X-Plane Story: Working 16-Hour Days At Apple Headquarters

[Markleshark]

Great article, and sounds like a great guy. There are so many different ways he could have reacted after all that work and not making it into the Keynote but he reacted correctly and I have the upmost respect for him.

True Apple fan and in fact, I'm buying X-Plane now because of it.

 

[Rybold]

I always love it when you work really hard and all day long, but have such a great feeling of accomplishment, and at the end you accomplish your goal. That always feels so good.

I'm glad to see these guys so committed to Apple. I'll have to download and try out their flight simulator. It sounds like a good App.

Every App developed in the offices of Apple is a work of art ... just like the Mona Lisa.

www.gizmodo.com

 

[sushi]

Great article, and sounds like a great guy. There are so many different ways he could have reacted after all that work and not making it into the Keynote but he reacted correctly and I have the upmost respect for him.

Agree.

You can definitely see the excitement and enthusiasm.

True Apple fan and in fact, I'm buying X-Plane now because of it.

Actually did the same thing.

I had been thinking of getting X-Plane, and after trying the iPhone/Touch version, I went ahead and ordered it.

 

[Hai]

Only americans think that working 16-hour days is "fun"...

 

[sushi]

Only americans think that working 16-hour days is "fun"...

Fun to get things done.

Nothing like beating the competition.

 

[Duncan-UK]

A "COOOOOOL MAAAANN!" sweatshop is still a sweatshop.

Have to laugh at the sheer immaturity of the way this was written up. For every use of the word "cool" the actual "coolness" of the individual (if such a thing exists) is halved, and halved again if in capitals followed by exclamation marks...

 

[ktappe]

Only americans think that working 16-hour days is "fun"...

No, only those smart enough to do something they love for a living think 16-hour days are fun. We can debate back & forth whether Americans are more likely to achieve such a life for themselves. But that's immaterial to the apparent facts that you have not managed to do this and are confused that someone else has.

 

[fat phil]

Good fun

Few things beat the adrenaline rush of a good crunch surrounded by busy, creative people. I envy them deeply - there aren't so many creatives in the games industry hierarchy anymore.

Regarding the product, I'm sure they realise themselves that it's not much more than a technical demo of their sim code. There are far more impressive technical demos churned out all year long by demoscene coders (scene.org) ... adding all the structure that makes something a game; that takes weeks no matter how many hours you try to squeeze in.

Great story though - and it's making them a lot of cash for a week's work

 

[[G5]Hydra]

A "COOOOOOL MAAAANN!" sweatshop is still a sweatshop.

Have to laugh at the sheer immaturity of the way this was written up. For every use of the word "cool" the actual "coolness" of the individual (if such a thing exists) is halved, and halved again if in capitals followed by exclamation marks...

Cut the guy some slack. He obviously likes what he is doing, no need to belittle him. He put that page up more as a blog not to win an award in journalism. He is not a writer he codes for a living. The entire thing is taken out of context as he apparently kept being asked how this app came out of no-where so he thought some people might appreciate a little background. I for one find it inspiring to see someone get excited about their work. If you can't see that maybe it is more a commentary on you than him.

 

[Detektiv-Pinky]

A "COOOOOOL MAAAANN!" sweatshop is still a sweatshop.

Have to laugh at the sheer immaturity of the way this was written up. For every use of the word "cool" the actual "coolness" of the individual (if such a thing exists) is halved, and halved again if in capitals followed by exclamation marks...

I would like to know what drugs they are using to maintain this constant level of excitement

 

[MagicBoy]

Cool story. We want more ...

 

[Lictor]

No, only those smart enough to do something they love for a living think 16-hour days are fun.

Not really. If you love like you are doing, you probably love even more to do it well, or even perfectly. Working on a 16 hours a day schedule is like working on cocaine. While you're under, everything you think of is amazingly great and borders on genious. You just have to hope you never sober up, because that's when you realize you have been doing crap for ages...

But that's immaterial to the apparent facts that you have not managed to do this and are confused that someone else has.

I have actually been doing that. Spent a year working more than 100 hours a week, 7 days a week. Then 3 more years at the same rythm, only with week-ends to recover. And since it was all about enthusiasm and doing a dream job, that was with sub-standard wages of course - with the same kind of hours, MacDonald would have paid better.
It did great for my boss: at 35, he was a retired CEO, with little need to ever work again in his life. Of course, *he* wasn't the one working 100 hours a week, I was.

