MH Myke Hurley On Upgrade

“I know so many people will say, oh, but for years we said annual releases are too much. Yes, but that was when all of the code was written by humans and it's not anymore. ... So the developers can move at a faster pace. So the operating system should move at a faster pace.”

Upgrade · October 2026

“I know so many people will say, oh, but for years we said annual releases are too much. Yes, but that was when all of the code was written by humans and it's not anymore. ... So the developers can move at a faster pace. So the operating system should move at a faster pace.” — Myke Hurley, Upgrade

Hurley and Jason Snell are arguing that Apple needs a faster gear for the things that matter most. Hurley's version is that Apple should break its yearly operating system cycle.

Transcript

Upgrade Around 35:00 into the episode
Myke Hurley

There's no way that Meta was thinking about this charm two years ago. Of course. Because they hadn't, because their strategy for AI then was completely different to where they are now. So it's like, it's all of this isn't, it's not saying that any of this makes any sense, but it is an example of the speed and pace of technology now. You cannot be as slow as Apple has been. Exactly. You're being methodical, thoughtful, and introduced products in the right way. But we are in a time of threat to their business because something could undermine them.

Jason Snell

Right. Right. I just don't know. And again, it doesn't have to be everything, but if you don't have that other gear to shift into, you just can't do it. You need that other gear. You need that other muscle. You need whatever metaphor you like. You need the capability to choose to pick your spots and say, we got to go on this one. And I think the example that I would give that is the best is if you've been talking internally, and I can't believe they haven't been, that more agent-y stuff is where they're going. If you look at like the describe a shortcut, extensions. You look at extensions. If you look at all of the shortcut action app stuff, it's hard not to think that they've always been sort of thinking the next step is applying models that use all your stuff. So you're working on it and you see this. The next step is saying, and having the legitimately, the legitimacy inside Apple to say, this can't go in iOS 28. It's got to go in 27.3 or 27.4. And everybody's like, whoa, are you kidding? And you have to be able to say, no, we have to do this. This is important. And if we're incapable of doing this, what's wrong with our organization that we need to fix? Because that's at the level of the CEO or somebody like Craig Federigi if it's a software issue. It's like, if we're not structured in a way that allows us to react like this, how do we restructure? You do have to ask that fundamental question because you need to. That is

Myke Hurley

the structured way of putting it. If the question isn't like, if we can't do this, what's wrong with us? No. The question is, if we can't do this, how do we do this? Yes. It's got to just be action. It's not about like, okay, let's have a review of the organization to work out where the flaws are. No, there's not enough time for that. Like you have to move. And yes, break the idea of the annual operating cycle, operating systems. Cycle. And it's like, I know so many people will say, oh, but for years we said annual releases are too much. Yes, but that was when all of the code was written by humans and it's not anymore. That's also a good thing. And we know it's not. So like the developers can move at a faster pace. So the operating system should move at a faster pace. And

Jason Snell

their competition is using those tools and moving at that pace. And you've got to be able to do it. You just have to, you have to be able again, not saying everything, but saying you've got to be able to pick key categories and say, we're going to move fast on this one. When

Myke Hurley

one of your biggest technology competitors is an app in your store that has been number one for weeks that's doing things that your device should do, maybe you need to think about that. And not just a competitor, like a arch enemy. I was saying mortal enemy, but that wasn't the arch enemy. The absolute inverse of your values. And you are offering that to people, right? Like you are the conduit for people putting this app on the device. You should be there. And like, especially when Siri AI's power is in the personal context, which is exactly what the agents are looking for.

Jason Snell

Right. And you've got it because you're Apple and it's on your device. And people, you have a better story, but you have to implement it. And that is the, yeah, I think at the core, that is what we're saying: is you need to find a way to be better at this. And I do think it's probably structural, but that's just a guess from the outside. And I do think it's empowering people on the inside to say, okay, if this is important, how are we going to do this?

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode

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