From the ®thanks for all the fish¯ department:
Feed: Daring Fireball
Title: Tim Cook?s Departure Memo on His Last Day as CEO
Author: John Gruber
Date: Tue, 01 Sep 2026 18:11:57 +0000
Link: https://9to5mac.com/2026/08/31/read-tim-cooks-full-memo-to-apple-employees-on-his-last-day-as-ceo/

Tim Cook:

There is something truly special about Apple. I am most proud of what
an annual report could never capture. This place is proof that culture
triumphs over everything. We share a belief that what we build
matters, and that we have both the opportunity and the responsibility
to leave the world better than we found it. That purpose is part of
what makes this place extraordinary. Apple helps nurture it, but I
believe it lived within each of you long before you arrived here. It
is what brought you to this company and what continues to drive the
work you do every day. Together, we have created something far greater
than any one of us could have imagined or accomplished alone. And
that?s the secret to our success. We bring out the best in each other.
We lift each other up. We have made it possible to leave our ?dent in
the universe,? as Steve once described it, because of who we are and
what we believe, because of what we value and how we see the world.
How fortunate we are. How fortunate I am.

That?s the best paragraph of the memo. I like those last two ?fortunate?
lines, and I think they?re the most open Cook gets. But on the whole the
memo reads to me like the classic Far Side cartoon[1] about the dog
listening to its owner: ?Blah blah Apple, blah blah blah blah Apple.
Blah blah....?

The truth is he was CEO for 15 years and he revealed very little of his
true self to the public. That?s fine. In a meta sense, remaining so
private was revealing. I think that?s who Tim Cook is ? an intensely
private man who took on a high-profile public role. The more revealing
stories about the real Cook aren?t his public performances or memos.
There?s the 2009 ?Why are you still here?[2]? one with Sabih Khan. And
then there?s a remark I came upon recently, re-reading chapter 35 of
Walter Isaacson?s Steve Jobs, regarding Jobs?s 2009 medical leave of
absence:

Cook had done a good job running the company during Jobs?s absence. He
kept Apple?s temperamental actors performing well, and he avoided
stepping into the limelight. Jobs liked strong personalities, up to a
point, but he had never truly empowered a deputy or shared the stage.
It was hard to be his understudy. You were damned if you shone, and
damned if you didn?t. Cook had managed to navigate those shoals. He
was calm and decisive when in command, but he didn?t seek any notice
or acclaim for himself. ?Some people resent the fact that Steve gets
credit for everything, but I?ve never given a rat?s ass about that,?
said Cook. ?Frankly speaking, I?d prefer my name never be in the
paper.?

That?s Tim Cook. He clearly feels the same way now as he did when he
told that to Isaacson before he took the CEO job.

? [3]

Links:
[1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheFarSide/comments/1cx5ag8/okay_ginger_ive_had_it/ (link)
[2]: https://daringfireball.net/linked/2009/01/16/cook-fortune (link)
[3]: https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/09/01/tim-cook-departure-memo (link)


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