As for myself, I went through severe burn out and was unable to work for a couple of years. When you have gone through the "dream", there is not much else you can find interresting in a regular job. Even worse, when you realise that what you have given part of your life for was actually sub-standard. Working 100 hours a week is like a drug, actually very like cocaine. It colors reality and messes up with your judgement. It makes you sloppy, makes you miss the big picture. You're so pumped up all the time, that you do not see the bugs, the lazy design or the wall you're about to hit.

The sad truth is that I'm more productive at 35 hours a week than I was at 100. My work is more rigorous, more precise, sharper, tighter. And that's working in an office, self-employed, you can get actually tighter than that. Software is not about pissing out thousands of lines of codes an hour 20 hours a day. It's about producing quality code is as little time as possible.

Go read some books on XP and the rest of the Agile Manifesto. These guys figured out the right way to do things.

 

[Masquerade]

So that cleans a bit of apples image on threating the developers
This article comes in the right moment
Or maybe the makers of xplane are select devleppers
Maybe Apple cant refuse an app from a select developer cause with works closer to them
I don't see any xplane on the keynote

Maybe it's all made up eheh

 

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)

This is a really near account and proves just how versitile the iPhone really is. I'm actually debating purchasing this one. I haven't purchased many Apps but this one seems right up my alley.

 

[wolfshades]

But I wonder if Apple will think of this article as a "breach" in how they operate. This article has opened up so many things that go on inside of Apple that I never thought of before...

Yeah - the article didn't reveal much about Apple really. They were holed up in a room and escorted everywhere. Not a big surprise.

 

[jstanier]

Sounds like the kind of days I was having programming my own iPhone apps, except that I was in my very unexciting front room. I certainly wouldn't have said no to somebody delivering a 30" monitor to me!

Either way, it's really nice to read someone's opinion of working at Apple, and congratulations to the guys for a great application!

 

[tMac85]

Nice read, but CALM DOWN on the UNNECESSARY CAPITALIZATION for EMPHASIS in the ARTICLE.

I mean,

haahhahah i was thinking the same thing. It was killing me. other than that a good morning read for a sunday. i would have loved to have been in his shoes.

 

[sushi]

I would like to know what drugs they are using to maintain this constant level of excitement

Mac OS X?

Yeah - the article didn't reveal much about Apple really. They were holed up in a room and escorted everywhere. Not a big surprise.

Agree.

 

[TMay]

A "COOOOOOL MAAAANN!" sweatshop is still a sweatshop.

Have to laugh at the sheer immaturity of the way this was written up. For every use of the word "cool" the actual "coolness" of the individual (if such a thing exists) is halved, and halved again if in capitals followed by exclamation marks...

He's an aerospace engineer. The Cirrus SR22 that is modeled is based on his personal flight testing of his own aircraft, and I'm talking spins, stalls, maximum performance turns, and at just about any flight condition.

You might want to cut him some slack with his blog style writing, because if Snow Leopard delivers as promised, X-plane V10 is going to be unbelievable.

 

[twoodcc]

that's cool. too bad they didn't get in the keynote though

 

[sushi]

He's an aerospace engineer. The Cirrus SR22 that is modeled is based on his personal flight testing of his own aircraft, and I'm talking spins, stalls, maximum performance turns, and at just about any flight condition.

You might want to cut him some slack with his blog style writing, because if Snow Leopard delivers as promised, X-plane V10 is going to be unbelievable.

Interesting background about him.

Thanks.

that's cool. too bad they didn't get in the keynote though

With the way it is being received we may see it at a future keynote.

They will need to figure out how to demo it quickly.

My suggestion would be something like this:

• Start with an external view. Lower flaps. Move controls.
• Switch to internal view. Start Take-Off.
• Switch external view and complete Take-Off.
• Complete some arial maneuvers.
• Switch to landing approach.
• Show external then internal view.
• Cut to features selection such as aircraft and location.

Something like this. It would be short and sweet. Also, have the developer fly it instead of SJ.

 

[likemyorbs]

so whats up with the "no smoking on apple property" sign outside the headquarters where the author took a picture of himself? thats a bit ridiculous, if i work for apple i cant go outside for a cigarette?

 

[sushi]

so whats up with the "no smoking on apple property" sign outside the headquarters where the author took a picture of himself? thats a bit ridiculous, if i work for apple i cant go outside for a cigarette?

I would expect that Apple has designated smoking areas.

And the area in the picture is not since it is the front entry to the building.

 

[rhett7660]

Very interesting read.

 

[mathcolo]

Man! That must have been an incredible experience sitting in the heart of apple! I'm so jealous....

Isn't everybody?