Tim Cook Puts His Dent in the Universe ⇥ buzzfeed.com

John Paczkowski, of Buzzfeed, on Tim Cook’s public coming-out and Washington Post op-ed:

Note that this is all happening ahead of Apple’s biggest product launch since iPad. Note too, that until mid-2014, Cook had been a very private person. Indeed, in his Bloomberg editorial he cites his desire for privacy as a key reason for not coming out as gay sooner. By penning these op-eds and participating in these interviews he’s forfeiting that privacy. And in doing so, he’s allowing Apple to shape public perception of him as a leader — an altruist, a philanthropist, and a CEO every bit as worthy of leading Apple as Jobs.

A wonderful piece from Paczowski. Cook has managed to retain Apple’s most innovative and technically-brilliant aspects in the post-Jobs era while making the company far more directly philanthropic. Cook himself is setting himself up to be far more giving than Jobs. That’s not a knock on the latter; Jobs famously felt like Apple could be indirectly philanthropic by making products that empower people. But the company has grown significantly since Jobs died, and it’s a responsibility of the largest companies in the world to be role models.