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my problem with this theory I can only explain in my own terms my problem is that this perspective confuses together individuals and systems no great men exis

my problem with this theory I can only explain in my own terms my problem is that this perspective confuses together individuals and systems no great men exist in isolation, some name takes most of the credit but they're all but a sum of their circumstances, which in all cases include other top people who never get to be as famous strict clarity of this is extra important now that fully autonomous 'systems' are taking off, which makes them even more likely to be confused with individuals: who invented the slate-computer (smartphone): Apple Corporation then a whole history of apple as if they were a person whose father as another person called Steve Jobs (and their mother was Steve W?) or whatever

simonh 3y ago
The question isn't whether they need more people to make it all work. That's not in dispute. It's the degree to which any of these people are replaceable. If you removed any of the engineers working on the iPhone Jobs would have hired another engineer and cracked on with the project. Maybe there would have been more bugs, or slightly worse features, maybe there would be some things better. Take out Jobs, and there is no iPhone, or even an OSX to base it on. It took the competition years to catch up, and that's bearing in mind they knew they needed to. Prior to the iPhone announcement, Android was going to be a BlackBerry clone. Or take SpaceX, nobody but Musk was pushing for first stage re-use. Seven years later no other company has landed an orbital class first stage booster, or seems anywhere close to doing so, and that's with the concept absolutely proven. How long would we have to wait for someone to even try without Musk gathering a team and making it happen?
- BSEdlMMldESB 3y ago
  so become irreplaceable or be turned into a commodity...?
  - b8d_0 3y ago
    Already happened, my dude. I would run away into the forest, never to be seen again, but I got that idea from the Internet, too

simonh 3y ago

The question isn't whether they need more people to make it all work. That's not in dispute. It's the degree to which any of these people are replaceable. If you removed any of the engineers working on the iPhone Jobs would have hired another engineer and cracked on with the project. Maybe there would have been more bugs, or slightly worse features, maybe there would be some things better. Take out Jobs, and there is no iPhone, or even an OSX to base it on. It took the competition years to catch up, and that's bearing in mind they knew they needed to. Prior to the iPhone announcement, Android was going to be a BlackBerry clone. Or take SpaceX, nobody but Musk was pushing for first stage re-use. Seven years later no other company has landed an orbital class first stage booster, or seems anywhere close to doing so, and that's with the concept absolutely proven. How long would we have to wait for someone to even try without Musk gathering a team and making it happen?

BSEdlMMldESB 3y ago
so become irreplaceable or be turned into a commodity...?
- b8d_0 3y ago
  Already happened, my dude. I would run away into the forest, never to be seen again, but I got that idea from the Internet, too