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Comment by bane | Hacker News Reader

I'd write it up this way: Tim Cook is a remarkable individual, but he's not exactly the fountain of creative ideas that Jobs was (how original those ideas were is an ongoing debate, but nevertheless). I think it's a remarkably introspective move, recognizing weakness and moving to rectify it.

Put another way it's much better than the "strategy" of suing everybody who uses fruit or 4 sided shapes in their products as a hedge against the lack of creative direction from the top.

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I just hope they do the sensible thing and are selective about which ideas they actually turn into products. Gil Amelio and Steve Jobs, between the two of them, had to kill off dozens if not hundreds of fringe products that didn't amount for much and destroyed focus.

That's a great point, editing is often just as important as ideas.

Strongly agree with you here. Ideas are a dime a dozen, but the ability to pick the right one at the right time is kind of like having a strong sense of style. It comes more easily to some.

Forgive me if this is pointless cynicism but fountain of creative ideas?

* A music player

* A phone

* A portable computer

Not exactly the most innovative product categories?

Do you remember what phones were like six years ago?

Yes; just like they are now, just with bigger batteries and smaller screens.

Apple 2? Macintosh? Powerbook? Newton?

Didn't that laser printer and the Apple software that became Adobe pretty much create "desktop publishing"?

I've heard a few people talk about hypercard being neat at the time.

Yeah, they did some stuff lately, whatever. But you really have no appreciation for how cool woz's disk drive was? That was pretty amazing.

Dude, that was Apple the company and not Steve jobs doing.

What's wrong with everyone? Steve jobs didn't come up with every darn idea and implemente every darn thing.

You know what John Chambers is awesome. He invented routers, switches, hubs, IP phones, Conferencing systems, Telco switches, things that power practically 50% of the internet all by himself.

You know what, you're right. The newton was Gassée, and jobs probably did nothing with the laser printer.

However, i think stuff like this: http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&s... indicates Jobs pushed good people to do their best work. The mac wouldn't be the mac without jobs. Neither would the Next cube. Maybe John Chambers is just as involved with every product Cisco makes, but a terrible self promoter.

A horse [and buggy] and a car are in the same product category as well.

Point: Everything can be generalized to the point of it seeming mundane.

Execution and presentation matters, a lot, if Jobs left a lesson to the world that was it.

wow.

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