Compromise
The question is, really, what are you not willing to compromise on?
Good. Cheap. On-time.
Now, that makes it easy and says there are only three factors, but, in the real world, there’s many, many, many, many real factors. But, I think however many aspects of a project there are, the only way to really get it done is to have one of them that your group, your team, your whatever — yourself, if you’re doing it by yourself — is the main one. Right? You’ve got to pick one, and that’s the thing you hang on to, and you do the best you can with the other ones. The one thing you’re not going to bend for, right?
That’s the difference between Apple and Microsoft — the one thing they’re going to hang on to.
With Apple, it’s user experience. That comes first and everything else — everything else — follows after that. It’s always been like that, right? They’ve maybe fallen short at times, but what they’ve always tried to do is make the best experience possible. How it feels to use. How it looks. How elegant it is. What it feels like. Now, what it’s like to buy it. What it’s like to open the box. Right? It’s always about the experience.
It’s not that Microsoft doesn’t care about the user experience, it’s just never been first. I think first has always been that mantra “Windows everywhere.” Right? It’s to get it everywhere, and to get as many features in, and keep as many features in, so that anywhere that they might be able to use it, you can say, “Yes, you can use it.” And, not necessarily that you should, but you can. And, that’s their one thing they hold on to.