While I agree that Steve was one-of-a-kind, irreplaceable and the heart and soul of the company, does anyone else think that annual company-wide reminders of Apple's fallen leader on or about the anniversary of his death should be put to bed at some point?
I think it should be slowly wound down, but I think you have to remember that Steve Jobs wasn't just a typical CEO (or even founder) of a big company. Steve Jobs is very much in the same league as Henry Ford, I think. He is a figure of actual historical importance to the world, as opposed to being a reasonably famous tech CEO.
So, although I agree that Apple might wind down some of this stuff over the years...I also think that it's important for them to continue to keep Steve at the core of what they do, and to continually remind employees about his impact and what he believed. I don't think that's harmful really.
<span style="line-height:1.4em;">I still miss Steve though. I can't help but wonder, if humanity had had the medical technology to cure his disease, what more wonderful stuff he would have come up with.</span>
We did. If he’d not been as thickheaded he’d still be here. He may not, however, have been him.
Exactly.
It's like saying: what if Mozart had lived for another 35 years? Just think of all the extra masterpieces he would have composed! But it's circumstance that moulds a man.
Part of the genius that made Steve and gave us all the wonders of Apple is also part of the genius that made him take an unusual diet and may have caused health problems. That's life.
Here we are, three years to the day since the death of Steve Jobs.
It's a date that I remember well, as a doctor performed a large operation that day to save my leg. When I came round, I heard the news of his demise.
Although he stood out for his charisma in the keynotes, what got to me was his deep thoughtfulness, humility and goodness. I miss him.
“Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
[U][/U]I kind of agree with Gruber the the paragraph below was meant for the outside world.
[QUOTE]Steve’s vision extended far beyond the years he was alive, and the values on which he built Apple will always be with us. [B][I]Many of the ideas and projects we’re working on today got started after he died[/I][/B], but his influence on them — and on all of us — is unmistakeable.[/QUOTE]
Of course we'll still get the Steve wouldn't have crowd as if they know better what Steve would/wouldn't do than the execs at Apple who worked for him for 15 years. I re-watched some of the September keynote and when Tim Cook announced ?Watch it got a standing ovation from the employees in the crowd. You could tell the people who worked on the project were very proud to show it off to the world. While Tim might not be a product guy in the same way Steve was I do think employees are proud to work for him just like they were for Steve. Tim might not have an opinion on the shade of blue used for the mail app icon but he will ensure Apple has everything needed to make something like ?Watch a reality. He will be its biggest cheerleader and champion.
Mr Cook has never been a full-on manager as such; he was just a good COO...so do not ask for the impossible.
trollish comment... as you are well aware,
Tim Cook's COO performance was stellar if not Genius, and I am sure many would argue that he was (still is) the world's best COO.
perhaps, you are confusing CEO, with COO. Even so, Tim Cook is not just a good CEO, because have things improved for Apple?. Is Apple making more money than it ever has?. if so then he is GREAT CEO.
You're right, Tim is spending all this time writing "warm and fuzzy missives" (ie, a paragraph about Steve once a year)- and he didn't do this, clearly it would free up all his time to actually manage the company, right? It's not like Cook organized a second mock funeral, or a vigil- he emailed a fucking paragraph to his company.
The fact that the bulk of your bitching entails
1. A free Album
2. A livestream
3. An iOS bug that was fixed in a day
After more than 3 years, these are the biggest faults you can find with Cook leadership- that says alot about that. Pretty much every product released under Cook has been the best of its class, and has improved that category further, eliciting both excellent reviews and sales. Cook knows full well how to run Apple and forge ahead. The fact that he has the humanity and tact to write a paragraph on the anniversary of the passing of Apple's founder, and one of the most famous CEOS (if not the most famous) of all time, doesn't change that. It's actually you who haven't moved on- as you (and others) have created a fantasy about Apple under Steve that never existed- ie, that Apple was better than it is now. Which it wasn't. Or that if Steve was alive, a stream wouldnt have fucked up (that Steve would have had nothing to do with), an Album wouldnt have been given away, or there wouldnt have been an iOS bug (again, its not like SJ personally checked the code). Maybe, just MAYBE if you compared Apple to everyone else in the marketplace today, instead of a fantasy, alternate reality where Steve was still running it and everything is perfect, than you would see how skewed your perspective is, and how little credit you're giving Cook for all the successes in the past few years.
