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Apple CEO Tim Cook Tells Graduates To 'Push Back' Against Belief-Reinforcing Algorithms (businessinsider.com) 139

Posted by EditorDavid from the Apple-versus-algorithms dept.
CNBC reports: Apple CEO Tim Cook challenged Gen Z to clean up the messes Baby Boomers have left behind. "In some important ways, my generation has failed you," Cook said Saturday in his commencement speech at Tulane University in New Orleans, La., at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
He emphasized climate change, according to the article -- though he also shared a memory about how Steve Jobs had convinced him to leave Compaq in 1998 "to join a company that was on the verge of bankruptcy." Cook gave some advice while remembering all the hard work that followed: "There is a saying that if you do what you love, you will never work a day in your life," Cook said Saturday in his commencement speech at Tulane University in New Orleans, La., at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. "At Apple, I learned that is a total crock," Cook said. Rather, when you find a job you are passionate about, you will work hard, but you won't mind doing so, Cook says. "You will work harder than you ever thought possible, but the tools will feel light in your hands," Cook says.
Cook also emphasized the importance of listening to other opinions, according to Business Insider: In what could have been a reference to Facebook, which has been under scrutiny in recent years over how it chooses the information displayed in its News Feed, the Apple CEO urged students to open their eyes. "Today, certain algorithms pull you toward the things you already know, believe, or like, and they push away everything else," he said. "Push back. It shouldn't be this way. But in 2019 opening your eyes and seeing things in a new way can be a revolutionary act...." Apple has notably pursued human curation for its Apple News app.
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Apple CEO Tim Cook Tells Graduates To 'Push Back' Against Belief-Reinforcing Algorithms More

Apple CEO Tim Cook Tells Graduates To 'Push Back' Against Belief-Reinforcing Algorithms

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  • What is it with you and that "baby boomers" meme? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    What is it with Americans and that term?

    Don't you mean the around 1969 hippies with that?

    Because in that case: So you're hating on what everyone considers to be the only sane generation in a country of batshit insane extremist nationalism, corporate fascism and Catholiban-level fundamentalist extremist religiousness??

    Because then, we, the world, have to tell you: You're nuts!
    You were nuts, had a blip of almost sanity, ruined it thanks to all-around "great" American Nixon and his goons, and hence went straig

    • So you're hating on what everyone considers to be the only sane generation in a country of batshit insane extremist nationalism, corporate fascism and Catholiban-level fundamentalist extremist religiousness??

      BNdear in mind that when we were their age, we were just as crazy. It just manifested in different ways.

      And in the same way that the stupidest Boomer fads, like drug usage and being anti-science, are still societal burdens today, the worst fads of later generations will tend to proliferate. Will asteroidal mining ships need one whole deck filled with just bathrooms?

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday May 19, 2019 @10:28AM (#58618100)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re:What is it with you and that "baby boomers" mem (Score:5, Interesting)

        by thrich81 ( 1357561 ) on Sunday May 19, 2019 @12:13PM (#58618564)

        Interesting post and if I had mod points you'd get them. I have a couple of pushbacks, though. First, at least some of the economic changes attributed to the Boomers are more likely historical and/or technological changes for which Boomers were just along for the ride. The loss of good blue collar factory jobs in the US being a prime candidate -- the collapse of the (low skilled) US factory job can be attributed to the rise of manufacturing in other countries and the automation of manufacturing in general. Most reasonable people would not want to get in the way of those two economic forces. Greedy corporate boards may have accelerated the process, maybe, but the changes were inevitable. The Boomers just happened to be the last generation in the factories before those economic tsunamis came along and took away that lifestyle.
        The tax cuts are an interesting question which require real numbers to consider. According to this site (https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/past_spending), total government spending (federal, state and local) as a percent of GDP has increased steadily since the early 20 the century (with spikes for big wars). That website is a little suspect since I can't vet it well, but https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb... [whitehouse.gov] has a table of federal spending by GDP and shows that it has about been level at around 20% since about 1975. One thing which has changed as GDP has gone up is the spending on healthcare (public and private), partly because we demand better outcomes now than people in 1965 were willing to accept. You could (possibly) say that government debt will someday curb services but it hasn't yet.
        Much more could be said... but, anyway, thanks for the interesting original post from your GenX perspective. Hey, the Boomer successors get to write the history books so you will have the last say!

