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Isn't it a little bit sad to see that Tim Cook in this situation still looks backwards and talks about Steve Jobs in half of the email? Instead of being forward

Isn't it a little bit sad to see that Tim Cook in this situation still looks backwards and talks about Steve Jobs in half of the email? Instead of being forward looking and laying out his vision of the future of apple and the products to come? He really is still simply maintaining Jobs' business, trying to repeat what Jobs said as often as possible so that he sounds like him.

empath75 8y ago
Steve Jobs is as much apart of the Apple brand as Walt Disney is part of Disney's.
- gspetr 8y ago
  He literally isn't. In 100 years when people hear Disney they will think about Walt Disney. Why? Because it literally is "The Walt Disney Company". https://www.nyse.com/quote/XNYS:DIS https://www.nyse.com/quote/XNYS:DIS Will they think of Jobs or Gates when they hear of Microsoft or Apple? It's far from certain. How many CEO's from 100 years ago can you name that did not have their name in the company's name?
  - pwinnski 8y ago
    People know Ray Kroc = McDonald's. We know Rockefeller = Standard Oil. We know Thomas Watson = IBM. I'm not sure how many CEOs from 100 years ago I can name, period. Most companies that old do seem to include a person's name. But I'd say Steve Jobs stands at least as likely to be remembered as Ray Kroc or Thomas Watson, and for many of the same reasons.
atarian 8y ago
I disagree. I think Tim recognizes that Steve's legacy has a mythic quality that people want to relate to.
- adfm 8y ago
  Bummer that Tim Cook didn't mention Woz. Heck, nobody here on "Hacker" News has mentioned Woz in the context of this article or Tim Cook's email. Way to go, folks. (and yes, Ronald Wayne deserves a shout out, too.) Posthumous reality distortion field in effect. Can you feel it?
  - meowface 8y ago
    Woz got Apple off the ground and gave them their "magic seed", but he did not and could not bring it to such incredible business success. I doubt he would've wanted to. I think nearly everyone on HN still recognizes the amazing contributions he's made to computing.
    - adfm 8y ago
      Amazing magic seeds or sufficiently advanced technology? Call it what you will, but that's like mentioning AC and Westinghouse, but ignoring Tesla or only mentioning one parent on your birthday.
alaskamiller 8y ago
Isn't it awesome that he's making good on a promise to take care of the business to then pass it on to the next CEO? What if it's an 8 yr old African child right now looking up to code Swift 4 on YouTube?
- drb91 8y ago
  > What if it's an 8 yr old African child right now looking up to code Swift 4 on YouTube? This is an unbelievably tone deaf thing to say and a reason why people roll their eyes when techies talk about the future.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - TeMPOraL 8y ago
    I read that comment as massive sarcasm.
  - ryanwaggoner 8y ago
    Why is it tone deaf, exactly?
    - drb91 8y ago
      Not everyone believes that giving non-privileged people access to technology is a panacea to a better life for them, or for a better world. As a result it comes off to me a lot like justifying capitalist motives with (highly unrealistic) humanitarian ideals. For a good example of how this type of rhetoric fails to persuade people, look for criticism of Steven Pinker. I'm not trying to discard his work so much as to point out that the values he takes for granted as being desirable are not universal.
      - ryanwaggoner 8y ago
        That doesn't make it tone deaf. That just makes it representative of a (widely held) perspective that you disagree with. EDIT: for backup to my "widely held" claim, here's a poll on what people think has improved life the most in the last 50 years, as well as what they expect to improve it the most in the future. Technology and medicine / health (which is technology-related, of course) hold the top two spots in both results: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/10/12/four-in-ten-americans-credit-technology-with-improving-life-most-in-the-past-50-years/ http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/10/12/four-in-ten-... Also, just by way of info, Africa is now one of the world's fastest growing economic regions, thanks to capitalism: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/middle-east-and-africa/whats-driving-africas-growth https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/middle-east-and-a.... I genuinely don't get it. We just watched Asia lift literally billions of people out of abject poverty through capitalism, and now that Africa is on track to do the same, people are full of criticism. Unreal.
snowwrestler 8y ago
Every culture has its myths, and in Apple's culture today, no myth is bigger than Steve Jobs. It might be wise of Cook to invoke Jobs at big moments. He knows he's never going to match that legend... so why try? Instead of fighting it, he uses it to foster a common purpose within the company. In terms of "maintaining" the business, Apple's share price when Cook became CEO seven years ago was about a quarter of what it is now. Pretty good maintenance.
- leesalminen 8y ago
  I was just having a conversation with a friend about Tim and his role at Apple. I posited that Steve probably wasn’t the right person to grow Apple to $1T in market cap and that Tim really made it happen. My friend took the opposite side believing that Tim is just running of Steve’s ideas and that Tim had relatively little to do with making it happen. Curious to see what HN thinks.
  - thereare5lights 8y ago
    This kind of debate is like who's the GOAT of the NBA, Lebron or MJ. It's gonna be a lot of cherry-picking of data, subjective thoughts, etc. Not that the debate wouldn't be fun or illuminating, just that an objective answer is probably out of reach.
    - leesalminen 8y ago
      For sure. It’s not a black and white topic. This is an interesting topic for me as I find myself asking similar questions about my role at a company I founded. I founded a company currently valued in the low-mid 8 digits. I successfully brought the company through an acquisition and have doubled revenues since. I keep coming back to an article I read on HN years ago talking about the 4 types of CEOs: founder, growth, maintenance, death (bankruptcy). While I’ve found success in 1 and 2, I don’t enjoy 2 as much as 1 and I don’t think I’d be any good at 3 or 4. I’m probably experiencing a form of imposter syndrome as the board & leadership are all satisfied with my performance, but the thoughts still linger.
savanaly 8y ago
Isn't that a bit like asking why the Christians are still talking about Jesus every Sunday instead of looking to the future?
- kire2345 8y ago
  Great way of looking at it. It even raises the question if it would be possible or desirable to match the legacy of Steve Jobs. Or if - from a business point of view - the best thing Tim could do was to manage Steve's legacy. Similar to the pope, to stay in your metaphor.
bluthru 8y ago
It's recognition that Steve Job's vision was vindicated and his approach really did connect with customers.

