Its interesting that the Apple Car was brought up in this article as just being a few years off. Wasn't it a few days ago that the lead Swift creator, Chris Lattner also left Apple and is now "thrilled" to be at Tesla working on something new and important such as car AI. Hmmmm, couldn't Apple use someone like that in their auto division working on their car AI. Sounds like this former engineer hit the nail on the head by saying each employee is forced to be narrow focused. Clearly, Chris must have heard rumors about Apple's car AI, why couldn't he be transferred over to the auto devision if thats what he was interested in? As this engineer said, Apple use to be "thin, competitive, dynamic". Does anyone believe those words to ring true today. It just seems all blahhh over at Apple.
"This was a very difficult decision, because I care deeply about the technology and people at Apple and because I could see myself staying there for many more years"
Yes, I am aware why he left Apple. His direct quotes:
"I've been writing code for more than 30 years, and 16 of those years have been in the developer tools space. I love it, but I am ready to move on to something else. Autopilot is clearly incredibly important to the world because of its ability to save people's lives (and increase convenience). It is also a very, very hard technology problem and my experience building large scale software and team building is useful. Of course, I’ve also been a huge Tesla fan for some time."
"This was a very difficult decision, because I care deeply about the technology and people at Apple and because I could see myself staying there for many more years. In the end though, the opportunity to dive into a completely new area and work with the amazing Tesla Autopilot team was irresistible."
As I mentioned, Apple is supposedly working on an "Tesla Autopilot" competitor. You would think that Apple would want to keep a talented employee that had a difficult decision to leave because he loved Apple but yet wanted to try something new after 30 years. One employer (Elon Musk) showed he cared about his wants and one didn't.
Chris Lattner is leaving for Tesla in a VP position, so he's in charge of the entire Autopilot Software team. What if that position is already filled within Apple, which is a huge possibility? Would he have taken on "lesser" role to stay at Apple?
Of course its impossible for us to know for sure. If he loves Apple as much as he says he does and he's as good as Elon thinks he is, I'm sure Apple could have or should have come up with something that Lattner would have been happy with. Just saying, something does not seem right here.
Columbo nonsense. First the Apple haters said it was due to secrecy but then the man himself said that's not true, yet still there must be some ulterior motive. Some folks can't just accept the boring reality -- people move around. This guy was there for over a decade and loved it.
We know nothing about the car project or if it's even real, so assuming they could just whip up a new VP role for him but didn't because conspiracy is just silly.
It's not. Maybe that's why Steve felt Tim Cook was the right man to take over for him. I find it amusing that the same people who piss all over Tim Cook worship Steve Jobs like a saint. Pretty much the entire executive team at Apple was there during the Steve Jobs era and many of them worked directly for him. If people have an issue with current Apple leadership blame Steve for not doing a better job cultivating the right leadership team for when he was no longer there.
Well, we all know from past experience, that Jobs really wasn't good at picking people to run his company. Sculley grew profits initially then over expanded into all the wrong products in the 90s almost causing Apple to go bankrupt.
Yeah and that guy Ive he found in the basement. What a royal screw up. /s
Its interesting that the Apple Car was brought up in this article as just being a few years off. Wasn't it a few days ago that the lead Swift creator, Chris Lattner also left Apple and is now "thrilled" to be at Tesla working on something new and important such as car AI. Hmmmm, couldn't Apple use someone like that in their auto division working on their car AI. Sounds like this former engineer hit the nail on the head by saying each employee is forced to be narrow focused. Clearly, Chris must have heard rumors about Apple's car AI, why couldn't he be transferred over to the auto devision if thats what he was interested in? As this engineer said, Apple use to be "thin, competitive, dynamic". Does anyone believe those words to ring true today. It just seems all blahhh over at Apple.
"This was a very difficult decision, because I care deeply about the technology and people at Apple and because I could see myself staying there for many more years"
Yes, I am aware why he left Apple. His direct quotes:
"I've been writing code for more than 30 years, and 16 of those years have been in the developer tools space. I love it, but I am ready to move on to something else. Autopilot is clearly incredibly important to the world because of its ability to save people's lives (and increase convenience). It is also a very, very hard technology problem and my experience building large scale software and team building is useful. Of course, I’ve also been a huge Tesla fan for some time."