        • I realize that I'm late to the party, but about the tax cuts thing: to get the whole picture about what's going on here, you can't just look at the US in a vacuum. Here [ourworldindata.org] are some similar figures, but looking at the whole world instead of just the US.

          You can see that, as you pointed out, total spending has increased in developed countries over the last century, and the US is no exception, but where that money comes from and how it's spent is very different for the US compared to other developed countries.

      • John Fitzgerald Kennedy supported tax cuts. This predates the 80s...

    • Re:What is it with you and that "baby boomers" mem (Score:5, Insightful)

      by elrous0 ( 869638 ) on Sunday May 19, 2019 @12:06PM (#58618526)

      You know, for a country that's so (batshit-crazy, hyper-religious, intolerant, bigoted, racist/sexist/homophobic, blah, blah) there sure do seem to be a metric fuckton of people from all the other more enlightened countries trying like hell to come here. Don't all those people risking their lives to sneak across our borders realize how awful this country is? Maybe you should give them pamphlets or something to let them know.

      • You know, for a country that's so (batshit-crazy, hyper-religious, intolerant, bigoted, racist/sexist/homophobic, blah, blah) there sure do seem to be a metric fuckton of people from all the other more enlightened countries trying like hell to come here.

        So where are all the "caravans" from "more enlightened countries" - unless you admit that "the Mexican countries" are enlightened?

    • Because then, we, the world, have to tell you: You're nuts!

      Hard to believe that the collective-rest-of-the-world has a unified opinion on the American baby-boomer generation. Most likely you're only generalizing (incorrectly) from your own viewpoint.

  • "Push back against belief reinforcing algorithms" Thats why Apple is joining with the rest of the Silicon Valley Oligarchy to delete and ban; (eventually they hope with the help of an AI skynet they're building that will be able to do it in realtime before its ever seen and track you down and maybe even predict who will do it), wrongthink umm I mean "fake news" and "extremism and bigoted content"

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Apple has always had a walled garden, since well before the conservative oppressed victimhood narrative started.

      It's their brand. A Disney-esq Safe Space where children and prudes can be assured of not encountering anything unwholesome.

      And it's absolutely fine if a private company wants to offer that service.

      • Who came up with the oppressed victimhood narrative? It worked really well. Nobody will copy anything that's not successful. Claiming that an idea is morally or politically wrong is not the same as demonstrating that it is factually wrong. The fact that so many students, academics and journalists fail to do the difference between the two is a good evidence that there is a serious problem with the modern left wing intelligentsia.

  • Listening to other opinions (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Going_Digital ( 1485615 ) on Sunday May 19, 2019 @04:19AM (#58617280)
    Well that right there is a fundamental difference between Jobs and Cook. Steve Jobs was (perhaps overly) self confident. He didn't listen to others, he did things his way as he had the conviction that his way was right. That is how he was able to succeed, by pushing things to be done his way. Of course the down side of that is when he was wrong the failure would be devastating.

  • Lean in (Score:3)

    by nastyphil ( 111738 ) on Sunday May 19, 2019 @04:42AM (#58617322)

    It's called 'confirmation bias'.

    • It's called 'confirmation bias'.

      . . . or also known as "Groupthink":

      Groupthink [wikipedia.org]

      Well, what I think, is that Tim Cook should stop thinking, and instead innovate some new and exciting products.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Tom ( 5839674 )

      One can argue that Apple uses and abuses confirmation bias and group think.

        -T-

  • Newspapers vs. algorithms (Score:5, Interesting)

    by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) on Sunday May 19, 2019 @05:20AM (#58617412) Journal

    Today, certain algorithms pull you toward the things you already know, believe, or like, and they push away everything else

    We had those algorithms long before computers existed, they were called "editors". The information bubble might not have been as airtight and personalized as today, but it was there: if you got your news from only a few publications or TV channels, you wouldn't be exposed to a great deal of differing viewpoints. Many of my generation discovered that bubble, along with a world of different opinions and real debate, when the Internet really opened up in our teens and twenties. But I've also noticed that many of the previous generation never did that "revolutionary act", and remained stuck in the same newspapers, TV channels, and opinions.

