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by simplyluke 60 days ago
I'd also add that from the perspective of an employee in the industry, Tim Cook has had a remarkably steady hand throughout multiple business cycles in the industry that have made Apple a much better place to work than many of the other very large tech companies: no massive over-hiring after covid, no massive layoffs to correct for that, average tenure at the company BLOWS other companies out of the water, a reputation for a strong engineering culture

I say this as someone who hasn't worked there, but has a large number of friends and peers who currently do or have in recent years.
3 comments
ebbi 60 days ago
Agree. With the cash balance that Apple has, CEO's usually get tempted to make moves that let them flex, but he was very disciplined in that sense.
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spacebanana7 59 days ago
For example, Tim had the discipline to get out of the EV projects. Which was likely wise given the challenges the sector has faced in profitability, and Apple's long term outside option to accrue vehicular services revenue through CarPlay. Yet someone in his position could have burned $200B pretty easily to try and build a business there.
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leetharris 59 days ago
The only mistake he made was not buying Tesla around the M3 launch. Elon was desperate and would have sold it to him for cheap. He didn't take the meeting.

Otherwise I completely agree, once Tesla reached takeoff, it's too hard for anyone else to do it without burning mountains worth of cash.

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wayne 59 days ago
Yet he did still launch Vision Pro.
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jodrellblank 59 days ago
How much did that burn compared to the Metaverse?
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spacedcowboy 59 days ago
yep, I worked there for 20+ years, only retired due to health. I was about middle of the park in my group’s tenure there…
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sizzle 59 days ago
How do you see AI playing out there? Are you glad you got out before AI coding became a thing? What are you up to in your retirement years, anything fun? Thanks.
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lurk2 59 days ago
> a reputation for a strong engineering culture

We’re talking about the company that shipped the storage bug?

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simplyluke 59 days ago
Every software team ships bugs. That is not exclusive with a strong engineering culture.
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