If someone was thinking of a worst case scenario, and best case scenario at the time of Steve's death, 3 years in the future, I don't know how any sane, rational human being wouldn't acknowledge that we're much close to a "best case scenario". Apple is solidifying it's lead in all the areas that matter, they're producing excellent products, they're leveraging their strengths to make solutions noone else can make, and they're entering new markets and services. They're doing exactly what they should be doing on both a micro and macro level- and your bitching about a livestream that 99.99999% of Apple's customers didnt watch, the execution of an album give-away, or a bug that was promptly fixed makes you look very, very small minded and tiny, as you're desperately magnifying small issues, and deciding to ignore all the massive victories. Also, Apple is selling so many more units than under Steve, even if the bugs are LESS and failure rate is LOWER, you're gonna get more people with issues, magnified by social media and click-whore anti-Apple publications that will do their best to magnify further. But I'm sure this didn't even occur to you.
I find it difficult to express how completely I agree with this!
If there is really anybody who *honestly* thinks that Tim spending 15 minutes - twice a year - to write a paragraph remembering the companies founder - is negligent as a CEO and/or results in even an iota of distraction - they are so far out of touch with reality that they will always be the laughing stock of any intelligent conversation!
I agree. Tim it's your show now, move on. There will only be one Steve Jobs. I loved the man from my first computer, which was a Apple II, to now. But he is gone. Tim you need to let the past die, so to speak, and concentrate all of Apple's creativity on the future. And don't remind us all of his passing every year, we already know.
It was not addressed to you. What an arrogant, twitty post.
I’m heavily invested in Apple... I’ve been using their products since...
This doesn’t matter.
...screw ups like the ones we’ve seen in the past few weeks were few and far between.
Same as now. Get over it.
...the 6+ ...feel[s] like a reaction, not to what the customer needs, but what the customer thinks he wants.
Agreed 100%. But the 6 is the sexiest piece of hardware I’ve ever had the pleasure of using. I got some gooseberry jam–which is as close to eating actual crow as you can get without getting psittacosis–and have been enjoying it on toast as of late.
I believe he will be Earth's first interplanetary entrepreneur and he will achieve his goal to live on Mars.
Know what would really give the funding for a Moon base (or rotating space station)? Geriatrics.
Picture a retirement home on the Moon. Low gravity so less work for your joints, specialized medicines grown in low grav/micrograv... Heck, you could jump and run around without hurting yourself. I bet there are enough old people willing to pay for that to build a proper base.
I really felt obliged to post in this thread today.
I ‘ve been drawing a lot of strength from Steve’s commencement speech the past couple of months during a phase of personal and professional transition. I ‘ve also been thinking about him a lot. Of course, I’d listened to it quite a few times before, but I think only these past weeks I am really listening to it, word for word. (Listening, what a gift, one Steve had in abundance. It’s extremely difficult to carry on with your plans with conviction, and still be open to listen, and it takes a great man to do that.) Funny how life works out because I wasn’t aware a week ago, that today would be the day he passed away, and somehow it aligned with my own trajectory. “You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect the dots looking backwards."
I wholeheartedly agree with Benjamin Frost. Steve had a basic goodness, deep thougthfullness and humility.
I ‘d also like to suggest that people listen to his “lost” interview to, it’s on youtube. I’ve been watching his last few years too, his public appearances. It was obvious to me then, it’s even more so now: I see a dying man, a man struggling to hold on to life and to his life’s work, and he excelled at both, more than anyone possibly could have. The biblical Job isn’t too far off as an association.
I ‘d also like to express my deep admiration and respect for Tim Cook. He’s gained that and he’s completely won me over. If there ever was person who had to fill bigger shoes than him. “Don’t think what I would have done, do what’s right”. And he’s done that for apple, and for the greater good too. Within the confines that a multinational corporation has, he’s outdone everyone else.
I’ve been re-reading his letter. It encapsulates his style: it’s simple, but not simplistic, it’s emotional yet tempered, it’s honest and from the heart, it’s well thought out. And all that make it very lyrical too.
