At one point, as you were refining the autocorrect ogrithm, that there were actually experts outside of the purple team that might be able to help. Of course, they hadn't been disclosed insid like, what was that like to try to get their help? And as it was, it was tough. Itrequired getting approval. I means really, really you know, at a certain point, steve was still personally approving every person that was submitted to get disclosed in the project,. but get permission to talk to them.
In this wide-ranging conversation from April 2019, a16z’s Frank Chen sits down with Ken Kocienda, a longtime software engineer and designer at Apple from 2001 to 2017, who wrote a book about his career there, called Creative Selection.
They discuss Ken’s unconventional path from freelance photographer to software engineer at Apple, his work on many core products from Safari web browser to iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch and features like Autocorrect, what it was like to demo new products for Steve Jobs, and more.