Hacker News Reader

Comment by mc32 | Hacker News Reader

Gruber is trying to read the tea leaves, but I think he's overconfident in his read. Also, I really don't get the Monday Night quarterbacking that's evident throughout his whole piece. Maybe he's upset, maybe he's held back and now feels free to offer opinion --but I think it's just that. An abrupt opinion.

That said, I wonder who Apple will try to snatch? Who are some other good designers out there? MS has some nice HW design. Google to me does not. Nokia? I'm sure there are some others, but can't think of any ATM.

View on HN

I'd don't really agree with what you and many other commenters seem to be saying that Gruber is "Monday Night quarterbacking" or bashing Ive. I mean, he says Ive is a "preternaturally talented designer" but that post Jobs that "software design has declined and hardware gone wonky." Does anyone really disagree with that statement? Ive is amazing but Ive and Jobs were magic.

I think the bigger thrust of Gruber's piece is his closing sentence, with which I wholeheartedly agree: "I don’t worry that Apple is in trouble because Jony Ive is leaving; I worry that Apple is in trouble because he’s not being replaced."

It's a good time to reflect just how unique/valuable Steve Jobs was to the process. He was one part computer nerd and one part aesthete. He possessed the ego to follow his gut and also the humility to put himself in the end user's POV, allowing that POV to change his mind. All of that while wielding the power and stomach to make uncomfortable, ruthless decisions based on that intuition, that ultimately led to the delight of users, convention be damned. What shoes to fill! Ive was certainly a spiritual (and decision making?) successor. I agree with Gruber that someone needs to be in that role to be the chef with the final say when necessary, and I hope whoever it is tries to bring the same mix of talents that Steve did.

I have a different take. How can he on the one hand say he’s supernatural but on the other imply he’s quite replaceable (but Apple’s mistake is not replacing him).

I don’t get the abnormal bashing _now_. He’s had some mild criticism before but now suddenly there have been intractable issues since Jobs died. It comes across as opportunistic and makes me doubt him.

A differently/less gifted replacement is better than no replacement. My understanding is that now, the software and hardware design teams both report to the COO. Gruber rightly points out that this structure is not like Apple under Jobs, who famously bashed companies led by salespeople as opposed to designers.

Has it occurred to anyone that Tim might have pulled off something amazing and no one is even aware of it? Given all the hardware/software design getting a bad rap, Tim has made this Jeff’s problem. If Jeff can pull it off, he is worthy of becoming a successor, otherwise he will get booted out in the next scandal.

Do you listen to his podcast? I never read the blog but the podcast I think he’s been fairly strident in his criticism.

MS outsources some of their product industrial design, https://pensar.com/project-gallery/consumer/

They also outsource some of their artwork as well.

https://www.frogdesign.com/portfolio/microsoft-office

Perhaps some top talent might be enticed to flee the ailing Huawei? There's also Samsung.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com