He hired the guy who created Objective-C, and understood why Objective-C was better than [alternativeLangs].
The world is full of people who can code. Very few of them think strategically or understand that code is irrelevant unless it has some really, really good reasons to exist and do what it does.
…so does Tim Cook?
> Does he code?
Did Steve Jobs? He knew how computers worked, but I don't think he ever sat down and wrote some Objective-C.