David Pierce

And it has gone from being almost entirely a hardware company to being very much a services company. And so for Apple, this is where all of the incentives get screwed up. And it's especially true with the in-app purchases, right? Because Candy Crush... would like to make me spend as much money in Candy Crush as possible, right? In theory, Apple has no skin in that game at all.

And it has gone from being almost entirely a hardware company to being very much a services company. And so for Apple, this is where all of the incentives get screwed up. And it's especially true with the in-app purchases, right? Because Candy Crush... would like to make me spend as much money in Candy Crush as possible, right? In theory, Apple has no skin in that game at all.

And it has gone from being almost entirely a hardware company to being very much a services company. And so for Apple, this is where all of the incentives get screwed up. And it's especially true with the in-app purchases, right? Because Candy Crush... would like to make me spend as much money in Candy Crush as possible, right? In theory, Apple has no skin in that game at all.

So my fight now is with Candy Crush and only Candy Crush. But if Apple gets 30% of every single dollar I send to Candy Crush, now Apple has skin in the game. So it's actually now in Apple's best interest for me to spend as much time playing Candy Crush as possible. And once you do that, it's all broken and there's no going back.

So my fight now is with Candy Crush and only Candy Crush. But if Apple gets 30% of every single dollar I send to Candy Crush, now Apple has skin in the game. So it's actually now in Apple's best interest for me to spend as much time playing Candy Crush as possible. And once you do that, it's all broken and there's no going back.

So my fight now is with Candy Crush and only Candy Crush. But if Apple gets 30% of every single dollar I send to Candy Crush, now Apple has skin in the game. So it's actually now in Apple's best interest for me to spend as much time playing Candy Crush as possible. And once you do that, it's all broken and there's no going back.

And this is the subject of vast quantities of regulatory fights and there's a world in which it gets pulled back and all that stuff, but whatever. But we have gotten to the point where it is now like a meaningfully large piece of Apple's business for me to be playing Candy Crush.

And this is the subject of vast quantities of regulatory fights and there's a world in which it gets pulled back and all that stuff, but whatever. But we have gotten to the point where it is now like a meaningfully large piece of Apple's business for me to be playing Candy Crush.

And this is the subject of vast quantities of regulatory fights and there's a world in which it gets pulled back and all that stuff, but whatever. But we have gotten to the point where it is now like a meaningfully large piece of Apple's business for me to be playing Candy Crush.

And that's the root of all evil in this kind of stuff, as far as I'm concerned.

And that's the root of all evil in this kind of stuff, as far as I'm concerned.

And that's the root of all evil in this kind of stuff, as far as I'm concerned.

Like, what do you think? I've thought so much about this. And I think the reason it's impossible to know is that Steve Jobs never got to say no to this stuff, right? Like, this whole world of software as a service and everything being so important just— really came after he died.

Like, what do you think? I've thought so much about this. And I think the reason it's impossible to know is that Steve Jobs never got to say no to this stuff, right? Like, this whole world of software as a service and everything being so important just— really came after he died.

Like, what do you think? I've thought so much about this. And I think the reason it's impossible to know is that Steve Jobs never got to say no to this stuff, right? Like, this whole world of software as a service and everything being so important just— really came after he died.

And so I think the counter future of Steve Jobs reckoning with monthly subscriptions to everything I think is so fascinating. But I think everything we know about Steve Jobs suggests that he really wanted to make a lot of money and was maybe not nice to a lot of the people in his life, but cared about really, really, really, really deeply about the experience of people using his products.

And so I think the counter future of Steve Jobs reckoning with monthly subscriptions to everything I think is so fascinating. But I think everything we know about Steve Jobs suggests that he really wanted to make a lot of money and was maybe not nice to a lot of the people in his life, but cared about really, really, really, really deeply about the experience of people using his products.

And so I think the counter future of Steve Jobs reckoning with monthly subscriptions to everything I think is so fascinating. But I think everything we know about Steve Jobs suggests that he really wanted to make a lot of money and was maybe not nice to a lot of the people in his life, but cared about really, really, really, really deeply about the experience of people using his products.

And I think it is just unassailably true that being a user of tech products is worse now than it used to be. And there is this constant feeling like I am being milked for every second of my time and dollar that I have. And like, I can absolutely imagine a world in which Steve Jobs just rolled up one day and was like, push notifications are bad for the world. Turn them all off.

And I think it is just unassailably true that being a user of tech products is worse now than it used to be. And there is this constant feeling like I am being milked for every second of my time and dollar that I have. And like, I can absolutely imagine a world in which Steve Jobs just rolled up one day and was like, push notifications are bad for the world. Turn them all off.