empath75 8y ago

Steve Jobs is as much apart of the Apple brand as Walt Disney is part of Disney's.

gspetr 8y ago
He literally isn't. In 100 years when people hear Disney they will think about Walt Disney. Why? Because it literally is "The Walt Disney Company". https://www.nyse.com/quote/XNYS:DIS https://www.nyse.com/quote/XNYS:DIS Will they think of Jobs or Gates when they hear of Microsoft or Apple? It's far from certain. How many CEO's from 100 years ago can you name that did not have their name in the company's name?
- pwinnski 8y ago
  People know Ray Kroc = McDonald's. We know Rockefeller = Standard Oil. We know Thomas Watson = IBM. I'm not sure how many CEOs from 100 years ago I can name, period. Most companies that old do seem to include a person's name. But I'd say Steve Jobs stands at least as likely to be remembered as Ray Kroc or Thomas Watson, and for many of the same reasons.

atarian 8y ago

I disagree. I think Tim recognizes that Steve's legacy has a mythic quality that people want to relate to.

adfm 8y ago
Bummer that Tim Cook didn't mention Woz. Heck, nobody here on "Hacker" News has mentioned Woz in the context of this article or Tim Cook's email. Way to go, folks. (and yes, Ronald Wayne deserves a shout out, too.) Posthumous reality distortion field in effect. Can you feel it?
- meowface 8y ago
  Woz got Apple off the ground and gave them their "magic seed", but he did not and could not bring it to such incredible business success. I doubt he would've wanted to. I think nearly everyone on HN still recognizes the amazing contributions he's made to computing.
  - adfm 8y ago
    Amazing magic seeds or sufficiently advanced technology? Call it what you will, but that's like mentioning AC and Westinghouse, but ignoring Tesla or only mentioning one parent on your birthday.

