You're right that "fractal" is a bit sloppy here. It's always been a tawdry analogy when used like this that will annoy anyone who likes their words to have meaning.
But I think his underlying point is that Apple
consistently executes similar values and priorities in many different areas -- for a company of its size, it's amazingly coherent and consistent.
Compare them to HP, where the CEO kills an entire product division that their webpage is still breathlessly promoting for days afterwards, which makes it seem like no one knows what the hell is going on over there and that they don't really believe in anything they do. As soon as Apple announces something, its whole public persona is consistent with that. It's kind of amazing. At the very least, you can count on being consistently annoyed with their values.
Comments
You're right that "fractal" is a bit sloppy here. It's always been a tawdry analogy when used like this that will annoy anyone who likes their words to have meaning.
But I think his underlying point is that Apple consistently executes similar values and priorities in many different areas -- for a company of its size, it's amazingly coherent and consistent.
Compare them to HP, where the CEO kills an entire product division that their webpage is still breathlessly promoting for days afterwards, which makes it seem like no one knows what the hell is going on over there and that they don't really believe in anything they do. As soon as Apple announces something, its whole public persona is consistent with that. It's kind of amazing. At the very least, you can count on being consistently annoyed with their values.