"This was a very difficult decision, because I care deeply about the technology and people at Apple and because I could see myself staying there for many more years. In the end though, the opportunity to dive into a completely new area and work with the amazing Tesla Autopilot team was irresistible."
As I mentioned, Apple is supposedly working on an "Tesla Autopilot" competitor. You would think that Apple would want to keep a talented employee that had a difficult decision to leave because he loved Apple but yet wanted to try something new after 30 years. One employer (Elon Musk) showed he cared about his wants and one didn't.
Chris Lattner is leaving for Tesla in a VP position, so he's in charge of the entire Autopilot Software team. What if that position is already filled within Apple, which is a huge possibility? Would he have taken on "lesser" role to stay at Apple?
Of course its impossible for us to know for sure. If he loves Apple as much as he says he does and he's as good as Elon thinks he is, I'm sure Apple could have or should have come up with something that Lattner would have been happy with. Just saying, something does not seem right here.
Unlike other ex-Apple engineers, he seems to be going out of his way to defend Apple and calm fears that Apple is crumbling.
Which makes it all the more strange. I commend him for not bad mouthing his ex-company because that's how you are suppose to act when you leave. But either, he is lying about his feelings for Apple and is just trying to be civil and nice or he really does love Apple and had a hard time leaving. In either case something is not right at Apple. Instead of going with the Apple is crumbling scenario, I believe what he says and lean towards, there are so many layers of mundane management that his voice of wanting to move on to something new, fell of deaf ears. On the opposite spectrum, when a visionary CEO such as Elon directly entrusts you to be VP of a department in a single swoop, it makes you feel important and wanted. Bottom line, Apple lost a talented employee that says he wanted to stay for many more years. One CEO let it happen, one made it happen. Thats the difference between a passionate visionary CEO and one name Tim Cook.
Oh jesus listen to yourself. He's lying, Apple is doomed, there's something rotten in denmark, etc.. No, it couldn't possibly be exactly what he's said it was -- a needed change after over a decade at one job, moving to something new and different and at a great salary and responsibility bump.
When your logical argument boils down to "it just smells fishy!" despite the guys in the room saying otherwise very clearly, it means you've gone off into tinfoil hat territory. Conspiracy theory. At that point it's pure projection and not at all observation.
I'm really not keen on Cook. Originally I rated him, but more and more he seems to be a very average corporate CEO with little vision; his main aim seems to be using Apple as a Social Justice Warrior platform. Like most of his kind, he seemingly likes everyone to be as structured and mundane as he is, dulling the "young" and "hip" image Apple used to enjoy. Yes Apple is 40 years old, but 90% of its ageing seems to have happened in the last 5 years. Cook's keynotes have no enthusiasm; a complete role reversal with Jobs who I used to prefer watching than other VPs. Now I skip Cook and jump forward to the VP's sections. Employees see a leader as just that, someone to idolise, they share in the CEO's enthusiasm, but a CEO with no enthusiasm doesn't instil the drive and ambition a company like Apple is admired for.
He continually fobs people off with "we have an exciting product pipeline", a phrase that is getting very old very fast considering the products don't come to fruition.
Claims that he grew the company from $100bn to $200bn are essentially false. Fine, he was the CEO at the time but as people stated at the time of Job's death; there were plenty of products in the pipeline. It was the vision of Jobs and the enthusiasm he brought that did so, Cook just kept things ticking over.
IMO, Cook is quite happy bumbling along, he's unconcerned whether Apple grows or stays stagnant. Jobs on the other hand was always pushing for the absolute best everyone could do, he always wanted to be ahead of the curve.
I have no idea if this is true, but change is not necessarily a bad thing. It's a bigger company today, after all.
Jobs would not have wanted Apple's structure and processes to remain frozen at the time of his death. The company has to evolve.
The tricky part is to make sure that the benefits of changes outweigh the cost. Since all humans make mistakes, some changes will be mistakes. What's imperative is to recognize when a change is a mistake and to fix it.
We have evidence that Cook can recognize mistakes and change course. His rapid replacement of that retail guy with Ahrendts is a great example.
It remains to be seen if Cook can identify and correct the mistakes (whatever they are -- it's hard to tell from the outside) that have led to the stagnation of the Mac.
