I can't See Apple's Vision
"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." — Steve Jobs
The Core Problem
The author argues that unlike iPadOS (strong vision) and iOS (incredibly strong vision), macOS and watchOS seem to be evolving in random directions with no clear end goal. The software is letting down the great hardware it's installed on.
OS X Had a Vision
- Unix without the beard — All the power, none of the terminal. Stability of a server OS without sudo.
- Everything annoying abstracted away — No drivers, drag-to-install, the computer meets you halfway.
- If it should work, it works — Double-click PDF opens, DVD plays, apps work as expected.
- Serious but not cluttered — Real font management, color calibration, content is the show.
The Lost Thread
The author identifies Notifications as the moment macOS "lost the thread":
- On iOS, notifications make sense (apps buried in folders)
- On macOS, apps are visible in the Dock — notifications are redundant and consume screen real estate
- It's "copying iOS's homework from a different school, in a different country, studying a different subject"
The Current State
Tahoe (macOS 26) shows internal struggle:
- Visual catastrophe — "I installed one of those OS X skins for a Linux distro"
- But good work exists — Clipboard manager, Spotlight improvements, automation APIs
- Best work is "being done in spite of the overall vision, not because of it"
Key Quotes
- "The purpose of MacOS was just to port iOS features to the Mac years after their launch on iOS"
- "We have a resolution on our laptops screen that would have made people collapse in 2005 — why must we waste all of it on UI elements?"
- "Right now, on macOS, it looks like both [creative winning and losing] are happening at the same time, in the same release, on the same screen. And that's scarier than any one bad design choice."
Verdict: A sharp, well-argued critique of Apple's direction with macOS. The author argues the problem isn't one bad release — it's the lack of a cohesive vision. The best work (Spotlight, clipboard manager) exists "in spite of" rather than "because of" the overall direction.