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I commented Dealers in parallel, because of the narrative I'd argue it's one of the best tech histories every written. While Soul of the Machine was better revi

by Aloha 4y ago

I commented Dealers in parallel, because of the narrative I'd argue it's one of the best tech histories every written. While Soul of the Machine was better reviewed, Dealers was more compelling. I did enjoy your book by the way - thank you for writing it.

AlbertCory 4y ago
Thank you. re Soul: Dick Sonderegger, whom I interviewed at [1], knew the real people at Data General who were featured in it. They kinda despised Tracy Kidder. [1] https://operationcode.org/podcast#dick-sonderegger-link https://operationcode.org/podcast#dick-sonderegger-link
- Aloha 4y ago
  I can understand why - Tracy Kidder made everyone involved with the MV/8000 look bad. The narrative was not compelling either frankly, I've never understood why people found the book so compelling. Dealers makes everyone look good more or less - like it clearly explained to me why Xerox could never figure out how to commercialize the PARC innovations. The single largest issue appeared to be the incentives the sales force had were not aligned to the kind of products PARC could develop. (though its clear there were other issues with the capacity of PARC to productize something) A faster Alto with a general purpose operating system and the existing document preparation tools, probably would have significantly outsold the Star - but again, would the Xerox sales force known how to sell that product? I don't think so, and thats the underlying problem. The Star appeared to have just suffered from the Second System Effect, which compounded the other issues Xerox had.
  - AlbertCory 4y ago
    Very astute analysis. I cover these exact issues as they manifested. I used to say "Star has done for object-oriented programming what Three Mile Island did for nuclear power." Obviously not, though, since OOP grew & prospered on its own. I cover our struggles using OOP with a non-object oriented language in exhaustive detail, too.

by Aloha 4y ago

AlbertCory 4y ago

Thank you. re Soul: Dick Sonderegger, whom I interviewed at [1], knew the real people at Data General who were featured in it. They kinda despised Tracy Kidder. [1] https://operationcode.org/podcast#dick-sonderegger-link https://operationcode.org/podcast#dick-sonderegger-link

Aloha 4y ago
I can understand why - Tracy Kidder made everyone involved with the MV/8000 look bad. The narrative was not compelling either frankly, I've never understood why people found the book so compelling. Dealers makes everyone look good more or less - like it clearly explained to me why Xerox could never figure out how to commercialize the PARC innovations. The single largest issue appeared to be the incentives the sales force had were not aligned to the kind of products PARC could develop. (though its clear there were other issues with the capacity of PARC to productize something) A faster Alto with a general purpose operating system and the existing document preparation tools, probably would have significantly outsold the Star - but again, would the Xerox sales force known how to sell that product? I don't think so, and thats the underlying problem. The Star appeared to have just suffered from the Second System Effect, which compounded the other issues Xerox had.
- AlbertCory 4y ago
  Very astute analysis. I cover these exact issues as they manifested. I used to say "Star has done for object-oriented programming what Three Mile Island did for nuclear power." Obviously not, though, since OOP grew & prospered on its own. I cover our struggles using OOP with a non-object oriented language in exhaustive detail, too.