I miss Steve Jobs. I feel like if he were around (this is not a knock to what Apple is doing currently - they do many incredible things), he would be figuring out how to democratize AI and ensure it runs quickly and is magical on each device (i.e., what they did in terms of personal computing - he would help accelerate that). Tim Cook to his credit recognized that Steve was a singular talent. There would not be half-baked ChatGPT agent releases. He would single-handedly do the Claude Code equivalent of X, Y, and Z on all devices or he would create a new device to do it if needed. He would pick up on what was truly promising with growing autonomy and he would get a team to deliver it. He made a lot of mistakes (iWork, etc.). I could see him make a lot of mistakes in this era too. But he would absolutely hit a home run the way the iPhone just put together a bunch of S curves (glass, decent internet browser, app ecosystem, well-designed phone, etc.). And yeah it was Tony Fadell. and Jony Ive. A lot. But seeing the thread - seeing what was important and knowing to bet on that. He loved great products. As he said in some other linked / famous quote, the people who are passionate do not run out of enthusiasm. They do not fail as much because of that. There is no shame in loving great products. Truly. Deep down. After all the fun and games. Not for money (though dear God the money came and he wasn't perfect about not being drawn towards that and the Apple stock price v. Dell etc). But having a history of delivering on great products and truly loving to do so. Whatever it is - a robot, a magical experience on a device - not a jaw-dropping this is completely new experience actually. But just better execution, that last 20% where most people slow down and he was just getting started. Where it pushes it past the previous generation of products. Where you have 1000 songs in your pocket. Where you can browse the internet in your pocket. Like other devices could kind of do it. In that sense it's not jaw-dropping. But if you love attention to detail and craft and things well done, it's very very good.
It comes down to truly loving what people can do with the products. Bicycle of the mind etc. Liberal arts and technology. Seeing a little farther since he'd become so comfortable standing on the shoulder of giants time and time again. Starts out slowish and imprecise (Macintosh was pretty solid, but then NeXT). Then it calibrates. Then it was consistently excellent. It's a paradigm to get to if you're a product leader. This works so well it's going to make my customers capable of new things and hungry about being able to do things.