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Steve wants us to make the Macintosh boot faster

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Re: Steve wants us to make the Macintosh boot faster

#2
If there's one thing that I think was revolutionary about Jobs, it was his obsession with quality and user experience. You simply don't find that quality in a lot of tech CEOs. Jobs was willing to burn a load of developer time doing performance tuning. Most other CEOs then and today had an attitude that was more along the line of "We'll just buy more/faster hardware. It's a waste of time to make things faster".

A lot of the reason people are hating on windows now-a-days is because "fast enough" has become the name of the game for UX. Unacceptable lags in working with a computer have just become accepted.

Re: Steve wants us to make the Macintosh boot faster

#4
I am not sure Jobs was always a great boss, but if that conversation is somewhat true, it would have completely worked for me:

- Big boss doesn't just yell at the product manager who then yells at the team leads who then calls "all hands" and unloads her stress on the team

- Instead big boss explains his line of thinking and adding some nape of the napkin projections why this improvement actually matters.

You might get a chuckle out of the "life saved" point, but it's easy to understand that this is meaningful productivity over a big number of users.

Re: Steve wants us to make the Macintosh boot faster

#6
I like this thinking about other people's time as opportunity cost. I do that a lot and always encourage others to keep it in mind, too.

An example: a few years ago, there was a recurring unnecessary traffic congestion on my commute because of a malfunctioning traffic light. On the third day, I did some numbers while waiting and came to the conclusion that over hundreds of people, this was quickly adding up to months of lifetime wasted in total.

I then called the responsible municipality right on the spot to notify them there's a problem. They thanked me and had it fixed the next day.

Re: Steve wants us to make the Macintosh boot faster

#7
post #2

If there's one thing that I think was revolutionary about Jobs, it was his obsession with quality and user experience. You simply don't find that quality in a lot of tech CEOs. Jobs was willing to burn a load of developer time doing performance tuning. Most other CEOs then and today had an attitude that was more along the line of "We'll just buy more/faster hardware. It's a waste of time to make things faster". A lot…

But does it matter? Eventually a bean counter will be in charge of the legacy you built up with this painstakingly acquired good UX and high quality, and take less than a decade to make most of what you spent your life fighting, the new reality.

Re: Steve wants us to make the Macintosh boot faster

#8
post #4

I am not sure Jobs was always a great boss, but if that conversation is somewhat true, it would have completely worked for me: - Big boss doesn't just yell at the product manager who then yells at the team leads who then calls "all hands" and unloads her stress on the team - Instead big boss explains his line of thinking and adding some nape of the napkin projections why this improvement actually matters. You might g…

Pretty sure Steve Jobs was known for yelling at, belittling and bullying people, throwing tantrums and making threats/ultimatums.

Dude had anger/I'm the hero issues...his biography notably leaves this stuff out and Woz' only covers a few incidents (because he still considers friend) though I'm sure there were more. Like when Woz invented universal remote and sent a prototype to Jobs and Jobs smashed it against the wall in a fit of anger.

Re: Steve wants us to make the Macintosh boot faster

#9
post #4

I am not sure Jobs was always a great boss, but if that conversation is somewhat true, it would have completely worked for me: - Big boss doesn't just yell at the product manager who then yells at the team leads who then calls "all hands" and unloads her stress on the team - Instead big boss explains his line of thinking and adding some nape of the napkin projections why this improvement actually matters. You might g…

There are a lot of stories about Jobs acting in completely unhinged and highly toxic ways. I agree that the particular situation you’re describing is a good though.

Re: Steve wants us to make the Macintosh boot faster

#10
post #2

If there's one thing that I think was revolutionary about Jobs, it was his obsession with quality and user experience. You simply don't find that quality in a lot of tech CEOs. Jobs was willing to burn a load of developer time doing performance tuning. Most other CEOs then and today had an attitude that was more along the line of "We'll just buy more/faster hardware. It's a waste of time to make things faster". A lot…

But does it matter? Eventually a bean counter will be in charge of the legacy you built up with this painstakingly acquired good UX and high quality, and take less than a decade to make most of what you spent your life fighting, the new reality.

Mac is still more than fast enough and good enough than Windows, so it matters.
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