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Apple's Secrecy Extends to Putting New Employees on Fake Projects
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THIS. I feel like a strange Apply junky, but srsly, find a way to post on the weekends!
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The real world is vastly overrated.
I wouldn't say anyone is giving you MacRumors for "free", because you are being inundated with advertisements as a condition of viewing the site. To be truly free, the site would have to have zero ads and require no personal information (i.e. - "registration") to post or participate. As it is, you represent revenue to Macrumors, and your "click" labor is harvested by them for profit (ad sales).
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)
Could this explain all the people rumoured to have been developing Final Cut Pro 8? ;-)
Could this explain all the people rumoured to have been developing Final Cut Pro 8? ;-)
Since they only hire clones of one another at least you know you will get along with the entire team right?
Given that this "fake projects" thing is some guy who's guessing his engineer friend works on fake projects, not that he actually knows if there's fake projects.... If there were any reviewers in Cupertino, they'd be secretly laughing their asses off at the silly notion. "Approved! Reviewer comment: Great sci-fi!"
Like mrkramer said, I'd venture a guess that these so-called fake projects were actually tech investigations with some sort of real intent. Just found to be unsuitable to bring to market. From the inside, that'd be extremely different than a fake project. From the outside, it wouldn't look any different.
If you're going to burn tons of money on engineers, might as well give them something somebody found interesting, yeah?
Quite the contrary. I think initial organizational distrust (or lack of complete trust) is very common and manifests in a variety of ways across all walks of life, to include employment.
You are fully open to anyone and everyone you meet...right from the start?
If not, why not?
Maybe if I was psycho I'd play tricks on people to test them. Or if I was God, I'd tell Abraham to stab his own son just to see if he'd do it. I think it's crazy.
You may thinks it's crazy, but I'll bet you conduct similar privacy tactics as well, just maybe not as 'elaborate' as this writer has described (but not proven).
We all withold bits of ourselves when meeting newbies.
Except, of course, on the internet.
I don't pay for their content. If it was the New York Times, my readership would be limited and eventually cost me despite the abundance of ads. What they do with my readership or my clicks comes at no financial cost to me.
Over the air network television is free because the ads are bought based on popularity. I'm not paying NBC every time I watch Fear Factor.
Given how much is going behind a paywall on the Internet lately, I think it's safe to differentiate "pay" sites versus "non-pay" sites as being "paid" and "free."
1. Working on dummy projects is actually quite common for military-aerospace company college hire newbies, while waiting for their security clearance. Nothing new here, except Apple (currently) doesn't (seem to) have any hidden hangers and runways on a nearby base.
2. I've heard stories that date back to the 80's about Apple employees purposely making up stories about fake projects when talking where they could be overheard in public (back when they were actually allowed out of their cages). Bonus points if they could get a fake rumor published in infoworld.
2. I've heard stories that date back to the 80's about Apple employees purposely making up stories about fake projects when talking where they could be overheard in public (back when they were actually allowed out of their cages). Bonus points if they could get a fake rumor published in infoworld.
Yep, lion is great in a lot of ways, but still got lots of bugs... dont get me started on Xcode! arggghhh!
And who better to do that than a new team member. They have no knowledge of how things are meant to be, no back story. Only how it does work and the current documentation to go on. Throwing them at it cold is a good test of the Framework and the new staff.
Working on "fake" projects til you earn trust is very similar to how intelligence and spy agencies handle new hires and recruits. They give you an assignment where you follow a friendly while you are told they are enemy. If you rat or compromise, nothing is lost. It is a classic test to vet a double agent and mole hunt. For a private company to do this, it is very expensive. One reason why I turned Apple down twice. So what retired Company man taught Apple management this one?
This approach by Apple reminds me of how Jeff Lynne was said to have recorded Electric Light Orchestra songs during the band's heyday.
Lynne would bring band members into the recording studio individually, having them sing or play just a few notes at a time, and he would then later assemble all of the bits and pieces on his own. His bandmates often wouldn't hear the completed songs until the albums were released to the public!
And — wouldn't you know it — during the 1970s, ELO's music was (much like Apple's products today) considered by its fans to be insanely great.
Lynne would bring band members into the recording studio individually, having them sing or play just a few notes at a time, and he would then later assemble all of the bits and pieces on his own. His bandmates often wouldn't hear the completed songs until the albums were released to the public!
And — wouldn't you know it — during the 1970s, ELO's music was (much like Apple's products today) considered by its fans to be insanely great.
1. That is what I would call sarcasm.
2. Have you posted any evidence to prove my comments wrong? Thanks. I didn't think so.
So you think he was just being a normal, careful person back in the 70's and 80's when Apple was nothing? Did people wait in line for days for new Apple products back then? Did the media hype them to the max?
Sighhh, I'll type slowly...
You suggested he was always paranoid, I implied (by resting my case) that his paranoia is why Apple is now great. Or at least part of the reason.
Let me spell it out further:
I'm in the camp that Apple is what it is because of its actions.
You seem to be of the camp that Apple is what it is by dumb luck and despite its actions.
Let me wrap it up for you:
Apple spends an assload of money on security to include "fake projects" to vet new hires and ferret out moles. You think it is a waste of money. I say it is obviously money well employed based on their market success and that they have yet to be one-upped on product announcement date.
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It's widely known within the confines of Silicon Valley that Apple pays very modestly. They were like Disney, even before the two companies became so close.
Both "Sell the Dream" of working for a well respected brand, paying near the bottom of the range as compared to the same jobs elsewhere.
They give prospects and new hires the hard sell, "it's not about the money"...
1. I have some vague idea of your thought process. Sarcasm? Don't think so.
2. If you claim that someone has a mental illness, the onus is on you.
No need to be condescending. Personally I don't think that Steve's paranoia made Apple great. I agree with you that Apple's actions are what made it great. And yes some luck is always involved in every successful venture but I do not think that their success is due to luck.
I never mentioned waste of money. One thing Apple doesn't do is waste money. I simply said that Steve was one paranoid individual.