When things are going well, managers can fool themselves into thinking that people trying their best is all that matters. Poor outcomes are just another opportunity for learning! But that delusion stops working when the wheels finally start coming off — like they have now for Apple and its AI unit. Then you need someone who cares about the outcome above the effort. Then you need an asshole.
In management parlance, an asshole is someone who cares less about feelings or effort and more about outcomes. Steve Jobs was one such asshole. So seems to be Musk. Gates certainly was as well. Most top technology chiefs who've had to really fight in competitive markets for the top prize fall into this category.
Apple's AI management is missing an asshole:
Walker defended his Siri group, telling them that they should be proud. Employees poured their “hearts and souls into this thing,” he said. “I saw so many people giving everything they had in order to make this happen and to make incredible progress together.”
So it's stuck nurturing feelings:
“You might have co-workers or friends or family asking you what happened, and it doesn’t feel good,” Walker said. “It’s very reasonable to feel all these things.” He said others are feeling burnout and that his team will be entitled to time away to recharge to get ready for “plenty of hard work ahead.”
These are both quotes from the Bloomberg report on the disarray inside Apple, following the admission that the star feature of the iPhone 16 — the Apple Intelligence that could reach inside your personal data — won't ship until the iPhone 17, if at all.
John Gruber from Daring Fireball dug up this anecdote from the last time Apple seriously botched a major software launch:
Steve Jobs doesn’t tolerate duds. Shortly after the launch event, he summoned the MobileMe team, gathering them in the Town Hall auditorium in Building 4 of Apple’s campus, the venue the company uses for intimate product unveilings for journalists. According to a participant in the meeting, Jobs walked in, clad in his trademark black mock turtleneck and blue jeans, clasped his hands together, and asked a simple question: “Can anyone tell me what MobileMe is supposed to do?”
Having received a satisfactory answer, he continued, “So why the fuck doesn’t it do that?”
For the next half-hour Jobs berated the group. “You’ve tarnished Apple’s reputation,” he told them. “You should hate each other for having let each other down.” The public humiliation particularly infuriated Jobs.
Can you see the difference? This is an asshole in action.
Apple needs to find a new asshole and put them in charge of the entire product line. Cook clearly isn't up to the task, and the job is currently spread thinly across a whole roster of senior VPs. Little fiefdoms. This is poison to the integrated magic that was Apple's trademark for so long.