14 ms·

Clayton Christensen has died

608 points by coloneltcb 7y ago

amrrs 7y ago
I think Clayton Christensen is one of those rare professors from Management B-School whose principles and theories made so much sense and helped a lot in many businesses and in fact in life. Things like Jobs to be done and How do you measure your life are wonderful things for anyone to pursue in life (in a general sense)
adaisadais 7y ago
When I was in college I read “The Innovator’s Dilemma”. It totally changed my life. I emailed Dr. Christensen and he responded! I thought i was the king of the world. Dr. Clayton Christensen’s books are some of the few ‘Business’ books that I ever recommend to friends or colleagues. I find that “The Innovator’s Dilemma” is applicable to almost all aspects of life. Dr. Christensen will be greatly missed.
- petra 7y ago
  // I find that “The Innovator’s Dilemma” is applicable to almost all aspects of life. How is it relevant to life, or business(besides being in a startup or protecting a business from it)?
  - 542458 7y ago
    spitballing some general aesops here: Don't overfocus on what seems important today - look at the long run. Improving at anything takes time and many iterations - if at first you don't succeed... Getting comfortable and set in your ways can blind you to great new things. Just because you fail doesn't men you did anything wrong.
  - kbutler 7y ago
    Willingness to make changes even when things are going well, preparing for future disruptions in your career and life, realizing that people and relationships also change.
pwthornton 7y ago
Innovator's Dilemma and Competing Against Luck are the two best business books that any tech person should read. I have my students and product design team read them.
pottertheotter 7y ago
Outside of his influence on the business world, I've met him a couple times and he was such a kind and genuine man. There are a lot of business school professors who reach far less heights, often in obscure areas, and they let it go straight to their heads.
gigatexal 7y ago
Mormon here and I had no idea how influential he was to some of the greats in business.
- jchallis 7y ago
  His faith was extremely important to him. His essay on why he chose not to play basketball on Sunday, because it was the first compromise that would lead to every other compromise, has helped me keep my own moral compass pointed north.
  - gigatexal 7y ago
    Ain’t that the truth. Without getting into details the path to many stupid heartbreaking things I’ve done began with a small compromise. A Monson quote has become all too poignant to me of late: “ One writer said that the door of history turns on small hinges, and so do people’s lives. If we were to apply that maxim to our lives, we could say that we are the result of many small decisions. In effect, we are the product of our choices. We must develop the capacity to recall the past, to evaluate the present, and to look into the future in order to accomplish in our lives what the Lord would have us do.” Fortunately I’ve moved on and learned from my mistakes but it’s just eery how little things lead to the big ones.
carls 7y ago
I remember reading How Will You Measure Your Life years ago right after college and enjoying it. I also found the following section from the article especially thought-provoking: > He second-guessed the wording of the label, but never the theory. Even after he changed his terminology to disruptive innovation, he saw flaws. > “What we didn’t anticipate, and what in many ways was a fault of mine,” he told Quartz.com in 2016, “was that the term disruption has so many different connotations in the English language, that it allows people to justify whatever they want to do as, ‘Oh, this is disruptive,’ and they don’t ever read the book. The population of people where the fewest have read the book are venture capitalists. They are arrogant and smart and why do they need to read something?” > He wished he’d created something less expressive. He began to discuss type 1 innovations and type 2 innovations, with a nod to Daniel Kahneman, because he believed those terms were vague enough to force people to read and understand his work more closely. It makes me think about the way complex ideas get distorted and re-interpreted as they get repeated, like in a game of Telephone.
- munchbunny 7y ago
  One of my litmus tests for whether I trust someone's judgement is whether they take the time to read and interpret the concept, and whether they openly admit when they have not. There are a few words that come to mind in my day to day where this definitely applies: "disruption," "affordance" (UX design), and "agile." All of them point back to an originating body of research and writing and then tons of discussion as the idea gained popularity, so there's a concrete test of "did you read it and try to internalize it?"
- ChrisCinelli 7y ago
  I just commented on this too. Choose your word very carefully. They will be misinterpreted. Your job is to pick the right words so you minimize the misintetpretation.
neom 7y ago
His book How Will You Measure Your Life? is a really great read (all his books are great). Here is a good summery of his theory of disruptive innovation: https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/4-keys-to-understanding-clayton-christensens-theory-of-disruptive-innovation https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/4-keys-to-understanding-cla...
CrazyCatDog 7y ago
This is incredibly tragic—Clayton had the courage to leverage data in a very confined setting. A recipe that rarely works in academia (I’m a b-school prof/associate dean). And, all the ingredients to his disruption thesis were already there in his study of the hard-drive industry. His capacity to take that ball and carry it from academia across to the managerial end-zone is a mere pipe-dream for most. For Clayton, it was second nature. His impact across both scholars and managers alike is—to this day—a singularity.
jquinby 7y ago
I don't do a ton of business reading, but Christensen's stuff was top-notch and always on the short-list of recommendations I'd make to others.
mmcconnell1618 7y ago
I had a chance to see him at the Business of Software conference in 2011. Incredible mind. He will be missed. Here's the video of his talk: https://vimeo.com/63125209 https://vimeo.com/63125209
- ticmasta 7y ago
  Hey - me too! Had he recently had a stroke prior to that conference? I don't remember the details but thought something about bright lights really bothered him. Of note: I don't think he started his PHD until he was 50. I wish more people at this stage of their lives pursued his sort of deep, meaningful research combined with personal reflection and experience.
  - CrazyStat 7y ago
    Yes, he had a stroke in the summer of 2010.
ancorevard 7y ago
I got to learn about disruption theory through Horace Dediu (http://www.asymco.com http://www.asymco.com) who is probably one its best explainers and practitioners (the latter being why you should listen to Dediu in the first place - skin in the game).
The_mboga_real 7y ago
