I created a separate account to write this comment, since it's going to be harsh.
I work for a Bay Area technology company with a decidedly mediocre engineering team.
My experience over the past 2-3 years is that the worst software engineers (at our mediocre organization) are being hired by Apple. This is totally anecdotal and the sample size is maybe five. But I just cannot escape the fact that Apple continues to hire our engineers that barely know how to program.
Hiring engineers in the Bay Area is hard. I'm sure Apple has a deep bench of talented engineers, but my own anecdotal experience tells me they have very much reduced their standards.
Hah. I can't help but wonder if Apple has started mindlessly implementing contemporary "software engineering best practices" (yuck):
- Everything must be Scrum or a similar sprint system: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8836734
- Move to an open office layout to foster collaboration: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14962663
- Kick out high-performing "heroes" like Scott Forstall
- Instead, build teams of mediocre (but probably nicer) engineers. They can then lift each other up through positivity and pair programming.
This is of course a lot of speculation (and wishful thinking) on my part, and honestly it's likely that any process would be doomed to failure under Apple's self-imposed deadlines. But I almost want to get a job at Apple only to see what it's like on the inside.
It may also have to do something with scope. In 2000-~2010 Apple was basically and iPod + UNIX desktop company. The iPods did not spectacularly until the iPod Touch/iPhone, OS X had a relatively narrow scope: a UNIX system supporting a small hardware range, with a nice modern display server, and good object-oriented frameworks.
In the last years their scope has expanded immensely, both hardware-wise (iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, now HomePod) and software-wise: AirPlay, CarPlay, Homekit, HealthKit, AR, Apple Music, Force Touch, machine learning, Siri, Handoff, Airdrop, Emoji with face recognition, etc. A lot of these technologies work somewhat, but are glitchy.
Of course, there are many times larger than the Apple of 2007, but managing an extremely broad palette of technologies is difficult. Especially when you want them all to produce something in-sync in the autumn. In some sense, Apple may have spread themselves to thinly.
I think think that we would be better served by an Apple that was more focused on core technologies and would let the third-party ecosystem focus on applications. Or perhaps completely separate divisions that would focus on macOS, iOS, and hardware. Or shipping features when they are done (rolling-release style) rather than one big drop every year.
At any rate, their current direction is hurting core, traditional use cases for Apple products. E.g. Preview.app/PDFKit has been really terrible the last two releases, to the point where I can barely use it for previewing my lecture slides, etc. Basic technologies like PDF rendering used to be stuff that they had nailed down extremely well.
I agree 100%. But that "only" explains why we are seeing so many bugs, not why Apple would possibly settle for average engineers (which is scary if true).
> let the third-party ecosystem focus on applications
I'm worried that this is exactly what Apple tried to do with tvOS, and since it hasn't worked out (Amazon is still MIA), they're now going to spread themselves even thinner by producing content and related apps themselves.
> Basic technologies like PDF rendering used to be stuff that they had nailed down extremely well.
I have yet to find a pdf viewer which does anti-aliasing right except acrobat reader. If you have two colored objects with a common edge on a white background, that edge will be lighter in color.
Why are they the worst? Without directly refuting your comment, it's hard to believe that Apple hired the worst programmers at your company, without knowing why you think they are worst.
I work for a Bay Area technology company with a decidedly mediocre engineering team.
My experience over the past 2-3 years is that the worst software engineers (at our mediocre organization) are being hired by Apple. This is totally anecdotal and the sample size is maybe five. But I just cannot escape the fact that Apple continues to hire our engineers that barely know how to program.
Hiring engineers in the Bay Area is hard. I'm sure Apple has a deep bench of talented engineers, but my own anecdotal experience tells me they have very much reduced their standards.