Apple’s Apology and the Rejection of Creative Destruction
Looking backwards in time at seven wonders of the world (Part One)
It’s such a privilege to get to tell this story.
The idea that you can’t learn from how wonders of the world were actually built is one of the biggest viruses plaguing every design team.
In order for me to provide a service to the people in my life who I’ve built things with, I have a moral responsibility to be condescending of those who don’t want the public to believe that wonders of the world that were built in 2004 are still being built today in 2024.
There are people who would have you believe that people who build wonders of the world are out of their mind for having technically accurate descriptions for the things they build.
If iCloud, the digital hub, GarageBand, macOS X, Apple Retail, Apple Support and Software Quality Inspection aren’t 7 wonders of the world worth breaking down processes to the public about, then literally no design team on the planet has design processes worth talking about. The iPad would never have been a thing if it weren’t for these wonders.
Let’s use Apple’s public apology as an opportunity to teach about the difference between people with creative destruction values and people who build things to support creators:
People with creative destruction values say: “If you figure out a way to build it, you can count on me to distort the value of whatever you wanted it to mean.”
People with building values say: “Whatever you want to build, you can count on me to support it.”
A Mac is like a piano.
It’s something you love because it was made with love.
It’s why so many people found it so disheartening to see a Piano being destroyed (even if no instruments were actually harmed thanks to CGI).
If you eliminate love from the way we made the Macintosh, you’ll have eliminated our reason for being altogether.
There are spiritually connected processes that go into making every Mac that are unexplainable processes because of how much love goes into each one but if there’s enough respect for the fact that it’s a labor of love we can try to put into words complete thoughts that capture how much care went into building each one.
It may be unbelievable to say but it is technically impossible for a designer at Apple to write Steve Jobs off as dead. Steve’s spirit is embodied in everything we work on and a person is not separable from their spirit.
Standards development would not be the field it is today without his commitment to excellence in the field. There isn’t a part of the industry that anyone who knew him could say wasn’t given meaning because of the spirit of his words and people are nothing if we aren’t spirit first.
Apple’s recent apology to the public about the ad depicting creative destruction was a necessary apology for reasons people don’t give us credit for.
We reject creative destruction values both in theory and in practice.
When someone isn’t there to defend themself, you don’t suddenly change the story about who someone was to the standards industry, you do everything in your power to preserve what still lives on because of that person’s contributions.
On Thursday, Apple issued an apology in the form of a statement to AdAge from Tor Myhren, Apple's VP of marketing communications:
Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it’s incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world. Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry.
No instruments were harmed in an ad made using CGI; To do justice to how many people contributed to the amount of work that goes into making each iPad, let’s look at it in reverse. (Credit @rezawrecktion)
Side note: One of our responsibilities as designers at Apple is doing privacy engineering for the Steve Jobs family in the same way I’ve been responsible for the privacy security of Cher’s family. I went to school with Elijah Blue so the choice of Cher’s songs in each of these videos was a nice touch.
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Inc. Magazine Article: With 4 Words, Apple's Apology for Its 'Crushing' iPad Pro Ad Set an Example for Every Brand The company issued the kind of apology brands should learn from.