Jobs seemed to prefer an organic working atmosphere, in fact there were problems earlier in Apple's history with engineers jumping to more interesting projects and leaving almost no one on some projects. He wanted his employees to work hard, but allowed some freedom. The Jobsian structure of Apple (and freedom for engineers to submit as many different ideas and concepts as they chose to their managers) is really where Apple's innovation came from. Telling engineers to come up with a different way to do X or Y is a very forced and inorganic way of coming up with innovation, and results in change for the sake of change.
It seems to me that Cook is the source of the mistakes. He employed Browett remember - not telling Ive to tone it down with the thinness of Macs, and seemingly assigning most of the Mac teams to iOS and iPhone engineering.
In regard to CPU improvement under Cook, again that's not really Cook's vision, it's purely the extremely talented engineers that've managed it. It is no mean feat to do what they've done, but that innovation certainly cannot be tied to Cook. In a similar strain the Apple Watch, it's a very good device but it doesn't quite amaze like the iPhone and iPad did. There are some amazing innovations in the Watch, but again it's engineering, not Cook.
Great post... I agree with you completely.
I would like to add to your keynote analysis. Steve had the crazy ability to make a rock look so impressive, that you just had to buy one (the reality distortion field). I get that nobody is going to replace Steve but other than Craig Federighi, there is absolutely no passion up there. I'm sure if Steve were around, I would own an Apple watch by now but I don't and have no interest in one. Not because I think the Apple watch is a bad product, its because they haven't wowed me in to buying a product I really don't need like Steve would have done. The presentations seem so scripted, monotone, and bland. When I get to the 20th "amazing" and "magical" descriptor, I almost start vomiting and must force my self to continue watching. That does not bode well to the product they want me to buy. I know Tims character can't change but maybe he should pass the keynotes off to someone more charasmatic because when he speaks, the boring mundane level spikes to new levels.
Have you seen Musk do a presentation? The man looks like he's about to start crying.
Jobs was a terrific spokeperson and keynote presenter, but that certainly isn't the norm. Without googling name other CEOs who did double duty as awesome spokespersons? Not Musk, not Bezos, not Zuck. It's not normal for CEOs to be awesome keynote guys and that's a fact.
Yes... I have seen Musk do presentations, the latest being about his solar shingle doodads. and yes he sucked big time in that presentation. The only difference is that Elon seemed sincerely passionate and invested in the products he's presenting. At the end of his terrible keynote, I wanted to put solar shingles on my roof and I don't even need a new roof. When Tim speaks, its usually a rehash of what we already know in a slow monotone smug voice. When he's on, I'm constantly saying, move along, move along.
In saying all that, Musk probably shouldn't be doing keynotes either. He should be there for certain segments as his passion does help to sell but his public speaking skills need major improvement for him to do the whole thing himself. Is there a rule that the CEO must do product announcement keynotes? Its the CEO's job to find the best people to sell the product, if that does not happen to be you, so be it. I have no problem with Tim doing the financial presentations as his monotone voice suits that type of presentation but his passion and enthusiasm for sales presentations suck.
Its interesting that the Apple Car was brought up in this article as just being a few years off. Wasn't it a few days ago that the lead Swift creator, Chris Lattner also left Apple and is now "thrilled" to be at Tesla working on something new and important such as car AI. Hmmmm, couldn't Apple use someone like that in their auto division working on their car AI. Sounds like this former engineer hit the nail on the head by saying each employee is forced to be narrow focused. Clearly, Chris must have heard rumors about Apple's car AI, why couldn't he be transferred over to the auto devision if thats what he was interested in? As this engineer said, Apple use to be "thin, competitive, dynamic". Does anyone believe those words to ring true today. It just seems all blahhh over at Apple.
"This was a very difficult decision, because I care deeply about the technology and people at Apple and because I could see myself staying there for many more years"
Yes, I am aware why he left Apple. His direct quotes:
"I've been writing code for more than 30 years, and 16 of those years have been in the developer tools space. I love it, but I am ready to move on to something else. Autopilot is clearly incredibly important to the world because of its ability to save people's lives (and increase convenience). It is also a very, very hard technology problem and my experience building large scale software and team building is useful. Of course, I’ve also been a huge Tesla fan for some time."
