
Why I Retired From Apple - swilliams
http://donmelton.com/2013/02/17/why-i-retired-from-apple/
======
apawloski
"But if there’s anything I do aspire to, it’s being a writer. ... I’m not vain
enough to think it’s my snappy prose that drew the visitors. It was the
subject matter."

Don (if you're out there reading this), your blog has almost single-handedly
returned me to using an RSS reader. Yes, initially this was for your
Safari/WebKit war stories, but please stop being so humble. You've won the
technical-yet-engaging lottery -- please take advantage of this for those of
us who fail in one (or both) categories.

~~~
donmelton
Thank you so much. I am humbled by that, sir. I will take your advice to
heart.

~~~
Evbn
Parent said to stop being so humble.

~~~
larrys
Not reflecting on Don who I don't know but I've always wondered if people who
go out of their way in trying to appear to be humble are reacting to the
disgust that they feel when others aren't appearing humble.

Stuff like this:

"I think it was a shock to my son to see how I was regarded at work. Of
course, that didn’t mean he started respecting me at home but, hey, a man can
dream."

and this:

"At my core, I’m just a tinkerer who got very lucky."

Edit: What I mean is that Don (appears) to be going out of his way to say "aw
shucks I'm not special I got lucky" and "I'm well respected but my kid still
gives me problems just like yours does". The bragging of the first sentence
"shock to my son to see how I was regarded" is tempered by the 2nd sentence.
(Same with the tinkerer/got very lucky in other words I'm no different then
you are we are all equal but I got lucky so don't hate me..)

~~~
RyanZAG
Personally, I'd say just take them at their word: this is how they actually
feel. Not everyone is trying to win some kind of popularity contents with
every sentence they write. While he may have been trying to temper his 1st
sentence, as you say, I'm going to just believe he is being genuine here and
means exactly what he says. I don't think he is really going out of his way
here.

~~~
donmelton
Yeah, there was nothing devious there. I hope.

The line about my son was partly to annoy him since he, unlike my wife, reads
my blog. And we punk each other like that all the time.

------
jonemo
Institutionalizing weekly deadline panic on Sunday night seems like a horrible
idea to me. Nothing wrong with passionate people working many hours for what
they love per se. But something in me thinks that marginalizing all those
people who are good at what they do but like to have a little bit of life
outside work can't be good business practice. You can love your job as much as
you like, it will never make up for not getting to see the world beyond your
office building and the scenery of you daily commute.

Edit: I hope they at least have a vacation policy in place that makes up for
this madness.

------
niggler
"Maybe I was just tired.

And when you’re responsible for so many people, you owe them more than that.
Better to step aside and let others have their turn. So I did."

All too often we see managers hold onto jobs and effectively stifle others
with poor management, but it's refreshing to see someone think about the good
of the company _.

_ EDIT: and the good of the people for which he was responsible (thanks
nsmartt)

~~~
tsunamifury
I would hazard a guess that if they were all paid as well as him, they would
retire too.

~~~
olentangy
I didn't work for Don, but as an engineer in another part of the company. I
too was able to retire (at age 49).

It makes me sad that the stock options that made my retirement possible won't
be available to the next generation of engineers because of bad tax law
(Sarbanes-Oxley).

~~~
chetanahuja
How does that follow exactly ? Aren't RSU's an option (like at Google) to
reward employees with stocks (but not stock _options_ ) ?

~~~
othermaciej
Typically you get a much smaller number of RSUs than options. Though there's
no strike price. So RSUs are often worth more if the stock doesn't move much,
but worth a lot less if there is a huge run-up.

~~~
btilly
The benefit of RSUs to the company is not just that they are worth more if a
stock doesn't move much, but that they retain value when a stock drops. This
avoids the trap where a company has a dip in value, and suddenly all of the
people you were trying to keep golden handcuffs on have nothing keeping them
there. So they start leaving, which causes you real problems.

The downside is exactly what you say - the potential upside on options is
massively greater than RSUs.

~~~
rboyd
Am I missing something? You still have the same problem with RSUs. RSU value
can decline enough that your staff may feel they're no longer getting fair
comp and move on.

~~~
btilly
It _can_ , but it is a lot harder.

If your stock price dips 20%, odds are that most of the stock options you've
given out in the last couple of years are now out of the money. But your RSUs
retained 80% of their value. 80% of a golden handcuff is a lot better
incentive to stay than 0% of one. However Wall St can easily drop your stock
price 20% based on nothing real.

------
duopixel
I've been thinking about all the great things that have happened within tech
companies in the last few decades, and it seems clear to me that a couple of
centuries into the future, some of these events will be hallmarks of history.
I don't think it's crazy to say that Tim Berners-Lee will eventually reach the
same stature of Gutenberg.

Unfortunately there aren't many 'historians of technology' so people like Don
Melton are doing an invaluable work to record the inner culture where
technological revolution is taking place. Nobody is better suited to write
history than those who made it happen. All the best to Don in his new
adventure :)

~~~
rednukleus
It really depends on how things progress. Apple might be in the history books
as a "shining example of how tightly integrated hardware and software works so
well"; or as "the last big attempt which showed that in the long run closed
systems never work". It could really go either way from here.

How these events are remembered is going to be very coloured by how they are
perceived after the event.

