What it's Really Like Working with Steve Jobs • Hacker News Board

Re: What it's Really Like Working with Steve Jobs

#21

Post by nessus42 » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 12:21 AM UTC

ErikAugust wrote: post #14

kristopher wrote: post #2

Two things that stood-out: >"Many years later, when NeXT acquired Apple for negative -$400M" and >"We would "throw them into the cauldron", and stir it, and soon nobody remembered exactly whose ideas were which. This let us make a great soup, a great potion, without worrying about who had what idea. This was critically important, in retrospect, to decouple the CEO from the ideas."

"Many years later, when NeXT acquired Apple for negative -$400M" Very interesting way to look at it.

> "Many years later, when NeXT acquired Apple for negative -$400M" Very interesting way to look at it.

Really? I've always considered it the only way to look at it.

Re: What it's Really Like Working with Steve Jobs

#22

Post by bitcartel » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 12:23 AM UTC

cheald wrote: post #5

Between this and the Safari story, I'm struck at just how deep Apple's internal secrecy ethos runs. The idea that there is that level of dedication to keeping a project hidden, not just from outsiders, but from almost the entire rest of the company just blows my mind. It certainly explains how they're able to keep projects secret for as long as they do.

Is a culture of secrecy a good thing? Look at Apple Maps, it would clearly have benefited from more eyeballs.

Re: What it's Really Like Working with Steve Jobs

#23

Post by cheald » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 12:27 AM UTC

bitcartel wrote: post #22

cheald wrote: post #5

Between this and the Safari story, I'm struck at just how deep Apple's internal secrecy ethos runs. The idea that there is that level of dedication to keeping a project hidden, not just from outsiders, but from almost the entire rest of the company just blows my mind. It certainly explains how they're able to keep projects secret for as long as they do.

Is a culture of secrecy a good thing? Look at Apple Maps, it would clearly have benefited from more eyeballs.

I personally feel that projects can benefit from more input and more opportunity for constructive criticism. That said, I also don't run the largest company in the US, so I'm not sure I'm qualified to make a judgment call there.

I think that Apple tends to be a bit echo-chambery, but they've historically built solid stuff, so it's hard to criticize their development methodology too heavily. It'll be interesting to see how that contrasts with changes in their corporate ethos in a post-Jobs era.

Re: What it's Really Like Working with Steve Jobs

#24

Post by taligent » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 12:29 AM UTC

cheald wrote: post #5

Between this and the Safari story, I'm struck at just how deep Apple's internal secrecy ethos runs. The idea that there is that level of dedication to keeping a project hidden, not just from outsiders, but from almost the entire rest of the company just blows my mind. It certainly explains how they're able to keep projects secret for as long as they do.

>but from almost the entire rest of the company just blows my mind.

I've worked at Apple before and it wasn't that different to every other large corporation. Excluding obviously the hardware design and critical features. But everything else was par for the course.

EVERY large company has politics and empire building. Especially when you are a multinational and have a driven workforce.

Re: What it's Really Like Working with Steve Jobs

#25

Post by taligent » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 12:36 AM UTC

bitcartel wrote: post #22

cheald wrote: post #5

Between this and the Safari story, I'm struck at just how deep Apple's internal secrecy ethos runs. The idea that there is that level of dedication to keeping a project hidden, not just from outsiders, but from almost the entire rest of the company just blows my mind. It certainly explains how they're able to keep projects secret for as long as they do.

Is a culture of secrecy a good thing? Look at Apple Maps, it would clearly have benefited from more eyeballs.

People overplay the Apple Maps card.

There was only ONE thing Apple did wrong with Apple Maps. And that was to not license data far, far more aggressively.

The fact is that Google Maps as an app is buggy, lags terribly and clunky all round. It's the high quality of the data that sets it apart.

Re: What it's Really Like Working with Steve Jobs

#26

Post by cheald » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 12:36 AM UTC

taligent wrote: post #24

cheald wrote: post #5

Between this and the Safari story, I'm struck at just how deep Apple's internal secrecy ethos runs. The idea that there is that level of dedication to keeping a project hidden, not just from outsiders, but from almost the entire rest of the company just blows my mind. It certainly explains how they're able to keep projects secret for as long as they do.

>but from almost the entire rest of the company just blows my mind. I've worked at Apple before and it wasn't that different to every other large corporation. Excluding obviously the hardware design and critical features. But everything else was par for the course. EVERY large company has politics and empire building. Especially when you are a multinational and have a driven workforce.

I've only worked at small (<100 employees) companies, so I guess I've just never run into this. It's a little sad to think that you could work alongside someone and have to consider them a threat rather than an ally.

Re: What it's Really Like Working with Steve Jobs

#27

Post by danso » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 12:38 AM UTC

cicloid wrote: post #11

sprash wrote: post #6

So Apple basically was Steve Jobs. Time to ditch some stock.

I think you should have said, "Apple is people working hard, iterating and delivering." Many of those hard working folks are still at Apple. If Jobs was Apple, there should still be some skunkworks projects left behind to ship and the numbers are still favorable to Apple.

Yes, but as the OP describes, the process involved much iteration and constant feedback and energy from Jobs, not just a memo of what he wanted to see on launch day

Re: What it's Really Like Working with Steve Jobs

#28

Post by taligent » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 12:40 AM UTC

cheald wrote: post #26

taligent wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but from almost the entire rest of the company just blows my mind. I've worked at Apple before and it wasn't that different to every other large corporation. Excluding obviously the hardware design and critical features. But everything else was par for the course. EVERY large company has politics and empire building. Especially when you are a multinational and have a driven workforce.

I've only worked at small (<100 employees) companies, so I guess I've just never run into this. It's a little sad to think that you could work alongside someone and have to consider them a threat rather than an ally.

You should look back through the history of http://minimsft.blogspot.com

Microsoft is worse than most because its ranking system actually encourages you to compete within your team not just outside.

Re: What it's Really Like Working with Steve Jobs

#29

Post by michaelwww » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 12:42 AM UTC

suyash wrote: post #20

What's news here? We already knew how much Steve Jobs loved to design products.

It's more about the author than Steve Jobs and there is no new information about Steve Jobs.

Re: What it's Really Like Working with Steve Jobs

#30

Post by rmrfrmrf » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 12:45 AM UTC

bitcartel wrote: post #22

cheald wrote: post #5

Between this and the Safari story, I'm struck at just how deep Apple's internal secrecy ethos runs. The idea that there is that level of dedication to keeping a project hidden, not just from outsiders, but from almost the entire rest of the company just blows my mind. It certainly explains how they're able to keep projects secret for as long as they do.

Is a culture of secrecy a good thing? Look at Apple Maps, it would clearly have benefited from more eyeballs.

Yes, it's a good thing.