Against Nostalgia - Mike Daisey on Steve Jobs
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
There's a lot to like about modern Mac and iPhone development: the tools and the documentation are arguably better than they've ever been, and the APIs have become absurdly powerful. But there's very little magic or UX to be found for the young and the new: even if you scrape together the $99 and brave the frustrating certificate process, it still takes a lot of overhead to make anything happen on the screen. (Recent improvements like ARC and storyboards help, but they're a band-aid.)
I think there remains a tremendous unfilled space in the computing world for usable "prosumer" programming, in the spirit of Hypercard. If the FSF types could pull their neckbeards out of their UNIX sphincters for five minutes, they'd see that the real barrier to truly free software is software that's trivial to learn how to edit or create [1]. And if Steve had seen this as a priority, I have no doubt that he could have made it happen.
[1] Obviously, not all software could be written this way; we'd still need engineers. But even web-enabled Hypercard-style apps would allow people to create a great deal of value for themselves and others, and give them the courage to venture deeper.
They definitely saw creating a magical user experience for developers as a priority. Good thing, too, as at one point WebObjects -- which had a GUI editor to create bindings for HTML in 1996! -- was all that was keeping them afloat.
(The NeXT dev environment is one of the things TBL credits for making him able to start the WWW, incidentally)
Apple, too, had its fair share of UX-work-for-Devs. MPW Worksheets were one of the first attempts in many years to think of a shell as more than just a line printer in a window. Dylan had a clever and elegant UI (when it wasn't crashing). Of course there was Hypercard, as you mentioned.
Unfortunately, it's really hard for such things to get traction with developers, I suspect more than a little because of a "I just need vi" mentality, which reminds me of the hoary "why would I want a toy mouse and pretty pictures when I have MS-DOS like a real man?" nonsense from the WiMP Wars. Some devs do seem convinced that there's no better way of programming a computer than for them to churn out text (apart from maybe getting your IDE to churn out text for you) and so traction is hard to get for "magical" experiences.
As for developing for non-developers, that remains a really difficult problem, because the challenge is not really in expressing your _solution_ to a problem so much as it is in being able to state the problem clearly. Tools can only help so much with that, mostly in giving expressive power to people who didn't realise they were suited to programming.
Even given all that, Apple continues to pour work into Automator, an under-appreciated app which is really bringing the power of basic scripting to people.
If you are so sure, why don't you start a company to fill that space?
Jobs' brilliance was in recognizing that the needs of both beginners and high-end users are actually quite convergent -- both want a simple beautiful no-nonsense device that just works -- and it's only the insecure "middle-class" who wants something more. He grew a company to prove just that point.
Perhaps you have a point as well.
Oh, I just might. I'm chasing (somewhat) lower-hanging fruit right now, but it's one of those things that's brewing in the back of my mind.
That wasn't a mistake either - read the chapters in folklore.org where he fought tooth and nail against having any expansion or ports in the original mac. The openness of the Apple II was mostly Woz.
As a kid growing up, the Commodore 64 was more than a tinker-box that blinked a few lights. And later, the Amiga won hands down over the Mac that we had in the house. I was definitely no hacker. I was an average kid wanting to get enjoyment out of a computer.
For me, the Commodore stepped up to offer what you describe as "consumer-ready". We bought and swapped heaps of software for C64 and Amiga over many years, as did millions around the world. We would play Summer Games as a family... mum, dad, sis.. we'd have a ball.
Even at high school, the BBC was king in my day.
When I got to Uni, I saw all these Macs everywhere, and apart from the crisper display suitable for word processing, they did not offer anything I would have called a step up my previous experience with computers.
It was around then, that I discovered the 486 PC. I saved up and bought one. Never looked back.
Just trying to balance the perspective here. Let's not get too carried away with the history of computers and what the Apple co-founder did for his company, ok?
I don't think I exaggerated computer history either; Altair 8800 to iPhone is a big leap, and I'm not dead yet.
Agreed on all points, except for the definition of "use". Sure, my mom can now send emails, visit websites, even make her own newsletters with clip art, and that's mindblowingly fantastic. But she can't build a dynamic website herself, or add a new feature to an existing program she uses. (iWeb and Automator are a good start, but not good enough.)
I'd like to think that someday, creating simple software will be something everyone will be able to do. Perhaps it's a situation similar to AI, where a generalized all-purpose solution is a pipe dream, but where narrow domain-specific solutions are more achievable; for example, platforms like ifttt.com or FormStack, which are highly usable to semi-techie prosumers. The future's still wide open, so we'll see what happens. :)
I would argue that such a thing already exists. If you want to do 'easy', low-hanging, easily-prototyped design and development, the kind of experience you had as a kid with Hypercard, you can still do it, and mostly for free: it's the web.
