Something I’ve noticed time and again is that when you start working on marketing, you look at the product differently. In having to pitch it to an audience, you’re forced to confront things that seem obvious in retrospect but didn’t jump out at you throughout the design process.
This particular anecdote is amazing - but also speaks to Jobs’ zen-like ability to edit things down to their essentials. For the more tech-minded, this aspect of Apple products is annoying. But it’s also a huge part of their success.
> In having to pitch it to an audience, you’re forced to confront things that seem obvious in retrospect but didn’t jump out at you throughout the design process.
That reminds me of the old story about the early days of UNIX, and the great decision to introduce a "Bugs" section to man pages.
Reportedly the developers would, when starting to capture the problems with their tools, get embarrassed and instead of documenting the bugs they'd just fix them.
Related: documenting something is a fantastic way to uncover your own knowledge gaps. As soon as I start to feel myself handwaving something away (passive voice is a dead giveaway) I know I've hit on a topic I don't really understand.
This particular anecdote is amazing - but also speaks to Jobs’ zen-like ability to edit things down to their essentials. For the more tech-minded, this aspect of Apple products is annoying. But it’s also a huge part of their success.