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This question is about understanding invention in large companies, not as a knock against Bret Victor: His job title had "inventor" in it, and he mentions maki

This question is about understanding invention in large companies, not as a knock against Bret Victor: His job title had "inventor" in it, and he mentions making many things, but he describes the impact of his inventions in the passive voice: "These concept apps were shown around internally, presumably to inspire the people who did the real work." I gather from this that he didn't see his role as advocacy or promotion of his work, and from "presumably" that he didn't really know what the purpose was of all this showing-round. My question: would he have been able to get into production some of the things he made and cared about, had he engaged in advocacy, or would that have been problematic in Apple's culture?

raverbashing 6y ago
It might not even be an issue of advocacy or engagement, it just might have been the right answer to the wrong problem. Or it requires new technology or it wouldn't really be useful Prototyping is nice and thinking about solutions is cool but then comes reality
- topynate 6y ago
  Sure, you can have a great idea and do everything right with it, but not see it succeed. I'm asking more about the corporate culture at Apple and more generally – is this sort of advocacy encouraged or discouraged, does it improve the chances of a new idea, that sort of thing. I mean Apple has to see a good bit of value in prototyping things and letting people come up with new stuff, or they wouldn't have job positions with the title "inventor", right? Or is that just part of its self-image, and not really encouraged in reality?
notretarded 6y ago
Anything he invents becomes IP of Apple in perpetuity. This is smart
brandall10 6y ago
Apple historically has a fair bit of separation between design, software, and hardware departments. It would stand to reason that he simply wouldn’t have the ability to advocate for his work outside of his design group.

raverbashing 6y ago

It might not even be an issue of advocacy or engagement, it just might have been the right answer to the wrong problem. Or it requires new technology or it wouldn't really be useful Prototyping is nice and thinking about solutions is cool but then comes reality

topynate 6y ago
Sure, you can have a great idea and do everything right with it, but not see it succeed. I'm asking more about the corporate culture at Apple and more generally – is this sort of advocacy encouraged or discouraged, does it improve the chances of a new idea, that sort of thing. I mean Apple has to see a good bit of value in prototyping things and letting people come up with new stuff, or they wouldn't have job positions with the title "inventor", right? Or is that just part of its self-image, and not really encouraged in reality?

notretarded 6y ago

Anything he invents becomes IP of Apple in perpetuity. This is smart

brandall10 6y ago

Apple historically has a fair bit of separation between design, software, and hardware departments. It would stand to reason that he simply wouldn’t have the ability to advocate for his work outside of his design group.