No latest photos or recent relevant research. Don't think about it, it means nothing to disruptive theory!
mrosett 7y ago
I just want to add my voice to the long list of people saying that a) he was brilliant, and his work (particularly How Will You Measure Your Life) is worth reading and b) he was just a kind, decent human being. I met him once and his warmth really left an impression.
bitL 7y ago
I remember his lecture at Harvard when he talked about how cancer diagnosis/heart attack changed him while he was writing "How Will You Measure Your Life". Father of disruptive innovation, RIP.
- jmhyer123 7y ago
  Any chance you have a link for this? I'd love to watch/read that.
irrational 7y ago
> he suffered a stroke that left him with expressive aphasia. The storyteller still could think and reason but no longer had the ability to direct his mouth to express the words in his head. My oldest son was born with expressive aphasia. Not being able to communicate what is in your head is so very frustrating. It must be so much more difficult for someone who previously could speak without difficulty.
Dave_TRS 7y ago
Like many here I found "How Will You Measure Your Life" particularly helpful. The book was based on a letter to his students, which provides a nice summary and I keep handy to share with people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B50RBERcUJSba2Fmd2Z0VzdtZm8/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B50RBERcUJSba2Fmd2Z0VzdtZm8...
- andrekandre 7y ago
  that’s a fantastic document with lots of great advice to me this was the best part: > I’ve concluded that the metric by which God will assess my life isn’t dollars but the individual people whose lives I’ve touched. > I think that’s the way it will work for us all. Don’t worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people. —— this is, in my opinion, how we in a society can “have good things” and is so easy for us to forget in our day-to-day... it’s so easy to get selfish and unintentionally hurt/damage others...
- ilikecoldbrew 7y ago
  Thanks for sharing. In addition to the summary, I really liked page 8 with comments from the students. In particular, this one stood out: "“You could see a shift happening at HBS. Money used to be number one in the job search. When you make a ton of money, you want more of it. Ironic thing. You start to forget what the drivers of happiness are and what things are really important. A lot of people on campus see money differently now. They think, ‘What’s the minimum I need to have, and what else drives my life?’ instead of ‘What’s the place where I can get the maximum of both?’” It takes courage to buck the trend of what's normal or expected in society, and we owe great thanks to those (like Clayton) who inspire and encourage us to be courageous in this regard. I also really liked this: "if your attitude is that only smarter people have something to teach you, your learning opportunities will be very limited. But if you have a humble eagerness to learn something from everybody, your learning opportunities will be unlimited.
guelo 7y ago
Somewhat off topic but it's interesting that Andy Grove was a big proponent of Christensen but Intel still got completely disrupted when the smartphone revolution kicked off. Though Grove was gone by the time of the iPhone he still should have seen it coming with the growing success of the Palm and Windows Mobile devices that preceded it.
- ghaff 7y ago
  Intel's main problem with mobile was that they saw x86 as a big potential incumbent advantage given their dominance on desktop and server. Which if they could have made competitive x86 mobile chips would probably have been an absolutely correct observation. But they couldn't even though they kept plugging away past the point of no return. I saw Intel presentations during the mid-2000s or so where they were making a big deal about how x86 processors had fewer issues with Flash than other architectures did.
  - martinpw 7y ago
    I think this is an important point. I was at a company that got disrupted out of existence, and The Innovator's Dilemma was required reading for all employees. So it's not that companies are necessarily unaware of the impending problem, it's just that they are often structurally unable to respond.
amoorthy 7y ago
I saw Dr. Christensen explain his theory at a talk given to me and ~100 HubSpot colleagues about 10 years ago. I don't remember any other speaker like I remember him. He was so kind and so clearly insightful. I know it sounds cheesy but he felt like an uncle you just wanted to sit by and listen to. May he rest in peace.
gklitt 7y ago
He was such an intriguing thinker. I love this 2013 blog post from Ben Thompson. It's titled "What Clayton Christensen Got Wrong", but I think it ironically does a good job of showing how Christensen's ideas are actually interesting enough to deeply study and debate, unlike many others in business. https://stratechery.com/2013/clayton-christensen-got-wrong/ https://stratechery.com/2013/clayton-christensen-got-wrong/
- mrosett 7y ago
  Yeah, Ben is a big fan of Clayton Christensen. I doubt he would have written a post with that title if he didn't think Christensen got most things right.
bart_spoon 7y ago
More than anything, I admire him for the way in exemplified a balanced life. He was obviously hugely influential in the realm of business, but his career was clearly only ever a single part of his life, rather than the entirety of his life. He was wise without being arrogant. He was spiritual and contemplative without being preachy. He seems very much like the kind of person I aspire to be.
- ticmasta 7y ago
  So without stereotyping too harshly, I wonder if his humility came from his faith? I've met quite a few LDS who show significant tolerance for beliefs that conflict with their own, maybe because historically Mormons have been the victims of intolerance?
  - warent 7y ago
    It's interesting because I've always perceived Mormonism (at least the dogmatic kind) as being intolerant given its history of racism and sexism. I suppose a lot has changed over the years, although I've still never met a black mormon and I even lived in Boise for like 4 years
    - samatman 7y ago
      Neither race nor sex are beliefs, so that wouldn't be in contradiction to the comment you're replying to. I have no opinion on whether Mormons are racist, sexist, or tolerant of different beliefs. My limited experience with them suggests that they're easy-going and work hard, that's about all I've got.
    - paulddraper 7y ago
      > I've still never met a black mormon and I even lived in Boise for like 4 years You live in Boise. So... I know many black Mormons, but only in places with a significant black population. FWIW, Utah had a black LDS Congresswomen for the past several years https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mia_Love https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mia_Love
theuri 7y ago
Beyond the Innovator's Dilemma work, I found his "How Will You Measure Your Life" a beautiful combination of heart + strategy + long game perspective. RIP. https://hbr.org/2010/07/how-will-you-measure-your-life https://hbr.org/2010/07/how-will-you-measure-your-life
