GQ on Tim Cook: Calm, Curious, and Not Normal
Zach Baron’s profile of Tim Cook at GQ is a fascinating read:
At a moment dense with pathological tech founders who log on daily to pontificate about the collective future of humankind, Cook does not log on all that much. He does not move fast and break things. His even calmness stands as an implicit rebuke to the chaos agents—Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and so on—who often get called to testify in Congress alongside Cook about the increasingly uncertain state of tech in this country. In clubby Silicon Valley, where it appears at times like people are battling to be the first in line on the venture capital–powered spaceship that will carry the Patagonia-clad elite away from the rest of us, Cook seems to side with the rest of us.
Tim Cook has been at Apple for 25 years and has been CEO since 2011. Despite the regular online refrains of “If Steve Jobs were still in charge…,” Apple under Cook has become the world’s most valuable company, released the Apple Watch and AirPods, and maintained focus on products, services, and values—and yes, making money. While some level of drama is inevitable for a company of Apple’s size and stature, Cook remains a calming influence. And yes, sending him email does often trigger a response from the Corporate Executive Relations team.
Fascinating article, thanks.
I’ll note that Tim Cook’s Apple makes more a year that Steve Jobs’s Apple did in the entirety of SJ’s CEO-dom. Make of that what you will.
One thing I really value about Apple under Cook is the increase in charitable giving, which was almost non existent under Jobs.
And stuff like this. It’s a little hard to wrap one’s head around, much less write about, but it’s an indication of just how different Apple has become.
Just 8 gigawatts more and we go back in time.
I think Apple has already far exceeded the requirement, no? And don’t forget to pronounce it “jiggawats”.