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[Apple] holds itself above the fray. It seems to believe that such discussions of meanings and consequences do not matter, because it is in the design business, and so its primary relationship is with the user, not with the society. This may be what some parochial designers thought about themselves until the 1970s—but today the advent of design that is critical, value-sensitive, and participatory has exposed the great moral void of the rigid functionalist paradigm. But Apple, alas, remains stuck in the most conservative, outdated, and bizarre interpretation of the Bauhaus, which was, ironically, a movement that flaunted its commitment to social reform and utopian socialism.

Steve is every bit as mercurial as the media have portrayed him, in the press as well as in the books. He has a very different point of view of what he wants and what he sees, and you basically have to draw it out of his head. He has a thousand ideas, not all of them good, and when he is fixated on one idea, you have to convince him why it’s right or wrong — and if you can’t do that, you’re not right.

More so than any person I ever met in my life, he had the ability to change his mind, much more so than anyone I’ve ever met. He could be so sold on a certain direction and in a nanosecond (Cook snaps his fingers) have a completely different view. (Laughs.)

I thought in the early days, “Wow, this is strange.” Then I realized how much of a gift it was. So many people, particularly, I think, CEOs and top executives, they get so planted in their old ideas, and they refuse or don’t have the courage to admit that they’re now wrong.

Maybe the most underappreciated thing about Steve was that he had the courage to change his mind.

And you know—it’s a talent.

It’s a talent.