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I haven't read much about Jobs but I wonder how he achieved the perfection in his product. Force the teams to work overtime to correct the bugs? Did he double t

by daheza 11y ago

I haven't read much about Jobs but I wonder how he achieved the perfection in his product. Force the teams to work overtime to correct the bugs? Did he double the QA size in order to catch all these bugs? Did he demand that all code checked in must be at incredibly high standards, thus forcing the devs to QA more of their own code?

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
kzhahou 11y ago
They weren't perfect by far. For years I've seen people struggle to figure out something as basic as creating a playlist or syncing to a new device. It's perhaps always been better software than windows counterparts, it always fallen short of the "intuitive" goal it's aspired to (and frankly, bragged about)
knughit 11y ago
He went on stage and gave a sock presentation that made everyone forget about the bugs. Users judged the book by it's well-kerned prettily animated cover. This is the same old tripe about the young generation's moral decline, and rose-tinted rearview glasses.
- DigitalJack 11y ago
  Exactly this. Snow leopard was a great release in terms of quality, but leopard wasn't. Many releases had critical flaws that needed a point release in less than 2 weeks.
- glhaynes 11y ago
  Imagine how many "this never would've happened if Steve were still alive" articles would be written if the iTunes 13 installer were to delete users' entire hard drives like iTunes 2's did (http://www.wired.com/2001/11/glitch-in-itunes-deletes-drives/ http://www.wired.com/2001/11/glitch-in-itunes-deletes-drives...).
bkeroack 11y ago
With Jobs, it wasn't so much what you have right now as it was where he was taking you. To the bright, beautiful future where everything was different and better. One could overlook the imperfections because the vision was so appealing. Now that he's gone (and without anyone with his charisma to take over), the public is left to contemplate the ignoble reality of the current product sitting in front of them. The sense of wonder and possibility is absent.
yggydrasily 11y ago
This is the best explanation I've ever seen. Just lots of focus, attention to detail, and iteration until they got it right: http://inventor-labs.com/blog/2011/10/12/what-its-really-like-working-with-steve-jobs.html http://inventor-labs.com/blog/2011/10/12/what-its-really-lik...
ktRolster 11y ago
The Steve Jobs method: hire really good people and inspire them to work to the best of their ability. Apple UIs were better because they were doing what ESR suggested at a time when the rest of the world was smashing every new option into the right-click menu. Occasionally I'll still hear someone say, "Oh, just put that in the right-click menu." The right click menu isn't a trashbin to dump things that don't fit elsewhere. In any case, here is ESR's UI advice: http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/cups-horror.html http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/cups-horror.html

by daheza 11y ago

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

kzhahou 11y ago

They weren't perfect by far. For years I've seen people struggle to figure out something as basic as creating a playlist or syncing to a new device. It's perhaps always been better software than windows counterparts, it always fallen short of the "intuitive" goal it's aspired to (and frankly, bragged about)

knughit 11y ago

He went on stage and gave a sock presentation that made everyone forget about the bugs. Users judged the book by it's well-kerned prettily animated cover. This is the same old tripe about the young generation's moral decline, and rose-tinted rearview glasses.

DigitalJack 11y ago
Exactly this. Snow leopard was a great release in terms of quality, but leopard wasn't. Many releases had critical flaws that needed a point release in less than 2 weeks.
glhaynes 11y ago
Imagine how many "this never would've happened if Steve were still alive" articles would be written if the iTunes 13 installer were to delete users' entire hard drives like iTunes 2's did (http://www.wired.com/2001/11/glitch-in-itunes-deletes-drives/ http://www.wired.com/2001/11/glitch-in-itunes-deletes-drives...).

bkeroack 11y ago

With Jobs, it wasn't so much what you have right now as it was where he was taking you. To the bright, beautiful future where everything was different and better. One could overlook the imperfections because the vision was so appealing. Now that he's gone (and without anyone with his charisma to take over), the public is left to contemplate the ignoble reality of the current product sitting in front of them. The sense of wonder and possibility is absent.

yggydrasily 11y ago

This is the best explanation I've ever seen. Just lots of focus, attention to detail, and iteration until they got it right: http://inventor-labs.com/blog/2011/10/12/what-its-really-like-working-with-steve-jobs.html http://inventor-labs.com/blog/2011/10/12/what-its-really-lik...

ktRolster 11y ago

The Steve Jobs method: hire really good people and inspire them to work to the best of their ability. Apple UIs were better because they were doing what ESR suggested at a time when the rest of the world was smashing every new option into the right-click menu. Occasionally I'll still hear someone say, "Oh, just put that in the right-click menu." The right click menu isn't a trashbin to dump things that don't fit elsewhere. In any case, here is ESR's UI advice: http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/cups-horror.html http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/cups-horror.html