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"Iteration — steady incremental improvements, prototype after prototype, design after design, year after year, release after release — that process is ingrained
by dean 15y ago
"Iteration — steady incremental improvements, prototype after prototype, design after design, year after year, release after release — that process is ingrained in Apple’s (and I think Pixar’s) culture."
This process is ingrained in every software company. There's nothing special or new about Apple (or Jobs) here.
- tristan_juricek 15y agoSince every software company has this process, why does Apple stand out? That's the question I think Gruber wants answered, and where this huge Bio of Jobs, probably our best opportunity to find out, has fallen short. I would take a guess that if someone were to really publish the "secret sauce" you might find it less like a recipe - i.e., "do this and you will win" - and more like a history of a company that found smart, productive people, made them focus, and then got the fk out of the way. I'm not sure a Biography would illuminate this. But I think Gruber's right in that Jobs probably wasn't a "tweaker" in the sense of someone actually making a tech decision. He probably tweaked people.
- kalid 15y agoApple is known for making 10 prototypes of an idea then culling it to 3, then 1. Microsoft & others tend to start with one version and constantly evolve that. The difference is you can get stuck at local maxima / evolutionary dead ends.