Some excerpts from recent Alan Kay emails

Re:Some excerpts from recent Alan Kay emails by rbultje on Sunday December 31, 2017 @10:18AM (#16040859)

> however it's really hard to argue that Apple, Microsoft, or indeed IBM or Disney ever killed the geese that lay the golden eggs.

In this context, you're not talking about the geese, but about the eggs. For example, for Apple, one such golden egg is the iPhone, and what Kay talks about is how there are many capable people to turn this golden egg (invention) into coins or platinum (product => shareholder value).

But the geese are not the products; the geese are the inventors. Jobs turned the failing Apple around from outside its own context. Microsoft missed out on the entire phone eco-system. Lots of people would attribute these long-term business fails to exactly what Kay talks about here.

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Re:Some excerpts from recent Alan Kay emails by bambax on Sunday December 31, 2017 @04:47PM (#16043181)

Fair enough, but if one follows your reasoning, then Apple didn't kill the geese laying the golden eggs, they killed (or failed to let live) the geese about to lay golden eggs.

Which makes more sense. It's hard to kill successful projects, but incredibly easy to build an atmosphere where creative people and new ideas are not welcome.

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Re:Some excerpts from recent Alan Kay emails by valuearb on Sunday December 31, 2017 @01:08PM (#16041750)

Jobs gutted Apples version of PARC when he came back, yet somehow it kick-started Apples greatest ever period of innovation.

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Re:Some excerpts from recent Alan Kay emails by cwzwarich on Sunday December 31, 2017 @02:38PM (#16042357)

Which, fittingly, involved getting rid of Alan Kay.

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