    On the Internet you do get the bad along with the good, so you will have to be your own editor. And I agree with Cook that it's good to look around for places where your views are challenged rather than reinforced. But you need to find a place where there is heated debate rather than just uncontested viewpoints different than your own, so you may find yourself actually having to fundamentally review your long-held opinions. A newspaper never managed that, the Internet did. But the places where we can do so freely with a significant audience are becoming rarer.

    Perhaps more than these algorithms we should fear the growth of actual censorship, whether it is political bias applied across platforms, the practice of shadow-banning, the pushback against the use of pseudonyms online (something that is already stifling online debate), or governments who see these platforms as a means to outsource the a priori censorship that they themselves are not allowed to apply.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      We had those algorithms long before computers existed, they were called "editors".

      We had them long before even that. It was called church.

    • One of the most insightful things I've ever read here; thanks.

    • We had those algorithms long before computers existed, they were called "editors". The information bubble might not have been as airtight and personalized as today, but it was there: if you got your news from only a few publications or TV channels, you wouldn't be exposed to a great deal of differing viewpoints.

      Even if you got your news from a broad variety of "sources", it's been mostly the same crap over and over again since the rise of the news wire services.

    • TOPIC: not living in a bubble that makes you feel good. The event, a fairly exclusive event designed to make them feel good about the time/effort/$ debt.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by LynnwoodRooster ( 966895 )
      We used to call that place, where your ideas and notions were challenged, "college". But now with safe spaces, banned speakers, and such - we're raising a generation who will never experience the challenging of their ideas until they are out in the world world, and will assume that if there is a "challenge" it must be squashed, not rationally considered and allowed to stand on its own merits.

  • Does this mean that people in a bubble of legitimate climate scientists should also get to see the denier's side ?

    • Re:climate change (Score:5, Insightful)

      by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) on Sunday May 19, 2019 @05:41AM (#58617466) Journal
      Yes. And if they are serious about their profession, they should be able to quickly tell bunk from research that deserves a closer look.

      • they should be able to quickly tell bunk from research that deserves a closer look.

        So, only expose people to thoughts outside their bubble if those thoughts have been vetted by Apple ?

        • "they" = the scientists, not Apple. Expose them to everything.

          • I'm not talking about the scientists, but regular people who believe in AGW, and follow climate scientists. Should Apple encourage those people to also listen to denier crackpots ?

            Or people who believe in vaccinations. Should they be exposed to antivaxx crap, just because it is outside their bubble ?

            Now, those are the easy cases.

            • Re:climate change (Score:5, Insightful)

              by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) on Sunday May 19, 2019 @06:35AM (#58617546) Journal

              I'm not talking about the scientists, but regular people who believe in AGW, and follow climate scientists. Should Apple encourage those people to also listen to denier crackpots ?

              To a degree. Real science and crackpot theories shouldn't get equal weight, but the danger (especially in climate science) is that anything outside the current groupthink is labeled a crackpot theory, and subsequently ignored even if it is valid. Better to expose it all rather than hide some of it... if only because filtering and censorship fuel the conspiracy theorists' conviction. The result of free speech and open platforms is that you get a lot of crap along with the good stuff. And I found that often it's better to not let someone else decide what is crap and what isn't

              That also depends on context. In a publication or forum dedicated to climate science, you'd expect to find a lot of stuff reinforcing the idea of AGW and none of the denier bunk... it is nice (and helpful if you're short on time) to have someone else do the filtering. As long as they filter on science and also publish scientific papers or opinions picking apart supposed mistakes in research confirming AGW. And I would encourage anyone to go beyond the filter from time to time, not only to make sure that the filter is being applied properly, but also to get a taste of the opinions that live outside your bubble. If anything, it may prompt you to revise your argumentation or strategy to convince others of your beliefs, if not those beliefs themselves.

