…

> Apple went through that mode and was within a few weeks of dying. Luckily they debugged themselves.

Not really, Bill Gates rescued them.

Re: Why Has Apple Spawned So Few Startups?

#140

Post by zak_mc_kracken »

ridiculous_fish wrote: post #100
cromwellian wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working backbreaking hours with bad work/life balance is considered unGoogley. There are sometimes when people burn the midnight oil, but in general Googlers don't work 60hr weeks. I think the primary difference may come down to a culture of secrecy. Openness breeds cross fertilization, couple that with very few restrictions on Googlers in working on side projects, open source，and collaborating outside Google and it…

I've worked at both Apple and Google, as a SWE. I found very few engineers at either company who are phoning it in. There is great passion in both organizations. I also found engineers to be very vocal internally at both companies, Apple at least as much as at Google. Apple engineers absolutely do not "fall in line" without a fight. Google is definitely more open in the way you describe, both in terms of collaboratin…

> It's frustrating to work on projects that are cancelled,

I'm going to guess you're fairly junior in the profession?

The more time you spend writing code, the more you realize that most of your projects will never, ever ship. That's just how the gig goes.

And it's okay. As an engineer, you should be looking forward more to the journey and how much you'll learn working on that project than anything else. Once in a while, you'll ship and you'll feel pride knowing that millions of people are using your code, but that's the exception, not the rule.

Enjoy the journey.

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