On: On Jony Ive Leaving Apple

[jedberg]

Yeah that bugged me too. We still call the Queen "Queen" even when she's in the US. We don't assign titles of nobility, but we certainly respect them.

[nostromo → jedberg]

“Queen” is a title, like “president” or even “janitor.”

“Sir” is an honorific. Like “his holiness” or “your honor” or “her majesty.”

We use titles all the time in the US but rarely use honorifics (with a few exceptions).

[DoreenMichele → nostromo]

In the Deep South, it's not that unusual to say Mr./Ms. (First name) as a show of respect.

When I worked at Aflac, the sole remaining (living) founder, Paul Amos, was routinely internally referred to as Mr. Paul.

[nikanj → nostromo]

Doctors and reverends are called with honorifics all the time.

[lazugod → jedberg]

I don’t think Americans unanimously respect titles of nobility, and I think Gruber’s point is that he personally doesn’t respect them and wishes Apple didn’t respect them either.

Whether this is a consistent point of his, whether Gruber has always referred to the Queen as Elizabeth Windsor, I don’t know. But I wouldn’t conflate convenience with respect. “The Queen” is a very easy name to remember and use informally without necessarily supporting monarchy. Like, I wouldn’t call Captain Blackbeard “Captain Blackbeard” out of respect for piracy.