
Myths About Apple Design, From An Ex-Apple Designer - busterc
http://fastcodesign.com/3030923/4-myths-about-apple-design-from-an-ex-apple-designer
======
jarrett
The part about being dedicated enough to donate weekends and vacation time
struck me. I'm of multiple minds about that mentality when it's applied to a
large company. On the one hand, there's something beautiful about having a day
job _so meaningful_ you'll happily do more of it for free. On the other hand,
I wonder if there's something exploitative about the following situation: Both
employees and owners give over their lives, employees get satisfaction, and
owners get satisfaction _plus_ the financial rewards of the lives everyone
donated. On the other other hand, if the employees enter into that deal
consciously and happily, then maybe nobody loses. On the other other other
hand, maybe there's also an element of brainwashing--which can, in principle,
cause people to consciously and happily enter into exploitative relationships.
Clearly, this is a complicated issue, and I don't feel at all qualified to
pass moral judgment on it one way or another.

~~~
j10t
I am not exceptionally smart, but I am a "hard worker." I often work nights
and weekends, and I don't hate it.

As a result of my efforts, I am more skilled, and consequently enjoy a more
lucrative position than I otherwise would. If I were a mediocre developer I
could earn half as much as I do, or less. My nights & weekends developing
software for my employer are investments in myself.

~~~
opendais
> My nights & weekends developing software for my employer are investments in
> myself.

No offense, but if they were investments in yourself I think you'd be either:

A) Moonlight for $$

B) Working on a startup idea you were thinking about [you are on HN after all]

The skill gain from doing stuff for your employer for $0, at least to me,
doesn't seem equal to the return from things that my benefit me financially
one day.

~~~
danudey
I'm not the parent, but here's my input: As a sysadmin/devops type who mostly
enjoys building infrastructure, none of the stuff I've learned at work could
really be done on my own time, and none of it is stuff I would be likely to
find via contract work (or at least, nothing that I could schedule around a
9-5 job).

Also, not everyone has, or wants to execute on, startup ideas. Some people
don't want to be founders. Some people don't want the stress, the
responsibility, etc. I sure don't. I have a nice job where I can do
experimental things with small/medium-sized infrastructure, I have a much
higher budget than I would in a startup, I get a steady paycheque and vacation
time, and a lot of awesome coworkers.

So all the stuff I've done at my job, like the parent post, is investment in
my skills. The things I've built here, the technologies I've learned, the
failed experiments, all of it contributes towards my professional skills much
more effectively and more efficiently than doing it in my spare time, for a
contract, or for a startup idea.

~~~
opendais
That is valid, I guess this is a case of my point of view clouding my
judgement about what other people's options are. :)

------
stcredzero
_" For Apple, having a small, really focused organization made a lot of sense
when Steve was there, because so many ideas came from Steve. So having a
smaller group work on some of these ideas made sense," Kawano says. "As Apple
shifted to much more of a company where there's multiple people at the top, I
think it makes sense that they're growing the design team in interesting
ways."_

If anything turns out to be Apple's downfall, it is embodied in this
paragraph. In most companies, to beat your competitors, you first have to
defeat the other corporate divisions. The presence of Steve Jobs probably
prevented this and resulted in a significant part of Apple's competitive
advantage. The key here is not Steve Jobs per se, but that a single individual
could champion particular ideas and see them through to completion without
opposition and interference.

Amazon currently enjoys something like this, I suspect.

~~~
snowwrestler
Jobs did turn divisions against one another, as when considering whether to
build the iPhone with iPod OS or OS X.

Jobs also permitted silos; for example under Jobs, iOS and OS X were largely
separate teams. Cook seems to have taken a major step toward dissolving those
silos by dismissing Scott Forestall and consolidating all design under Ive and
all software under Federighi.

Based on the recent iOS and OS X previews, it looks like Apple divisions are
working very well with one another right now.

~~~
stcredzero
_Jobs did turn divisions against one another, as when considering whether to
build the iPhone with iPod OS or OS X._

 _Jobs also permitted silos; for example under Jobs, iOS and OS X were largely
separate teams._

Neither of those are counterexamples. While Jobs had different units compete,
that competition was constructive in the sense of supplying multiple options
which the leadership could then choose from. (Toyota also does this.) This is
different from the passive-aggressive sabotage one often sees in big
corporations.

Also, "silos" were used to foster new development. I suspect they were used to
insulate groups from the passive-aggressive fratricide one sees in large
corporations.

------
Retr0spectrum
That site works great on mobile devices!
[http://i.imgur.com/W9ouzFS.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/W9ouzFS.jpg)

~~~
nsxwolf
I see this everywhere now and it's driving me nuts. Who thought using up that
much space on a mobile device was a good idea?

~~~
normloman
Verizon probably thinks it's a good idea. Their banner ad dominates the
layout.

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nsxwolf
MYTH #5: Steve Jobs was a vegan.

I knew about the unagi. But salmon, too?

~~~
k-mcgrady
From reading his biography it sounded like he experimented with lots of
different diets. And it didn't seem like he chose them for any reason other
than health.

~~~
marincounty
I wish he went went for western medicine! I miss the guy. I see his yacht and
he never got to use it. I know it's trivial-- a rich guy not setting foot on
his yacht, but Steve didn't seem like the typical rich dude. Anyways--his
death reaffirmed just how short life is! I wish these companies would throw
billions at cancer research instead of Apps?

------
_random_
"MYTH #1 Apple Has The Best Designers" \- don't want to be a troll, but it's
enough to say "iOS7" as an anwser (e.g.
[http://www.nngroup.com/articles/ios-7](http://www.nngroup.com/articles/ios-7))

~~~
Gracana
I don't think it makes a difference whether or not you want to be a troll when
you're writing troll comments.

~~~
godDLL
I see what you did there.

