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Resigned
- A-K 15y agoGruber at his best. I get the feeling that he's had large pieces of this particular post in the works for quite some time.
- technoslut 15y agoI have to agree. It's been awhile since I've read something like this from him. Well-chosen words throughout the whole post.
- juliano_q 15y agoThe company is a fractal design. Simplicity, elegance, beauty, cleverness, humility. Good text, but maybe not well-chosen words throughout the whole post. Humility is a little too much.
- pohl 15y agoI find humility in things like deciding to ship without copy/paste, or the decision to ship the initial phone without an SDK. These decisions are an implicit admission that the company wasn't able to get these things sufficiently polished or thought-through to include in a given iteration.
- yequalsx 15y agoThat's an interesting take. I've not thought of it that way. Apple doesn't include everything a device obviously should have in the first iteration but what it does include it does very well. All of the iPad competitor devices absolutely suck at looking up the definition of a word in an ebook. (The ones I've tried that is.) On the iPad it is so simple, so intuitive, and quite fast. When they do something they do it well.
- CrazedGeek 15y agoEr, what? At least in the Kindle app on Honeycomb, you just long press a word to see its definition.
- juliano_q 15y agoYep, I read using the Kindle app every day and since I am not a native english speaker I use this function a lot and it works quite well.
- technoslut 15y agoYou don't understand that the Kindle is geared towards something very specific. Apple is building an entire OS. You can three-finger tap to get the dictionary, after highlighting, in iOS 5. Sidenote: Apple views these gestures as the equivalent to keyboard shortcuts. For the end user you want to create the obvious so they won't be confused.
- CrazedGeek 15y agoI don't think that select and three-finger-tap is anywhere close to obvious- doing anything with more than two fingers is already pretty rare on iOS.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- icarus_drowning 15y agoI've been quite critical of Gruber recently, but I agree. A wonderful, thoughtful, and bittersweet post.
- scorpion032 15y agoEither that or he wrote all of the post in that nervous jolt.
- jmspring 15y agoI have to agree, and a lot of the other responses in this thread are disheartening/annoying. The biggest thing Steve Jobs brought to Apple was to build a culture that supported his vision. Apple as a whole is focused on the mold that Steve brought back with him. Tim Cook has been the avatar and excellence in this image on the operations/production side. A company that has AMAZING profit margins on it's products due to the operational efforts to buying up needed parts ahead of time, etc. I suspect Jonathan Ive will be able to continue the design esthetic. Apple is a company running on all cylinders to deliver focused products. This differs greatly from the Apple before Job's returned. Will the focus erode? Possibly, maybe some of the perfection will be lost, but there is a much stronger base in plance than ANY other company in the valley in the last 20+ years. Compare this with Microsoft when Bill Gates steped down. While, I personally feel that MSFT has made some positive steps in mobile with the Nokia partnership and WinPhone 7 doesn't suck, the company wasn't focused. Each department was kinda doing it's own thing. Ballmer was left to try and build something out of a lot of disparite pieces. As such, MSFT, as a stock, has basically flatlined for 10+ years. I think it is safe to say, outside of Hewlett & Packard (more recently) and the Fairchild Eight, no single person has been more influential on the Bay Area technology scene in my lifetime (born and raised here). I will go one step further, and state, I don't see any of the current "elite" Paige/Brin/Zuck/Ellison(he's still around and strong) contributing anywhere as much. Steve, like Bill and Dave, Gordon Moore (etal), are in a class of their own. I've loved/hated AAPL products over the years, but Steve has been nothing but a gem for the valley.
- pooriaazimi 15y agoJobs’s greatest creation isn’t any Apple product. It is Apple itself. True.
- knappster 15y agoI agree, best line of the post.
- kristofferR 15y agoI completely agree. I will gladly bet $100 on that Apple, without Steve Jobs' help, will create a new product in the coming decade that'll revolutionize (or even create) a market completely like they've done with the iPod, iPhone, iPad and many other products. Steve Jobs may not be the CEO anymore, but his spirit and philosophy will be alive and well in Apple for a long time to come, no matter what happens with him personally.
- sabat 15y agoI will gladly bet $100 on that Apple, without Steve Jobs' help, will create a new product in the coming decade that'll revolutionize Maybe, but skeptics will probably be right to doubt it. Many had similar hopes as yours when Steve was fired from Apple in the '80s. The company ambled along for a few years, then started its famous nosedive. Expect the same this time.
