I’ve been thinking about this counter-intuitive idea of ‘Genius does not scale’ and came across this story on ‘ArsTechnica” on Who Killed Apple Computer?. It’s a very interesting reflection on the failures of Apple in the early 90s. The view comes from someone who actually worked at Apple from ’87 to ’97 which gives it more credence.
One thing I applaud is his admittance of his part in helping Apple’s downfall. However, one theme he brought up is how there were tons of really bright individuals all building wonderful things. Too bad all of them were doing it in their own Ivory Tower. Bleh.
Anyways, this brings me back to my thoughts on the more ‘really smart people’ you gather together the more impossible it is to actually build something. I think there’s another saying. “Everyone wants to be the chef not the busboy”.
On a related note, I keep reading in business rags about how companies are deploring that they have people that aren’t creative/original/with brains/blah blah blah. Well, my thoughts on this are.. if EVERYONE in your company was creative with tons of brains all trying to drive something innovative your company is toast.
