Friday, June 28
Some people are natural writers. They sit down and words pour out. For me, the opposite is true. To write in depth, I need to isolate from the world, lose myself in the concepts, think through what I want to say over and over, allow mornings to blend with nights, and stare at a Google Doc until words emerge. A few days later, I *might* have something presentable. It's the joy and the agony of doing this work.
I mention this because it's been one of those weeks. And in each of the next two weeks, I'm hoping to share a new in-depth story with you that I've been working on for months. So please stay tuned. And in the meantime, this week's newsletter:
Jony's Exit
Jony Ive is heading out the door at Apple. On the surface, this exit may seem like trouble. Apple has been positioning itself as a luxury brand for years, and now its legendary design chief — the man who designed everything since the first iMac, ushering in Apple's golden age alongside Steve Jobs — is leaving. Wall Street responded to the news by shaving $9 billion off Apple's market cap almost immediately.
But dig a bit deeper, and Ive's departure is likely a blessing for Apple. Inside the company, Ive's design organization holds immense power. They dictate how each product will look, and then it's up to the engineers and operations team to bring their visions to life. That system worked well — really well — for a while, as Apple made its iPhones thinner and faster, much to the public's delight and shareholders' bounty. But now, Apple must think beyond its phones, which are selling slower than anticipated. As it turns its focus to software and services (which a great industrial team will have little impact on) a less powerful design team will be an asset, allowing the engineers to spread their wings
Ive's been withdrawn at Apple for some time now. But culture change is hard when big personalities who played big roles in previous successes are still lurking around. As I said in response to a skeptical commenter on LinkedIn: The second you become obsessed with the past you're destined to live in it and will miss the future. So off goes Ive to his next venture, and on goes Apple to a new chapter.
The People Steering Facebook's "Supreme Court"
You may have heard this week that Facebook is building a "supreme court," or an oversight board that will review its content moderation decisions and have the power to overturn them. Recently, I spoke with Facebook's Zoe Darme, who's been leading the effort to get the public's feedback about the board's structure.
Darme spent four years as a policy analyst at the US Department of Justice, and then spent six years working on policy for the UN, spending time on peacekeeping, rule of law, and reintegrating former combatants who had laid down their weapons. Her area of work also dealt with mines. "Any explosive hazards, anything that went boom," she told me. Facebook, she said, was interested in putting her to work on the oversight board because she had "multilateral experience," meaning she worked in an organization with multiple member states, and her work at Facebook has obvious parallels.
And though Darme isn't working in peacekeeping anymore, she's still thinking about security threats. During Facebook's public consultation process on the oversight board, a main issue participants discussed was how to keep the board's members physically safe.
"Think about the things that are truly controversial," Darme told me. "Some people, they automatically think about, what if it's terrorist related content, but it doesn't necessarily have to be. There are other controversial issues that people get very, very passionate about, Whether it's depictions of Muhammed… an abortion or life issue, that sort of thing. You can't anticipate what people will become so passionate about that they're willing to take action in that way."
I remember walking through Facebook offices some years ago when the company named its conference rooms after countries it was bigger than. The comparison is imperfect, users are not the same as citizens. But it's notable where Facebook's visions of statehood have taken it.
Would love your feedback
As always, I love hearing from you. You can just click reply to this email and send your thoughts to my inbox anytime. How did I do this week? Did you like the more personal intro or should I just get straight to the news? Let me know, all responses appreciated.
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