              Or people who believe in vaccinations. Should they be exposed to antivaxx crap, just because it is outside their bubble ?

              Yes. The alternative being that this stuff is kept from them, along with god knows what valid but "undesirable" ideas.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Rip!ey ( 599235 )
      The deniers side is not backed by scientific method. If it was, then legitimate climate scientists would be backing it already.

      • Models don't match empirical data - which do you believe? The dominant, KNOWN control on the feedback of a system is ignored in favor of a tertiary control with 1/100th the impact - which do you focus on?

        Before you answer, consider that getting your work published - and thus keeping your grant train rolling, and your income safe - depends upon your answer...

    • > Does this mean that people in a bubble of legitimate climate scientists should also get to see the denier's side ?

      Yes.

      You use the term "deniers". Which suggests in your head there are two groups - true believers - the faithful, versus deniers. If you question a study, if you don't accept every alarmist conclusion, you're a "denier". Your use of the term "deniers" strongly suggests listening to someone other than the gurus of your cult would be a very good idea indeed.

      The best-known proponents of AGW

  • Tim Cook carefully defuses a truth bomb! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Sneftel ( 15416 ) on Sunday May 19, 2019 @05:38AM (#58617462)

    "There is a saying that if you do what you love, you will never work a day in your life...At Apple, I learned that is a total crock," Cook said. Rather, when you find a job you are passionate about, you will work hard, but you won't mind doing so, Cook says. "You will work harder than you ever thought possible, but the tools will feel light in your hands."

    Um, yes, Tim. That's basically what the saying is getting at.

    Up next: Tim Cook dispels other modern myths!

    "They say that a watched pot never boils, but that's simply not true. It does boil, and in the same amount of time. It just feels like it takes longer, because you get bored."

    "All your life, they'll tell you 'don't count your chickens before they're hatched.' But what they won't tell you is that you can count the eggs instead. That'll be the same number, unless some of the eggs don't hatch."

  • Utopianist Bullshit (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    "In some important ways, my generation has failed you" - this is utopianist bullshit. Every previous generation has failed us in some way just as we will fail those who follow us in some important ways. Nobody is perfect; we are flawed creatures. We will fail the generations that follow us in an important way if we fail to slap down utopianist bullshit. Utopianist bullshit is what led to Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Hitler, etc.

  • Listen to this opinion (Score:3, Insightful)

    by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Sunday May 19, 2019 @06:47AM (#58617570)

    You've been told for at least a decade your hardware isn't good and locks people into an endless cycle of buy/replace every three years. From a business perspective you want people to repeatedly buy your products. It's how you generate revenue.

    From a user perspective, it's a losing proposition because at some point the masses start moving away from your product due to the ever-increasing costs for such little return. This is clearly evident in Apple's microscopic market share of the PC market which grows smaller each year.

    Let people upgrade/modify their systems. Build PCs around standard cases. Lower the cost of said products by a small amount. Those two items will enhance Apple's bottom line as people start buying your product and market share increases.

    It's only my opinion, but it's been told over and over again yet you ignore it. Either follow your words, or shut up.

    • You've been told for at least a decade your hardware isn't good and locks people into an endless cycle of buy/replace every three years.

      Talk about "whoosh." Here's a hint: they might not need to be told.

    • Standard cases would be dumb, it would make it harder to charge the Apple tax. They do need to improve the hardware, though. They're losing the pros, and the plebes will follow. Not soon, perhaps, but eventually. Apple got its desktop cachet from being the computer of creative people, and it's scaring them away with crap equipment.

    • You've been told for at least a decade your hardware isn't good and locks people into an endless cycle of buy/replace every three years

      Why should he listen to people who are wrong?

      Typing this on a late 2013 MacBook Pro - and my wife uses my 2011 MacBook Pro to this day.

