Sun
is not having a good quarter.  This reminded me of a few things that
have been bugging me lately.  I remember going to a live presentation of Scott
McNealy’s when he was creating a Java terminal/workstation.  I remember hearing
him say something to the effect of “This is the Windows-killer, in a year no one will
buy PCs with Windows – everyone including your secretaries will be using these workstations”. 
Of course, none of his predictions came to pass, and so the company still limps on.

My philosophy has always been that actually building a better technology and making
it a success has nothing to do with talking about how world-changing it will be. 
In fact, I have always thought the opposite.  I think showing people what a technology
is capable of is better than just talking about what it’s going to do in the market,
or that’s it’s the next “x-killer”.  Sure, you can say, “See how great the y
feature of this product is”, but predictions as to success and reach just sound dumb
to me.

I’ve always really disliked Scott McNealy, not because he was loud, and not because
he hated Microsoft, but
because he always talked about how this new thing Sun was doing was going to be the
Microsoft/Windows-killer
.  How about just making a great technology? And
then after it becomes the “X killer”, you can boast.

A number of things I’ve heard or seen lately remind me of Scott McNealy.  
I wish people would just do cool things or build cool things without talking about
what the effect of that thing will be.  Even if the person might be really cool
and super-smart, or even if the technology might be the most important thing to computer
science ever, how about just showing us what you’ve done or built.  Accolades
will naturally come given the right ideas or actions.

I’ve always thought that if you talk about how important something will be before
it becomes important, is the kiss of death (assuming it does or would have become
important).  Maybe that’s some universal force. Or maybe that’s because anyone
who feels the need to make those kinds of statements is actually showing us that they
are desperate and insecure, otherwise they would just be showing us features and we’d
grok how great the thing was.

While he was writing it, did Matz talk about how the language he was developing (Ruby ,
if you weren’t aware) was going to be overwhelmingly popular?  I’m guessing not
(certainly there isn’t any evidence of that).

Did the Beatles go around in 1962 talking about how their music would change the world? 
-No, they just made music they way they wanted to and it turned out to have a tremendous
impact on music. It had that effect without them talking about how great they were.

My philosophy: Do something great, don’t talk about it.  Even if you think/hope/are
convinced it will be great, just do it first.  You can talk later about how you
hoped it would be great, but talking about it first is lame.  Having self-confidence
is a positive, but talking about having self-confidence is lame.

“Never make forecasts, especially about the future. In no time, it will be a forgotten
memory.” – Samuel Goldwyn

Sorry for the non-technical post – but I just had to say this outloud somewhere. 
Nothing to see here – move along 😉



Check out my BizTalk
R2 Training.