And I ‘d suggest that people read this interview of his:
I really don’t think Steve could have made a better choice. He was young and didn’t know any better when he made the worst possible choice with Sculley, but he corrected that (too) and made the best possible one with Tim Cook.
I ‘d also like to express my deep admiration and respect for Tim Cook. He’s gained that and he’s completely won me over. If there ever was person who had to fill bigger shoes than him. “Don’t think what I would have done, do what’s right”. And he’s done that for apple, and for the greater good too. Within the confines that a multinational corporation has, he’s outdone everyone else.
I’ve been re-reading his letter. It encapsulates his style: it’s simple, but not simplistic, it’s emotional yet tempered, it’s honest and from the heart, it’s well thought out. And all that make it very lyrical too.
I really, really agree with this. At first I (like everyone else) knew that Tim Cook was a skilled businessperson; he had achieved a lot at Apple under Steve Jobs.
But like everyone else, I had no concept initially of how Tim would run the company in the longer term.
As time has gone on though, I've really come to respect Tim as a great business leader. Even if he himself isn't the product genius that Jobs was, at least he a) understands this and b) uses his power to create an environment where such geniuses can flourish.
I love the way Tim talks about products, and how genuinely meaningful product design is at the centre of everything Apple does. He really understands this, I think. And he's clearly serious about continuing to emphasise the values that Steve Jobs was so passionate about.
Some have commented on this, but if you look at the last couple of press conference (i.e. this year particularly), I feel as though we are seeing a far more relaxed Apple. Look at their iOS 8 press conference for example; there were a ton of clever things in there, and there were signs of what I'd call a "careful openness" emerging. It's nice to see.
Steve Jobs would never send a letter to employees on the third anniversary of his death. /s
Exactly. Steve Jobs would never waste time remembering the life of Steve Jobs.
Seriously, is 3 years too long? Considering how many of the people still working at Apple, including Tim Cook, worked with the man, knew him as a friend, and owed him so much? Sure, after 5 years, the tributes might die down, but I expect they'll continue to do something to remember him until the current generation of Apple has gone. Even then, he will have become the mythical founder. I expect they already have something named after him in the new campus.
after 5 years, the tributes might die down, but I expect they'll continue to do something to remember him until the current generation of Apple has gone.
I wonder if they'll switch to remembering his birthday rather than the day he died too. Martin Luther King isn't remembered on the day he died. Remembering the day someone died prolongs mourning whereas the birthday is more a time for remembering the achievements.
after 5 years, the tributes might die down, but I expect they'll continue to do something to remember him until the current generation of Apple has gone.
I wonder if they'll switch to remembering his birthday rather than the day he died too. Martin Luther King isn't remembered on the day he died. Remembering the day someone died prolongs mourning whereas the birthday is more a time for remembering the achievements.
Comments
While I agree that Steve was one-of-a-kind, irreplaceable and the heart and soul of the company, does anyone else think that annual company-wide reminders of Apple's fallen leader on or about the anniversary of his death should be put to bed at some point?
I think it should be slowly wound down, but I think you have to remember that Steve Jobs wasn't just a typical CEO (or even founder) of a big company. Steve Jobs is very much in the same league as Henry Ford, I think. He is a figure of actual historical importance to the world, as opposed to being a reasonably famous tech CEO.
So, although I agree that Apple might wind down some of this stuff over the years...I also think that it's important for them to continue to keep Steve at the core of what they do, and to continually remind employees about his impact and what he believed. I don't think that's harmful really.
Exactly.
It's like saying: what if Mozart had lived for another 35 years? Just think of all the extra masterpieces he would have composed! But it's circumstance that moulds a man.
Part of the genius that made Steve and gave us all the wonders of Apple is also part of the genius that made him take an unusual diet and may have caused health problems. That's life.
It's a date that I remember well, as a doctor performed a large operation that day to save my leg. When I came round, I heard the news of his demise.
Although he stood out for his charisma in the keynotes, what got to me was his deep thoughtfulness, humility and goodness. I miss him.
“Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
Steve Jobs (1955-2011)
Rest in peace.