tomrod 7y ago
I will miss him. He was good folks.
euph0ria 7y ago
Clayton Christensen has been a great example to me in both business life and spiritual life. We studied his works in business school a lot but my favorite teaching that he ever gave was his "Decisions for which I've been grateful": http://www2.byui.edu/Presentations/Transcripts/Devotionals/2004_06_08_Christensen.htm http://www2.byui.edu/Presentations/Transcripts/Devotionals/2...
michaelmarion 7y ago
I was fortunate enough to be able to take a variation on Professor Christensen's HBS course through a summer program of study offered by Duke University; his son, Matthew, was himself an alumnus of both Duke and HBS and was our instructor for the course. We were lucky enough to have Professor Christensen himself fly in for a few days for guest lectures. From the minute he walked into the door, his intellectual brilliance was obvious, but our class very quickly discovered what a kind person he was. (This was right in the thick of the iOS-versus-Android wars and I recall having quite the spirited lecture about the nature of the market and which platform would eventually win out!) I'll remember Professor Christensen as a brilliant thinker and, most of all, a good man.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- bilekas 7y ago
  I absolutely share your sentiment about him, I had absolutely no idea who he was at the time but very quickly as you say, you get who he is, he lays it out and that trait in people is something I will forever admire. It's only hitting me now how much he actually knocked me in my path.
brentjanderson 7y ago
I've long admired Clayton Christensen. My wife had the guts to ask his secretary to put me on his calendar. She did, and I got 15 minutes of his time. It was a surprise call, so when he was on the other end of the line, the best I could do was compliment him for the work he's done and his books (How will you measure your life, in particular). He was so kind to take the time, and so genuine. That he would take the time to chat with a complete stranger for a few minutes has been one of the most important things I've learned from him, notwithstanding his books, talks, and theories.
djoped 7y ago
Clayton Christensen has passed away https://sportinfo.com.ng/ https://sportinfo.com.ng/
mrtimo 7y ago
I heard Clayton Christensen speak at an "honors dinner" my freshman year of university in 2000. I asked him what interesting things he did when he was a university student. He said he would get together with his friends once a week - and each would take 10-15 minutes to present the most interesting thing they had learned that week. He also organized a university wide book club - including making books available at designated tables in the cafeteria, and hosting the author for a speaking event. "Guns Germs and Steel" was popular at the time, and he used that as an example of the type of book they would read. Everyone knows about the Disruptive Innovation, but he also wrote "Disrupting Class" on how disruptive innovations would change universities/education - and put some out of business. On this vein he founded the Christensen Institute [1] a non-profit (in Redwood City, CA). I don't know a ton about it, but I've really enjoyed the research/ideas posted on their blog over the years! Some here have posted about his faith. I've always thought it was bold that he had a four page PDF on his personal website [2] about his faith [3]. [1]: https://www.christenseninstitute.org/ https://www.christenseninstitute.org/ [2]: http://claytonchristensen.com/ http://claytonchristensen.com/ [3]: http://claytonchristensen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Why_I_Belong_and_Why_I_Believe.pdf http://claytonchristensen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Why...
codeproject 7y ago
Some times, when I look at some celebrity scholars, I scratched my head wondering what did they do to deserve their reputation. But Dr.Christensen's work is truly great. He is a genuine scholar. Innovator's dilemma is groundbreaking research. I learned a lot from the book. Intel CEO Andy Grove is a kind of arrogant guy for a lack of good words. Andy used to tell a16z's Partner Ben Horowize that He has a full shelf of Management books gifted from management Professors. Andy threw them away only keep the first page of each book with author's signature and nice words. From this article, Dr.Christensen's work apparently gained his respect. that is not an easy feat. Considering Andy Grove himself also wrote a great business book, high output management. Just check Dr.Christense's wiki page, He was a Rhode scholar. No wonder. Clayton Christensen, Rest In Peace. You are a wonderful Professor. Thank you. Miss You
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
djoped 7y ago
Read about his cause of death here: https://sportinfo.com.ng/clayton-christensen-death-obituary-clay-christensen-cause-of-death/ https://sportinfo.com.ng/clayton-christensen-death-obituary-...
glesperance 7y ago
I'm currently reading Competing Against Luck and it is a truly eye-opening book that highlights and puts the finger on a lot of the luck-based innovation work we've been doing over the years. I was planning on taking MR Christensen's online class[1] this coming April, but I wonder if this will still be happening given Mr Christensen's passed away. Would anyone have any good resource, online classes, books, videos, etc that they would recommend to learn more about Jobs to be Done and Disruptive Innovation Strategy? [1] https://online.hbs.edu/Documents/Syllabus_Disruptive_Strategy.pdf https://online.hbs.edu/Documents/Syllabus_Disruptive_Strateg...
ycombonator 7y ago
How will you measure your life - https://youtu.be/tvos4nORf_Y https://youtu.be/tvos4nORf_Y
bilekas 7y ago
This is sad. I've read and continue to read more of the writings of the old classic 'Philosophers', the reason I find their writing is because I like to imagine, when they wrote their ideas and indeed philosophies, people of the time might have imagined them as new age and progressive. They were in a way, but by no means intentionally, just laying out ideas that people should think about. When it comes to people like Clayton Christensen, I really do regard him in the same class. I was fortunate to have been introduced to him by another idol of mine, and straight away, it was clear, this is a person who really uses all the imagination that is possible, questions what the norms are, and at the same time will reign everything in to practicality. After that I went and read : 'How will you measure your ife?' I was young enough at the time, in my 20's and thought I had the world figured out. This book quickly corrected that. I have met only a handful of people who know who this modern philosopher is, but everyone will agree: He has made an impact. It's a life well spent. And I hope to find more like him. R.I.P "It's easier to hold your principles 100% of the time than 98% of the time"
codeproject 7y ago
