I’ve got a stupid question? Why is everyone picking on Bob Keefe? No, I’m serious… why? For those of you who don’t know, Bob Keefe is the “Intel Sticker Guy”. He asked a rather mundane question: “Why doesn’t Apple take part in the Intel Inside program?”. This is the program that allows computer manufacturers to make millions of dollars a year by putting Intel Inside stickers on their computers (it also includes the TV jingle you see in many computer adverts.
Now, I’m not denying that the question was stupid. After all, the answer is simple, “Because it’s Apple!”. But why does the whole (Mac) world and it’s wife feel the need to pick on the guy calling him dastardly and a jackass. Now this post isn’t an all out defence of Keefe (though in a way it does go someway to defend his question). It also isn’t an attack on those who went after him. It’s simply me asking the stupidest question of all: Why do people attack stupid questions?
OK, so I’m British. As such I spend my 4th of July usually cursing the rain that makes up the British summer. But if I went to America on the 4th of July and asked, “Why do you set off fireworks on Independence Day?” I would get told that it was a stupid question and it’s because it’s just what you do on Independence Day. Now that’s fair enough but in Britain there is the 5th of November, which is where we celebrate the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot and set off fireworks. The reason for those fireworks is that they contain gunpowder and as such symbolise the gunpowder used in the plot. So to me asking for the meaning behind why American’s set off fireworks on the 4th of July is a good question.
NB: Just to point out that I don’t actually know why, so if someone does feel free to post in the comments even if it is, “Just to celebrate”.
So now imagine that the Mac world is a country and Bob Keefe is from another country (the Windows world). In that country they all wear these things called Intel stickers and so he comes over here to the Mac world and asks, “Why don’t you wear Intel stickers?”. To this everybody points and laughs at him having such a stupid question. “It’s because we’re Macs,” they say and then go on with their lives. That has just left Mr Keefe with more questions than answers.
Now the Intel sticker question was not the only stupid question asked on Tuesday. Someone asked the question, “Does the iMac have a future?”. Why isn’t that being picked on as being a stupid question? What did people expect Jobs to say to that. Maybe, “No, not really. We released this for a laugh and are dropping the iMac from the product line next week”. But the thing is this is a stupid question that we in the Mac world ask ourselves. Does the iMac have a future?
On the whole most of the question asked were stupid, yet the one with the best answer was probably the sticker question. Instead of saying, “because we’re Apple,” Jobs said why being Apple makes them not choose to use the stickers. Sometimes we have to ask the stupid questions to get the smart answers, so don’t go deriding someone for asking a stupid question. Hell, science is the pursuit of answers to the stupid questions of the day, yet without those stupid questions we wouldn’t have answers that make our lives easier or save lives. After all it is stupid questions such as, “Why should humans stay on the ground?”, “Why should humans stay on the earth?” and, “Why should computers be so hard to use?” that brought us air travel, men on the moon and the Macs that sit before you as you read this.
And the rockets’ red glare
Bombs bursting in air
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there
Oh say, does that star-spangled
Banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free
And the home of the brave
It is because this is the anniversary of declaring our independence of having to celebrate the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot.Therefore we celebrate the use gunpowder itself, and thus require the use of fireworks on this fourth day of July.
Hey Pilky,
Have to agree with you that the ridicule is a bit over blown however, like teenage boys in high school, I believe the Mac blogosphere is just ribbing the guy a bit. That said, making a little fun of the guy was slightly humorous in the first article or two, but at this point it’s neither funny nor interesting.
To answer your question about the fireworks on the 4th of July. It is Americas Independence Day. Celebrating our Independence from England.
It does Surprise me how many Brits aren’t aware of that fact , clearly not a subject taught in elementary school there, which is reasonable I guess.
I have British co worker that inquired once about the meaning of our 4th of July celebration, referring to it as a fun holiday. When told of it’s meaning he replied, “gosh, I didn’t know you guys held such a grudge.” LOL
Uh, you might want to do some fact-checking. Nobody asked if the iMac had a future - it was the MacMini. In fact, the entire press gathering was to introduce the latest iMac.
What you just did - from mixing up things to showing an ignorance of what last Tuesday was all about - is exactly what Keefe did.
Bottom line? If you read Keefe’s condescending reply in his blog and the comments that followed, you’ll realize that Keefe was rather lazy in his attempt to get a quote from Jobs for an already written article.
