Steve Jobs and the squishy Macbook

Notice how, when confronted with a super-nitpicky person who is complaining about something that isn't actually broken -- like the left side of their Macbook, which is working fine but which doesn't "feel solid" -- the Mac Geniuses reply with this story.

This particular story isn't being told by accident. Observe its killer features, designed to make the customer feel good despite the fact that nobody can solve his "problem":

(A) It appeals to higher authority, a time-honored negotiation tactic.

(B) It sells Apple by selling Steve Jobs: Steve takes personal responsibility for the looks of the product, and Steve is on the complainer's side (i.e. Steve worries a lot about completely meaningless cosmetic issues -- he's even pickier than you are). The intended impression is that, if Jobs had noticed the "squishy" side panel, he would have personally ordered a redesign of the machine at a cost of $3 million -- just as he ordered the machine redesigned to keep the screws symmetrical. What a pity that the engineers insisted on shipping the notebook on time and on budget, rather than spending time finding and fixing every conceivable cosmetic issue! Steve will just have to try harder next time!

This, of course, is good cop-bad cop, another time-honored negotiation tactic.

The story about Jobs and the screws may even be true -- the screws on the left do seem to be merely cosmetic. And, yes, my Macbook is very slightly "squishy" on the front of the left edge. For all I know, that's a feature, designed to absorb small stresses by allowing the plastic to flex, rather than by transmitting the stress to the battery connection, which is located directly beneath the offending bit of plastic. Or maybe it's an oversight -- these things happen when you're rushing a completely new product to market while maintaining total secrecy. Who cares? I don't care. I guess the author of this article cares. But neither of us cares as much as the Steve Jobs of Legend, who is personally offended by every scratch, loose part, and missing screw.

Assuming they're one of the common types of screw used in the computer, that's not a bug - it's a feature. Some day, I will end up having to take part a Macbook and repair it. Invariably, a screw will be lost, but it won't be a problem because there are two spares!

Just checked my dell...free from all forms of squishyness, except the LCD, which is a little bit squishy.

my macbook pro has two screws that always comes loose on the left side, but that was just a defect