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Linus Torvalds: Successful projects are 99% perspiration and 1% innovation

theregister.co.uk

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Re: Linus Torvalds: Successful projects are 99% perspiration and 1% innovation

#101

Post by AlexB138 »

altitudinous wrote: post #10

Upvote 1000x - I'm sick of hearing people who've done nothing and "thought leaders" ranting on. I'm pleased I put my head down, did work and did something that worked for me that I can encourage others with and give evidence. I wish those who have done nothing would go away - and stop filling my inbox, and targeted advertising spots, and meetups with their crap. I wish I could help others see over the shouting and po…

I agree with this very strongly. It's similar to what happened with blogging. Early on, blogging was people who knew how to do something very well writing about their knowledge and experience. Then it became profitable and the filler appeared, which is mostly people who have no actual useful knowledge talking about what other people are doing, or about nothing at all. The transition from "engineers who write blogs" to "bloggers".

The same thing has happened with "thought leadership". There was, and still is really, a group of people who do the work and have useful insight. They became high profile, and presumably made money on it, and now the filler has appeared. Self-professed thought leaders who are endless sources of bombastic buzz words and constant self-marketing.

It's a natural pattern, I guess. Something becomes profitable and profit-seekers without much actual value show up. I think the thing for those who can do is to just ignore it and continue creating things of value. Maybe also guide junior engineers on the path of being actually effective and ignoring the crud.

Re: Linus Torvalds: Successful projects are 99% perspiration and 1% innovation

#102

Post by waynecolvin »

anjc wrote: post #7

Someone who should be a multi billionaire says to ignore marketing and sales and just work. Edit: I'm not saying that he WANTS to be a multi billionaire, but the fact is that he has attained disproportionately less value than he's created. By rights he should be one of the wealthiest people in tech. He might have 150m but that's peanuts given what he's done. The wealth of the guy who made Instagram dwarfs that. The g…

I believe Linus claims to be an engineer, or maybe a manager nowadays. shrug Glad he has done well anyways.

Re: Linus Torvalds: Successful projects are 99% perspiration and 1% innovation

#103

Post by aaron-lebo »

NikolaeVarius wrote: post #96
xvcnmdfs wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linus is right that it's about the work you put in, but he's wrong if he thinks Tesla didn't work hard to develop his visualization abilities There's a myth that some people are born with amazing powers (Tesla, Einstein) but what people don't see is the hours they put in from a young age Therefore, both Tesla and Edison worked hard, except Edison bragged about it

Of course he bragged about it. He actually wanted people to use his technology to fund other ventures. Whats the point of creating things if no one actually knows about it?

Is it so hard to believe that some people just like to create for the sake of it?

Re: Linus Torvalds: Successful projects are 99% perspiration and 1% innovation

#104

Post by bostand »

grabcocque wrote: post #9
anjc wrote: post #7

Someone who should be a multi billionaire says to ignore marketing and sales and just work. Edit: I'm not saying that he WANTS to be a multi billionaire, but the fact is that he has attained disproportionately less value than he's created. By rights he should be one of the wealthiest people in tech. He might have 150m but that's peanuts given what he's done. The wealth of the guy who made Instagram dwarfs that. The g…

Linus Torvalds has an estimated net worth of $150m, I doubt he's worrying about where his next meal is coming from.

Where did you get that number from?

Re: Linus Torvalds: Successful projects are 99% perspiration and 1% innovation

#105

Post by nickpsecurity »

tylercubell wrote: post #83
popee wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla worked for Edison and was a person who could finish things and some of them changed the world. He was also person with vision, so I think Linus is either wrong or he is trying to put emphasis only on hard work. What if you have person like Tesla with both qualities?

I agree -- you need a little bit of both qualities. The vision of what to create and the execution to carry it out. The two go hand in hand. I think Linus is putting the emphasis on hard work because we mere mortals aren't endowed with the same genius that Tesla had and for us, the best way to achieve something great is through hard work instead of "divine" inspiration.

The Chinese made a whole industry out of executing without visionaries. It's called cloning products of visionaries. Or slightly improving them based on marketing feedback.

Re: Linus Torvalds: Successful projects are 99% perspiration and 1% innovation

#107

Post by jasonlotito »

aaron-lebo wrote: post #103
NikolaeVarius wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course he bragged about it. He actually wanted people to use his technology to fund other ventures. Whats the point of creating things if no one actually knows about it?

Is it so hard to believe that some people just like to create for the sake of it?

No, but who changes things.

Those who create? Or those who share their creations?

Re: Linus Torvalds: Successful projects are 99% perspiration and 1% innovation

#108

Post by NoGravitas »

jacquesm wrote: post #30
anjc wrote: post #7

Someone who should be a multi billionaire says to ignore marketing and sales and just work. Edit: I'm not saying that he WANTS to be a multi billionaire, but the fact is that he has attained disproportionately less value than he's created. By rights he should be one of the wealthiest people in tech. He might have 150m but that's peanuts given what he's done. The wealth of the guy who made Instagram dwarfs that. The g…

> but the fact is that he has attained far less value than he's created. This goes for an extremely large portion of humanity, probably > 99.99%. Very few people manage to extract all of the value they created (and sometimes more), and most of those people are not the nicest ones.

Our society is premised on the vast majority of people not extracting all of the value they create. The difference between what people create and what they extract via wages is the source of profit, and is extracted by the capital-owning class. This is...basic economics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploitation_of_labour#Marxist...

Re: Linus Torvalds: Successful projects are 99% perspiration and 1% innovation

#109

Post by pmontra »

nickpsecurity wrote: post #105
tylercubell wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree -- you need a little bit of both qualities. The vision of what to create and the execution to carry it out. The two go hand in hand. I think Linus is putting the emphasis on hard work because we mere mortals aren't endowed with the same genius that Tesla had and for us, the best way to achieve something great is through hard work instead of "divine" inspiration.

The Chinese made a whole industry out of executing without visionaries. It's called cloning products of visionaries. Or slightly improving them based on marketing feedback.

Everybody starts with copying. You need a certain amount of proficiency in a given subject to be able to innovate. China will get there at scale too.
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