"I’m heartbroken by the events in Minneapolis, and my prayers and deepest sympathies are with the families, with the communities, and with everyone that’s been affected.
This is a time for deescalation. I believe America is strongest when we live up to our highest ideals, when we treat everyone with dignity and respect no matter who they are or where they’re from, and when we embrace our shared humanity. This is something Apple has always advocated for. I had a good conversation with the president this week where I shared my views, and I appreciate his openness to engaging on issues that matter to us all.
I know this is very emotional and challenging for so many. I am proud of how deeply our teams care about the world beyond our walls. That empathy is one of Apple’s greatest strengths and it is something I believe we all cherish.
Thank you for all that you do."
No, Mr. Cook, I respectfully disagree. This is a time for escalation; for standing up for what is right, and moral, and just. It is not a time to "treat everyone with dignity and respect"; it is a time to show those who are failing to treat everyone with dignity and respect that their behavior will not be tolerated in this society. It is not a time for having "a good conversation" with a madman intent on turning our Republic into a dictatorship. While I am sure you are proud of "how deeply Apple teams care about the world", I am disappointed that you appear to care for nothing more than Apple's bottom-line next quarter profits, and will appease dictators on both sides of the Pacific to preserve and increase them.
(Sent to tcook@apple.com, because I have no fucks left to give.)
I think your comment is a far better directive than simply providing a diatribe against the lack of ethics of Tim Cook. I want emails and phone numbers to voice my dissatisfaction or my abhorrence towards the behavior of specific people that are not speaking up for that which is obviously right.
So I will share the email address that you have provided for Mr. Cook, and I will write to him as a physician, as a Vietnam vet, as a dedicated user of Apple products for the last 30 years, and tell him how disappointed I am in what he has expressed to the world in his actions and his words regarding Donald Trump.
I wrote to Tim Cook. Subject: You are not listening.
Dear Mr. Cook,
It seems that you are not paying attention by word or deed to the failure of our current administration to practice good government of the people. What they are doing is akin to an operating system that has gone berserk. As a dedicated user of Apple products, and of common sense and higher education, I implore you to alter your course and to instead speak out against the current administration and its recklessness in every possible mode of operation, from this country to foreign affairs to the health of the nation medically and psychologically.
Surely you must agree that what we are witnessing is the onset of a fascist government where the rights of the people are being blatantly abused, and in fact where ordinary citizens are being treated as if they were the criminal elements of our society. I am a physician scientist and a Vietnam vet, a tutor to newcomers to the use of the iMac and iPhone and iPad. I am very disappointed with your stance that you have taken at the current time. And I hope that you change your course dramatically.
Wow....just WOW. What an incredibly insightful article. Thank you. You frame the issues we are dealing with in our society perfectly...issues that were becoming increasingly pernicious before Trump, but now that we have a full-on fascist assault on our democracy, these monster companies and their leader/oligarchs are gorging on what prosperity we have left here in the U.S. And the way you discuss what the real purpose, or value, of money should be... you have created many quotable quotes that I will use (with full credit). Thank you for your insights. Thank you for writing this. This is a piece that should be featured in Harvard Business Review.
This resonates so much with me. I've been an Apple ever since the first Mac came out in 1984 and now I feel trapped by my all the time and money I've invested, especially in the absence of any alternative that isn't as bad or worse.
I reluctantly bought a new iPhone just now, but I really want to shift to something that isn't evil when I next buy a computer. Not Chrome or Windows obviously, but Linux still seems too hard for me
I, too, have been an Apple user since the first Mac came out in 1984. If I had time on my hands, I'd go with Linux, but in my experience it requires far too much tinkering just to find the right distro, much less to make it usable on a daily basis, especially on mobile devices, but even on desktop computers. This, however, is why I have invested in a Commodore 64 Ultimate (commodore.net) - "the future we were promised".
Well said. And if I may add another layer, Jobs would not have let Apple's Human Interface Guidelines die the death of a thousand cuts. It's another part of Tim Cook's legacy that under his watch, Apple violated its contract with its users, putting their experience behind so many corporate imperatives.
Thank you so much for your well written analysis. I have asked in print for cook to step down. He needs to, even if it takes two years to find a succession plan.
I bow to your expansive picture of Steve Jobs. He was a visionary. I have had to bow to the weakness of human beings abilities to predict anything, carrots types of beatific predictions you made about jobs had he survived to this time. It feels good to entertain those notions. I believe someone or some ones can emerge to improve our lot on this planet. When we see and hear them we must nurture them.
