In other companies, you can build a personal + professional goodwill by inventing things and making breakthroughs. At Apple, the brand encapsulates your achievements without anything to show for it. You're dust at the end of your career in exchange for a salary and a stack of non-disclosure agreements that expire on upon your death.
I think that's a pretty hardcore exaggeration. The last couple of times I talked to people from Apple (about getting a job there) they were pretty open about what they did and the tech they were using - and what they were looking for in terms of the person they wanted to hire. Unfortunately I wasn't quite the person they needed in either case. I came REALLY CLOSE last time, so I was sad to find out I still didn't have quite the amount of experience he wanted.
They said professional goodwill not fame. But Jeff Dean is famous for work he did for Google. Dave Cutler, Anders Hejlsberg, Jeff Bonwick, Bryan Cantrill, and Shigeru Miyamoto are famous for work they did for other famous companies.
People used to get famous working for Apple too. Jony Ive? Andy Hertzfeld? Susan Kare?
Good point and agree, its the same at other contemporary corporations. I am kind of looking at 1970-2000 era when companies used people as part of their brand / face - Bell Labs, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Fairchild Semiconductor, IBM and many others that made great engineers feel-like they weren't replaceable, but actually part of the ethos of the company. Their personal goodwill was coupled with the company's image and success. We've stopped doing that I believe.
