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Sun 20 Feb 2005
Infinite Loop
Category : Commentary/infiniteloop.txt
I've just finished reading Michael Malone's "Infinite Loop". I'm wondering about how people like Malone and Jim Carlton could write their books with so much bile. Actually, if you've ever run your own company, you might take a little more sympathetic view of much of the same events described by Malone in his book. In the twenty years that went by, most of the companies Malone extolled for their virtues, as much for their contrast to Apple - DEC, Compaq, even IBM's PC business - they're all dead and gone. Or languishing (HP, Sun). And we're still using Macs. Here's a guy who seems to have a desperate need to be the one who declares the winners and the losers. Like God. Like I could imagine, on Judgment Day, Malone snucking a seat next to God so he could make the pronouncements - hero here, shit-head there. It's an interesting read (for other reasons), so long as I don't have to pay for it and send money his way (I borrowed it from our wonderful library). The lesson for the entrepreneur or the innovator - build it and they won't necessarily be allowed to come. Watch for the gatekeepers and opinion formers. (I'm tempted to add, parasites all.) Make sure you have a lot more iron in the soul. It's going to be a long haul.
Posted at 11:53AM UTC | permalink
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