A hypercard-inspired tool for creating touch applications is going to be disruptive, and is going to happen. It's a glaring gap left open by Apple. In fact, this is the reason I am personally hesitant to start working on one, it's so glaring that I would be surprised if Apple hasn't been working on one that will be released when it's ready.
I couldn't agree more, and it's why I'm so enthusiastic about the web as the lingua fraca of computing. But as Steve might say: "Not good enough yet; make it again." To put it mildly, I think we can do way, way better.
Anyone peeking behind the curtain of software will see the vast value disparity of apple-like design: remove options for the the illusion of elegance.
… Today there is no tech company that looks more like the Big Brother from Apple’s iconic 1984 commercial than Apple itself, a testament to how quickly power can corrupt."
It costs $99/year to do so. I have written software and installed it on all three of those devices.
I wish it cost no money whatsoever, but the quoted text itself is simply not true.
What a contortion to characterize Apple's achievements with iOS this way. Compared to life before iPhones, we practically have superhero abilities at our fingertips, but yeah, Steve Jobs was mostly just taking our freedom. I can read any book or essay (including this thinly veiled anti-Apple screed) or hear just about any song ever recorded within seconds of it coming to mind, but Apple is "Big Brother". This guy is a clown.
It's Mike Daisey, dude knows one song and he's playing it. Not a great time to be running a one man show that trashes Steve Jobs. Or maybe it is.
But he really does a disservice to these arguments by going off on EFF-style rants. Its not in the same ballpark as the human rights concerns, which sure makes it look like he's just looking for a conveniently high profile target.
Say for a second that Jobs was somehow able to double the wages given to the average worker in China (or increase conditions such that it was effectively a doubled salary). The result would be massive, widespread demand to work in those factories. Since supply and demand are not balanced either queues take over or gate keepers get paid off.
If that doesn't make you feel better at least the corporate taxes Apple pays might.
The conditions in Chinese factories are horrible to think about, but it's important to keep in mind those conditions are often better than the places the workers came from. Shutting down factories in China wouldn't do anything to improve the lives of poor Chinese.
And I've read that Foxconn is actually the most desirable employer compared to other factories.
No offence, but I think this type of ignorance forms part of the denialism we use to avoid considering the moral issues. Mike Daisey has made the point that manufacturing has only really taken off in Shenzhen in the last 10 years, and that the horrific working conditions could be improved without a significant increase in product price as labor is such a tiny part of the overall cost.
This was a very good article where Mike Daisey rails against the sentiment you're showing above: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/the-dark-si...
His interview on the issue was particularly good as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=D...
There are also valid points made about the manufacturing situation in China, but he did not explore any real counterargument. The factory jobs in China are not perfect, but do we know if those workers are fundamentally opposed to it? China tried to avoid this type of capitalistic society for a generation, and was not happy with the results. I think it is fair to critique the standards of the factories, but without providing an alternative solution to lifting a billion people into prosperity, I think it was kind of a low blow against Steve in the article given the timing.
his argument is that the Apple of "the crazy ones, the rebels, the troublemakers" would ignore what's profitable and what the rest of the industry does, and make wide-open systems, humanely -- because Steve would've seen what doesn't work about the current model, thrown it out, and done it his own way.
The Beatles and historical figures are (arguably) timeless classics which don't grow worse with age; walled gardens and overseas manufacturing are (arguably) relics of an era where Apple was struggling to gain a foothold in the industry, and that's what the author claims passes for nostalgia.
But if we really think that these are the industries that betters humanity, we need a strong reality check.
In addition, the safety, health, and compensation of workers at suppliers' factories in Asia could have been explored more. The fact that workers' rights in China and elsewhere are so poor is one of those uncomfortable realities about global manufacturing that most consumers -- and fans of Apple and Steve Jobs -- would rather forget.
Steve Jobs was a hero for a lot of people in technology, especially for entrepreneurs and it's ok to grieve when your heroes die.
Nobody is claiming Steve Jobs was perfect, he had flaws like any other a human being. But he was a damn good entrepreneur and for many people that's no small thing, it's what many of us are dedicating our lives to.
We enjoy a high quality of life, and many amazing technologies, in part due to our rampant consumerism, but the side effects may not be worth it.