Also this series that describe the evolution of personal computing is also interesting:
What I learned from the documentaries:
Big organisations stifle creativity (unless the culture when it started is pro-creativity)
IBM's processes reduced risks to their lowest. They had their fair share of approving authorities. That was why they were slow in adopting innovation. At first in seeing personal computers as the next wave. Then they were also slow in reacting to Compaq who reengineered IBM's personal computer and made one that was cheaper and ran all software that could run on IBM computers.
Xerox's management set up Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) to seek innovation to protect their business from the death of printed reading material. Steve Jobs said the innovations at PARC could have let Xerox became the IBM or Microsoft of that time. However, Xerox's management took notice of none.
Idea, belief, action and some luck is needed to make it
Paul Allen bought the operating system to sell to IBM for $50,000. Tim Paterson had built it based on the CPM by Digital Research. It was not an original idea! IBM had almost gotten CPM if they were not turned down a visit by Digital Research's receptionist. That was luck! From there, Bill Gates built upon it, added features he had seen from the Macintosh and built the multi-billion software empire.
Steve Jobs got the idea for the graphical user interface for the Macintosh from Xerox PARC. He added to the Macintosh design the belief that he had for personal computers. He was also lucky to have gotten the Xerox PARC researchers to show him their brainchild.
As fate would have it, the Altair inventors, the VisiCalc inventors, Tim Paterson whom Paul Allen bought the operating system from gave it all up. A stroke of luck could have made them millionaires or billionaires like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates and other pioneers of this Information Technology revolution.
When in the flow, you don't think you are working hard, you think you are having fun
Bill Gates described that they were working really hard but it was fun. They would code non-stop, grab a bite and sometimes so engrossed in discussing codes during meals that they forgot to eat and go back to coding. Bill Gates even forgot to bathe! It was still fun!
I don't care about right or wrong, I care about success
Both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were ruthless in their pursuit for the ultimate personal computer. They squeezed their workers really hard and they made enemies, but they don't care. Appears that that's the key to success. Sometimes, we are just too concerned about what others think about us.
Be aware, read the signs and don't rest on the laurels
To stay relevant, we have got to keep check of the direction that the wind is blowing. All once successful, Excite lost it, Netscape lost it, IBM lost it.
