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This is the real advice at the very end: "But the best way to have a future is to be part of a team that values progress over politics, ideas over territory, an
by heyrhett 14y ago
This is the real advice at the very end: "But the best way to have a future is to be part of a team that values progress over politics, ideas over territory, and initiative over decorum."
The story is cut short though, and he doesn't really provide any evidence to back up that advice. Did the company that favored politics go out of business. Do company that favor ideas over territory consistently work out better? I think, as engineers, we'd like to believe so, but I'm not sure that's what I've seen from my own experience.
- cutie 14y agoNetwork effects and name recognition can work against it for a time. I'm thinking currently about the demise of Kodak, and similar situations where where a dominant player is displaced by new technology. Had Kodak pursued digital early and aggressively things would be different now. I bet politics didn't allow that outcome.
- btilly 14y agoAre you kidding? Kodak invented digital photography. And you know what? They knew better than anyone else that digital photography absolutely sucked relative to film. If you want to know why dominant players get displaced by new technology, I highly recommend reading The Innovator's Dilemma.
- digisign 14y agoSo what? Someone else invented lots of things, like smartphones and tablets. Has no bearing on whether they are aggressively pursued for profit. And sucked, past tense. There are any number of better strategies Kodak could have taken besides "waiting to die," as you appear to recommend.