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I once read that Steve Jobs decided the default order of icons in the Dock on new Macs. This could have been delegated to any number of subordinates, but he con

I once read that Steve Jobs decided the default order of icons in the Dock on new Macs. This could have been delegated to any number of subordinates, but he considered it so important for the new-user experience that he chose to do it himself. Culture flows top-down. Cook is about growth, progressively flowing toward growth at any cost. It’s not a mystery why things are as they are at Apple.

ethbr1 1y ago
Or the story about the BillG review and Excel date math. https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-review/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-rev... Which, incidentally, is a great primer for younger developers on both what obsessive software quality looks like and why datetimes are a hard problem.
- Starman_Jones 1y ago
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- ponector 1y ago
  I remember how date math is special there. A simple question: 30-01-2024 plus one month - what is the result date?
  - 0cf8612b2e1e 1y ago
    Well I had to try this in Excel and (after fighting the input format), it gave me 2024-01-30 -> 2024-01-29 2025-01-30 -> 2025-01-28 Fun. There is so much ambiguity in what “one month” means. Polars has an offset-by function which is a bit more explicit about how you want to handle date math. “Calendar date” vs number of days. Edit: just ran polars and I’m not in love with its answer either.
hshdhdhehd 1y ago
That wasn't a smart move by jobs. He should have delegated it to someone trusted. This micromanaging is how you make the company more brittle. Obviously Apple is wildly successful as for this not to matter much. They could sell iIce to Penguins.
- aucisson_masque 1y ago
  Micromanaging is how you run a successful company. You don't have to manage everything but you got to get involved in low level things. Manager who can't do anything but delegate are fast and efficient for themselves, just not for the company. I'd argue that apple is successful because of jobs attention to detail. Tim cook isn't the one who built apple foundation, he's merely trying to expand it but it's not the same difficulty.
- ebbi 1y ago
  The thing I got from Jobs (watching his various interviews and reading his bio), he wouldn't have delegated because he wanted to do these things. It mattered so much to him that delegating something like this wouldn't have even crossed his mind, regardless what his title was in the company.
JKCalhoun 1y ago
I'm not sure I'd praise Jobs in that regard. I kind of think Apple UI went down beginning with putting a "progress bar" in the URL text field of Safari. That was when the design team began what I call the "one-off UI design" rather than use the same language across all apps. Never mind the round mouse before that and the blind USB ports on the back of the newer iMacs (hate that scritchity sound of stainless steel on anodized aluminum as I try to fumble around with the USB connector trying to find the opening).

ethbr1 1y ago

Or the story about the BillG review and Excel date math. https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-review/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-rev... Which, incidentally, is a great primer for younger developers on both what obsessive software quality looks like and why datetimes are a hard problem.

Starman_Jones 1y ago
[dead]
ponector 1y ago
I remember how date math is special there. A simple question: 30-01-2024 plus one month - what is the result date?
- 0cf8612b2e1e 1y ago
  Well I had to try this in Excel and (after fighting the input format), it gave me 2024-01-30 -> 2024-01-29 2025-01-30 -> 2025-01-28 Fun. There is so much ambiguity in what “one month” means. Polars has an offset-by function which is a bit more explicit about how you want to handle date math. “Calendar date” vs number of days. Edit: just ran polars and I’m not in love with its answer either.

hshdhdhehd 1y ago

That wasn't a smart move by jobs. He should have delegated it to someone trusted. This micromanaging is how you make the company more brittle. Obviously Apple is wildly successful as for this not to matter much. They could sell iIce to Penguins.

aucisson_masque 1y ago
Micromanaging is how you run a successful company. You don't have to manage everything but you got to get involved in low level things. Manager who can't do anything but delegate are fast and efficient for themselves, just not for the company. I'd argue that apple is successful because of jobs attention to detail. Tim cook isn't the one who built apple foundation, he's merely trying to expand it but it's not the same difficulty.
ebbi 1y ago
The thing I got from Jobs (watching his various interviews and reading his bio), he wouldn't have delegated because he wanted to do these things. It mattered so much to him that delegating something like this wouldn't have even crossed his mind, regardless what his title was in the company.

JKCalhoun 1y ago

I'm not sure I'd praise Jobs in that regard. I kind of think Apple UI went down beginning with putting a "progress bar" in the URL text field of Safari. That was when the design team began what I call the "one-off UI design" rather than use the same language across all apps. Never mind the round mouse before that and the blind USB ports on the back of the newer iMacs (hate that scritchity sound of stainless steel on anodized aluminum as I try to fumble around with the USB connector trying to find the opening).