He (and/or his employees) was by no means the first to have or apply these ideas, though. There was Bauhaus, and before that Dutch De Stijl and Russian constructivism. The article is really lacking context.
There’s nothing new under the sun. That’s a phrase many on HN and in tech in general need to remember. In most cases, being first at something is almost completely irrelevant.
There are things that matter far more, such as execution, timing, adapting, salesmanship, etc. This guy happened to have the right combination of these things at the right time.
You just have to look at Apple in the 2000's - they didn't invent MP3 players or smartphones, but they certainly created the first truly viable generation of each product.
