Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Such is Sir Jonathan Ive's desire for perfection – shared with his employer, Apple – that the iPhone almost never happened. Glitches that left the prototype "good", rather than "great", nearly saw the project consigned to the scrapheap.
It is, of course, brave to stick to one's standards. But there is surely a lesson – about letting the best be the enemy of the good, perhaps? – in the fact that the iPhone went on to sell 250 million plus. And just imagine what else might have been lost to such fastidiousness. The first wheel, after all, was no doubt a clunker; and fire-making with sticks must have been a frustrating user experience. The modern era, too, is fraught with near-misses. What about cars, which needed a full-time mechanic and went barely faster than a horse? Or even the telephone itself – of little use with nobody to ring. Notwithstanding all our admiration for Sir Jonathan, then, let's hear it for leaving some room for improvement.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments