“A lot of what I worked on I can’t talk about. And I will continue to not talk about until they ship. That was the problem.” While I understand why these measures are in place at apple, the resulting effect is the siloing of information and a lack of idea exchange, or even communication which leads to many problems further down the road. It’s hard to build great things when you can’t even talk to the people working on pieces adjacent to yours.
Agree. And it wasn't like that at Apple in 1995 when I started. Steve Jobs came back soon after though and so did secrecy. (I'm talking specifically about internal secrecy.)
Would the iPhone have been as big a surprise if all of Apple knew what was going down? Probably not — it probably would have leaked, and leaked profusely.
I'll leave it to others to determine if leaks would have been a bad thing. I mean what we were told from above is: Apple gets a lot of free press from the surprise part of "surprise and delight". When Apple was not the behemoth we know today the free press was probably a powerful thing.
Regardless, as you point out, it's hard to imagine the iPhone would have suffered if more eyeballs and expertise had been able to play with it, weigh in on its shortcomings before it shipped.
I was just a programmer though, not a director. They probably knew what they were doing. I'm just pointing out that there were consequences.
I'll relay this: likely most readers here remember the failed roll-out of Apple Maps. At that point though in the iPhone's lifespan many of those internal at Apple, even those not among the chosen ones, had access to the beta builds. And I will say that there were plenty of people that called out the Maps deficiencies and filed Radars (bug reports) about them before it shipped. Maps shipped anyway. (And when the blowback came Apple apologized and I feel a scapegoat was sought. I'll leave it at that though.)
When Apple products were still in their top-secrecy mode though, many of those engineers not in-the-know had pretty low company morale. You were not "special" if you were out of the loop. Additionally it seemed financial benefits/bonuses flowed primarily to the inner-circle. That, I suppose, was also a Jobs thing.
A lit bit ridiculous if you want my opinion.
Nothing prevents you to speak about your work, especially with your own family without being too specific.
It's not like working on an atomic bomb algorithm for months...
Yes, it is ridiculous. If you cannot speak about your work, then why would I buy it? I'm not into buying "magical" IT equipment that I cannot understand and maybe if I'm lucky can ask questions about. Apple is sending me completely the wrong signals, the dissonance couldn't be worse.
I agree with you on this but what I meant was more in the sense that even if not allowed to disclose the secrets of the thing you are working on, I'm quite sure that you still have plenty to talk about it with your family.
If you don't, it is just because you are your own jail, a lot wider than what your work contract can enforce.
“A lot of what I worked on I can’t talk about. And I will continue to not talk about until they ship. That was the problem.” While I understand why these measures are in place at apple, the resulting effect is the siloing of information and a lack of idea exchange, or even communication which leads to many problems further down the road. It’s hard to build great things when you can’t even talk to the people working on pieces adjacent to yours.
Agree. And it wasn't like that at Apple in 1995 when I started. Steve Jobs came back soon after though and so did secrecy. (I'm talking specifically about internal secrecy.)
Would the iPhone have been as big a surprise if all of Apple knew what was going down? Probably not — it probably would have leaked, and leaked profusely.
I'll leave it to others to determine if leaks would have been a bad thing. I mean what we were told from above is: Apple gets a lot of free press from the surprise part of "surprise and delight". When Apple was not the behemoth we know today the free press was probably a powerful thing.
Regardless, as you point out, it's hard to imagine the iPhone would have suffered if more eyeballs and expertise had been able to play with it, weigh in on its shortcomings before it shipped.
I was just a programmer though, not a director. They probably knew what they were doing. I'm just pointing out that there were consequences.
I'll relay this: likely most readers here remember the failed roll-out of Apple Maps. At that point though in the iPhone's lifespan many of those internal at Apple, even those not among the chosen ones, had access to the beta builds. And I will say that there were plenty of people that called out the Maps deficiencies and filed Radars (bug reports) about them before it shipped. Maps shipped anyway. (And when the blowback came Apple apologized and I feel a scapegoat was sought. I'll leave it at that though.)
When Apple products were still in their top-secrecy mode though, many of those engineers not in-the-know had pretty low company morale. You were not "special" if you were out of the loop. Additionally it seemed financial benefits/bonuses flowed primarily to the inner-circle. That, I suppose, was also a Jobs thing.
A lit bit ridiculous if you want my opinion. Nothing prevents you to speak about your work, especially with your own family without being too specific.
It's not like working on an atomic bomb algorithm for months...
Yes, it is ridiculous. If you cannot speak about your work, then why would I buy it? I'm not into buying "magical" IT equipment that I cannot understand and maybe if I'm lucky can ask questions about. Apple is sending me completely the wrong signals, the dissonance couldn't be worse.
I agree with you on this but what I meant was more in the sense that even if not allowed to disclose the secrets of the thing you are working on, I'm quite sure that you still have plenty to talk about it with your family.
If you don't, it is just because you are your own jail, a lot wider than what your work contract can enforce.
Very neat variation on the “I’m currently looking for work” post.
If you're not allowed to even publish your resume or have a LinkedIn account, then quitting and writing such a post must be a great relief.