People work at Apple to change the world. Seriously.

Steve Jobs is a genius at imbuing the concept of revolution into computing.

"People work at Apple to change the world. Seriously." -- or just making Steve Jobs even richer. Unless you get paid really really well, I don't see any real upside for hackers to work at Apple. You are just a cog in their machine (or cult, as fake seteve jobs said).

You can change the world, and try to get fair amount of money out of it by doing something on your own, or working in smaller companies.

Your personality clash makes you sound like you should work here.

Apple is repackaging standard Intel hardware and a modified FreeBSD. The result is sold as a boutique product. I fail to see either the genius or the revolution.

i guess ... but that sounds silly to me. i guess i shouldn't lurk here anymore.

I think the point is that Steve Jobs does a good job of making Apple seem like Santa's Workshop or something, which leads to a lot of people who drink the Kool-Aid wanting to come on board.

You're certainly allowed to think that Apple is simply a company that stuffs commodity hardware into particularly shiny boxes. Even if that's what you think, it's still an interesting case study in how to attract talent without paying a premium.

Feel free to continue lurking. I can enjoy Steve Jobs' plenty as a customer without having to work for him.