[mdanger007]

Tech companies have the same problems as the NBA. there used to be career stars like Claude Shannon developing cultures of excellence out of teams like IBM, but just like Larry Bird and the Celtics, the free agent market and stars chasing the dollar has diminished the culture and thus the product.

[dahart]

This seems like very rose tinted glasses, and I think the summary is backwards. Shannon was an academic, and spent a little time at Bell Labs, but didn’t work at IBM. Business has always chased profits, by definition, it was absolutely no different in 1950. Bell & IBM had little pockets of ‘excellence’ in their research divisions that left behind a nice narrative of idyllic sounding work for a very few lucky people. But since then, the number of academics in tech has gone way up, the number of companies developing tech has gone way up, and the number of pockets where smart people can focus on inventing things is enormous today compared to 1950. I don’t believe either culture or product has diminished at all, I think it’s the opposite, things have gotten much better. Bell & IBM made telephones and accounting computers. Today we have games, AI, self-driving cars, mobile devices, the internet, digital arts, just to name a few. It might take time for the stories of the good places to work to percolate, but I think we have vastly more & bigger cultures of excellence today than Shannon ever dreamed of.

[mdanger007]

I appreciate your response, but I just don’t think any of the technologies you cite come close to the foundational technologies they rely upon like information theory or wire message transmission. Foundational technologies require time, culture and investment not just an influx of VC cash, and a few months of clever experimentation

[xhkkffbf]

Didn't Shannon play for Bell Labs? Not IBM?

[PaulHoule]

Shannon worked for Bell Labs and then got traded to MIT.

[mdanger007]

Good call!

[chollida1]

> but just like Larry Bird and the Celtics, the free agent market and stars chasing the dollar has diminished the culture and thus the product.

Um Larry bird never went the free agent route. He always played for the Celtics who drafted him. He's one person who doesn't fit your narrative.

[mdanger007]

That’s the point