"This was a very difficult decision, because I care deeply about the technology and people at Apple and because I could see myself staying there for many more years. In the end though, the opportunity to dive into a completely new area and work with the amazing Tesla Autopilot team was irresistible."
As I mentioned, Apple is supposedly working on an "Tesla Autopilot" competitor. You would think that Apple would want to keep a talented employee that had a difficult decision to leave because he loved Apple but yet wanted to try something new after 30 years. One employer (Elon Musk) showed he cared about his wants and one didn't.
Chris Lattner is leaving for Tesla in a VP position, so he's in charge of the entire Autopilot Software team. What if that position is already filled within Apple, which is a huge possibility? Would he have taken on "lesser" role to stay at Apple?
Of course its impossible for us to know for sure. If he loves Apple as much as he says he does and he's as good as Elon thinks he is, I'm sure Apple could have or should have come up with something that Lattner would have been happy with. Just saying, something does not seem right here.
Unlike other ex-Apple engineers, he seems to be going out of his way to defend Apple and calm fears that Apple is crumbling.
Which makes it all the more strange. I commend him for not bad mouthing his ex-company because that's how you are suppose to act when you leave. But either, he is lying about his feelings for Apple and is just trying to be civil and nice or he really does love Apple and had a hard time leaving. In either case something is not right at Apple. Instead of going with the Apple is crumbling scenario, I believe what he says and lean towards, there are so many layers of mundane management that his voice of wanting to move on to something new, fell of deaf ears. On the opposite spectrum, when a visionary CEO such as Elon directly entrusts you to be VP of a department in a single swoop, it makes you feel important and wanted. Bottom line, Apple lost a talented employee that says he wanted to stay for many more years. One CEO let it happen, one made it happen. Thats the difference between a passionate visionary CEO and one name Tim Cook.
Oh jesus listen to yourself. He's lying, Apple is doomed, there's something rotten in denmark, etc.. No, it couldn't possibly be exactly what he's said it was -- a needed change after over a decade at one job, moving to something new and different and at a great salary and responsibility bump.
When your logical argument boils down to "it just smells fishy!" despite the guys in the room saying otherwise very clearly, it means you've gone off into tinfoil hat territory. Conspiracy theory. At that point it's pure projection and not at all observation.
I said this? You clearly need reading comprehension lessons.
Its interesting that the Apple Car was brought up in this article as just being a few years off. Wasn't it a few days ago that the lead Swift creator, Chris Lattner also left Apple and is now "thrilled" to be at Tesla working on something new and important such as car AI. Hmmmm, couldn't Apple use someone like that in their auto division working on their car AI. Sounds like this former engineer hit the nail on the head by saying each employee is forced to be narrow focused. Clearly, Chris must have heard rumors about Apple's car AI, why couldn't he be transferred over to the auto devision if thats what he was interested in? As this engineer said, Apple use to be "thin, competitive, dynamic". Does anyone believe those words to ring true today. It just seems all blahhh over at Apple.
"This was a very difficult decision, because I care deeply about the technology and people at Apple and because I could see myself staying there for many more years"
Yes, I am aware why he left Apple. His direct quotes:
"I've been writing code for more than 30 years, and 16 of those years have been in the developer tools space. I love it, but I am ready to move on to something else. Autopilot is clearly incredibly important to the world because of its ability to save people's lives (and increase convenience). It is also a very, very hard technology problem and my experience building large scale software and team building is useful. Of course, I’ve also been a huge Tesla fan for some time."
"This was a very difficult decision, because I care deeply about the technology and people at Apple and because I could see myself staying there for many more years. In the end though, the opportunity to dive into a completely new area and work with the amazing Tesla Autopilot team was irresistible."
As I mentioned, Apple is supposedly working on an "Tesla Autopilot" competitor. You would think that Apple would want to keep a talented employee that had a difficult decision to leave because he loved Apple but yet wanted to try something new after 30 years. One employer (Elon Musk) showed he cared about his wants and one didn't.
Chris Lattner is leaving for Tesla in a VP position, so he's in charge of the entire Autopilot Software team. What if that position is already filled within Apple, which is a huge possibility? Would he have taken on "lesser" role to stay at Apple?
