

William Shockley: The Steve Jobs Counter-Example - nbashaw
http://nbashaw.com/post/14888020573/william-shockley-the-steve-jobs-counter-example

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mechanical_fish
+1 to this documentary about the Traitorous Eight - although it's not the
fastest-paced thing in the world, it's fun to watch these folks tell the story
diplomatically and in person.

But what on earth is Steve Jobs doing here, other than providing linkbait?
He's got nothing to do with this story.

I guess we're supposed to pretend that we can learn something about Steve Jobs
by studying a legendarily bad manager like Shockley. But that's like trying to
understand Bach by watching a kindergartener drum randomly on the strings of a
harp with some pencils.

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nbashaw
When I watched the documentary the only thing I could think about was how
similar Shockley and Steve Jobs's personalities seemed, except things worked
out all wrong for Shockley because he pushed his people over the brink to
quit.

That's the whole point I was trying to make here.

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mechanical_fish
Obviously, I've never met William Shockley or Steve Jobs. Which is as good a
reason as any to avoid claiming that I really know anything about the
personality of either one. History books and journalism have their
limitations.

But the available data suggest that they were very different people,
especially considering that the one trait they unambiguously shared – a big
ego – doesn't exactly distinguish them from the bulk of successful tech CEOs.

Shockley was a Nobel-winning physical scientist with impeccable academic
credentials (CalTech, MIT, Bell Labs) who was, quite literally, obsessed with
the magnitude of his own IQ. He wrote a justly famous textbook.

Steve Jobs dropped out of Reed College. He studied calligraphy once. I don't
believe he published any technical writing of significance, though he gave
many great talks. He was, despite his enormous stage presence, actually quite
artful about keeping himself out of the spotlight: His obsession was with the
products. The _products_ were "insanely great", and he wanted you to be
obsessed with _them_ , more so than with himself.

Shockley alienated some of the most talented people in industry history,
driving them away. Jobs found talented people who were already alienated, like
Jonny Ive, and talked them into building entire companies for him.

Shockley's employees are famous for the things they created at other
companies. Jobs' employees are famous for the things they created while
working for him.

According to this documentary, Shockley tanked his company because he insisted
on pursuing a brilliant and original idea, the Shockley PNPN diode, even
though it was unmanufacturable at the time. Steve Jobs, despite his reputation
as some sort of spacey visionary, proclaimed that "real artists ship". Though
he took a long view of the industry and was willing to tinker for years on pet
projects until they met his standards, he also built teams that _shipped_ real
products like the Mac and the iPod. Indeed, shipping was Jobs' real skill: He
didn't invent the Apple I or the mouse or the GUI or the MP3, and he didn't
even personally build Apple's versions of any of these things, but he figured
out ways to get them into customers' hands. And the modern Apple revival is
largely predicated on a relentlessly pragmatic focus on operational detail.

Shockley was, infamously, an outspoken eugenicist and racist who stated that
his theories on intelligence would be his most important legacy. In public,
Steve Jobs was apolitical and talked only about his work, doing so only
rarely, and mostly on stage.

Shockley died an elderly but lonely man, estranged from all but his second
wife. Steve Jobs worked almost until his last day, yet died surrounded by his
family, and inspired an enormous flood of mourning and memorials.

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herval
There's no such thing as a "steve jobs schol of management". Apart from him
(and possibly Zynga's founder), entrepreneurs with that kind of attitude
rarely succeed (and are definitely not encouraged anywhere)

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DiabloD3
Is it wrong I misread that as "The Steve Jobs Counter-Maneuver"?

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nbashaw
Not sure what you mean - can you explain?

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DiabloD3
Playing too much Portal 2.

