[Squeakland] the non universals

[Alan Kay]

Bob Taylor (the ARPA funder who later set up Xerox PARC computing 
research) was an absolute master at this.

Cheers,

Alan

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At 10:10 AM 8/17/2007, Brad Fuller wrote:
>On Thu August 16 2007 6:34 am, Alan Kay wrote:
> > To me this is an example of how a field can and does select the
> > personalities and skills that fit to its actual mission.
>
>Of course, the statement can be applied to the business world as well.
>
>Contrary to the focus of most hiring managers, I was lucky enough to learn
>from a manager who would always hire people (be them engineers or musicians)
>that were superior at their craft but not necessarily fit the goals of his
>group nor socially fit with others in the group (oh, the stories I could tell
>you!) He hired people because they were very good at what they did, no matter
>what it was. He possessed the skills to cultivate the individual skills into
>new group directions which resulted in innovative products that the whole
>team stood behind. Eventually they celebrated their individual differences
>and their group differneces by making T-Shirts which read:
>     Maloney's
>      Misfits
>
>(not his real name)
>
>In politics too. I've read that A. Lincoln built his cabinet on political
>rivals. In fact, they thought he was some dumb backwoods bumpkin who would
>lead the union to ruin. Convincing them to join his cabinet and focusing each
>on the real job at hand is testamant to his superior managerial skills.
>
>brad