alaskamiller 8y ago

Isn't it awesome that he's making good on a promise to take care of the business to then pass it on to the next CEO? What if it's an 8 yr old African child right now looking up to code Swift 4 on YouTube?

drb91 8y ago
> What if it's an 8 yr old African child right now looking up to code Swift 4 on YouTube? This is an unbelievably tone deaf thing to say and a reason why people roll their eyes when techies talk about the future.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- TeMPOraL 8y ago
  I read that comment as massive sarcasm.
- ryanwaggoner 8y ago
  Why is it tone deaf, exactly?
  - drb91 8y ago
    Not everyone believes that giving non-privileged people access to technology is a panacea to a better life for them, or for a better world. As a result it comes off to me a lot like justifying capitalist motives with (highly unrealistic) humanitarian ideals. For a good example of how this type of rhetoric fails to persuade people, look for criticism of Steven Pinker. I'm not trying to discard his work so much as to point out that the values he takes for granted as being desirable are not universal.
    - ryanwaggoner 8y ago
      That doesn't make it tone deaf. That just makes it representative of a (widely held) perspective that you disagree with. EDIT: for backup to my "widely held" claim, here's a poll on what people think has improved life the most in the last 50 years, as well as what they expect to improve it the most in the future. Technology and medicine / health (which is technology-related, of course) hold the top two spots in both results: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/10/12/four-in-ten-americans-credit-technology-with-improving-life-most-in-the-past-50-years/ http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/10/12/four-in-ten-... Also, just by way of info, Africa is now one of the world's fastest growing economic regions, thanks to capitalism: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/middle-east-and-africa/whats-driving-africas-growth https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/middle-east-and-a.... I genuinely don't get it. We just watched Asia lift literally billions of people out of abject poverty through capitalism, and now that Africa is on track to do the same, people are full of criticism. Unreal.

snowwrestler 8y ago

Every culture has its myths, and in Apple's culture today, no myth is bigger than Steve Jobs. It might be wise of Cook to invoke Jobs at big moments. He knows he's never going to match that legend... so why try? Instead of fighting it, he uses it to foster a common purpose within the company. In terms of "maintaining" the business, Apple's share price when Cook became CEO seven years ago was about a quarter of what it is now. Pretty good maintenance.

leesalminen 8y ago
I was just having a conversation with a friend about Tim and his role at Apple. I posited that Steve probably wasn’t the right person to grow Apple to $1T in market cap and that Tim really made it happen. My friend took the opposite side believing that Tim is just running of Steve’s ideas and that Tim had relatively little to do with making it happen. Curious to see what HN thinks.
- thereare5lights 8y ago
  This kind of debate is like who's the GOAT of the NBA, Lebron or MJ. It's gonna be a lot of cherry-picking of data, subjective thoughts, etc. Not that the debate wouldn't be fun or illuminating, just that an objective answer is probably out of reach.
  - leesalminen 8y ago
    For sure. It’s not a black and white topic. This is an interesting topic for me as I find myself asking similar questions about my role at a company I founded. I founded a company currently valued in the low-mid 8 digits. I successfully brought the company through an acquisition and have doubled revenues since. I keep coming back to an article I read on HN years ago talking about the 4 types of CEOs: founder, growth, maintenance, death (bankruptcy). While I’ve found success in 1 and 2, I don’t enjoy 2 as much as 1 and I don’t think I’d be any good at 3 or 4. I’m probably experiencing a form of imposter syndrome as the board & leadership are all satisfied with my performance, but the thoughts still linger.

savanaly 8y ago

Isn't that a bit like asking why the Christians are still talking about Jesus every Sunday instead of looking to the future?

kire2345 8y ago
Great way of looking at it. It even raises the question if it would be possible or desirable to match the legacy of Steve Jobs. Or if - from a business point of view - the best thing Tim could do was to manage Steve's legacy. Similar to the pope, to stay in your metaphor.

bluthru 8y ago

It's recognition that Steve Job's vision was vindicated and his approach really did connect with customers.