3 ms·

Courage

6 points by kposehn 10y ago

elmigranto 10y ago
I don't think these two situations are comparable. For one, I own multiple devices that are obsolete now. This wasn't a case with Flash, since I doubt anyone cared for technology the video was using — it's fine either way if you see same pixels on the screen. Apple also wasn't making money from every website that didn't include Flash, but I bet that's the case for each Lightning device produced, and the major reason jack is removed. It's not even headphones-only either, there are multiple devices using 3.5mm for extedning iPhone's functionality that Apple don't get a cut from. I'm interested whethere those will be supported via adapter. I'm also not sure that 3.5mm is objectively worse than wireless. If anything, both have advantages and disatvantages.
smacktoward 10y ago
This is a terrible argument, because it completely misunderstands what courage is. Courage is willingly putting yourself at risk in the service of some greater good. When a grenade lands in a foxhole, and a soldier jumps on it to save everyone else in the hole, that is courage, because he didn't have to do that. He could have chosen to jump out of the hole and save himself, and nobody would blame him for that. But he puts his own self-interest behind the protection of his comrades, which makes his decision courageous. Apple's decision to drop Flash was, in that light, a courageous decision. It was widely assumed that Flash support was something devices had to have, that leaving it off a device would hurt that device's prospects in the marketplace. Apple chose to voluntarily risk the sales of its products in order to serve a greater good, namely killing Flash and thus putting an end to a particular variety of terrible user experience. They didn't have to do that, but they did, and we all benefited. Apple's decision to drop the headphone jack is completely different, because unlike dropping Flash, dropping the headphone jack aligns almost completely with their own self-interest. It cuts down on their bill of materials; makes assembling their devices less complicated; lets them make their devices smaller, which the market has consistently rewarded; and lets them sell new accessories at a premium markup to replace the old ones. The only risk involved is that customers may not buy the iPhone if it lacks a headphone jack, but given that iPhones have always used proprietary connectors for other purposes (charging, data transfer) and that hasn't scared their customers away, that risk seems pretty small. And it's almost certainly outweighed by the bonanza of benefits described above. This is why everyone was laughing at the "courage" line when they first dropped it. It's not courage to do what a cost-benefit analysis tells you to do. Courage is doing the opposite of what your cost-benefit analysis tells you to do, because to do otherwise would offend your principles.

6 points by kposehn 10y ago

I don't think these two situations are comparable. For one, I own multiple devices that are obsolete now. This wasn't a case with Flash, since I doubt anyone cared for technology the video was using — it's fine either way if you see same pixels on the screen. Apple also wasn't making money from every website that didn't include Flash, but I bet that's the case for each Lightning device produced, and the major reason jack is removed. It's not even headphones-only either, there are multiple devices using 3.5mm for extedning iPhone's functionality that Apple don't get a cut from. I'm interested whethere those will be supported via adapter. I'm also not sure that 3.5mm is objectively worse than wireless. If anything, both have advantages and disatvantages.

smacktoward 10y ago

This is a terrible argument, because it completely misunderstands what courage is. Courage is willingly putting yourself at risk in the service of some greater good. When a grenade lands in a foxhole, and a soldier jumps on it to save everyone else in the hole, that is courage, because he didn't have to do that. He could have chosen to jump out of the hole and save himself, and nobody would blame him for that. But he puts his own self-interest behind the protection of his comrades, which makes his decision courageous. Apple's decision to drop Flash was, in that light, a courageous decision. It was widely assumed that Flash support was something devices had to have, that leaving it off a device would hurt that device's prospects in the marketplace. Apple chose to voluntarily risk the sales of its products in order to serve a greater good, namely killing Flash and thus putting an end to a particular variety of terrible user experience. They didn't have to do that, but they did, and we all benefited. Apple's decision to drop the headphone jack is completely different, because unlike dropping Flash, dropping the headphone jack aligns almost completely with their own self-interest. It cuts down on their bill of materials; makes assembling their devices less complicated; lets them make their devices smaller, which the market has consistently rewarded; and lets them sell new accessories at a premium markup to replace the old ones. The only risk involved is that customers may not buy the iPhone if it lacks a headphone jack, but given that iPhones have always used proprietary connectors for other purposes (charging, data transfer) and that hasn't scared their customers away, that risk seems pretty small. And it's almost certainly outweighed by the bonanza of benefits described above. This is why everyone was laughing at the "courage" line when they first dropped it. It's not courage to do what a cost-benefit analysis tells you to do. Courage is doing the opposite of what your cost-benefit analysis tells you to do, because to do otherwise would offend your principles.