Linked List: September 13, 2023

Wednesday, 13 September 2023

Alexandra Bruell and Lindsay Ellis, reporting for, I swear, The Wall Street Journal:

Employers around the country have good news for workers who dread chats about their performance: Feedback is on the way out.

Many companies, executive coaches and HR professionals are looking to erase the anxiety-inducing word from the corporate lexicon, and some are urging it be replaced by what they see as a gentler, more constructive word: “feedforward.”

I refuse to believe this is true, and if it is true, my feedback is that any company that encounters an employee who bristles at the word feedback should fire them on the spot.

Inflation-Adjusted iPhone Pricing ★

There were rampant rumors pre-event that Apple was going to raise the prices for the iPhone Pro models this year, but they didn’t. They did, however, eliminate the 128 GB $1099 iPhone Max model. There’s a 128 GB iPhone 15 Pro for $999, but the entry model Max has 256 GB of storage and costs $1199. That’s $100 higher than last year’s 128 GB 14 Pro Max, but the same price as last year’s 256 GB 14 Pro Max. Turns out, inflation adjusted, this year’s prices are lower, not higher.

Dithering ★

Today’s a travel day for me, flying home from San Francisco. While I’m working on a column regarding yesterday’s event, Dithering subscribers already have my short take, with an episode Ben Thompson and I recorded this morning. One spoiler: I think we ought to cut Apple some slack on that “Mother Nature” sketch.

Dithering as a standalone subscription costs just $5/month or $50/year. You get two episodes per week, each exactly 15 minutes long. I just love having an outlet like Dithering for weeks like this one. People who try Dithering seem to love it, too — we have remarkably little churn.