It wasn’t stupid, it was merely being a lazy professional.
Darry, the point wasn’t really about what the 4th of July is, the point was why fireworks displays are part of the tradition. And yeah, we learn very little about US history, for obvious reasons (I doubt American’s learn a lot about the Romans, Saxons or Vikings in terms of the UK) though I think a lot of people know that the 4th of July is American Independence Day. Then again there are those that are a bit clueless in every country.
Dave, I believe one of the questions was whether the iMac had a long term future with the increasing importance of laptops to Apple. The Mac Mini was a separate question. To quote MacWorld (http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/08/07/macevent/):
“Jobs was asked to assess the future of the iMac, with consumers and professionals increasingly turning to laptops. Jobs said that desktop systems “are still an important part of our business” and added that he sees a pretty strong future for the iMac. Jobs also added that he doesn’t see anyone making a 24-inch notebook.”
And I’m not defending Keefe as such, I say multiple times in my post that it was a stupid question. I’m merely saying that many of the smartest answers to problems come from the stupidest questions.
I think was a great post! I must be one of the few that doesn’t think that the question was stupid. I did know the answer though, but that’s because I think I know how Apple works. Most people don’t.
The answer was great too, and it incorporated much about Apple that those that’s not too familiar with their culture and mission know about. In essence: Intel makes great products, but Apple makes them greater (and other PC-manufacturers makes them worse).
There are two things in this story that’s sad:
1 – It’s not charming at all ridiculing this poor guy. The Mac-community just adds fuel to the common conception that we are religious fanatics.
2 – Why did he ask a question that he didn’t use in his own writeup of the event? Didn’t he trust the validity of his own question?
I completely agree with this article. The Mac blogging world has exposed themselves in the last few days as a bunch of Heathers (didn’t ask a ‘cool’ question? didn’t already know why it’s not ‘cool’? prepare for death!). I find it really embarrassing. And it’s even more embarrassing all the excuses they are making for themselves. They are even saying ‘Ridicule has a place’ and all that crap that Heathers typically believe.
Adults do it this way: if you have a substantive disagreement with somebody, you say so. If that person actually hasn’t stated an opinion (questions aren’t opinions, geniuses), then there really isn’t anything to talk about. Somebody didn’t know something basic, and now they do. I hope the next time all of you Heathers ask a stupid question, that the person talking to you is completely unlike any of you, and more like Steve Jobs, who handled the question gracefully and without condescension to the asker.
If you all like Steve Jobs so much, why don’t you actually listen to him? You might learn something.
Frankly, I think the guy should be ridiculed for myriad of reasons - starting with the basic fact he is clearly clueless about brand building. It would like asking a car manufacturer why they don’t advertise what tires you get when you buy a new car. Anyone that business-world dumb deserves to be called an idiot.
jbelkin: What nearly every other car manufacturer did advertise the sort of tires you get when you buy a new car? Yes it seems a stupid question on the surface to someone like you or me who are Mac users, but when you look at it isn’t quite so stupid a question. The point of this post was to show that it is often stupid questions that cause you to think of a smart answer. Take, for example, my question about why computers should be hard to use. A simple response would be, “because they’re computers”. But that answer is even more stupid than the question that was asked. It’s done nothing to explain why. As it turned out some people asked that question and found the answer was that they didn’t have to be hard. The result is your computer before you now.
I want an Intel sticker on my Mac about as much as the next Mac user, but should someone be attacked so much for asking the simple question of, “Why are you passing up several million dollars each year when no other company in the industry does?”. Jobs was smart enough to come up with a smart answer rather than the stupid answer of, “because we’re Apple”
I’m surprised you actually knew it was “Independence Day” instead of “4th of July”. Most Americans refer to it as “4th of July”. I’m going to start calling Christmas “25th of December” in protest. 
American high school students take a year of World History that is very Eurocentric. Most people I know has a photo of their visit to the Roman Baths. And because I learned about the huge expansion of the British Empire under Queen Victoria, I know that some female’s view that the world would be more peaceful if women ran things is a fallacy.
Anyway, about the subject of your blog…:)
I think there is a resurgence of the Mac religion that is becoming almost as bad as it was in the late 80s and early 90s. I’m finding more and more Mac zealots on message boards telling people to shut up and to not complain when someone questions Apple.
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