Comment by MattRogish | Hacker News Reader

Comment by MattRogish | Hacker News Reader

Can you imagine any other CEO of a company doing this? His behavior is bizarre and confusing. Imagine Tim Cook's email to his employees:

From: Tim Cook, Apple's CEO To: Apple Employees Re: Maps and... stuff..

Hi everyone,

As you know, I haven't been at work the past few months. What have I been doing? Well, "What haven't I been doing?" is the better question! I've taken the jet to Fiji, hiked Kilimanjaro, and eaten just the best crème brûlée at this little place off of the Champs-Élysées.

This is what I do when I know a project is a complete disaster, which happens often. I do this all the time. I just travel around. Drink a lot of beer, smoke a lot of pot. It's no big deal; nothing new or exciting.

You'd think the board would've fired my ass a long time ago, but nah - I've made sure to stack the deck with my buddies and we've got enough cash to flounder around for a while. The CEO checks keep coming, and I keep cashing them, so I'll keep the title warm.

Since iOS6 release, the Maps app has gotten a lot of criticism. In response, I've decided to go to Hawaii. To recharge my batteries. Yeah, they were pretty well charged from my last two months' off but you have no idea how draining it was to write this letter. Heavy is the head that wears the crown and all that.

I think I need another couple of months to recover. If some of you quit because of my irresponsible and downright bizarre behavior, I totally understand. To the rest of you, though, expect a pivot. Or something.

Aloha,

Tim

> Since iOS6 release, the Maps app has gotten a lot of criticism. In response, I've decided to go to Hawaii.

"Unfortunately, I used Apple Maps, and ended up in West Virginia."

Best HN comment all week! Thanks for giving me a smile.

I'm not sure if you didn't read to the end, but he's clearly been removed, despite lukewarm protests to the contrary. "I'm not sure what they're doing [...] but if I was there I'd [...]". I'm reading between the lines here, but he's not showing up at his next board meeting because they told him not to - he probably expects to be formally ousted and for whatever reason isn't planning on fighting it.

Please leave the asinine BS out of this forum. One of the things that sets the conversations here apart from run of the mill news sites is the civil tone. Note that it's very possible that the guy you're making fun of is reading what you write, and one of the guidelines is, "Don't say things you wouldn't say in a face to face conversation."

Projects fail. I would be exceedingly surprised if Bill takes the current state of affairs lightly and would even expect that his absence is only nominally his choice. Do you really want people lining up to mock you the next time you invest a chunk of your life into a project and it goes south? The guy is already rich from previous massive successes; the CEO checks that you mention won't contribute significantly to his net worth.

I empathize with your concern about the tone. Without trying to dispute your feelings (which are yours and I respect that), I'd just like to point out some considerations that may or may not make any particular comment an exception to the rule:

1. There is a difference between being uncivil to a fellow HNer in a comment thread and being uncivil to a third party that is the subject of a post.

2. There is a difference between kicking a dog when it is down and kicking a giant that topples.

1. http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=billnguyen

2. I don't really mind poking fun at projects, but poking fun at people, especially when they're probably feeling shitty about things, in a place that they're likely to read it, just seems nasty to me and exactly the sort of thing that doesn't belong on HN.

The account you link to was created 21 days ago and has 3 karma. Granted, anyone can read without needing an account but it doesn't really lend weight to what (I think) you're trying to point out.

Also, the post you've taken issue with is simply a parody (or satire). There very little in there that seems like a personal attack (at least to me).

I wasn't speaking to whether he is an HN reader but rather to whether a particular comment is an uncivil reply to another Hn reader.

As in the difference between "This post shows that raganwald is an ass" and "Raganwald, you are an ass."

1. There's no indication that account belongs to the Bill Nguyen in question. Nguyen in one of the most common surnames in the world, and Bill is an exceedingly common first name.

There's no rule against snark here, so long as it is snark of interest to an intelligent hacker.

Maybe I'm just an asshole, but if I were involved in Color and my CEO has been vacationing for two months while we struggle with product failure... I'd say something fairly similar to his face (if he showed his face in the office, anyhow).

> "Do you really want people lining up to mock you the next time you invest a chunk of your life into a project and it goes south?"

Nobody is picking on him because of Color's product failure. Not even the TechCrunch article. People are picking on him because he's vacationing while his company flounders.

I don't know enough about this guy's life to tell whether or not this is the right call for him personally, but I don't think it takes a rocket surgeon to figure that this is really bad for the company and its employees.

Your comment assumes he's actually just on vacation and not that he was forced (or significantly nudged) out. I'd put my money on the latter. That he wrote a mail saying, "Everything's fine, this is totally normal..." in a time of (probable) crisis speaks very little to actual structure of events.

So we should be second guessing his own quotes (assuming they're accurate)? "I do this historically. I take off for a little while and I vacation. It’s nothing new or exciting,"

From my point of view, a guy who's not been in the office for two months, who takes a phone call from a journalist while boarding a plane to Maui, doesn't sound like he's being 'forced' to do anything.

I would hope that Tim Cook has a sense of humor about things as well as a sense of perspective about life. As such, you need to be able to laugh at yourself (sometimes) and you certainly need to separate a problem like this from your general happiness. The parent-poster could very well become "FakeTimCook" (tm).

As for Bill Nguyen, my impression is that he's become a bit too comfortable with failure, but you're right ... we don't really know what's up based on the fluff piece we read.

Actually I thought the parent was a very witty and relevant comment. It's seems absurd that the CEO would just take off and vacation in Tahoe and Hawaii for MONTHS while his company is completely failing from pretty much any perspective.

He says, man if I was there we'd be pivoting. Well, you're the CEO, get your ass in the office and pivot. If he's been forced out, then say that. Fire him and get a new CEO. Maybe this is a problem with Color's board, maybe it's a problem with the CEO, but you can be damn sure this is a problem for Color. It needs a CEO, and he needs to be actively leading the company.

Awesome. Please make a Twitter account and write more of these, you have a gift :)

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