I can't See Apple's Vision

Summary

Companies, as they grow to become multi-billion-dollar entities, somehow lose their vision. They insert lots of layers of middle management between the people running the company and the people doing the work. They no longer have an inherent feel or a passion about the products. The creative people, who are the ones who care passionately, have to persuade five layers of management to do what they know is the right thing to do. - Steve JobsI don't typically write about Apple stuff. It's the most written-about company on earth. Every product launch gets the kind of forensic scrutiny normally reserved for plane crashes and celebrity divorces.Mostly though, I feel like a line cook at a Denny's talking trash about whether the French Laundry has lost their way. I'm back here microwaving a Grand Slam and opining about Thomas Keller's sauce work. The engineers I know personally at Apple are, on average, much more talented than me. They work harder, they do it for decades without a break, and none of them have ever shipped a feature while still wearing pajama pants at 2 PM. It seems insane for someone of my mediocre talent to critique them.It also feels a little dog-pile-y. Apple employees know Tahoe sucks. They know it the way you know your haircut is bad — they don't need strangers on the internet confirming it. And to be fair, there's genuinely great work buried inside Tahoe: the clipboard manager, the automation APIs, a much-improved Spotlight. But visually it's gross, and that matters when your entire brand identity is "we're the ones who care about design." Instead, I want to talk about a bigger problem and one that I do feel qualified to talk about because I am very guilty of committing this sin. I don't see a cohesive vision for MacOS and WatchOS. This, more than one bad release, seems far worse to me and dangerous for the company. Since this is already 2000 words as a draft I'll save WatchOS for another time. I'm verbose but even I have limits. Now to be clear this ...