Of course its impossible for us to know for sure. If he loves Apple as much as he says he does and he's as good as Elon thinks he is, I'm sure Apple could have or should have come up with something that Lattner would have been happy with. Just saying, something does not seem right here.
Unlike other ex-Apple engineers, he seems to be going out of his way to defend Apple and calm fears that Apple is crumbling.
Which makes it all the more strange. I commend him for not bad mouthing his ex-company because that's how you are suppose to act when you leave. But either, he is lying about his feelings for Apple and is just trying to be civil and nice or he really does love Apple and had a hard time leaving. In either case something is not right at Apple. Instead of going with the Apple is crumbling scenario, I believe what he says and lean towards, there are so many layers of mundane management that his voice of wanting to move on to something new, fell of deaf ears. On the opposite spectrum, when a visionary CEO such as Elon directly entrusts you to be VP of a department in a single swoop, it makes you feel important and wanted. Bottom line, Apple lost a talented employee that says he wanted to stay for many more years. One CEO let it happen, one made it happen. Thats the difference between a passionate visionary CEO and one name Tim Cook.
"But either, he is lying about his feelings for Apple and is just trying to be civil and nice or he really does love Apple and had a hard time leaving."
He is highly respected, not only within Apple, but within the developer & Open Source community. I can't see what he would gain by lying.
Which makes it all the more strange. I commend him for not bad mouthing his ex-company because that's how you are suppose to act when you leave. But either, he is lying about his feelings for Apple and is just trying to be civil and nice or he really does love Apple and had a hard time leaving. In either case something is not right at Apple. Instead of going with the Apple is crumbling scenario, I believe what he says and lean towards, there are so many layers of mundane management that his voice of wanting to move on to something new, fell of deaf ears. On the opposite spectrum, when a visionary CEO such as Elon directly entrusts you to be VP of a department in a single swoop, it makes you feel important and wanted. Bottom line, Apple lost a talented employee that says he wanted to stay for many more years. One CEO let it happen, one made it happen. Thats the difference between a passionate visionary CEO and one name Tim Cook.
Oh jesus listen to yourself. He's lying, Apple is doomed, there's something rotten in denmark, etc.. No, it couldn't possibly be exactly what he's said it was -- a needed change after over a decade at one job, moving to something new and different and at a great salary and responsibility bump.
When your logical argument boils down to "it just smells fishy!" despite the guys in the room saying otherwise very clearly, it means you've gone off into tinfoil hat territory. Conspiracy theory. At that point it's pure projection and not at all observation.
I said this? You clearly need reading comprehension lessons.
Really? Your basic assertion is he's either lying or that he had to leave to progress and that means something is not right at Apple. And of course, without a passionate visionary CEO Apple can be inferred as doomed.
I'm really not keen on Cook. Originally I rated him, but more and more he seems to be a very average corporate CEO with little vision; his main aim seems to be using Apple as a Social Justice Warrior platform. Like most of his kind, he seemingly likes everyone to be as structured and mundane as he is, dulling the "young" and "hip" image Apple used to enjoy. Yes Apple is 40 years old, but 90% of its ageing seems to have happened in the last 5 years. Cook's keynotes have no enthusiasm; a complete role reversal with Jobs who I used to prefer watching than other VPs. Now I skip Cook and jump forward to the VP's sections. Employees see a leader as just that, someone to idolise, they share in the CEO's enthusiasm, but a CEO with no enthusiasm doesn't instil the drive and ambition a company like Apple is admired for.
He continually fobs people off with "we have an exciting product pipeline", a phrase that is getting very old very fast considering the products don't come to fruition.
Claims that he grew the company from $100bn to $200bn are essentially false. Fine, he was the CEO at the time but as people stated at the time of Job's death; there were plenty of products in the pipeline. It was the vision of Jobs and the enthusiasm he brought that did so, Cook just kept things ticking over.
IMO, Cook is quite happy bumbling along, he's unconcerned whether Apple grows or stays stagnant. Jobs on the other hand was always pushing for the absolute best everyone could do, he always wanted to be ahead of the curve.
I have no idea if this is true, but change is not necessarily a bad thing. It's a bigger company today, after all.
Jobs would not have wanted Apple's structure and processes to remain frozen at the time of his death. The company has to evolve.
