Re:New MacBook Pro has first ‘DIY-friendly’ battery replacem...
by Dylan16807 on Wednesday October 27, 2021 @03:39PM
(#29018091)
> Kevin Scott is a CTO. He's in charge of top level product technical decisions
Then it's probably fair to blame him for some high-level decisions. But technical decisions go well beyond design, and microsoft has so many products, so it's harder to say how much you can point at him.
> The top priority of his job is those few dozen decisions.
I honestly have no idea which few dozen you mean. Across all of microsoft? I could list a bunch for "apple product design", like the way airpods fit, the decision to have no holes in airtags, the keyboard and touch bar choices in macbooks, etc.
Maybe the start menu location? You could probably blame him for the choice of xbox models too. I'm not singling out Apple in saying that executives should be considered responsible for certain high-level decisions.
> Be a little less stuck on the word "Director".
I'm stuck on the word "design". He's the design guy.
> The fact is, when you're one of the main people in charge of allowing decisions, it's not the same as personally championing them.
If it's one of the top few most important decisions under your job purview, the difference is so minor as to not matter outside the company.
> Does that sound like personally assigning blame to Johnny Ive for something? It'd be one thing if it said Ive's team or something, but it's the common refrain parroted on this site
Assigning him blame is not the same as saying he 'pushed' it. The buck stops here for design. He gets the blame because he strongly approved it and he could have easily spent entire days on the decision because that's the core of his job, and spending enough time on the decision is also his job.
> If John manages Joe and Joe deletes a database in prod, do you say "John's subordinate deleted a database in prod" or do you say "John deleted a database in prod".
John decided to delete a database in prod. Ive decided to go with this keyboard.
Assuming the delete wasn't accidental, because the keyboard definitely wasn't accidental! If it was an accident this analogy isn't relevant.
Then it's probably fair to blame him for some high-level decisions. But technical decisions go well beyond design, and microsoft has so many products, so it's harder to say how much you can point at him.
> The top priority of his job is those few dozen decisions.
I honestly have no idea which few dozen you mean. Across all of microsoft? I could list a bunch for "apple product design", like the way airpods fit, the decision to have no holes in airtags, the keyboard and touch bar choices in macbooks, etc.
Maybe the start menu location? You could probably blame him for the choice of xbox models too. I'm not singling out Apple in saying that executives should be considered responsible for certain high-level decisions.
> Be a little less stuck on the word "Director".
I'm stuck on the word "design". He's the design guy.
> The fact is, when you're one of the main people in charge of allowing decisions, it's not the same as personally championing them.
If it's one of the top few most important decisions under your job purview, the difference is so minor as to not matter outside the company.
> Does that sound like personally assigning blame to Johnny Ive for something? It'd be one thing if it said Ive's team or something, but it's the common refrain parroted on this site
Assigning him blame is not the same as saying he 'pushed' it. The buck stops here for design. He gets the blame because he strongly approved it and he could have easily spent entire days on the decision because that's the core of his job, and spending enough time on the decision is also his job.
> If John manages Joe and Joe deletes a database in prod, do you say "John's subordinate deleted a database in prod" or do you say "John deleted a database in prod".
John decided to delete a database in prod. Ive decided to go with this keyboard.
Assuming the delete wasn't accidental, because the keyboard definitely wasn't accidental! If it was an accident this analogy isn't relevant.