5 ms·
I'm not sure I agree with his point but I can see it. There are projects that require a long term commitment to bring to fruition and there are very few people
by TomOfTTB 17y ago
I'm not sure I agree with his point but I can see it. There are projects that require a long term commitment to bring to fruition and there are very few people in the Valley these days who are willing to take on those projects. The "get options and get rich" mentality has everyone trying to build the next quickie web service or iPhone app rather than looking at real improvements.
Worse people seem to be putting their faith into large companies and their R&D departments to deliver innovations and that strategy has a shockingly poor track record. Other than Xerox Parc and the early AT&T labs there aren't really many R&D success stories. Microsoft, for example, spends $7 billion a year on R&D and you have to ask yourself "what do they have to show for it?" I mean, I actually like MS Surface but when you've spent $7 billion dollars and the best you've managed to come up with is an iPhone the size of a table something's gone wrong.
Again, I don't think the situation is as terminal as he makes it out to be but I do think the opinion has some merit in getting us all to look at areas our industry is neglecting.