> This is somewhat orthogonal to whether those criticisms are correct! I think this is the most important take-away in evaluating the success of many technical

> This is somewhat orthogonal to whether those criticisms are correct! I think this is the most important take-away in evaluating the success of many technical businesses. At the end of the day businesses succeed or fail due to lots of factors that have nothing to do with the soundness of the enigneering or R&D that is at the core of the value proposition. This is an extremely frustrating fact for technically minded folks (I count myself). Reminds me of the quote about how stock markets are like betting on the outcome of a beauty contest. The humans who control large purchasing decisions are likely much less technical than the average audience of this blog. The fact that this is frustrating doesn't make it any less true or important to internalize.