Don't force people to buy Apple just because their acquaintances buy your products.
The sooner antitrust regulators smash your company into tiny pieces, the better off we'll be. (And yes, the same needs to happen with Google and Android.)
Regarding your culture over politics assertion, I both agree and disagree. Apple’s iconic “1984” commercial was indicative (a) of breaking the chains of sameness but also (b) making a political statement about corporate tyranny as a stand-in for government tyranny. https://youtu.be/2zfqw8nhUwA?si=e-FJ2AT_Q7Ex7aiC
I’m not sure Jobs wouldn’t have bent the knee. What I do think is that he might have objected strongly to the misuse of data and individual privacy. Who really knows. He was a complicated guy and perhaps didn’t quite deserve the reverence so many of his acolytes seem to bestow upon him.
Mike this is such a superb post, capturing the Leadership and passion of a rogue entrepreneur who bootstrapped his success through one of the boldest tech visions I experienced in my 'boutique' software development that started on a DECmate ....then an Apple; for my clients, I had to develop in the Microsoft environment starting with Turbo C.
It was so clear to me that Jobs had the highest form of truly creative and inspirational vision that Leaders like Washington, Patton, and many more. None particularly known for kindness, but omg, such brilliant innovation that swept the imagination of generations around the world...! Apple had genius level integration from hardware to grade school through college "give away to get Apples used early as a key marketing strategy.
Microsoft seemed more like Tim Cook's current Apple culture that was reflected in its efficient, productive, well managed products...never as inspiring or team/ community that Jobs created.
Mike you did Steve Jobs such justice and honor. Truly was a joy to read! Thank you.
Excellent piece, Mike. Thanks. Even more fundamentally, what is an economy for? What ends do the businesses in an economy (like Apple) serve? If you haven’t read it, check out “Doughnut Economics,” by Kate Raworth…
And here’s the irony - Here we are, as consumers, reading about this on our Chinese made iPhones, iPads and Macs, aware that we too have been largely captured, by a different kind of dependency at a time when perhaps not buying or using Apple products is the only way to send a message to Cook’s gold gifting genuflections and to the US, if, like me, we live elsewhere. The author has taken my many thoughts about Jobs and Cook, and brilliantly and laid them bare but then drawn a conclusion I can’t, because I honestly don’t (and can’t) know what Jobs might have done had he survived his cancer, nor what Cook’s conscience in prioritising protecting Job’s legacy project, Apple, and its countless employees feels about the fascist inclined shitshow that Trump is perpetrating on America and the world. He likely took long cold showers after his encounters with Trump doing what Jobs would most probably not have been able to do. Jobs was however pretty pragmatic when cornered with limited options it came to surviving in straightened times. Making the first multicoloured iMacs seem plausible as Jobs did was for me at least fairly astonishing. Cook needs a better strategy but I’m not sure even if he were more than just exceptional that it’s easily findable but find it he should.
The circus metaphor works because it captures how we've built systems that reward performance over substance. When the infrastructure of meaning becomes pure spectacle, even the clowns start to realize the joke's on them. What's interesting is whether we're witnessing the final act or just intermission - does the circus need new performers, or are we ready to leave the tent entirely?
Storytelling is finished (Atlantic, Horowitz, "Film students can't finish assigned films"), had he lived, Jobs was visionary enough to grasp this problem. And it's not only storytelling, it's literacy that's ending. (Marriott "The Post-Literate Age") The point of visual literacy is mated to the idea of GUI and Apple's media suite, it's a machine and software suited to take us past stories and words.
Wasn’t Jobs around when the decisions were made for much of Apple’s supply chain to go through China? Isn’t he culpable as Tim Cook’s boss at the time? Agree with your larger point but I’m not sure Cook deserves all the blame or that Jobs wouldn’t have made some compromises to sell to 1.3 billion Chinese people, most of whom are very supportive of Xi and his emperor-like leadership
From Tim Cook, today:
"I’m heartbroken by the events in Minneapolis, and my prayers and deepest sympathies are with the families, with the communities, and with everyone that’s been affected.
This is a time for deescalation. I believe America is strongest when we live up to our highest ideals, when we treat everyone with dignity and respect no matter who they are or where they’re from, and when we embrace our shared humanity. This is something Apple has always advocated for. I had a good conversation with the president this week where I shared my views, and I appreciate his openness to engaging on issues that matter to us all.
