21–30 of 69 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would hazard a guess that if they were all paid as well as him, they would retire too.
Some of them did. But the decision to retire is not always about the money.
"Maybe I was just tired. And when you’re responsible for so many people, you owe them more than that. Better to step aside and let others have their turn. So I did." All too often we see managers hold onto jobs and effectively stifle others with poor management, but it's refreshing to see someone think about the good of the company . EDIT: and the good of the people for which he was responsible (thanks nsmartt)
I would hazard a guess that if they were all paid as well as him, they would retire too.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What you see as 'burnout' I see as closure. Don accomplished pretty much everything he wanted to, and more. Why continue running laps around a familiar track when you could go someplace else?
Closure — that's actually a very good way to put it. I didn't feel burned out. Just tired and complete. But I was very fortunate to have the means to retire. Many who experience burnout don't have that choice. Which is another reason there's such churn in this business. As a manager, one thing I always watched for were the signs of burnout. I always said I spent way more time coaching people to pace themselves than t…
"But if there’s anything I do aspire to, it’s being a writer. ... I’m not vain enough to think it’s my snappy prose that drew the visitors. It was the subject matter." Don (if you're out there reading this), your blog has almost single-handedly returned me to using an RSS reader. Yes, initially this was for your Safari/WebKit war stories, but please stop being so humble. You've won the technical-yet-engaging lottery…
Thank you so much. I am humbled by that, sir. I will take your advice to heart.
"But if there’s anything I do aspire to, it’s being a writer. ... I’m not vain enough to think it’s my snappy prose that drew the visitors. It was the subject matter." Don (if you're out there reading this), your blog has almost single-handedly returned me to using an RSS reader. Yes, initially this was for your Safari/WebKit war stories, but please stop being so humble. You've won the technical-yet-engaging lottery…
Thank you so much. I am humbled by that, sir. I will take your advice to heart.
I've been thinking about all the great things that have happened within tech companies in the last few decades, and it seems clear to me that a couple of centuries into the future, some of these events will be hallmarks of history. I don't think it's crazy to say that Tim Berners-Lee will eventually reach the same stature of Gutenberg. Unfortunately there aren't many 'historians of technology' so people like Don Melt…
It really depends on how things progress. Apple might be in the history books as a "shining example of how tightly integrated hardware and software works so well"; or as "the last big attempt which showed that in the long run closed systems never work". It could really go either way from here. How these events are remembered is going to be very coloured by how they are perceived after the event.
Steve Job's analysis of the situation in the 90s was quite different. He put Apple's failure to capture the mass market back then to Apple leaving a price umbrella under which Windows could grow to dominate the market, and stated that Apple would make sure not to do that with what we now call iOS devices. I think Apple's strategy is to lower prices as required to maintain a viable market share, but keep them high enough to dominate in terms of profit share.
It may well turn out that the business model (licensed OS versus integrated hardware/software) doesn't actually matter all that much.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thank you so much. I am humbled by that, sir. I will take your advice to heart.
Parent said to stop being so humble.
Stuff like this:
"I think it was a shock to my son to see how I was regarded at work. Of course, that didn’t mean he started respecting me at home but, hey, a man can dream."
and this:
"At my core, I’m just a tinkerer who got very lucky."
Edit: What I mean is that Don (appears) to be going out of his way to say "aw shucks I'm not special I got lucky" and "I'm well respected but my kid still gives me problems just like yours does". The bragging of the first sentence "shock to my son to see how I was regarded" is tempered by the 2nd sentence. (Same with the tinkerer/got very lucky in other words I'm no different then you are we are all equal but I got lucky so don't hate me..)
"Maybe I was just tired. And when you’re responsible for so many people, you owe them more than that. Better to step aside and let others have their turn. So I did." All too often we see managers hold onto jobs and effectively stifle others with poor management, but it's refreshing to see someone think about the good of the company . EDIT: and the good of the people for which he was responsible (thanks nsmartt)
I would hazard a guess that if they were all paid as well as him, they would retire too.
It makes me sad that the stock options that made my retirement possible won't be available to the next generation of engineers because of bad tax law (Sarbanes-Oxley).
This sounds like the typical toxic corporate work environment of people grabbing for "power."
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Parent said to stop being so humble.
Not reflecting on Don who I don't know but I've always wondered if people who go out of their way in trying to appear to be humble are reacting to the disgust that they feel when others aren't appearing humble. Stuff like this: "I think it was a shock to my son to see how I was regarded at work. Of course, that didn’t mean he started respecting me at home but, hey, a man can dream." and this: "At my core, I’m just a…