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Thinking Different
- irrationalfab 15y agoI love the recursion!
- icode 15y ago> We believe that people with passion can change the world for the better Like putting nets in front of their manufacturing buildings so workers don't resort to suicide: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1357833/Apple-responds-suicides-Chinese-Foxconn-factory-hanging-nets.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1357833/Apple-respon...
- raganwald 15y agoYou may not mean to, but this is a perfect example of a trolling comment. It has high emotional leverage, but is not actually on-topic for this particular post about Apple. Think of it this way: Is there something about this comment that can only make sense to this post? Or could it really be made on practically any post abaout Apple? I suspect you could say this whenever Apple comes up. iPad 3 retina display? "Amazing because you can clearly see the individual ropes in the nets on buildings..." This comment could easily end up generating 50% of the comments here, while adding nothing new that hasn't been said before, just the same old accusations and defences. Would that really be signal? Or noise? There could be something here, perhaps instead of trotting out a sound bite, you could present a theory of how ideals become corrupted by money, or how idealism is blind to consequences. I'm still waiting for someone to unify the way Google and Apple behave with a common narrative.
- cbs 15y agoThis comment could easily end up generating 50% of the comments here, while adding nothing new that hasn't been said before, just the same old accusations and defences. Would that really be signal? Or noise? And does this pompous letter from Jobs add anything new that hasn't been said before? This post is the same as any other Apple aggrandizing post here, of course the comments will fall into the same old tropes, but I hardly think icode is the one opening those floodgates. Here's a thought: is that bad? I mean, isn't this exactly what HN does? If we actually wanted to hear something that hadn't been said time and time again, we sure wouldn't be looking for it on HN (unless we found HN in the last month or so). Your remark on signal v noise really got me thinking. I think my time here has expired, there is no more new signal to be found, just the same old same old framed in whatever current event or blog post we're talking about. I came to HN this morning to kill time while my roommate is using the shower, but now I'm going for a bike ride instead and stop visiting this website anymore. Bye, Hacker News, it was fun while it lasted!
- icode 15y agoThe article refers to changing the world and is illustrated with a photo of Ghandi. I don't know about you, but I get a strange feeling when Ghandi is used to illustrate the values of a company that is exploiting poor people to make toys for rich people.
- raganwald 15y agoWhat you just said improves upon the original criticism immensely by being much more specific and tying the ideas together.
- icebraining 15y agohttp://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/smokey.html http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/smokey.html
- icebraining 15y agoLook, I don't have a single Apple device, and I'm closer to a GNU fundie than an Apple lover, but: 1. Foxconn is not Apple 2. The suicide rate at Foxconn is lower than both the average in China and the average in the US: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2010-05-26/tech/30097107_1_suicide-rate-foxconn-suicide-prevention http://articles.businessinsider.com/2010-05-26/tech/30097107...
- aerique 15y agoWrt to point 2: was that before or after the nets?
- rmc 15y agoJust for the record, the Daily Mail is not a credible newspaper.
- cinquemb 15y agoin a world where fox news is taken for face value by many people, credibility is losing its credibility. at least someone is looking for more information.
- huxley 15y agoIs it equally cynical when municipalities put safety nets on bridges? http://www.aolnews.com/2010/07/29/iconic-golden-gate-bridge-to-get-45m-suicide-net/ http://www.aolnews.com/2010/07/29/iconic-golden-gate-bridge-... That people might have been driven to choose suicide due to overwork or abuse is the problem, not the safety nets.
- gmazzotti 15y agoNo it is not, municipalities are not related to why people suicide as companies are
- dredmorbius 15y agoNB: The Golden Gate Bridge is not municipally owned. It's owned and managed by a public agency associated with multiple counties in northern California.
- Raphael 15y agoThat's a perfectly practical solution. Grim as it is, it's better to have nets than people splattered on the pavement.
- davidw 15y ago> Now almost every digital device I own is made by Apple, not because its perfect or the best on the market, but because it represents the virtues of craftsmanship in a world of mediocre, mass-produced products. Err... their products are mostly mass-produced (not crafted) in the same places most of the other products are mass-produced.
- raganwald 15y ago"Production" refers to design as well as the assembly of atoms. In that context, a company that produces a few models of thngs is craftsmanlike when contrasted with companies that put out dozens of slight variations on the same thing, almost as if shipping twelve handsets is a/b testing...
- davidw 15y agoI agree that Apple's stuff looks classy, has a nice aesthetic, and has a lot of design work that goes into it, but it's also important to see some of the marketing hype for what it is. It's not hand-crafted by gnomes steeped in the crafts of wafer etching, working from little cabins high in the Tirolean Alps.
- rbarooah 15y agoHow is that not just a made up caricature? What single example of Apple's marketing can you show that suggests anything of the sort? The only marketing materials I've seen from Apple that say anything about how the products are made show Jony Ive in a workshop talking about industrial machine processes.
- davidw 15y agoI was responding to the "virtues of craftsmanship in a world of mediocre, mass-produced ...", which is not Apple's.
- deleted 15y ago
- twelvechairs 15y agosorry for the grammar nitpick, but its a 'foreword' not a 'forward'
- jonsen 15y agoMaybe he's referring to the last line: We hope this book helps carry that spirit forward.
- cinquemb 15y agomarketing at its best, last time i checked apple wasn't the first company to "think different" and soon another company will be disruptive and force apple to move in a new direction or new markets, thats just how the world works.
- coob 15y agoThis is inevitable of course. However, Apple has a strong history of continually disrupting itself.
- gducharme 15y agoI was hoping at least one comment would point out how the message and the form of the web site are integrated.
- trotsky 15y agoIt really is a testament to their marketing prowess when people un-ironically title their brand love letters with the brand's marketing slogan.
- tdavis 15y agoEspecially when that slogan is grammatically incorrect.
- SatvikBeri 15y agoAccording to Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs it's not-"think different" is a command to think of something that is different, as opposed to thinking of things differently.
- da5e 15y agoApple...Gandhi? Really? I thought the article was being ironic. The thing about a big fail like Mike Daisey's is that it shuts down valid debate. Apple ends, great. Means? Iffy.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- farinasa 15y agoI'm sorry, but apple hasn't done anything innovative since the creation of the iPhone. That was huge, don't get me wrong, but every one of their devices has simply been a rehash of their previous model. That is also fine, business as usual, safe, effective, and decent quality, but it isn't "thinking different." Physical attractiveness is nice, but I want a tool that works for me, not that I sit and stare at because it's pretty. I'll take an ugly thinkpad over the sleek macs any day.