- kenjackson 15y agoExcept in the 80s Jobs didn't hand pick his successor (at the time of his succession).
- pooriaazimi 15y agoThis, and the fact that the man himself is still on the board of directors (at least for a few years). Also, don't forget that Apple is stuffed with talented people, like Ive, Forstall and Federighi who won't let apple become another 'me too' company with junky and overpriced products (like the Apple in the late 80's): http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/news/1105/gallery.fortune500_apple_executives.fortune/index.html http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/news/1105/gallery.fortun...
- aculver 15y agoOne of the first tweets I read in the minutes after this news broke was "@gruber Well? Help us process this, John." I'm glad he didn't waste any time.
- untog 15y agoReally? No offense intended to Gruber but I really don't see what his blog post says that dozens, if not hundreds of people haven't already said. Including in the comments on HN.
- navitronic 15y agoI think, and I might be going out on a limb here... that it was a joke.
- technoslut 15y agoGood writing isn't necessarily the message itself but how the message is delivered.
- st3fan 15y agoThe thing to keep in mind is this: Apple tomorrow, a week from now, and next month is the exact same Apple from yesterday, a week ago, and last month. Don't know about that. Apple, like all hi-tech companies, is constantly changing, adapting, finding new ways, dealing with change, innovation, etc.
- watty 15y agoI thought the same thing - that'd be called denial.
- watty 15y agoI know my first comment got down voted but perhaps it was because I didn't provide enough details? Apple will continue being Apple - that is they won't change names, they'll continue innovating and creating amazing products. But to say they'll be the same Apple with and without Steve Jobs is silly and belittles the importance of having Steve in the company in the first place. There's no doubt that the path of Apple will be different.
- pohl 15y agoHe's describing, at most, a two month stretch of time. Your response is entirely true, of course, but you're not speaking in the same scope. I think all John is saying here is that it's not going to collapse before our eyes, and that established teams, corporate cultures, and philosophies take time to erode.
- lukeqsee 15y agoApple, like all hi-tech companies, is constantly changing, adapting, finding new ways, dealing with change, innovation, etc. "Technology is not changing [life] much — if at all." ~ Steve Jobs Apple will still be Apple. Apple will: Stay hungry. Stay foolish. And Apple will: Think different. The one real change? No more Jobs' keynotes. I'm sad.
- tonetheman 15y agoHow exactly is a company a fractal design? What the hell does that mean really? Seriously how does this apple-ass-clown constantly make it to the front page? Apple is not a person it is a company. Steve might be full of humility, Apple is not.
- xand 15y agoCompletely agree. Why is this militant fanboy's posts always front page? It's overly biased dribble every time.
- kanamekun 15y agoFractals have a property called self-similarity, where "a self-similar object is exactly or approximately similar to a part of itself." John is saying that Apple's products have an "Apple-ness", as does each app on each product, each feature within each app, etc. He is suggesting that the zen-like simplicity of Apple can be found at many different levels of the organization. I don't think it's overly biased dribble... it's an eloquent point that Apple Inc. is a culture (cult?) with a clearly identifiable philosophy that permeates every element of the org.
- jgruber 15y agoExactly.
- jpitz 15y ago"You write on your site; I write on mine." http://daringfireball.net/2010/06/whats_fair http://daringfireball.net/2010/06/whats_fair It _still_ isn't clear whether the parent is Daring Fireball's author ( but I don't suppose I doubt it much )
- macrael 15y agoVerified: http://twitter.com/#!/gruber/status/106762517526745089 http://twitter.com/#!/gruber/status/106762517526745089
- joppa_road 15y agoi just can't get the words of dennis hopper from apocalypse now out of my head: when he dies, it dies, man.
- Estragon 15y agoWhat an irritating post, basically saying nothing but, "Hey, look, I saw this coming!"
- dcposch 15y ago"The company is a fractal design. Simplicity, elegance, beauty, cleverness, humility. Directness. Truth." lolwut? I have deep respect for some of Apple's design leadership, but calling the company humble is pure fanboyism. The "truth" part is also questionable. Apple's product announcements are usually gushing with superlatives, sometimes at the expense of accuracy: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/03/03/steve-jobs-reality-distortion-takes-its-toll-on-truth/ http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/03/03/steve-jobs-reality-di...