I know this is very emotional and challenging for so many. I am proud of how deeply our teams care about the world beyond our walls. That empathy is one of Apple’s greatest strengths and it is something I believe we all cherish.
Thank you for all that you do."
No, Mr. Cook, I respectfully disagree. This is a time for escalation; for standing up for what is right, and moral, and just. It is not a time to "treat everyone with dignity and respect"; it is a time to show those who are failing to treat everyone with dignity and respect that their behavior will not be tolerated in this society. It is not a time for having "a good conversation" with a madman intent on turning our Republic into a dictatorship. While I am sure you are proud of "how deeply Apple teams care about the world", I am disappointed that you appear to care for nothing more than Apple's bottom-line next quarter profits, and will appease dictators on both sides of the Pacific to preserve and increase them.
(Sent to tcook@apple.com, because I have no fucks left to give.)
I think your comment is a far better directive than simply providing a diatribe against the lack of ethics of Tim Cook. I want emails and phone numbers to voice my dissatisfaction or my abhorrence towards the behavior of specific people that are not speaking up for that which is obviously right.
So I will share the email address that you have provided for Mr. Cook, and I will write to him as a physician, as a Vietnam vet, as a dedicated user of Apple products for the last 30 years, and tell him how disappointed I am in what he has expressed to the world in his actions and his words regarding Donald Trump.
Not to mention the ass kissing gifts. The WH view of the first lady’s “movie”….. he’s just plain ugly. Cruel. Careless. Powerfully indifferent
I wrote to Tim Cook. Subject: You are not listening.
Dear Mr. Cook,
It seems that you are not paying attention by word or deed to the failure of our current administration to practice good government of the people. What they are doing is akin to an operating system that has gone berserk. As a dedicated user of Apple products, and of common sense and higher education, I implore you to alter your course and to instead speak out against the current administration and its recklessness in every possible mode of operation, from this country to foreign affairs to the health of the nation medically and psychologically.
Surely you must agree that what we are witnessing is the onset of a fascist government where the rights of the people are being blatantly abused, and in fact where ordinary citizens are being treated as if they were the criminal elements of our society. I am a physician scientist and a Vietnam vet, a tutor to newcomers to the use of the iMac and iPhone and iPad. I am very disappointed with your stance that you have taken at the current time. And I hope that you change your course dramatically.
Stephen B. Strum, MD, FACP
Well done. The time is now.
Wow....just WOW. What an incredibly insightful article. Thank you. You frame the issues we are dealing with in our society perfectly...issues that were becoming increasingly pernicious before Trump, but now that we have a full-on fascist assault on our democracy, these monster companies and their leader/oligarchs are gorging on what prosperity we have left here in the U.S. And the way you discuss what the real purpose, or value, of money should be... you have created many quotable quotes that I will use (with full credit). Thank you for your insights. Thank you for writing this. This is a piece that should be featured in Harvard Business Review.
The article ignores how Tim Cook cancelled The Savant because Trump saw the trailer- that says it all
This resonates so much with me. I've been an Apple ever since the first Mac came out in 1984 and now I feel trapped by my all the time and money I've invested, especially in the absence of any alternative that isn't as bad or worse.
I reluctantly bought a new iPhone just now, but I really want to shift to something that isn't evil when I next buy a computer. Not Chrome or Windows obviously, but Linux still seems too hard for me
I, too, have been an Apple user since the first Mac came out in 1984. If I had time on my hands, I'd go with Linux, but in my experience it requires far too much tinkering just to find the right distro, much less to make it usable on a daily basis, especially on mobile devices, but even on desktop computers. This, however, is why I have invested in a Commodore 64 Ultimate (commodore.net) - "the future we were promised".
Well said. And if I may add another layer, Jobs would not have let Apple's Human Interface Guidelines die the death of a thousand cuts. It's another part of Tim Cook's legacy that under his watch, Apple violated its contract with its users, putting their experience behind so many corporate imperatives.
Thank you so much for your well written analysis. I have asked in print for cook to step down. He needs to, even if it takes two years to find a succession plan.
I bow to your expansive picture of Steve Jobs. He was a visionary. I have had to bow to the weakness of human beings abilities to predict anything, carrots types of beatific predictions you made about jobs had he survived to this time. It feels good to entertain those notions. I believe someone or some ones can emerge to improve our lot on this planet. When we see and hear them we must nurture them.
