How I long for the olden days, before what Doctorow (correctly) calls enshitification happened to Silicon Valley.

I went into Fond Memory Mode when I saw the latest news pop up telling us that Apple intends to add more advertising to the App Store. The Cook method of revenue extraction is "pay me US$99 a year to get our attention at all, let me take 30% of your revenue in return for adding your application to our scattered and confusing yellow pages, and if you really want anyone to see that your application is in the store, give us the rest of the money in your wallet to advertise it."

Does this help me, the customer any? No.

Does this help the developer any? Not really.

Does this help pay Cook's US$73b compensation package? Yep.

Compare that to the Guy Kawasaki Let The Good Times Roll era of the early Mac. While Guy was formerly a jewelry salesman—which of course makes him immediately suspect—his role at Apple as Evangelist was more about giving things away to developers. When I was banned by Steve Jobs from the Apple campus (yes, true story), Guy would sneak me in so that I could get updates to my prototype Mac, which I didn't pay for. The "squeeze" on Apple developers in 1983 and 1984 was basically "please, please, do something for the Mac. Anything! We're desperate." And he always did that with a smile on his face.

Yes, Cook will smile at you as he asks "may I please have more?" But that turns quickly into a snarl when you say no.

Sorry Tim, but I let my Apple Developer account expire, and even Wells Fargo seems to care more about me as a customer than you do.