Just a random thought. why doesn't Professor Christensen run for President? He will be a perfect, wonderful President. Nice, Decent, most of all, knowledgable. His expertise is just what this country badly needed. President Clayton Christensen. How nice. People from all over the world will love and respect him.
- danso 7y ago
  Skills and attribute applicable to business and academia don't automatically translate to politics.
- olav 7y ago
  And, he died
ChrisCinelli 7y ago
This is a great article in so many different ways. I like the enfaphasis on word choice: > Disruptive innovation became a ubiquitous term. Cable channels produced “disruptor lists.” Some observers said the term’s use added sophistication to any discussion. Others complained it was overused. Various forms of it regularly pop up in discussions about sports, for example. To his chagrin, users often apply it as a synonym for anything new or transformative, not understanding Christensen’s actual theory. The ubiquity worried him. > “If we call every business success a ‘disruption,’ then companies that rise to the top in very different ways will be seen as sources of insight into a common strategy for succeeding,” he once said. “This creates a danger: > Managers may mix and match behaviors that are very likely inconsistent with one another and thus unlikely to yield the hoped-for result.” THIS. I witness this so many times a week. People do not understand what the terms really means and the difference that makes the difference. This ends up being the source of misunderstanding when people says "X works" and "X does not work." "Agile", "Artificial Intelligence" and "Cloud" in the workplace are others terms that are commonly misused. In private life "intermittent fasting" and "meditation" come to mind. If somebody is successful at something or they have something that work, I am always ask about the process or giving me a real example of what they are talking about. Make the right distinctions is so critical to properly model their success. > He second-guessed the wording of the label, but never the theory. Even after he changed his terminology to disruptive innovation, he saw flaws. >“What we didn’t anticipate, and what in many ways was a fault of mine,” he told Quartz in 2016, “was that the term disruption has so many different connotations in the English language, that it allows people to justify whatever they want to do as, ‘Oh, this is disruptive,’ and they don’t ever read the book. The population of people where the fewest have read the book are venture capitalists. They are arrogant and smart and why do they need to read something?” > He wished he’d created something less expressive. This is so true. You want a phase that is catchy to grab attention of large audience but you also need one specific enough that is hard to misuse.
myth_buster 7y ago
My previous company, in true disruptive fashion, was setup as an autonomous entity outside of Fortune 100 mothership with the sole goal to crack a certain market. 3 years in, as we were passing through the trough of disillusionment, I picked up _The Innovator's Dilemma_. Boy did it predict everything we went through. It was like happening upon the script for your life. It was a transcendental experience. And I've recommended the book to anyone there who would listen to me! At one point I was considering buying copies of it and giving it to the executives but I refrained. One thing I took away from the whole experience is knowledge will only take you so far, execution is everything. When someone like Clay comes along and imparts profound wisdom, capitalize on it. World lost a great mind.
pklee 7y ago
What a great guy and an amazing human being. RIP Professor :(.
sblank 7y ago
We all stood on clayton christensen’s shoulders. Today we lost a giant. RIP.
csours 7y ago
I don't know if his family or loved ones will read this, but as much as I learned from his writing, I appreciated his attitude and manner even more.
fuckyah 7y ago
Rip
williamegan 7y ago
I’m very very sad to hear this. This man was a gentle giant in the business world. May his family find peace after their loss.
VaedaStrike 7y ago
My Sister is a member of his congregation in Boston, on a day when she was having a difficult time managing the difficulty of being a young mother of 5 while in a chapel during worship services (this happened within the last year or two) in the process of things there was a spill of things of hers into the aisle way. She shot down to the ground to try and gather up all the things now cluttering the aisle way. Of all the members of the congregation who could have stepped over to lean down and help recover the diaspora it was “Brother Christensen” who came over and, despite being in a body ravaged by age and all he’d been through, using support for mere walking. There he was putting in the genuine walk, leaning over repeatedly to help gather things for my likely frazzled and overwhelmed sister. My sister was vaguely aware that he’d achieved some notoriety. When I went on to speak of the world wide reverberations of his work, it seemed to pale for me to the history my sister had related to me just prior of what this kind, old ‘disabled’ man had done for my sister. An act which virtually anyone else in his position would be excused for presuming that someone else could handle this ‘little’ need. Thanks Bro Christensen for producing the rebar, the greatly undervalued acts that keep our society actually functional and bearable.
tomheon 7y ago
I was lucky enough to meet Clay Christensen once when he came to speak at a company I worked at. First he delivered a brilliant lecture on how companies repeatedly found themselves put out of business by new technologies, even after having made only decisions that actually increased their profits (his famous theory of "disruption"). Then he went on to talk about how easy it was as a driven, career-focused person--like most of the folks in that room--to invest too much in your career and not enough in your family. He pointed out how you can see whether your efforts in the office are paying off after a year or two, sometimes even shorter--while you don't really know whether you raised your children well for 20 years or so. Since so many smart people are addicted to feedback loops of quick success, he argued, that put them in special danger. You could easily spend year after year making choices that increased your success in your field, only to discover--too late--that you hadn't been paying enough attention to things that mattered more. He was one of the best speakers I've heard, picking precise words and moving smoothly from topic to topic, but every once in a while he would hold up his hand, bring his fingers together as if he were gripping a pen, and then twirl his hand in a circle as if he were asking for the check. After the fourth or fifth time, he stopped and apologized. He'd had a stroke recently, he explained, and occasionally he couldn't remember the words he was trying to say unless he pretended to write them in the air. A brilliant, humble man, whose essential goodness was impossible to miss. May he rest in peace.
quantified 7y ago
Has he crossed the chasm?

