Apple
Lumon Takes Grand Central
Around lunchtime on Tuesday, I heard that Apple had started to set up an elaborate Lumon office space inside Grand Central Terminal to promote the return of Severance. Thankfully, I donāt work too far from one of the largest train stations in the country, so I wandered over to see what theyād built. Upon arrival, I was immediately in awe of the Lumon computers and keyboards that us nerds have been drooling over ever since they first graced our screens a few years ago. As far as anyone could tell, these were faithful recreations of the desks from the show.
I was fortunate enough to get up close and personal with the cube while it was uninhabited. I took tons of shots of the computers and small pieces on the desks. These are the kinds of details that I toil over. After all, Iāve been following the ādetailsā company my entire life now. Things got really interesting when a few actors walked into the cube built around the desks to do some āwork.ā Now all of this wouldāve been enough. To me, it was an extremely cool alternative to a traditional billboard or other kind of advertisement. I took plenty of pictures, picked up a bite, and walked back to my office.
A few hours later, just as I was getting ready to head home I learned that not only was the showās director Ben Stiller on the scene but that all of the actors from earlier had been replaced by the actual cast of the show. Now things were getting interesting. It hadnāt even crossed my mind that Apple might do this earlier in the day, though it should have.
When I arrived back at the station, the crowd was quite large and only continued to grow. Earlier when I visited there was almost nobody there outside of people who were clearly working for Apple and a few pedestrians briefly stopping to take a peek. This time though, there were influencers, celebrities, and a ton of fans. All of them, quietly watching Adam Scott as Mark S., Britt Lower as Helly R., Zach Cherry as Dylan G., and Tramell Tillman as Mr. Milchick.
Once I worked my way through a few layers of people, I came face to face with none other than Ben Stiller. If you donāt know, Ben Stiller serves as the director of Severance and is credited with a great deal of the showās success. Of course, heās not alone. But cāmon, itās Ben-freakin-Stiller. It was incredibly cool to chat with him, having grown up watching his films and having become a massive fan of his father in later years. Jerry Stillerās Arthur Spooner holds a very special place in my heart.
After congratulating Ben on the new season and snapping a selfie, I walked around the cube to see the actors working from all different angles. They didnāt drop out of character once. After a bit, Patricia Arquette almost magically appeared out of the crowd and entered the cube. Ms. Cobel had arrived to survey the work that the macrodata refiners were doing.
Patricia Arquette is one of the best parts of Severance, so seeing her as Cobel in the flesh was a particularly special experience. Though nothing compares to seeing Adam Scott as Mark S. up close. He embodies that character so well, itās truly wild to see. I had hoped that I would get to snap a selfie with Adam, but the cast remained in character the entire time, even when they exited the cube. As a diehard Parks and Rec fan, it was a bucket list moment to get within feet of the former mayor of Partridge, Ben Wyatt: Human Disaster.
This was an experience Iāll never forget. Why? Not just because it was an epic Apple marketing stunt that immediately belongs in the pantheon of historic Apple marketing moments, but because it was a wholesome shared experience with the other folks there. Watching streaming services tends to be an activity many of us do on our own, and when it comes to television in particular, there isnāt quite a movie theater setting to enjoy them in. So collectively seeing the Lumon staff work in person, together, in one of the busiest commuter hubs was not only different but remarkable. It was a uniquely New York moment, and it reminded me of how lucky I am to live here.
Ultimately, thereās a lesson here: Itās about people. I fanboyed over the pop-up, the set pieces, the computers, the desks, the carpet, all of the nerdy stuff. But what I didnāt expect was the impact the humans would have on me; they blew me away that night. Lots of folks like to say that āApple is the new HBO.ā Theyāre right, and this event is proof. Itās also a reminder that Apple succeeds when they focus on people. Because what really makes technology meaningful is how humans use it to, as Steve Jobs once said, āexpress their appreciation to the rest of humanityāā whether theyāre actors, builders, or a nerd like me.
Special thanks to James Bareham for helping me edit, go subscribe to his Substack!
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Reflecting on 13 Years Without Steve Jobs
On October 5th 2011, Iād spent the day shadowing my older cousin at his high school. I remember talking with his friends at lunch about how amazing Siri looked on the iPhone 4s and getting home in the afternoon, absolutely exhausted by the prospect of high school. I really only remember this day as vividly as I do for one reason. Later that evening, I was watching tv when my iPhone buzzed. The push notification that had just been delivered to my iPhone 4 said that Steve Jobs had passed away.
