A few years back, I was mountain biking with my friend Tom in the hills above Santa Cruz. We'd set out to make it to the top and back and I was dead set on achieving that goal, which we did. But along the way up, we encountered a biker on his way back down the hill. He had taken a bad fall, had blood on his legs, arms, and face, and we stopped to ask him if he was OK. He was, but shaken, and clearly just trying to get back down, regroup, clean up and address his wounds.
Without thinking it through, Tom craned his neck forward, tilted his head and looking at the side of his face, said "Man, that looks bad!".
The guy just stared back at him for a second or two. Outside of the wind gently rustling leaves as it blew the trees, there was dead silence. Then he mounted his bike seat and continued down the hill without saying another word.
I've always remembered that as a perfect example of how, without knowing it or ill intention, people feel compelled to point out the obvious, even in situations where there's nothing that can be done and everybody knows it's not pretty.
That's kinda how I feel about the fact that in meetings, and from friends outside of Apple, people are continually commenting on Apple stock dropping. Yes, I know, it's down. I get it. And I'm working as hard as I can to turn it around. Some great products on the horizon would help. But for my sake, please, stop pointing at the open wound and going "EWH! THAT LOOKS HORRIBLE!".