~~~
simonh
I think the historical perception bias you're talking about is why so many
people dismissed Apple's attempt to enter the phone market as doomed from the
start. Hence Ballmer's famous quip "I like our business model" when the iPhone
came out.

Steve Job's analysis of the situation in the 90s was quite different. He put
Apple's failure to capture the mass market back then to Apple leaving a price
umbrella under which Windows could grow to dominate the market, and stated
that Apple would make sure not to do that with what we now call iOS devices. I
think Apple's strategy is to lower prices as required to maintain a viable
market share, but keep them high enough to dominate in terms of profit share.

It may well turn out that the business model (licensed OS versus integrated
hardware/software) doesn't actually matter all that much.

------
eykanal
After reading so many "I'm leaving company X because try all suck" posts, this
was such a nice read. The author didn't leave because he hated everyone, or
because he felt very the business model was evil, or because he was tired of
being worked like a dog, he left because e did his part and was done.

While I know it internally, it's always nice to read someone saying, "I did my
part, I did it well, and I'm leaving on good terms, with no regrets." This
post gives me more hope for myself.

~~~
wpietri
I think it depends a lot on when you leave. If you work past the point of
being done with it, you really start to hate it. And then it's very easy to
blame everybody and everything else, rather than your decision to stay past
the point where you loved it.

I get why people do that, though. Sometimes they love something and want to
fight for it. Sometimes they have to keep working if they want their kids to
keep eating. Sometimes they just don't notice that moment where they crossed
the line.

So kudos to him for knowing when to quit.

~~~
hef19898
Yes, to actually catch the point where you should leave is the hardest thing.
Kudos that there are people out there who can. So there's still hope!

------
wpietri
I can't help but connect this: "When I looked inside myself, I didn’t see
ambition or even drive to continue. I’m not sure how that happened."

with this: "It’s Sunday night as I publish this. That means it’s a working
night for most managers at Apple. Even more so for Director-level personnel
like I was."

I used to be a sysadmin, and I loved it. After a few years working lots of
hours in a high-pressure role for financial traders, I was, like Don, just
done. I had nothing left for that. In retrospect, that was burnout.

------
Jabbles
It may be harsh to sum up this article in a single word, but I recognise this
as "burnout". It's not uncommon, and it affects people in different ways, but
is usually accompanied by a (sudden?) drop in ambition.

~~~
jmduke
What you see as 'burnout' I see as closure.

Don accomplished pretty much everything he wanted to, and more.

Why continue running laps around a familiar track when you could go someplace
else?

~~~
donmelton
Closure — that's actually a very good way to put it. I didn't feel burned out.
Just tired and complete.

But I was very fortunate to have the means to retire. Many who experience
burnout don't have that choice. Which is another reason there's such churn in
this business.

As a manager, one thing I always watched for were the signs of burnout. I
always said I spent way more time coaching people to pace themselves than to
work harder.

~~~
jusben1369
Don. How big was your team?

~~~
donmelton
Not that big. About 140 I think. My admin would know for sure.

------
suyash
@donmelton thanks for the article, What are hours per week you would say you
worked? How many hours did engineers in your team put from best to worst? Just
curious as to how apple work culture was.

------
xentronium
> I refer to myself here as a “recovering programmer.” That simply means I no
> longer pursue engineering as a primary activity. And that I’m self aware
> enough to know that I’ll occasionally fall off the wagon and start coding
> again.

Slightly off topic:

Is there such a thing as an ex-programmer? Do you know any previously
dedicated programmer that went cold turkey on any programming whatsoever?

~~~
donmelton
If there is, I've never met one. :)

------
goloxc
before I even got to the part about being a writer, I was reading the post
thinking "damn, this guy is a good writer. Smooth, clear, and to the point,
while still letting the ideas manifest within the reader." Literary writers
can get too engrossed in their prose, I like to think this style comes from a
great engineer and designer. No surprise the writer worked with Apple

------
jrochkind1
You don't actually tell us why you retired from Apple beyond "The truth is I
was done." Or did I miss it?

I mean, that might be the only reason you've got... but I'm not sure why this
would be interesting to an audience of people who don't know you personally.
On the other hand, it seems to have been, so what do I know.

------
tunesmith
"I think it was a shock to my son to see how I was regarded at work. Of
course, that didn’t mean he started respecting me at home but, hey, a man can
dream."

Ouch. Not sure this sort of public comment would help matters any.

~~~
donmelton
My son, unlike my wife, reads my blog. That's in there just to tweak him. We
punk each other like that all the time.

------
clobber
I certainly hope that working Sunday nights and traditional corporate
structures where we refer to co-workers below us as "minions" is not something
the new generation of engineers aspire to.

This sounds like the typical toxic corporate work environment of people
grabbing for "power."

~~~
teach
I'm pretty sure his use of the word 'minions' is meant to be ironic.

~~~
reaclmbs
But there's a kernel of truth

~~~
donmelton
My former minions probably think that. :)

~~~
hober
I, for one, am happy to be able to say that I was one of Don's minions. :)