While I had only just turned 13 a few weeks earlier, Steve had been my hero for many years. Ever since my dad introduced me to the Mac as a little kid I had been absolutely enamored both by Apple and by the man who built it. I wanted nothing more than to someday be as cool, creative, and successful as Steve Jobs. My childhood bedroom was covered in prints, magazine covers, Apple posters, books, memorabilia, and so on. I was as big of a Steve Jobs fan as you could get. Iād pretend to give Apple keynotes with the family iMac, Iād wait for every product announcement with bated breath, Iād consume every bit of content I could from podcasts (before they were cool) and the blogs. Unlike my friends who looked up to athletes, musicians, actors, and so on, I was the one weirdo who was fascinated by a company and its chief executive. I remember friends checking in on me that night and I recall going into school the next morning where my teacher handed me a very kind note. Everyone around me had an inkling of what was going through my head.
Over the years my fascination with Steve evolved. It became less about the products that heād introduced us to, the ones that left immeasurable impacts on our lives, but more about his way of thinking. His philosophy became the basis for my college essay and I have spent countless hours parsing quotes, speeches, and so on. He wasnāt just special because of his extraordinary taste, or his unbelievable ability to pull together the smartest people and squeeze every last drop of talent out of them, or even his unmistakable (and to this day unmatched) presentation chops. He was special to me because of how he saw the world. There are so many insights worth sharing and studying. But it really boils down to one quote that hits me like a freight train every time I think about it and I think about it quite often:
Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it. You can influence it. You can build your own things that other people can use. And the minute you understand that you can poke life, and if you push in, then something will pop out the other side; that you can change it, you can mold itāthatās maybe the most important thing: to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there, and youāre just going to live in it versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it. I think thatās very important, and however you learn that, once you learn it, youāll want to change life and make it better. Because itās kind of messed up in a lot of ways. Once you learn that, youāll never be the same again.
My admiration for Steve and his way of thinking means that I have put an enormous amount of pressure on myself over the years. People close to me know that thereās a lot going on in my head at any given moment. Like everyone I have my own personal challenges. Pressure isnāt always good. In fact itās often been difficult to contend with. But I still view the pressure as a net good. I wouldnāt be where I am right now without the fire that he ignited within me. While I still have a long way to go before I even remotely come close to the expectations that little Parker set for himself many years ago, I know that I am on a good path. The jobs that Iāve been fortunate enough to land, the amazing people Iāve met that I can now call friends and mentors, and the unforgettable experiences over the years all came ultimately as a result of the hard work that I put in. That work ethic can be traced back to what I learned from Steve. I wouldnāt have met and been hired by the folks I worked for at BuzzFeed, I wouldnāt have joined 9to5Mac and made what I hope are lifelong friendships, and I certainly wouldnāt be able to work with the folks at The Verge who Iāve looked up to for over a decade.
I just recently turned 26, which means that Steveās been gone for half of my life now. Yes, itās been 13 years. It boggles my mind that it was that long ago. I miss him immensely. Not just because I constantly wonder what life would be like in a world where Steve Jobs was still the curator of our digital lives, but because of what other wisdom he may have been able to bestow upon us. It feels strange writing this, particularly because many technology executives now often feel like parodies of Steve. They all want to be technologically transformational, but they also want to shoehorn themselves into thought leader roles. Steve never really strived to be a thought leader, he naturally became one. To this day, thereās no other person who has ever been able to step into the hero role for me. No one even comes close and frankly, I worry about the young nerds today and who they may look up to. 13 years later there are still massive voids in leadership, in character, and in creativity.
I think itās safe to say that I am not alone in missing Steve. No one ever truly believed that thereād be a figure like him again. There never was going to be āthe next Steve Jobsā as much as many of us wanted to believe it. It kills me that I never got to meet him, but thereās no question that there is not a single other human being outside of my family that has had the same kind of colossal impact on my thinking. Waking up every single day, realizing that the things around me were simply made up by people no smarter than the rest of us is not only humbling, itās an unbelievable motivator. If you want to change something, you can do it if you put in the work. No matter what you choose to do with your life, just do it with purpose. Whatever you make, make it great. It doesnāt matter the size of the ādent in the universe,ā as long as you make one. A desire to make my own dent is what gets me out of bed every morning. Itās what drives me.
Thanks for everything Steve.