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I would contend being under the apple tree is how it's done. Even for JC. Easy for him to say the contrary, when his business was always largely handled by othe

I would contend being under the apple tree is how it's done. Even for JC. Easy for him to say the contrary, when his business was always largely handled by others as a byproduct of him also being at the right-place at the right-time. This is why he's known to shut the door and hide. He didn't have to be a busy-body handling the day to day operations of id Software. It's the reason he was able to sit thinking about 2-3 shadow volume techniques, and the time to implement and test them all. If that's not the 'apple tree' of software development, I don't know what is. I'd bet my life that if you have no time to sit and think, just a busy-body answering phone calls, emails, you're not coming up ideas. At one point JC did sit and think, hard. Then he implemented hard. Through the whole process he had isolation, so he really was 'under the apple tree'. Irregardless if his process involved building prototypes of his various ideas.

corysama 12y ago
I'm pretty sure that you and JC actually agree completely. You are just going into more detail about my vague apple tree analogy than I did.
- BuckRogers 12y ago
  Maybe on details, but we disagree that you can rush creativity or genius. His trial-and-error method got him shadow volume years after a separate pair of engineers discovered it. This is why most great discoveries are done in research environments with teams. He in my view, failed to see that he just filled his 'apple tree' time with tinkering. Some people plant a garden while thinking about code, or focus intently. I'm not sure there's much difference between methods, it depends on the field and person. The most complex fields, involving what I'd consider true genius cannot be tested. It's just too general of a statement, and only relevant to him or a portion of the population. But this is Carmack as I've always seen him. Technically brilliant, missing the big picture (his games were in some cases restricted simply to show off a technical feature eg. the Doom 3 flashlight), and fairly narrow minded.

corysama 12y ago

I'm pretty sure that you and JC actually agree completely. You are just going into more detail about my vague apple tree analogy than I did.

BuckRogers 12y ago
Maybe on details, but we disagree that you can rush creativity or genius. His trial-and-error method got him shadow volume years after a separate pair of engineers discovered it. This is why most great discoveries are done in research environments with teams. He in my view, failed to see that he just filled his 'apple tree' time with tinkering. Some people plant a garden while thinking about code, or focus intently. I'm not sure there's much difference between methods, it depends on the field and person. The most complex fields, involving what I'd consider true genius cannot be tested. It's just too general of a statement, and only relevant to him or a portion of the population. But this is Carmack as I've always seen him. Technically brilliant, missing the big picture (his games were in some cases restricted simply to show off a technical feature eg. the Doom 3 flashlight), and fairly narrow minded.