Apple director says Steve Jobs told team not to ask "What would Steve do?" | Hacker News Reader

Apple director says Steve Jobs told team not to ask "What would Steve do?"

appleinsider.com

60 pointsfuzzythinker20 comments

“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.” -- Steve Jobs

Absolutely, including Steve's life!

Apple must plot a new "post-Steve" path and there is no reason it can't succeed.

Asking that question would lead to in-fighting since everybody would have a different take on Steve's opinion.

"What would _____ do?" is a great movie line but it hardly ever works in real life.

Best example is: "What Would Jesus Do?"

I'm sure there are wildly differing opinions on that.

Actually, that's very apt.

It's a way of justifying your preconceived notions without actually testing and (in)validating them.

Notable exceptions: "What would MacGuyver do?" and "What would Batman do?" work well in the right circumstances.

Given that asking "what would Steve Jobs do?" is probably what Steve Jobs wouldn't do if he was in their situation, would asking that question now be okay?

No, some things are just stupid ideas. Just because Steve wouldn't have done them doesn't now make them good ideas. :)

Are you sure? I've read that Margaret Thatcher would ask herself "What would Margaret Thatcher do?" because her public persona had outgrown her own actions. I think Steve Jobs may have been in that same situation where he sometimes felt he had to live up to his own legend.

That strikes me as extremely unlikely. Steve's superpower was never being intimidated by anyone, even in the early days when he had so much more to prove. It's hard to imagine his own image being something that could cast a shadow on him, especially as his successes multiplied.

It's a bit unavoidable for people to think of how Steve would approach products and that's not a bad thing.

I think what Jobs is doing here though is pointing out that anyone saying "What Would Steve Do" is really just admitting they don't know what the fuck to do. Or saying "Steve wouldn't like X" is a cheap copout when you can't give more concrete reasons why X is bad.

Interestingly, in the recent big Scott Forstall profile it was said he often used the "Steve wouldn't like that" refrain.

I think Steve would say the better question is "What should Apple do?" He tried his best to infuse his vision into the DNA of the company, and I think that will live on with the whole Apple U thing they're starting.

"Some industry watchers suggested Apple should appoint an independent chairman from outside the company to take charge."

That's a sure way to Dell-ify the company.

I believe the largest thing that Steve did in Apple was maintain an exceptionally high standard for himself and I think they should keep doing that.

There's a very real danger to people (employees) seeing Apple as Steve Jobs' legacy. What they need to realize is that, even if Apple crashes and burns in the next 6 months, Steve's legacy is what he did during his time there.

John Siracusa mentioned this was the major risk for Apple post-Steve-Jobs. Unsurprisingly, Jobs himself was well aware of that and has probably done what he could to inoculate Apple against this disease.

What Steve would do is ask not what Steve would do, but what the person thinking about what Steve would do, would do.

Got it.

Its such a pity he couldn't stick around another 5 years, after the Siri [r]evolution, which will probably result in the ability to digitize personality pretty soon ..

Doesn't seem to be in line with this: http://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/blog/?p=11634 ...

Everything I've read about that suggests its focus is on case studies of Apple business decisions. The how and the why of Apple's successes — and failures, as well, perhaps. Not an indoctrination in Jobsian thinking.

Steve wouldn't ask what Steve would do.

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