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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

#171

Post by anjc »

jogjayr wrote: post #157
anjc wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice romantic view but the fact is that 95% of people in the western world can't afford society's perceptions of "basic needs". I'd wager that most people you hear talking about innovation, outside of Websummit and so on, are living hand-to-mouth and very much need to sell their ideas.

> 95% of people in the western world can't afford society's perceptions of "basic needs" You're saying 95% of people in the Western world can't afford food, shelter, clothing, education, transportation, healthcare and entertainment? That's awfully grim. It also doesn't really jibe with my experience of the Western world; you can get by fine on $50k/yr (median US household income) outside of expensive areas like SF Ba…

I specifically said 'perception' of basic needs ;) I'm not talking Maslow's hierarchy here...society's perception of a basic need is to own a modest house, but that puts most people into debt for life. Well that's how I see it at least.

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

#172

Post by telchar »

hawski wrote: post #124
frederikvs wrote: post #39

It's funny how he says "Don't do this big 'think different'... screw that", apparently without realising that Apple did exactly what he's talking about. Almost all of Apple's big innovations were stolen from other places, and then they shut up, and got to work : making it work properly, making it user friendly, making it sexy, and then selling it. Apple's slogan may have been "think different", and they have the imag…

For me the word "steal" in "Good artists copy, great artists steal" quote always meant: make it that good that the public will think it was always yours. The origin does not matter, because reality for people is what they believe in. If you will execute it better than anyone else it will be considered "yours". Edit: At the same time there are also few options to make people believe it's yours beside exceptional execu…

I've never heard that interpretation of that before, but it makes so much sense. Stealing as copying done better. thanks

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

#173

Post by nsturis »

oska wrote: post #82
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?

> What if you have person like Tesla with both qualities? Like Elon Musk for example (who Torvalds seems to be making a gentle dig at, in the quote above).

Ironically, Musk likes Edison better too.

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

#174

Post by chiefalchemist »

In the context of consumers, no one wakes up and thinks, "I gotta buy me some innovation today." NO. ONE. People just want their problems solved. That is the target. Sure, innovation might be part of the means, but innovation is not an ends (as it's often framed to be).

p.s. As a side-snark...Enough already about all these various dev technologies. So they enable still-shitty user experiences? So what. No one says, "Oh. I love they use _____."

Users. Don't. Care.

So please, for the love of God & country, stop stroking yourself with your shiny new (dev technology) object. No one cares. The technology is a means. The experience is the ends. Stop focusing on the wrong problem. Please?

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

#175

Post by jogjayr »

anjc wrote: post #171
jogjayr wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 95% of people in the western world can't afford society's perceptions of "basic needs" You're saying 95% of people in the Western world can't afford food, shelter, clothing, education, transportation, healthcare and entertainment? That's awfully grim. It also doesn't really jibe with my experience of the Western world; you can get by fine on $50k/yr (median US household income) outside of expensive areas like SF Ba…

I specifically said 'perception' of basic needs ;) I'm not talking Maslow's hierarchy here...society's perception of a basic need is to own a modest house, but that puts most people into debt for life. Well that's how I see it at least.

I understand, and I really wasn't going for bare necessities (that's why I threw transportation and entertainment in there). I guess what I'm saying is that perhaps there's something wrong with society's perceptions of what a "modest" house actually is.

To illustrate, the median house price in the US is around $250k. That's pretty much in line with the rule of thumb that your house should cost at most 5x your gross annual income. So it would seem (at a first approximation) that most houses in the US are affordable, in the strictest, 30-year-mortgage sense of the word, to most households (considering $50k to be the median household income). And a $250k house in most parts of the country is by no means "modest"; we're talking 1500-1800 sq. ft., 2-3 bedrooms, a yard etc. (again outside expensive areas). So if a median-earning household were to spring for a truly modest home (1-2 bedrooms, 1000-1300 sq ft, $100-150k range) it would actually be cheap relative to their income and they could pay it off in Maybe I'm simplifying too much, or perhaps your experience is different. In which case, of course, we would have differing opinions on this matter.

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

#176

Post by thameera »

nsturis wrote: post #173
oska wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What if you have person like Tesla with both qualities? Like Elon Musk for example (who Torvalds seems to be making a gentle dig at, in the quote above).

Ironically, Musk likes Edison better too.

Source: http://insideevs.com/elon-musk-bigger-fan-edison-tesla/

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

#177

Post by torrent-of-ions »

jacquesm wrote: post #115
torrent-of-ions wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? I would say that a large portion of people who live in a society extract more value from it than they put in. If you are just merely doing your job you are not making any extra value. I could work hard as a hunter-gatherer, or work hard programming, but either way I'm just doing my job. In the second case I'm just using the infrastructure that other people have set up to be able to live a much happier life by…

> If you are just merely doing your job you are not making any extra value. That's got to be the most ignorant comment on HN in a very long time. Really? Think for just two seconds: Do you think a person would be employed at all if they did not make more value than they took home (including taxes and all that)? The whole reason our economy works at all is BECAUSE people make more value than they take home. If not for…

How about you think, for maybe 10 seconds or more? Even the most well designed machine needs cogs. Most people are just a cog in the machine. The cog doesn't add value, it just makes the machine work. But of course those cogs are still needed and therefore employed.

Entrepreneurs build the machines. Everyone else is just cogs or highly specialised components.

Try looking outside of your little bubble once in a while. Just for one day pay attention to what the vast majority of working people are actually doing.

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

#178

Post by gue5t »

calebm wrote: post #164
gue5t wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think money is important you aren't a hacker.

I'm assuming this is sarcasm, but in case anybody thinks this, just remember: money = freedom.

I think our viewpoints are so diametrically opposed that we each can't comprehend the possibility of the other being serious or well-informed.

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

#179

Post by rchaud »

coldtea wrote: post #135
nickpsecurity wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> The Chinese made a whole industry out of executing without visionaries. It's called cloning products of visionaries. That's how the US got its start too. In the 19th century still, most inventions were from Europe (England, France, Germany, etc), from the steam engine to the refridgerator, and from the radio to the internal combustion engine, cinema and photography. All European inventions.

And the Japanese post-WW2. Toyota was considered to be the poor man's Ford until at least the 1970s. Samsung and LG were mocked as artless copiers of Sony/Panasonic/Pioneer products as recently as the 90s.

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

#180

Post by zhte415 »

aaron-lebo wrote: post #97
zhte415 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'Thought leadership' is about being honest about what's happening and expressing this. Giving a voice to SMEs about what they're doing, why they're doing it, and where they think this will go; it is ideal Agile, constituting the combination of thoughts from technology, leadership and subject matter expertise. A credible message which parts on their own cannot communicate. Some organisations do this very well. When it…

'Thought leadership' is about being honest about what's happening and expressing this. Giving a voice to SMEs about what they're doing, why they're doing it, and where they think this will go; it is ideal Agile, constituting the combination of thoughts from technology, leadership and subject matter expertise. A credible message which parts on their own cannot communicate. Some organisations do this very well. I don't…

You're not being a dick, I completely concur. HN itself is an example of what thought leadership can be, but would hate to be labeled with the tainted brush the term has come to stain.
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