[QUOTE]Steve’s vision extended far beyond the years he was alive, and the values on which he built Apple will always be with us. [B][I]Many of the ideas and projects we’re working on today got started after he died[/I][/B], but his influence on them — and on all of us — is unmistakeable.[/QUOTE]
Of course we'll still get the Steve wouldn't have crowd as if they know better what Steve would/wouldn't do than the execs at Apple who worked for him for 15 years. I re-watched some of the September keynote and when Tim Cook announced ?Watch it got a standing ovation from the employees in the crowd. You could tell the people who worked on the project were very proud to show it off to the world. While Tim might not be a product guy in the same way Steve was I do think employees are proud to work for him just like they were for Steve. Tim might not have an opinion on the shade of blue used for the mail app icon but he will ensure Apple has everything needed to make something like ?Watch a reality. He will be its biggest cheerleader and champion.
trollish comment... as you are well aware,
Tim Cook's COO performance was stellar if not Genius, and I am sure many would argue that he was (still is) the world's best COO.
perhaps, you are confusing CEO, with COO. Even so, Tim Cook is not just a good CEO, because have things improved for Apple?. Is Apple making more money than it ever has?. if so then he is GREAT CEO.
I find it difficult to express how completely I agree with this!
If there is really anybody who *honestly* thinks that Tim spending 15 minutes - twice a year - to write a paragraph remembering the companies founder - is negligent as a CEO and/or results in even an iota of distraction - they are so far out of touch with reality that they will always be the laughing stock of any intelligent conversation!
Might have been honest, but it was a dumb opinion. You deserved the spanking you got. Move along.
And we honestly could care less about the stocks or Apple products you own.
It was not addressed to you. What an arrogant, twitty post.
I’m heavily invested in Apple... I’ve been using their products since...
This doesn’t matter.
...screw ups like the ones we’ve seen in the past few weeks were few and far between.
Same as now. Get over it.
Agreed 100%. But the 6 is the sexiest piece of hardware I’ve ever had the pleasure of using. I got some gooseberry jam–which is as close to eating actual crow as you can get without getting psittacosis–and have been enjoying it on toast as of late.
I believe he will be Earth's first interplanetary entrepreneur and he will achieve his goal to live on Mars.
Know what would really give the funding for a Moon base (or rotating space station)? Geriatrics.
Picture a retirement home on the Moon. Low gravity so less work for your joints, specialized medicines grown in low grav/micrograv... Heck, you could jump and run around without hurting yourself. I bet there are enough old people willing to pay for that to build a proper base.
I’ve always liked that idea.
I really felt obliged to post in this thread today.
I ‘d also like to express my deep admiration and respect for Tim Cook. He’s gained that and he’s completely won me over. If there ever was person who had to fill bigger shoes than him. “Don’t think what I would have done, do what’s right”. And he’s done that for apple, and for the greater good too. Within the confines that a multinational corporation has, he’s outdone everyone else.
I really, really agree with this. At first I (like everyone else) knew that Tim Cook was a skilled businessperson; he had achieved a lot at Apple under Steve Jobs.
But like everyone else, I had no concept initially of how Tim would run the company in the longer term.
As time has gone on though, I've really come to respect Tim as a great business leader. Even if he himself isn't the product genius that Jobs was, at least he a) understands this and b) uses his power to create an environment where such geniuses can flourish.
I love the way Tim talks about products, and how genuinely meaningful product design is at the centre of everything Apple does. He really understands this, I think. And he's clearly serious about continuing to emphasise the values that Steve Jobs was so passionate about.
Some have commented on this, but if you look at the last couple of press conference (i.e. this year particularly), I feel as though we are seeing a far more relaxed Apple. Look at their iOS 8 press conference for example; there were a ton of clever things in there, and there were signs of what I'd call a "careful openness" emerging. It's nice to see.
Exactly. Steve Jobs would never waste time remembering the life of Steve Jobs.
Seriously, is 3 years too long? Considering how many of the people still working at Apple, including Tim Cook, worked with the man, knew him as a friend, and owed him so much? Sure, after 5 years, the tributes might die down, but I expect they'll continue to do something to remember him until the current generation of Apple has gone. Even then, he will have become the mythical founder. I expect they already have something named after him in the new campus.
I wonder if they'll switch to remembering his birthday rather than the day he died too. Martin Luther King isn't remembered on the day he died. Remembering the day someone died prolongs mourning whereas the birthday is more a time for remembering the achievements.
You remember both.