"Buy your mom an iPhone."
Fuck you, Tim.
Fuck your monopoly.
Fuck your social coercion tactics.
Make your products interoperable.
Don't force people to buy Apple just because their acquaintances buy your products.
The sooner antitrust regulators smash your company into tiny pieces, the better off we'll be. (And yes, the same needs to happen with Google and Android.)
Regarding your culture over politics assertion, I both agree and disagree. Apple’s iconic “1984” commercial was indicative (a) of breaking the chains of sameness but also (b) making a political statement about corporate tyranny as a stand-in for government tyranny. https://youtu.be/2zfqw8nhUwA?si=e-FJ2AT_Q7Ex7aiC
I’m not sure Jobs wouldn’t have bent the knee. What I do think is that he might have objected strongly to the misuse of data and individual privacy. Who really knows. He was a complicated guy and perhaps didn’t quite deserve the reverence so many of his acolytes seem to bestow upon him.
Mike this is such a superb post, capturing the Leadership and passion of a rogue entrepreneur who bootstrapped his success through one of the boldest tech visions I experienced in my 'boutique' software development that started on a DECmate ....then an Apple; for my clients, I had to develop in the Microsoft environment starting with Turbo C.
It was so clear to me that Jobs had the highest form of truly creative and inspirational vision that Leaders like Washington, Patton, and many more. None particularly known for kindness, but omg, such brilliant innovation that swept the imagination of generations around the world...! Apple had genius level integration from hardware to grade school through college "give away to get Apples used early as a key marketing strategy.
Microsoft seemed more like Tim Cook's current Apple culture that was reflected in its efficient, productive, well managed products...never as inspiring or team/ community that Jobs created.
Mike you did Steve Jobs such justice and honor. Truly was a joy to read! Thank you.
Wow! Mike! You hit a nerve, Man!
You are the philosopher for our time! Yes! When efficiency rules, freedom dies!
Peter Thiel exemplifies this rot!
Thiel, J.D. Vance’s, mentor, brags that “efficiency” requires that we must replace democracy!
Such arrogance puts robots in control of the future “culture”!
Excellent piece, Mike. Thanks. Even more fundamentally, what is an economy for? What ends do the businesses in an economy (like Apple) serve? If you haven’t read it, check out “Doughnut Economics,” by Kate Raworth…
And here’s the irony - Here we are, as consumers, reading about this on our Chinese made iPhones, iPads and Macs, aware that we too have been largely captured, by a different kind of dependency at a time when perhaps not buying or using Apple products is the only way to send a message to Cook’s gold gifting genuflections and to the US, if, like me, we live elsewhere. The author has taken my many thoughts about Jobs and Cook, and brilliantly and laid them bare but then drawn a conclusion I can’t, because I honestly don’t (and can’t) know what Jobs might have done had he survived his cancer, nor what Cook’s conscience in prioritising protecting Job’s legacy project, Apple, and its countless employees feels about the fascist inclined shitshow that Trump is perpetrating on America and the world. He likely took long cold showers after his encounters with Trump doing what Jobs would most probably not have been able to do. Jobs was however pretty pragmatic when cornered with limited options it came to surviving in straightened times. Making the first multicoloured iMacs seem plausible as Jobs did was for me at least fairly astonishing. Cook needs a better strategy but I’m not sure even if he were more than just exceptional that it’s easily findable but find it he should.
The circus metaphor works because it captures how we've built systems that reward performance over substance. When the infrastructure of meaning becomes pure spectacle, even the clowns start to realize the joke's on them. What's interesting is whether we're witnessing the final act or just intermission - does the circus need new performers, or are we ready to leave the tent entirely?
Was AI used to write this? It reads like LLM prose.
Storytelling is finished (Atlantic, Horowitz, "Film students can't finish assigned films"), had he lived, Jobs was visionary enough to grasp this problem. And it's not only storytelling, it's literacy that's ending. (Marriott "The Post-Literate Age") The point of visual literacy is mated to the idea of GUI and Apple's media suite, it's a machine and software suited to take us past stories and words.
Wasn’t Jobs around when the decisions were made for much of Apple’s supply chain to go through China? Isn’t he culpable as Tim Cook’s boss at the time? Agree with your larger point but I’m not sure Cook deserves all the blame or that Jobs wouldn’t have made some compromises to sell to 1.3 billion Chinese people, most of whom are very supportive of Xi and his emperor-like leadership