608 points by coloneltcb 7y ago

I think Clayton Christensen is one of those rare professors from Management B-School whose principles and theories made so much sense and helped a lot in many businesses and in fact in life. Things like Jobs to be done and How do you measure your life are wonderful things for anyone to pursue in life (in a general sense)

adaisadais 7y ago

When I was in college I read “The Innovator’s Dilemma”. It totally changed my life. I emailed Dr. Christensen and he responded! I thought i was the king of the world. Dr. Clayton Christensen’s books are some of the few ‘Business’ books that I ever recommend to friends or colleagues. I find that “The Innovator’s Dilemma” is applicable to almost all aspects of life. Dr. Christensen will be greatly missed.

petra 7y ago
// I find that “The Innovator’s Dilemma” is applicable to almost all aspects of life. How is it relevant to life, or business(besides being in a startup or protecting a business from it)?
- 542458 7y ago
  spitballing some general aesops here: Don't overfocus on what seems important today - look at the long run. Improving at anything takes time and many iterations - if at first you don't succeed... Getting comfortable and set in your ways can blind you to great new things. Just because you fail doesn't men you did anything wrong.
- kbutler 7y ago
  Willingness to make changes even when things are going well, preparing for future disruptions in your career and life, realizing that people and relationships also change.

pwthornton 7y ago

Innovator's Dilemma and Competing Against Luck are the two best business books that any tech person should read. I have my students and product design team read them.

pottertheotter 7y ago

Outside of his influence on the business world, I've met him a couple times and he was such a kind and genuine man. There are a lot of business school professors who reach far less heights, often in obscure areas, and they let it go straight to their heads.

gigatexal 7y ago

Mormon here and I had no idea how influential he was to some of the greats in business.

jchallis 7y ago
His faith was extremely important to him. His essay on why he chose not to play basketball on Sunday, because it was the first compromise that would lead to every other compromise, has helped me keep my own moral compass pointed north.
- gigatexal 7y ago
  Ain’t that the truth. Without getting into details the path to many stupid heartbreaking things I’ve done began with a small compromise. A Monson quote has become all too poignant to me of late: “ One writer said that the door of history turns on small hinges, and so do people’s lives. If we were to apply that maxim to our lives, we could say that we are the result of many small decisions. In effect, we are the product of our choices. We must develop the capacity to recall the past, to evaluate the present, and to look into the future in order to accomplish in our lives what the Lord would have us do.” Fortunately I’ve moved on and learned from my mistakes but it’s just eery how little things lead to the big ones.

carls 7y ago

I remember reading How Will You Measure Your Life years ago right after college and enjoying it. I also found the following section from the article especially thought-provoking: > He second-guessed the wording of the label, but never the theory. Even after he changed his terminology to disruptive innovation, he saw flaws. > “What we didn’t anticipate, and what in many ways was a fault of mine,” he told Quartz.com in 2016, “was that the term disruption has so many different connotations in the English language, that it allows people to justify whatever they want to do as, ‘Oh, this is disruptive,’ and they don’t ever read the book. The population of people where the fewest have read the book are venture capitalists. They are arrogant and smart and why do they need to read something?” > He wished he’d created something less expressive. He began to discuss type 1 innovations and type 2 innovations, with a nod to Daniel Kahneman, because he believed those terms were vague enough to force people to read and understand his work more closely. It makes me think about the way complex ideas get distorted and re-interpreted as they get repeated, like in a game of Telephone.

munchbunny 7y ago
One of my litmus tests for whether I trust someone's judgement is whether they take the time to read and interpret the concept, and whether they openly admit when they have not. There are a few words that come to mind in my day to day where this definitely applies: "disruption," "affordance" (UX design), and "agile." All of them point back to an originating body of research and writing and then tons of discussion as the idea gained popularity, so there's a concrete test of "did you read it and try to internalize it?"
ChrisCinelli 7y ago
I just commented on this too. Choose your word very carefully. They will be misinterpreted. Your job is to pick the right words so you minimize the misintetpretation.

neom 7y ago

His book How Will You Measure Your Life? is a really great read (all his books are great). Here is a good summery of his theory of disruptive innovation: https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/4-keys-to-understanding-clayton-christensens-theory-of-disruptive-innovation https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/4-keys-to-understanding-cla...

CrazyCatDog 7y ago

This is incredibly tragic—Clayton had the courage to leverage data in a very confined setting. A recipe that rarely works in academia (I’m a b-school prof/associate dean). And, all the ingredients to his disruption thesis were already there in his study of the hard-drive industry. His capacity to take that ball and carry it from academia across to the managerial end-zone is a mere pipe-dream for most. For Clayton, it was second nature. His impact across both scholars and managers alike is—to this day—a singularity.

jquinby 7y ago

I don't do a ton of business reading, but Christensen's stuff was top-notch and always on the short-list of recommendations I'd make to others.

mmcconnell1618 7y ago

I had a chance to see him at the Business of Software conference in 2011. Incredible mind. He will be missed. Here's the video of his talk: https://vimeo.com/63125209 https://vimeo.com/63125209

ticmasta 7y ago
Hey - me too! Had he recently had a stroke prior to that conference? I don't remember the details but thought something about bright lights really bothered him. Of note: I don't think he started his PHD until he was 50. I wish more people at this stage of their lives pursued his sort of deep, meaningful research combined with personal reflection and experience.
- CrazyStat 7y ago
  Yes, he had a stroke in the summer of 2010.

ancorevard 7y ago

I got to learn about disruption theory through Horace Dediu (http://www.asymco.com http://www.asymco.com) who is probably one its best explainers and practitioners (the latter being why you should listen to Dediu in the first place - skin in the game).

