I know nothing about the development of Apple or history of either man (I just know that, as a barely capable computer-user, I love Apple products and find them very intuitive), so I can't speak to the comments by Rdw and BH in this thread. But I do know that Trump is a malignant sociopath and that bowing down to him reveals a lot about a person.
If we all take a stand against evil together it won't be scarey. It will be exhilarating. Fear is nothing but surrender of the helps that come from reason. - Wisdom of Solomon (Apocrypha)
The fight against our shadow is not so much a singular battle with a promise of a winning end as a lifetime war to maintain personal integrity. This necessitates constant personal introspection and moral choice. How we act in little ways daily affects and informs everything and everyone around us for good or ill.
What I know about Jobs is that he ripped off a lot of people for their ideas and IP … and packaged it nicely. With slave labor from China. Whether that was Cook’s decision, I don’t know, but I believe it was made while Jobs was alive.
I've never been an Apple fan. But taking others ideas and combining them into a successful, and generally well-designed, set of products is not simply "ripping off." Apple's not like Microsoft, which built an empire on its pirate version of DR-DOS.
In pop culture, it's called the Jump the Shark moment, that clearly identifiable act that separates the Before from the After. The beginning of the end was when Jobs died and Cook took over, but this plaque is the official marker that Apple no longer seeks to change the world, but to preserve it. Jobs was one of the "crazy ones" he spoke of in Apple's best ad ever (the 1984 Macintosh Super Bowl ad turned out not to be a promise, but a deception that kept us from seeing that technology would become the threat it promised to protect us from). Tim Cook, on the other hand, is the antithesis of a crazy one. It's why Apple hasn't had a transformative product since Jobs passed.
This is a brilliant essay. Thanks. I was wondering why I was finding Larry Fink’s recent advice to his hedgefund’s shareholders that the widening of investment in AI to more small investors will be the only way to avoid horrendous levels of rising economic iniquity, so disturbing. Placing Finks in Cook’s chosen moral universe this directive makes perfect sense. Whereas placed in mine Finks is calling upon the most vulnerable to volunteer to fund the SS AI Titanic to keep it afloat a little longer.
Not a single word about the EU’s interference with hardware (USB-C), software (GDPR, App Store, insane default app picker), E2EE backdoor threats, or fines - or California’s age OS-level age verification 😂
Couldn't Cook have told China and Trump to go fuck themselves? Could Trump have undermined one of the several most powerful, wealthy corporations in the world without taking down the stock market he measures himself by? Could China have shown itself to be an undependable partner in manufacturing for the world, when their economy so largely prospers through just that?
The man's got no balls. Why hasn't his board fired him?
Welcome to the resistance!
That so many friends can’t understand or can’t see shows the power of the structure we live under.
Oh wow. The bite from the apple. That is a lovely metaphor. Well done.
Very poetic. I have restacked.
I know nothing about the development of Apple or history of either man (I just know that, as a barely capable computer-user, I love Apple products and find them very intuitive), so I can't speak to the comments by Rdw and BH in this thread. But I do know that Trump is a malignant sociopath and that bowing down to him reveals a lot about a person.
The most embarrassing thing is what a cheap whore he is.
And I mean literally cheap, comparatively piddling amounts of money-type, cheap. Easily bought and as easily resold, like a bad used car.
If we all take a stand against evil together it won't be scarey. It will be exhilarating. Fear is nothing but surrender of the helps that come from reason. - Wisdom of Solomon (Apocrypha)
Yet, how do we come together to stand against evil? Do we summon another demon to cast out the one we have now? :)
The fight against our shadow is not so much a singular battle with a promise of a winning end as a lifetime war to maintain personal integrity. This necessitates constant personal introspection and moral choice. How we act in little ways daily affects and informs everything and everyone around us for good or ill.
What I know about Jobs is that he ripped off a lot of people for their ideas and IP … and packaged it nicely. With slave labor from China. Whether that was Cook’s decision, I don’t know, but I believe it was made while Jobs was alive.
Mr. Jobs did many things worthy of moral scorn. But he was, at least, his own man. Who had some semblance of dignity. And respect for human dignity.
Indeed. A quick read of "Apple in China" reveals all.
I've never been an Apple fan. But taking others ideas and combining them into a successful, and generally well-designed, set of products is not simply "ripping off." Apple's not like Microsoft, which built an empire on its pirate version of DR-DOS.
Fantastic articulation of Apple's evolution and application of many of Patrick McGee's arguments to current affairs.
In pop culture, it's called the Jump the Shark moment, that clearly identifiable act that separates the Before from the After. The beginning of the end was when Jobs died and Cook took over, but this plaque is the official marker that Apple no longer seeks to change the world, but to preserve it. Jobs was one of the "crazy ones" he spoke of in Apple's best ad ever (the 1984 Macintosh Super Bowl ad turned out not to be a promise, but a deception that kept us from seeing that technology would become the threat it promised to protect us from). Tim Cook, on the other hand, is the antithesis of a crazy one. It's why Apple hasn't had a transformative product since Jobs passed.
Excellent essay. Thank you from a former Apple employee (and a stockholder, and a user of Apple products since 1985)
This is a brilliant essay. Thanks. I was wondering why I was finding Larry Fink’s recent advice to his hedgefund’s shareholders that the widening of investment in AI to more small investors will be the only way to avoid horrendous levels of rising economic iniquity, so disturbing. Placing Finks in Cook’s chosen moral universe this directive makes perfect sense. Whereas placed in mine Finks is calling upon the most vulnerable to volunteer to fund the SS AI Titanic to keep it afloat a little longer.
Beautiful and sad.
Not a single word about the EU’s interference with hardware (USB-C), software (GDPR, App Store, insane default app picker), E2EE backdoor threats, or fines - or California’s age OS-level age verification 😂
Couldn't Cook have told China and Trump to go fuck themselves? Could Trump have undermined one of the several most powerful, wealthy corporations in the world without taking down the stock market he measures himself by? Could China have shown itself to be an undependable partner in manufacturing for the world, when their economy so largely prospers through just that?
The man's got no balls. Why hasn't his board fired him?
Cook's genuflection makes Apple now rotten as a pear.