- tyler_ball 15y agoI don't think he meant truth in terms of marketing (although I'm hard-pressed to think of a case where Apple has outright lied in their ads, but maybe in a release) but truth as design fundamental. Based on the context of that sentence I would say Gruber meant it more in the way of "truth to materials" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_to_materials http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_to_materials) in which Apple's design is reductive and efficient to the user. No ornament beyond the materials that construct the product.
- trezor 15y agoI see you are trying to draw attention away from the fact that Apple has on repeated occations shown to be dishonest, disengenious and outright misrepresenting competitors by presenting information in ways they knew to be wrong. I see you do that and I wonder why on earth anyone would be so loyal to a corporation that they would be willing to drag their own credibility down to defend the credibility of a corporation which in they have no vested interest. It baffles me and makes no sense. That aside, let's get back to what you said: I don't think he meant truth in terms of marketing ...snip... but truth as design fundamental. Can you elaborate on what you think this is supposed to mean, apart from being a divertion away from the fact that Apple, more than any other company currently out there, manipulates and lies to their audience and to sustain their image as "different"?
- ryandvm 15y agoI, apparently in agreement with Apple's investors today, have a little trouble with the notion that Steve Jobs stepping down will have no effect on Apple's success. I'm afraid the Apple faithful are playing a little fast and loose with logic on this one. Let me see if we have this straight... 1) Steve Jobs was absolutely and almost singularly responsible for Apple's meteoric rise over the last 14 years. His vision, his taste, his standards, his business acumen, all of it - has driven Apple past competitor after competitor to become the most valuable company in the world. [By the way, I agree.] 2) Steve Jobs is also completely unnecessary for Apple's continued success. [Hmmmm] I think I can agree with Gruber's wisdom in choosing to prognosticate no further than a month. What made Apple remarkable is going away today. From here on out Apple will be as likely as the next company to blunder in the marketplace by playing it safe. You will not see Tim Cook do anything half as insane/brilliant as Jobs was capable of.
- mcrady 15y agoAgreed. Just look at Microsoft after Gates. Or Intel after Grove. In both cases, they turned things over to operational, #2 types in Balmer and Barrett and in both cases, the companies stagnated.
- wtallis 15y agoAnd in both cases, the transition was right before the industry-wide dot-com bust, and in both cases, the company is still huge and profitable and nearly a monopoly. So Apple's probably not doomed. They just might stop being the source of the next big thing. Apple's exponential growth has to end sometime, and somebody's going to be unlucky enough to be CEO at that time.
- runevault 15y agoThe difference is while apple has made a ton of money, they don't have the dominant control of a market the way a company like MS did when Gates stepped down. Monetarily sure they're stupid successful but it's still quite easy to leave most of their platforms, the biggest exception probably being iTunes due to people being used to using it to manage their music, no matter how shitty the app is.
- MikeCapone 15y agoI thought that the Slaughterhouse-Five reference at the end was appropriate. Stuff happens, we need to deal with it as best as we can and keep looking ahead. That's what Steve always does.
- cookiecaper 15y agoAh yes, I can tell that Steve has this personal quality because of the layout of the iPhone.
- MikeCapone 15y agoI'll assume this is sarcasm. I was basing this on his biography.
- scott_s 15y agoI think the reference had unintended implications: the phrase "so it goes" is only used when something dies.
- rockmeamedee 15y agoI think he summed it very well with Vonnegut at the end. So it goes.
- Tichy 15y agoI have to say, I am more concerned about Steve Jobs than about Apple. Today's news made me sad because the world will miss contributions from a genius. I am confident that we will have nice computing hardware in the future. Even today, Apple are not the only ones to deliver. But there is/was only one Steve Jobs. Guess I am one of the few on HN who doesn't own Apple stock, so I am free to just worry about the man and not the company.
- j_col 15y agoTotally agree, lets hope the man makes a full recovery. While I'm not a fan of Apple, I do appreciate his profound impact on this industry.
- sigzero 15y agoIt wasn't a surprise to anyone. Everyone knew it would happen eventually. He is still remaining the Chairman of the Board, so he will be around for a bit in that role. I see nothing changing for the immediate future but we will see.
- Zakharov 15y agoAfter reading that I had to stop and remind myself that Jobs isn't dead yet; the article read like an obituary.