The_mboga_real 7y ago

No latest photos or recent relevant research. Don't think about it, it means nothing to disruptive theory!

mrosett 7y ago

I just want to add my voice to the long list of people saying that a) he was brilliant, and his work (particularly How Will You Measure Your Life) is worth reading and b) he was just a kind, decent human being. I met him once and his warmth really left an impression.

bitL 7y ago

I remember his lecture at Harvard when he talked about how cancer diagnosis/heart attack changed him while he was writing "How Will You Measure Your Life". Father of disruptive innovation, RIP.

jmhyer123 7y ago
Any chance you have a link for this? I'd love to watch/read that.

irrational 7y ago

> he suffered a stroke that left him with expressive aphasia. The storyteller still could think and reason but no longer had the ability to direct his mouth to express the words in his head. My oldest son was born with expressive aphasia. Not being able to communicate what is in your head is so very frustrating. It must be so much more difficult for someone who previously could speak without difficulty.

Dave_TRS 7y ago

Like many here I found "How Will You Measure Your Life" particularly helpful. The book was based on a letter to his students, which provides a nice summary and I keep handy to share with people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B50RBERcUJSba2Fmd2Z0VzdtZm8/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B50RBERcUJSba2Fmd2Z0VzdtZm8...

andrekandre 7y ago
that’s a fantastic document with lots of great advice to me this was the best part: > I’ve concluded that the metric by which God will assess my life isn’t dollars but the individual people whose lives I’ve touched. > I think that’s the way it will work for us all. Don’t worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people. —— this is, in my opinion, how we in a society can “have good things” and is so easy for us to forget in our day-to-day... it’s so easy to get selfish and unintentionally hurt/damage others...
ilikecoldbrew 7y ago
Thanks for sharing. In addition to the summary, I really liked page 8 with comments from the students. In particular, this one stood out: "“You could see a shift happening at HBS. Money used to be number one in the job search. When you make a ton of money, you want more of it. Ironic thing. You start to forget what the drivers of happiness are and what things are really important. A lot of people on campus see money differently now. They think, ‘What’s the minimum I need to have, and what else drives my life?’ instead of ‘What’s the place where I can get the maximum of both?’” It takes courage to buck the trend of what's normal or expected in society, and we owe great thanks to those (like Clayton) who inspire and encourage us to be courageous in this regard. I also really liked this: "if your attitude is that only smarter people have something to teach you, your learning opportunities will be very limited. But if you have a humble eagerness to learn something from everybody, your learning opportunities will be unlimited.

guelo 7y ago

Somewhat off topic but it's interesting that Andy Grove was a big proponent of Christensen but Intel still got completely disrupted when the smartphone revolution kicked off. Though Grove was gone by the time of the iPhone he still should have seen it coming with the growing success of the Palm and Windows Mobile devices that preceded it.

ghaff 7y ago
Intel's main problem with mobile was that they saw x86 as a big potential incumbent advantage given their dominance on desktop and server. Which if they could have made competitive x86 mobile chips would probably have been an absolutely correct observation. But they couldn't even though they kept plugging away past the point of no return. I saw Intel presentations during the mid-2000s or so where they were making a big deal about how x86 processors had fewer issues with Flash than other architectures did.
- martinpw 7y ago
  I think this is an important point. I was at a company that got disrupted out of existence, and The Innovator's Dilemma was required reading for all employees. So it's not that companies are necessarily unaware of the impending problem, it's just that they are often structurally unable to respond.

amoorthy 7y ago

I saw Dr. Christensen explain his theory at a talk given to me and ~100 HubSpot colleagues about 10 years ago. I don't remember any other speaker like I remember him. He was so kind and so clearly insightful. I know it sounds cheesy but he felt like an uncle you just wanted to sit by and listen to. May he rest in peace.

gklitt 7y ago

He was such an intriguing thinker. I love this 2013 blog post from Ben Thompson. It's titled "What Clayton Christensen Got Wrong", but I think it ironically does a good job of showing how Christensen's ideas are actually interesting enough to deeply study and debate, unlike many others in business. https://stratechery.com/2013/clayton-christensen-got-wrong/ https://stratechery.com/2013/clayton-christensen-got-wrong/

mrosett 7y ago
Yeah, Ben is a big fan of Clayton Christensen. I doubt he would have written a post with that title if he didn't think Christensen got most things right.

bart_spoon 7y ago

More than anything, I admire him for the way in exemplified a balanced life. He was obviously hugely influential in the realm of business, but his career was clearly only ever a single part of his life, rather than the entirety of his life. He was wise without being arrogant. He was spiritual and contemplative without being preachy. He seems very much like the kind of person I aspire to be.

ticmasta 7y ago
So without stereotyping too harshly, I wonder if his humility came from his faith? I've met quite a few LDS who show significant tolerance for beliefs that conflict with their own, maybe because historically Mormons have been the victims of intolerance?
- warent 7y ago
  It's interesting because I've always perceived Mormonism (at least the dogmatic kind) as being intolerant given its history of racism and sexism. I suppose a lot has changed over the years, although I've still never met a black mormon and I even lived in Boise for like 4 years
  - samatman 7y ago
    Neither race nor sex are beliefs, so that wouldn't be in contradiction to the comment you're replying to. I have no opinion on whether Mormons are racist, sexist, or tolerant of different beliefs. My limited experience with them suggests that they're easy-going and work hard, that's about all I've got.
  - paulddraper 7y ago
    > I've still never met a black mormon and I even lived in Boise for like 4 years You live in Boise. So... I know many black Mormons, but only in places with a significant black population. FWIW, Utah had a black LDS Congresswomen for the past several years https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mia_Love https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mia_Love

theuri 7y ago

Beyond the Innovator's Dilemma work, I found his "How Will You Measure Your Life" a beautiful combination of heart + strategy + long game perspective. RIP. https://hbr.org/2010/07/how-will-you-measure-your-life https://hbr.org/2010/07/how-will-you-measure-your-life

tomrod 7y ago

I will miss him. He was good folks.