The tricky part is to make sure that the benefits of changes outweigh the cost. Since all humans make mistakes, some changes will be mistakes. What's imperative is to recognize when a change is a mistake and to fix it.
We have evidence that Cook can recognize mistakes and change course. His rapid replacement of that retail guy with Ahrendts is a great example.
It remains to be seen if Cook can identify and correct the mistakes (whatever they are -- it's hard to tell from the outside) that have led to the stagnation of the Mac.
Jobs seemed to prefer an organic working atmosphere, in fact there were problems earlier in Apple's history with engineers jumping to more interesting projects and leaving almost no one on some projects. He wanted his employees to work hard, but allowed some freedom. The Jobsian structure of Apple (and freedom for engineers to submit as many different ideas and concepts as they chose to their managers) is really where Apple's innovation came from. Telling engineers to come up with a different way to do X or Y is a very forced and inorganic way of coming up with innovation, and results in change for the sake of change.
It seems to me that Cook is the source of the mistakes. He employed Browett remember - not telling Ive to tone it down with the thinness of Macs, and seemingly assigning most of the Mac teams to iOS and iPhone engineering.
In regard to CPU improvement under Cook, again that's not really Cook's vision, it's purely the extremely talented engineers that've managed it. It is no mean feat to do what they've done, but that innovation certainly cannot be tied to Cook. In a similar strain the Apple Watch, it's a very good device but it doesn't quite amaze like the iPhone and iPad did. There are some amazing innovations in the Watch, but again it's engineering, not Cook.
Great post... I agree with you completely.
I would like to add to your keynote analysis. Steve had the crazy ability to make a rock look so impressive, that you just had to buy one (the reality distortion field). I get that nobody is going to replace Steve but other than Craig Federighi, there is absolutely no passion up there. I'm sure if Steve were around, I would own an Apple watch by now but I don't and have no interest in one. Not because I think the Apple watch is a bad product, its because they haven't wowed me in to buying a product I really don't need like Steve would have done. The presentations seem so scripted, monotone, and bland. When I get to the 20th "amazing" and "magical" descriptor, I almost start vomiting and must force my self to continue watching. That does not bode well to the product they want me to buy. I know Tims character can't change but maybe he should pass the keynotes off to someone more charasmatic because when he speaks, the boring mundane level spikes to new levels.
Have you seen Musk do a presentation? The man looks like he's about to start crying.
Jobs was a terrific spokeperson and keynote presenter, but that certainly isn't the norm. Without googling name other CEOs who did double duty as awesome spokespersons? Not Musk, not Bezos, not Zuck. It's not normal for CEOs to be awesome keynote guys and that's a fact.
Just to add to one of my previous posts, Chris Lattner was just on a well-known tech podcast talking about developer tools and his career. Definitely recommend listening to it.
Its interesting that the Apple Car was brought up in this article as just being a few years off. Wasn't it a few days ago that the lead Swift creator, Chris Lattner also left Apple and is now "thrilled" to be at Tesla working on something new and important such as car AI. Hmmmm, couldn't Apple use someone like that in their auto division working on their car AI. Sounds like this former engineer hit the nail on the head by saying each employee is forced to be narrow focused. Clearly, Chris must have heard rumors about Apple's car AI, why couldn't he be transferred over to the auto devision if thats what he was interested in? As this engineer said, Apple use to be "thin, competitive, dynamic". Does anyone believe those words to ring true today. It just seems all blahhh over at Apple.
"This was a very difficult decision, because I care deeply about the technology and people at Apple and because I could see myself staying there for many more years"
Yes, I am aware why he left Apple. His direct quotes:
"I've been writing code for more than 30 years, and 16 of those years have been in the developer tools space. I love it, but I am ready to move on to something else. Autopilot is clearly incredibly important to the world because of its ability to save people's lives (and increase convenience). It is also a very, very hard technology problem and my experience building large scale software and team building is useful. Of course, I’ve also been a huge Tesla fan for some time."
"This was a very difficult decision, because I care deeply about the technology and people at Apple and because I could see myself staying there for many more years. In the end though, the opportunity to dive into a completely new area and work with the amazing Tesla Autopilot team was irresistible."