      Especially in recent years, processor development has been such there is not really a reason to upgrade/replace every three years. For quite some time now Apple *hardware* has been able to last vastly longer than three years, and many people

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by swell ( 195815 )

      So, what you seem to be saying here is that the world desperately needs another clone maker. Generic machines for the masses! Eliminate the unique Mac OS and join either Windows or Linux lookalikes. Wipe out privacy features and open their computers to maximum spyware and malware. Forget about elegance in hardware and software design and go for the Lowest Common Denominator in user facing features. Market your products to the poor and unenlightened instead of the educated and demanding.

      If I may extrapolate

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Tom ( 5839674 )

        There is nothing Unique about MacOS, and saying unique just makes one believe you are unreasonably Apply biased.

        So, what is the argument? Is it that MacOS and Apple hardware are unique? Really though, Apple laptops ARE generic, built with generic parts and pieces. Now that most other manufacturers are building aluminum cases, one can argue that the even the design is generic, and in some instances, quite stale.

        MacOS is no more unique then MS Windows. If you argue that MacOS is the alternative to Windows,

  • People don't like to leave comfort zone (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    As I attended a graduation this weekend the commencement speech was on sacrifice of which many young people do not do. Giving of yourself for the benefit of others isn't happening. Its the me,me,me generation. What's in it for me, I deserve better, my rights more important then yours. The news is filtered to a certain ideology. Its not just the news, its the news as you want to see it. Cook is right young people need to explore outside their comfort zone. Unfortunately colleges are also a one sided ideology

  • It's hard to take someone seriously who calls a saying that has been understood by most for decades a "total crock" and then goes on to restate its meaning using different words.

  • Cook also emphasized the importance of listening to other opinions

    And yet Apple and its supporters do all they can to quash dissenting opinions. As does Microsoft. As does Google. The list of "woke" companies goes on and on.

  • Tim, does that include the ones like Apple pushes where apparently we should just replace something that doesn't work and that despite what the Genii in the Genius Bars say it is actually possible to repair a faulty Apple device and you don't have to buy a new model just because your company fucked up and made the screen cable too short in the old model so it eventually fails?
  • Speak for yourself. That is all.
  • Communist China?
    Censorship?
    Curating the internet?
    Pontificating on what is sinful?
  • boomers caused without massive improvements in economic well being. Depending on what you consider paycheck to paycheck 60-80% of Americans live that way (got a $999 in the bank? Congrats you're not paycheck to paycheck).

    Add to that our fucked up medical system, the way cheap H1-B work visas have made college degrees mandatory for entry level jobs and massive student loan debt from defunded colleges and you've got 80% of Americans on the edge at all times. I remember an economist calling it a "Fragile E
  • It's convenient to blame boomers for today's problems, instead of pulling one's self up and getting things done. Stop believing these lies. Every generation blames the older ones for their problems and every old generation that ages claims that kids are lazy. These generalities are timeless. We need to not believe them as they're bullshit.

  • We definitely have the technology to run "social media" without centralization (remember NNTP?) but the ISPs' "no servers" clauses mean anybody who tries to escape centralization is subject to being shut down.

    There's a neat new email server I've heard advertised recently, but even though you get to keep those at home they have to reach out to an EC3 instance over VPN to do network transit.

    The Internet is made to be peer-to-peer, but this legalese overlay has forced normal people into centralized solutions,

  • OK, I think I'll use something other than a Mac.

    As Tim was saying, "Push back. It shouldn't be this way. But in 2019 opening your eyes and seeing..."

    Let me finish that for you ol Timmy boy... ...seeing that you've lost your core supporters for your desktop OS (superusers), for a variety of reasons, I'll not be using your hardware or software. After cutting my teeth in computing working in a UNIX computer lab, I came to love the guts of Apple's OS X --mainly for its console for basic file management cause th

  • Apple CEO Tim Cook challenged Gen Z to clean up the messes Baby Boomers have left behind. "In some important ways, my generation has failed you,"

    Alright, screw you, you jerk! I'm cleaning up trash everywhere because your generation had to have its disposable culture! The ocean has almost twice the weight in plastic as the weight of all the fish in it! We're on the 6th 'greatest extinction', not because of a massive asteroid strike or volcano eruptions, but because of the hubris of a generation that knew no connection between themselves and the very planet they shat all over! The Baby boomer generation was the same generation that blindly followed

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