euph0ria 7y ago

Clayton Christensen has been a great example to me in both business life and spiritual life. We studied his works in business school a lot but my favorite teaching that he ever gave was his "Decisions for which I've been grateful": http://www2.byui.edu/Presentations/Transcripts/Devotionals/2004_06_08_Christensen.htm http://www2.byui.edu/Presentations/Transcripts/Devotionals/2...

michaelmarion 7y ago

I was fortunate enough to be able to take a variation on Professor Christensen's HBS course through a summer program of study offered by Duke University; his son, Matthew, was himself an alumnus of both Duke and HBS and was our instructor for the course. We were lucky enough to have Professor Christensen himself fly in for a few days for guest lectures. From the minute he walked into the door, his intellectual brilliance was obvious, but our class very quickly discovered what a kind person he was. (This was right in the thick of the iOS-versus-Android wars and I recall having quite the spirited lecture about the nature of the market and which platform would eventually win out!) I'll remember Professor Christensen as a brilliant thinker and, most of all, a good man.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
bilekas 7y ago
I absolutely share your sentiment about him, I had absolutely no idea who he was at the time but very quickly as you say, you get who he is, he lays it out and that trait in people is something I will forever admire. It's only hitting me now how much he actually knocked me in my path.

brentjanderson 7y ago

I've long admired Clayton Christensen. My wife had the guts to ask his secretary to put me on his calendar. She did, and I got 15 minutes of his time. It was a surprise call, so when he was on the other end of the line, the best I could do was compliment him for the work he's done and his books (How will you measure your life, in particular). He was so kind to take the time, and so genuine. That he would take the time to chat with a complete stranger for a few minutes has been one of the most important things I've learned from him, notwithstanding his books, talks, and theories.

djoped 7y ago

Clayton Christensen has passed away https://sportinfo.com.ng/ https://sportinfo.com.ng/

mrtimo 7y ago

I heard Clayton Christensen speak at an "honors dinner" my freshman year of university in 2000. I asked him what interesting things he did when he was a university student. He said he would get together with his friends once a week - and each would take 10-15 minutes to present the most interesting thing they had learned that week. He also organized a university wide book club - including making books available at designated tables in the cafeteria, and hosting the author for a speaking event. "Guns Germs and Steel" was popular at the time, and he used that as an example of the type of book they would read. Everyone knows about the Disruptive Innovation, but he also wrote "Disrupting Class" on how disruptive innovations would change universities/education - and put some out of business. On this vein he founded the Christensen Institute [1] a non-profit (in Redwood City, CA). I don't know a ton about it, but I've really enjoyed the research/ideas posted on their blog over the years! Some here have posted about his faith. I've always thought it was bold that he had a four page PDF on his personal website [2] about his faith [3]. [1]: https://www.christenseninstitute.org/ https://www.christenseninstitute.org/ [2]: http://claytonchristensen.com/ http://claytonchristensen.com/ [3]: http://claytonchristensen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Why_I_Belong_and_Why_I_Believe.pdf http://claytonchristensen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Why...

codeproject 7y ago

Some times, when I look at some celebrity scholars, I scratched my head wondering what did they do to deserve their reputation. But Dr.Christensen's work is truly great. He is a genuine scholar. Innovator's dilemma is groundbreaking research. I learned a lot from the book. Intel CEO Andy Grove is a kind of arrogant guy for a lack of good words. Andy used to tell a16z's Partner Ben Horowize that He has a full shelf of Management books gifted from management Professors. Andy threw them away only keep the first page of each book with author's signature and nice words. From this article, Dr.Christensen's work apparently gained his respect. that is not an easy feat. Considering Andy Grove himself also wrote a great business book, high output management. Just check Dr.Christense's wiki page, He was a Rhode scholar. No wonder. Clayton Christensen, Rest In Peace. You are a wonderful Professor. Thank you. Miss You

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

djoped 7y ago

Read about his cause of death here: https://sportinfo.com.ng/clayton-christensen-death-obituary-clay-christensen-cause-of-death/ https://sportinfo.com.ng/clayton-christensen-death-obituary-...

glesperance 7y ago

I'm currently reading Competing Against Luck and it is a truly eye-opening book that highlights and puts the finger on a lot of the luck-based innovation work we've been doing over the years. I was planning on taking MR Christensen's online class[1] this coming April, but I wonder if this will still be happening given Mr Christensen's passed away. Would anyone have any good resource, online classes, books, videos, etc that they would recommend to learn more about Jobs to be Done and Disruptive Innovation Strategy? [1] https://online.hbs.edu/Documents/Syllabus_Disruptive_Strategy.pdf https://online.hbs.edu/Documents/Syllabus_Disruptive_Strateg...

ycombonator 7y ago

How will you measure your life - https://youtu.be/tvos4nORf_Y https://youtu.be/tvos4nORf_Y

bilekas 7y ago

This is sad. I've read and continue to read more of the writings of the old classic 'Philosophers', the reason I find their writing is because I like to imagine, when they wrote their ideas and indeed philosophies, people of the time might have imagined them as new age and progressive. They were in a way, but by no means intentionally, just laying out ideas that people should think about. When it comes to people like Clayton Christensen, I really do regard him in the same class. I was fortunate to have been introduced to him by another idol of mine, and straight away, it was clear, this is a person who really uses all the imagination that is possible, questions what the norms are, and at the same time will reign everything in to practicality. After that I went and read : 'How will you measure your ife?' I was young enough at the time, in my 20's and thought I had the world figured out. This book quickly corrected that. I have met only a handful of people who know who this modern philosopher is, but everyone will agree: He has made an impact. It's a life well spent. And I hope to find more like him. R.I.P "It's easier to hold your principles 100% of the time than 98% of the time"

codeproject 7y ago

Just a random thought. why doesn't Professor Christensen run for President? He will be a perfect, wonderful President. Nice, Decent, most of all, knowledgable. His expertise is just what this country badly needed. President Clayton Christensen. How nice. People from all over the world will love and respect him.