As I mentioned, Apple is supposedly working on an "Tesla Autopilot" competitor. You would think that Apple would want to keep a talented employee that had a difficult decision to leave because he loved Apple but yet wanted to try something new after 30 years. One employer (Elon Musk) showed he cared about his wants and one didn't.
Chris Lattner is leaving for Tesla in a VP position, so he's in charge of the entire Autopilot Software team. What if that position is already filled within Apple, which is a huge possibility? Would he have taken on "lesser" role to stay at Apple?
Of course its impossible for us to know for sure. If he loves Apple as much as he says he does and he's as good as Elon thinks he is, I'm sure Apple could have or should have come up with something that Lattner would have been happy with. Just saying, something does not seem right here.
Unlike other ex-Apple engineers, he seems to be going out of his way to defend Apple and calm fears that Apple is crumbling.
Probably in his contract. I doubt he just up and quit. He's probably bound by a variety of contracts, NDAs, etc.
Its interesting that the Apple Car was brought up in this article as just being a few years off. Wasn't it a few days ago that the lead Swift creator, Chris Lattner also left Apple and is now "thrilled" to be at Tesla working on something new and important such as car AI. Hmmmm, couldn't Apple use someone like that in their auto division working on their car AI. Sounds like this former engineer hit the nail on the head by saying each employee is forced to be narrow focused. Clearly, Chris must have heard rumors about Apple's car AI, why couldn't he be transferred over to the auto devision if thats what he was interested in? As this engineer said, Apple use to be "thin, competitive, dynamic". Does anyone believe those words to ring true today. It just seems all blahhh over at Apple.
"This was a very difficult decision, because I care deeply about the technology and people at Apple and because I could see myself staying there for many more years"
Yes, I am aware why he left Apple. His direct quotes:
"I've been writing code for more than 30 years, and 16 of those years have been in the developer tools space. I love it, but I am ready to move on to something else. Autopilot is clearly incredibly important to the world because of its ability to save people's lives (and increase convenience). It is also a very, very hard technology problem and my experience building large scale software and team building is useful. Of course, I’ve also been a huge Tesla fan for some time."
"This was a very difficult decision, because I care deeply about the technology and people at Apple and because I could see myself staying there for many more years. In the end though, the opportunity to dive into a completely new area and work with the amazing Tesla Autopilot team was irresistible."
As I mentioned, Apple is supposedly working on an "Tesla Autopilot" competitor. You would think that Apple would want to keep a talented employee that had a difficult decision to leave because he loved Apple but yet wanted to try something new after 30 years. One employer (Elon Musk) showed he cared about his wants and one didn't.
Chris Lattner is leaving for Tesla in a VP position, so he's in charge of the entire Autopilot Software team. What if that position is already filled within Apple, which is a huge possibility? Would he have taken on "lesser" role to stay at Apple?
Of course its impossible for us to know for sure. If he loves Apple as much as he says he does and he's as good as Elon thinks he is, I'm sure Apple could have or should have come up with something that Lattner would have been happy with. Just saying, something does not seem right here.
Unlike other ex-Apple engineers, he seems to be going out of his way to defend Apple and calm fears that Apple is crumbling.
Which makes it all the more strange. I commend him for not bad mouthing his ex-company because that's how you are suppose to act when you leave. But either, he is lying about his feelings for Apple and is just trying to be civil and nice or he really does love Apple and had a hard time leaving. In either case something is not right at Apple. Instead of going with the Apple is crumbling scenario, I believe what he says and lean towards, there are so many layers of mundane management that his voice of wanting to move on to something new, fell of deaf ears. On the opposite spectrum, when a visionary CEO such as Elon directly entrusts you to be VP of a department in a single swoop, it makes you feel important and wanted. Bottom line, Apple lost a talented employee that says he wanted to stay for many more years. One CEO let it happen, one made it happen. Thats the difference between a passionate visionary CEO and one name Tim Cook.
"But either, he is lying about his feelings for Apple and is just trying to be civil and nice or he really does love Apple and had a hard time leaving."
He is highly respected, not only within Apple, but within the developer & Open Source community. I can't see what he would gain by lying.
I didn't say he was lying, I was just responding to a point that he didn't bad mouth Apple on his way out. Any thing anybody says is either the truth or a lie. Just two sentences down, I said I believe what he said is the truth and then went on saying that you don't let a person of that caliber go. So if you believe that he "had a hard time leaving Apple" and that is only reason was to "try something different like Car AI" and Apple happens to be doing work in that exact field, why is a "highly respected" and talented long time employee now working for a competior?
