Steve Jobs and the Economics of Elitism | Hacker News Reader

Steve Jobs and the Economics of Elitism

nytimes.com

31 pointspeter12312 comments

Open Source projects with strong leaders like Linux, Python, etc... are really just like Apple in terms of their "innovation model".

Did anyone notice the mention of the “auteur model of innovation,” attributed to “John Kao, a consultant to corporations and governments on innovation” which sounds an awful lot like John Gruber's auteur theory of design: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk3UcgbbmxQ

The article even used the same examples as Gruber, hm.

'Auteur theory' is neither Kao's nor Gruber's; they're both referring back to a concept from film criticism:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auteur_theory

It's a fairly obvious analogy to draw when dealing with other team creative efforts which are orchestrated by strong central personality.

I suspect you could find other people applying the label to Jobs as early as the 1980s; after a quick search here's one from Scott Rosenberg of Salon in 1999: http://www.salon.com/people/bc/1999/01/05/jobs/index.html

I realise this, it just seemed odd in the context of it being Apple and the exact same references given.

"consultant to corporations and governments on innovation" vs "blogger"

I'm a huge fan of John Gruber and his work, but to the general public, which do you think sounds more credible?

I'm tired of good design being considered elitism.

Huh? The article uses "elitism" in the correct, unbiased sense. Here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elitism:

"Elitism is the belief or attitude that those individuals who are considered members of the elite — a select group of people with outstanding personal abilities, intellect, wealth, specialized training or experience, or other distinctive attributes — are those whose views on a matter are to be taken the most seriously or carry the most weight.."

Having specialist and extraordinary designers instead of letting programmers or "the crowd" design the product has arguably been the key to Apple's success.

I’m tired of elitism having a negative connotation.

Then why not call it "meritocracy" instead? The great thing about English is there's a word or phrase for every shade of meaning - if you don't like the connotation of one usage, pick another!

I guess there is no chance that it is a very well designed marketing ploy, that is putting Jobs in front of everything?

> Great products, according to Mr. Jobs, are triumphs of “taste.”

This is basically the same thing a high dollar fashion house is offering as well. Is a $2000 Louis Vuitton scarf warmer than a $10 Walmart scarf? Probably not. But you can guarantee it'll match this season's shoes out of Milan.

Elitism does have a negative connotation. I think "excellence" would have worked better in the title. For that matter, I don't really understand why the word "economics" is in the title. The title doesn't seem to fit the article all that well -- at least not to me. The article is about the culture and design process at Apple, not Steve Jobs per se. Yes, Steve Jobs is intrinsically part of that culture. He founded the company and he is an important leader within it. No, you can't really separate the two at this point. But he isn't actually a one man show.

I like the quote used within the article that "A defining quality of Apple has been design restraint." I think that basic idea should have somehow made it into the title, rather than the name Steve Jobs and this incomprehensible, seemingly irrelevant, phrase "Economics of Elitism". Perhaps they could have just said "At Apple, Less is More" and then explained why.

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