danso 7y ago
Skills and attribute applicable to business and academia don't automatically translate to politics.
olav 7y ago
And, he died

ChrisCinelli 7y ago

This is a great article in so many different ways. I like the enfaphasis on word choice: > Disruptive innovation became a ubiquitous term. Cable channels produced “disruptor lists.” Some observers said the term’s use added sophistication to any discussion. Others complained it was overused. Various forms of it regularly pop up in discussions about sports, for example. To his chagrin, users often apply it as a synonym for anything new or transformative, not understanding Christensen’s actual theory. The ubiquity worried him. > “If we call every business success a ‘disruption,’ then companies that rise to the top in very different ways will be seen as sources of insight into a common strategy for succeeding,” he once said. “This creates a danger: > Managers may mix and match behaviors that are very likely inconsistent with one another and thus unlikely to yield the hoped-for result.” THIS. I witness this so many times a week. People do not understand what the terms really means and the difference that makes the difference. This ends up being the source of misunderstanding when people says "X works" and "X does not work." "Agile", "Artificial Intelligence" and "Cloud" in the workplace are others terms that are commonly misused. In private life "intermittent fasting" and "meditation" come to mind. If somebody is successful at something or they have something that work, I am always ask about the process or giving me a real example of what they are talking about. Make the right distinctions is so critical to properly model their success. > He second-guessed the wording of the label, but never the theory. Even after he changed his terminology to disruptive innovation, he saw flaws. >“What we didn’t anticipate, and what in many ways was a fault of mine,” he told Quartz in 2016, “was that the term disruption has so many different connotations in the English language, that it allows people to justify whatever they want to do as, ‘Oh, this is disruptive,’ and they don’t ever read the book. The population of people where the fewest have read the book are venture capitalists. They are arrogant and smart and why do they need to read something?” > He wished he’d created something less expressive. This is so true. You want a phase that is catchy to grab attention of large audience but you also need one specific enough that is hard to misuse.

myth_buster 7y ago

My previous company, in true disruptive fashion, was setup as an autonomous entity outside of Fortune 100 mothership with the sole goal to crack a certain market. 3 years in, as we were passing through the trough of disillusionment, I picked up _The Innovator's Dilemma_. Boy did it predict everything we went through. It was like happening upon the script for your life. It was a transcendental experience. And I've recommended the book to anyone there who would listen to me! At one point I was considering buying copies of it and giving it to the executives but I refrained. One thing I took away from the whole experience is knowledge will only take you so far, execution is everything. When someone like Clay comes along and imparts profound wisdom, capitalize on it. World lost a great mind.

pklee 7y ago

What a great guy and an amazing human being. RIP Professor :(.

sblank 7y ago

We all stood on clayton christensen’s shoulders. Today we lost a giant. RIP.

csours 7y ago

I don't know if his family or loved ones will read this, but as much as I learned from his writing, I appreciated his attitude and manner even more.

fuckyah 7y ago

Rip

williamegan 7y ago

I’m very very sad to hear this. This man was a gentle giant in the business world. May his family find peace after their loss.

VaedaStrike 7y ago

My Sister is a member of his congregation in Boston, on a day when she was having a difficult time managing the difficulty of being a young mother of 5 while in a chapel during worship services (this happened within the last year or two) in the process of things there was a spill of things of hers into the aisle way. She shot down to the ground to try and gather up all the things now cluttering the aisle way. Of all the members of the congregation who could have stepped over to lean down and help recover the diaspora it was “Brother Christensen” who came over and, despite being in a body ravaged by age and all he’d been through, using support for mere walking. There he was putting in the genuine walk, leaning over repeatedly to help gather things for my likely frazzled and overwhelmed sister. My sister was vaguely aware that he’d achieved some notoriety. When I went on to speak of the world wide reverberations of his work, it seemed to pale for me to the history my sister had related to me just prior of what this kind, old ‘disabled’ man had done for my sister. An act which virtually anyone else in his position would be excused for presuming that someone else could handle this ‘little’ need. Thanks Bro Christensen for producing the rebar, the greatly undervalued acts that keep our society actually functional and bearable.

tomheon 7y ago

I was lucky enough to meet Clay Christensen once when he came to speak at a company I worked at. First he delivered a brilliant lecture on how companies repeatedly found themselves put out of business by new technologies, even after having made only decisions that actually increased their profits (his famous theory of "disruption"). Then he went on to talk about how easy it was as a driven, career-focused person--like most of the folks in that room--to invest too much in your career and not enough in your family. He pointed out how you can see whether your efforts in the office are paying off after a year or two, sometimes even shorter--while you don't really know whether you raised your children well for 20 years or so. Since so many smart people are addicted to feedback loops of quick success, he argued, that put them in special danger. You could easily spend year after year making choices that increased your success in your field, only to discover--too late--that you hadn't been paying enough attention to things that mattered more. He was one of the best speakers I've heard, picking precise words and moving smoothly from topic to topic, but every once in a while he would hold up his hand, bring his fingers together as if he were gripping a pen, and then twirl his hand in a circle as if he were asking for the check. After the fourth or fifth time, he stopped and apologized. He'd had a stroke recently, he explained, and occasionally he couldn't remember the words he was trying to say unless he pretended to write them in the air. A brilliant, humble man, whose essential goodness was impossible to miss. May he rest in peace.

quantified 7y ago

Has he crossed the chasm?