[pm90]

> It’s a very top down company and the lower tier folks aren’t necessarily encouraged to question things, but more of a “do as I say”.

Asking as someone who has 0 experience with either, but this is how I’ve heard Apple works too? If so, why is Apple doing well while Samsung is not?

[simonh]

That’s not at all the impression I get from interviews and reports by former Apple employees (0)(1). They almost always have huge respect for the execs they worked for. Bear in mind all the Apple execs for engineering groups are themselves engineers. It’s a highly disciplined and focused organisation, but that’s not the same thing as top down and good engineering is highly prized.

Take Steve Jobs. He was infamous for his perfectionism. But on the other hand he trusted his team. When several of his execs insisted that they should build an App Store, which he initially opposed, he folded and let them do it. He once said there’s no point hiring A grade engineers and then telling them what to do and how to do it. I hire A grade engineers so they can tell me.

(0) https://donmelton.com/archives/ (1) https://youtu.be/N8Vz1BeymHE

[pm90]

Steve Jobs is an aberration. I wouldn’t count on anything related to him being true now that he’s gone.

I had a friend that was interviewing with Apple. Apparently the orgs are so siloed that the teams that wanted him didn’t know about each other. It appears to be a very rigid sort of organization.

[grumpyprole]

Apple has had significant hardware missteps too, such as the butterfly keyboard. Presumably some executive ordered "make it thinner" and did not accept any pushback!

[ThePowerOfFuet]

That executive's name was Jonathan Ive, and he should have owned his mistake.

[nebula8804]

They pushed him out(unofficially from what I heard)...the guy behind the iMac, iPod, iPhone and many other iconic devices. I'd gather that he has been forced to own the mistake.

[ThePowerOfFuet]

Owning something and being forced to own it are not the same thing.

[oriolid]

On the other hand, Apple is very good at reverting their mistakes and pretending they never happened. Who remembers the single button mouse, hockey puck mouse, iPod dock connector, emojibar without physical esc key, USB-C as the only connector and others?