Apple CEO Tim Cook is ‘an adult’ among peers in Silicon Valley: Writer

GQ Senior Staff Writer Zach Baron discusses how Apple CEO Tim Cook's leadership has effected the continued growth of the company and details the company's mindset about releasing the next big Apple product.

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DAVE BRIGGS: The genius of Apple may have started under Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, but the impact of current CEO Tim Cook is undeniable. Just take a look at the stock price when Cook took over. Share went for a little over 13 bucks. That has now popped to more than $166 a share, an increase of more than 1,000%. Our next guest got the opportunity to sit down with Mr. Cook for an exclusive interview. Zach Baron, GQ senior staff writer, joining us now. Good to see you, man. So your impressions of sitting down with Tim Cook, your first impression, what surprised you?

ZACH BARON: Well, I think you mentioned he's sort of Steve Jobs's successor, right? And so when he starts, I think there was a comparison that was frequently made, and it wasn't always flattering to Tim. I think Jobs was seen as this sort of charismatic Steve Jobs-like figure-- excuse me, Walt Disney figure.

And Tim Cook comes from operations. He's thought of as a kind of spreadsheet guy, numbers guy. And the thing that when you sit down with them that you kind of realize is, is that he is kind of an equally, in my opinion, charismatic leader, very fun to be around. He's from the South. He's got that courtly manner. And I found him very impressive and very likeable.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, and Zach, speaking of that demeanor-- I had something fall in the studio here. Speaking of that demeanor, though, what you learned in terms of his leadership, because you talked about his calmness, how that contrasts to so many of the other leaders out there, including Zuckerberg, including Elon Musk, what was your big takeaway there?

ZACH BARON: Yeah, I think that maybe there was a time where we were like, all these guys in Silicon Valley are here to save us. And they're all going to protect us and take care of us. And they're all here for the best reasons. And I think we've learned as a society that that's not the case. And the thing about Tim that I think is really cool, is, he is a very even personality. He's a giant company.

Everything he says is listened to very carefully. He's a very influential guy, but unlike some of his peers in Silicon Valley, he's not out here making wild claims about the future or speculative businesses. He is a very steady, very grounded person. And I think increasingly, in that place, it doesn't feel like there are a lot of adults, and Tim is an adult.

DAVE BRIGGS: So of course, Steve Jobs was all about the defining device of our generation, the iPhone. And Cook really has been-- services has been his signature. You're right, though. When it comes to product, there's still the feeling in some quarters that he is one transformative product away from history. What that product is in the end is endlessly speculated about. I would argue that AirPods have changed life as much as anything since the iPhone. Do you get a sense what that could be? The VR, AR goggles that have been rumored about for months now, potentially launched in June.

ZACH BARON: Yeah, so people who know Apple will know that Tim Cook is not in the habit of sitting down with journalists and confirming upcoming product releases or service releases or anything they're rolling out. Apple's a very secretive company. That said, those rumors are out there, and we talked about it. Said, OK, look, you're probably not going to confirm this, and he's like, I don't know what you're talking about. But I said, OK, let's talk about the potential of VR AR, which is the device you're referring to. The rumor is it's called the Reality Pro. They may or may not be doing it. I cannot confirm.

But I asked, why would you be interested in such a thing? And he talked a lot about how the augmented reality capabilities are something that he and Apple are interested in right now. He talked about overlaying the digital realm onto the physical realm. This is a company that's very interesting creativity, very interesting collaboration, very interesting creating stuff. I think that his view is, we could have the sort of workdays, the creative days that we have now, but better.

We could overlay the thing that we're working on and both look at it and play with it in the digital realm, kind of while being in the physical realm. We could measure something. We could see art on the wall. There's all these sort of capabilities to do work in new ways and to do creative stuff in new ways that AR could allow. So he was like, I'm very interested in this. Are we doing something with it or not? I can't say. But do I think there's a lot of really interesting stuff going on with it? I think he does.

SEANA SMITH: Well, speaking of products, obviously, iPhone a massive, massive hit-- just put it lightly-- for the tech giant. We talk about one of the concerns here, and that is how addicted people are to their phones. I know you talked to him about some of the concerns that you have with their kids watching the screen so often. He said, quote, if you're looking at the phone more than you're looking in somebody's eyes, you're doing the wrong thing. What did you learn just about how we should be using our phone and any advice he gave on how we best regulate it for our children?

ZACH BARON: Yeah, so the first time I interviewed Tim Cook was a few years ago in the deeper pandemic phase, and it was at a moment where I was like very conflicted relationship with my iPhone. I was very addicted to it. And I said, what do you do about this? And he was like, well, I hear what you're saying. I turn off all my notifications. I suggest you do the same thing. It's very rare that you need to be interrupted. I did that. It was incredibly helpful.

Since that time that we spoke or the story, in between that-- in between those two times, I had a kid. My kid is fascinated with my phone. So I went back to him. I was like, you know, he already follows it around the room. My kid wants to play with it. He wants to look at it. What do you suggest? And he was like-- generally, he was like, we have tools to help you. There's screen time. There's parental controls.

But more generally, he was like, we make these things to help people create stuff. We make these things to make people's lives better. We don't make these things for you to look at them all the time. We don't make any more money if you do that. So his primary advice is really, like, as a parent, set guardrails on your own.

And generally, and then not in a rude way, was kind of like, maybe you shouldn't have your phone out around your kid all the time, which I thought was like really good advice and was sort of-- get a good perspective on where the line of responsibility ended with the device and where it sort of picked up of the parent, that maybe I didn't want to hear, but it was useful to hear, let's put it that way.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, Zach, I can relate. I have the same exact concerns. I have two young boys, and every time I bring out the phone, they're always trying to see exactly what's on the screen. So some good advice there from Tim Cook. We just got to put it away. Zach Baron, great to have you, GQ senior writer. Thanks so much.