…of improving on it and building a better product from there. Like Steve Jobs and the Xerox personal computer and mouse. Jobs didn't merely imitate it, he saw what they missed and built on that.
There are a great deal many more interesting questions, but these are the ones that really stuck out for us. So is your startup doomed? Find out and take the quiz . Then come back and tell us how you did in the comments below!
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…— Xerox. The acolyte doesn't have a problem that Jobs took what Xerox had done with its computer and mouse, making it better. The rejector believes that Jobs was a theft in the night, swiping the idea from Xerox. We've written on Jobs and Xerox before , saying the what Jobs had done was true innovation, seeing what Xerox had missed and improving on it.
Does that make us an acolyte? Not necessarily. There are many things about Jobs that we love, that's …
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…printers so it doesn't bother me, though I am sure Epson, Brother and Xerox would love to get in on the action as well.
HP LaserJet Pro CP1525nw
The HP LaserJet Pro CP1525nw 2 matched all of my criteria. It is a color LaserJet, has built-in 802.11b/g/n support and is on Apple's list of native AirPrint speakers. If you walk into Office Depot, however, it is $ 300. Ouch.
I am sure printing color and wirelessly is worth $ 300 to some people, …
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…printers so it doesn't bother me, though I am sure Epson, Brother and Xerox would love to get in on the action as well.
HP LaserJet Pro CP1525nw
The HP LaserJet Pro CP1525nw (( Hell of a product name)) matched all of my criteria. It is a color LaserJet, has built-in 802.11b/g/n support and is on Apple's list of native AirPrint speakers. If you walk into Office Depot, however, it is $ 300. Ouch.
I am sure printing color and wirelessly is worth $ 300…
- How Software is Built: Interview with Con Zymari - CEO Cybersource
- occasionally useful: Cr-48 Hardware
- Home - Leading Ruby on Rails Development and Consulting firm in India - Vinsol: My 8 predictions if IBM acquires Sun Microsystem
- RubyFlow - Search for jruby: Using Duby + JRuby for Fast Prototyping of Fast VST plugins
- Rowan Hick: Wrightspeed X1 - Best of both worlds
- Lessons Learned: What is a startup?
…shimown )
X is for Xerox, where so much geekiness was born ( marc smith )
Y is for Youth, since kids are geeks too ( benmcleod )
Z is for Zork, watch out for the grue! ( the_tml )
This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection .
After college I worked at Xerox, programming in Smalltalk on a team of about 8 developers. We tended to pair a fair amount, maybe a quarter to half of our time on average. But at other places I worked, we paired a lot less. I'm sure some of that was cultural, but I think a lot of it was because of the technology. Programming in the Smalltalk environment really good for keeping the flow going. Do some coding in a method and save the code, and a second or three later you can see the …
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…suicide . Imitation is a barrier that entrepreneurs build for themselves. They have to look to innovate, not imitate. Like what Steve Jobs did with the Xerox mouse and personal computer . He didn't imitate it, he improved it. That's innovation, not imitation.
Yes, there are no longer any barriers to building great products. The only barrier young entrepreneurs face nowadays are the limitations they impose on themselves.
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…Xerox's mouse and personal computer . Jobs saw what Xerox had developed and couldn't believe that the company wasn't doing anything with the technology. He snatched up an opportunity they missed, thinking through the concept and improving upon it. He did what Xerox hadn't. He was inspired by what had come before and innovated upon it.
Agree to Disagree
Scheomaker sees nothing wrong with a good debate, saying it can lead to even greater insights. We agree. …
…improved upon it. Which isn't too unlike Steve Jobs , who saw opportunities Xerox missed with its mouse and personal computer then improved upon it with his own computer. Like Jobs, Scorsese exposed himself to the best of everything that had come before him, looking for opportunities to make it better and create the next big things with his films.
More than that, designers who know their artistic roots like Scorsese can borrow from the hard lessons of their forebears, …
…the mouse and personal computer from Xerox . But Jobs didn't steal what Xerox designed. He saw what the opportunities they missed and built off of that, improving the concept. That's innovation , not imitation.
However, imitation remains a trap that product designers fall into. They're dead serious about being the next Facebook for "insert a hobby here." They can't break out of a certain way of thinking, as Brendan Boyle, partner at IDEO…
- ZURB: Is Your Startup Doomed?
- ZURB: Leaping Beyond Imitation to Innovation
- Lessons Learned: The visionary's lament
- mir.aculo.us: More thoughts on Flash (from Microsoft, no less)
- Rizwan Reza: What Steve Was
- Talk Like A Duck: Initial Thoughts on Lion