Apple's is the only computing platform that can claim to offer both a truly integrated experience across an ecosystem of devices and one that serves a billion people globally. There are some small boutique brands with fiercely loyal customers, and some mega producers who crank out huge volumes of unexceptional commodity, but nobody else has both the size and character of Apple.
The idea that rising at 4 a.m. makes you successful is just as stupid as thinking that you'll be more successful if you burn yourself out working 100 hours a week, or that open plan offices will increase productivity. It's bullsh*t from top to bottom.
It's time for us non-idiots to say "enough with this macho crap."
For my money, though, people weren’t angry enough. It’s completely insane that “successful” people think that to be your most productive self, you must not only work through every waking moment but add more waking moments to your day, then work through those. Never to be questioned are jobs whose tasks cannot be finished within a normal 40-hour week or a work culture that romanticizes burnout.
But with AI in everything, and everything connected, at some point your appliances will get even more personal. What’s next? Integrating the refrigerator with my Apple Health Profile, so the next time I go for a pint of Ben & Jerry’s I hear something snippy like, “You haven’t closed your exercise ring this week and you’re looking a little... how should I put this?”
Seriously, that’s going to happen. It might also save lives. Consider the scenario of audible warnings which are triggered when you pull an item off a supermarket shelf that contains an ingredient to which you (or even a member of your family) is allergic.
Before long, these devices will be all around us, and the experience will feel increasingly like talking to a real person. You’re never alone, even when you’re completely alone. Except that, in reality, you are.
I do, occasionally, wake up earlier -- not to get more work done in the wee hours in the morning, but to go for a more leisurely breakfast before I report to work.
Of course, I am also not a CEO.
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My idea of leisurely: a cup of coffee in my hand, earphones in my ears (you can't find a quiet spot in Singapore), and a good book in my iPhone.
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Thanks for reading.