On Schopenhauer and Market-driven code (Was Multimedia)

Ken G. Brown kbrown at tnc.com
Wed Mar 15 21:16:10 UTC 2000


At 1:27 PM -0700 on 3/15/00,  Lawson English is rumored to have written:

>On Wed, Mar 15, 2000 10:11 AM, Ken G. Brown <mailto:kbrown at tnc.com> wrote:
><>
>  >Please don't ever lose the desire and commitment to do the right
>>things in the right way.
>
>But, what is "the right thing?"

I would say for me 'the right thing' is that which gets Squeak closer 
to the 'exquisite computing environment', that which improves the 
quality of the computing experience. For others it might indeed be a 
VB/Hypercard layer, although you won't find me spending my time doing 
that. If someone likes the idea, go do it.

Buckminster Fuller said something like, "Making money and making 
sense are mutually exclusive".
I vote for making sense with Squeak.

><>
>The outcome has been that Woz is a multi-millionaire for inventing the
>product, no-one has heard of Raskin, and Jobs is a billionaire, often
>mentioned in the Top xx Influential Thinkers of the 20th Century lists.
>
>
>Linux didn't really take off until commercial companies started to sell
>CD's with installation apps on them.
>
>Marketing, whether you want to acknowledge it or not, is THE key to success
>in this world.

But, what is "success?"

>And not just financial success. Bill Atkinson was once quoted as saying
>something like "We set out to change the world and we did. We just didn't
>get paid for it" [because Bill Gates gets paid for Windows]. If you want
>something to be successful, you have to cater to the masses, whether it be
>by selling a DOS-compatible version of the Mac GUI, or by making Squeak
>more attractive to end-user developers by catering to the needs/desires of
>the VB/HyperCard community.

Go do it if you believe in it and you may find success and happiness.

    Ken





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