Another former Apple employee who could not cut it
So I guess sitting in your Internet armchair, you seem to have intimate knowledge that Mr. Burrough "could not cut it".
Maybe you can explain how you know? Or is it that a fanboy can't possibly handle a cut against Apple?
One person's opinion is not a trend. He seems more like whiner than a gifted engineer.
It's easy to write off someone's views and experience inside a company as "disgruntled" and and "whining". I'd say unless you were there under the Jobs and Cook regimes you don't have much credibility. At least he actually worked there.
There have been many other accounts from other former employees that are consistent with this view. In addition, looking at the result it isn't exactly hard to believe.
What he's referring to is how NeXT and PIXAR are run. The cross-pollination of help between colleagues was expected and/or demanded of people. You quickly realized there was no way in hell one could run lean w/o people pitching in on several projects. The management was well managed and no one hid decisions from them. Every week we had to collect all of our action items of what we had yet to do and the ones resolved; and include all parties involved. Sent them to the manager and at the meeting every one an hour or two prior were given the complete listing to then discuss at the meeting.
Different members discussed how they could resolve other member issues and/or improve upon their solutions. You quickly knew everyone and discovered their talents.
It's a win/win.
Keeping to a singular focus approach will slow progress and produce more work in the long run.
Cook seems to run Engineering like procurement of materials and contracts: Bad Idea.
You do realize the cross-pollination is exactly why the new HQ is a circle, right?
But yeah, Apple is doomed now because Cook isn't Jobs. Got it. Let me find my tropes folder...
Yup. It's why there is an open circle in the middle.
Not sure why the Tim Cook sh** storm. Like Jobs, Tim respects secrecy which is the source of the arguments against him ironically. If we saw everything Apple is working on we would be salivaging(and Samsung copying). someone compared him to Sculley but if that were the case Apple would be going bankrupt by now.
also why is AI going soft? Threads are being closed and the dislike button is gone.
Why Apple still want me to pay $10 to BUY a movie? I do not want to build a movie library. Most of the movies I only like to watch once. Apple executives are not very adaptive to high tech at all. They just live under the glory of Steve Jobs.
Comments
Just for a little perspective.
Columbo nonsense. First the Apple haters said it was due to secrecy but then the man himself said that's not true, yet still there must be some ulterior motive. Some folks can't just accept the boring reality -- people move around. This guy was there for over a decade and loved it.
We know nothing about the car project or if it's even real, so assuming they could just whip up a new VP role for him but didn't because conspiracy is just silly.
Yeah and that guy Ive he found in the basement. What a royal screw up. /s
Oh jesus listen to yourself. He's lying, Apple is doomed, there's something rotten in denmark, etc.. No, it couldn't possibly be exactly what he's said it was -- a needed change after over a decade at one job, moving to something new and different and at a great salary and responsibility bump.
When your logical argument boils down to "it just smells fishy!" despite the guys in the room saying otherwise very clearly, it means you've gone off into tinfoil hat territory. Conspiracy theory. At that point it's pure projection and not at all observation.
In saying all that, Musk probably shouldn't be doing keynotes either. He should be there for certain segments as his passion does help to sell but his public speaking skills need major improvement for him to do the whole thing himself. Is there a rule that the CEO must do product announcement keynotes? Its the CEO's job to find the best people to sell the product, if that does not happen to be you, so be it. I have no problem with Tim doing the financial presentations as his monotone voice suits that type of presentation but his passion and enthusiasm for sales presentations suck.
He is highly respected, not only within Apple, but within the developer & Open Source community. I can't see what he would gain by lying.
http://atp.fm/episodes/205
Probably in his contract. I doubt he just up and quit. He's probably bound by a variety of contracts, NDAs, etc.
Not sure why the Tim Cook sh** storm. Like Jobs, Tim respects secrecy which is the source of the arguments against him ironically. If we saw everything Apple is working on we would be salivaging(and Samsung copying).
someone compared him to Sculley but if that were the case Apple would be going bankrupt by now.
also why is AI going soft? Threads are being closed and the dislike button is gone.