Mike Wuerthele
Apple CEO Tim Cook returned to his Alma Mater Duke for the commencement speech for the 2018 graduates, and left to a standing ovation.
Cook addressed many topics, ranging from climate change, Apple's use of renewable energy, and issued a clarion call to graduates to leave the world better than they found it.
Hard to believe it's been nearly 30 years since I was celebrating with my @DukeU classmates and these lifelong friends. I'm honored to join the #Duke2018 Commencement today! pic.twitter.com/biPQ7taE8S
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) May 13, 2018
While not an overt call back to Apple's late-'90s advertising slogan, Cook still called on graduates to "think different" and not just accept how things are.
"Don't just accept the world you inherit. Don't just accept the status quo," said Cook. "No big challenge has ever been solved, and no lasting improvement has been achieved, unless people dare to try something different. Dare to think different."
Congratulations and thank you to the @DukeU class of 2018! Graduates, be fearless! pic.twitter.com/XeDV9seX0E
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) May 13, 2018
As with most of Cook's speeches, he invoked Steve Jobs, and thanked the Apple founder for his vision.
"I was lucky to learn from someone who believed this deeply. Someone who knew changing the world starts with following a vision, not following a path," reminisced Cook. "He was my friend, my mentor, Steve Jobs. Steve's vision was that the great idea comes from a restless refusal to accept things as they are."
"The question we ask ourselves is not what can we do, but what should we do. Because Steve taught us that's how change happens. And from him I leaned to never be content with the way things are," said Cook. "I believe this mindset comes naturally to young people — and you should never let go of this restlessness."
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27 Comments
Awesome speech Mr Cook!
Another angle, from Bloomberg, with CEO again distinguishing Apple from the rest of tech pack on privacy:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-ceo-lauds-gun-control-161149072.html
As intelligent assistants, which have languished for years, will suddenly become smarter faster than most expect, and be (for many) constant over-the-shoulder companions, this is probably a wise tactic by Cook.
Timmy, instead of taking credit for Job's work, why not establish some "visionary" work yourself? Siri, once the stand-out, visionary leader - is nearly dead-last. Frankly, it sucks. Your watch has 8 boring faces. Mac Mini has been bastardized and abandoned. The Mac Pro, once an example of design, is abandoned. Apple is HUGE!! Surely you can work on more than 1 thing at a time. Yes, your new speaker sounds good, but it's hamstrung by Siri (did I mention it still sucks?). The Apple watch is coming out with new "limited edition bands" for $250+, so friggin what? How many people buy those, when a functional band works just as well for 10% that cost. Leather is NOT a luxury item, you do know it comes from cows, right? How about you quit with the politics and alienating 50% of your customer base, and focus on the product instead? Jobs shared many of your same political viewpoints, yet managed to keep out of politics and ran a company very, very well. Perhaps you should take a que, as Apple's stock has been pretty stagnant in comparison since you took the helm. There is so much work to be done (Mac line is old, obsolete - AppleTV line is woefully ignored, Apple Watch has so much undeveloped potential, wtf is going on with Siri and why have you allowed Google to kick your butt? Ipads are practically a commodity, yet the advancements in the iPhone are not migrating to the iPad. iPad Pro is vitually dead, why? Focus on your key businesses.
How can Apple be "alienating 50 percent of its customer base" and still breaking sales records, winning new converts from PC and Android, dominating every category it competes in, disrupting entire industries, and the most valuable company ever in the history of the world, on track to break the $1T valuation barrier?
Methinks your logic (not to mention your stats) are more broken than any of Apple's alleged "failures," though I (and Tim) would agree there are areas where the company can certainly do better.
Let's wait and see what WWDC brings, but it might be useful for Mac-oriented users like yourself (apparently) to bear in mind that Macs are less than 10 percent of Apple's business these days -- nearly every other hardware product Apple sells outsells the Mac. This is a disquieting notion to some of us, but we should not shy away from facing up to the truth -- and the truth is that the Mac actually gets more than the attention its sales figures deserve, but of course a lot less that it did when it was Apple's leading product (I'll bet the iPod lover crowd feels the same way ...).
This is not (much) the fault of former or present Apple leadership (you may remember that it was Jobs that rebranded Apple as a consumer company, not just a computer company) -- it is more the shift by consumers generally away from "traditional" computing. It's very unsurprising to me that desktops are dying off; MBP-type notebooks will likely follow that path in due course. The truth is that 95+ percent of the public has zero need for either device -- a Chromebook-like limited laptop or an iPad with a keyboard covers (or soon will cover) the needs of a typical non-power-user.