Apple’s culture of secrecy is partly self-imposed rather than fear of litigation or Global Security tac squads rappelling through your window or any fantasy fear like that. It’s nothing cult-like, just simple conformity in following social convention. People get used to not broadcasting what they work on, and an over-imaginative public does the rest.
I do think that the overall organization’s relative lack of participation in industry conventions and conferences (unlike the rest of FAMNG) seems to percolate to the rank and file as well, though you do see occasional tech talks from Apple engineers[0]. There’s also a sense that Apple is a world unto itself, there’s certainly enough decades worth of technology to work on and to study, that perhaps there’s relatively less interest in the outside.
I do think that the overall organization’s relative lack of participation in industry conventions and conferences (unlike the rest of FAMNG) seems to percolate to the rank and file as well, though you do see occasional tech talks from Apple engineers[0]. There’s also a sense that Apple is a world unto itself, there’s certainly enough decades worth of technology to work on and to study, that perhaps there’s relatively less interest in the outside.
[0] https://youtu.be/7UC7OUdtY_Q