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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!hao!noao!terak!doug
From: doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee)
Newsgroups: net.works
Subject: Re: Big & little machines & problems
Message-ID: <582@terak.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 30-May-85 16:29:19 EDT
Article-I.D.: terak.582
Posted: Thu May 30 16:29:19 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Jun-85 13:17:40 EDT
References: <2079@topaz.ARPA>
Organization: Terak Corporation, Scottsdale, AZ, USA
Lines: 41

While I generally agree with Peter's comments, I must take issue with:

> 	- you can write it all in assembler and be an "iron man" like
> Doug (and me in past lives), and God help you if the person involved
> ever leaves, gets run over by a truck, loses interest, etc.

Now I disagree with the "iron man" moniker, but I'll let it slide 'cause
it ain't worth arguing about.

But I had to pick my jaw up off the floor when I read the suggestion
that employers shouldn't hire talented people because if those people
left then the company would be in trouble!

Oh, I've seen companies run on this basis.  I worked for one for seven
months once.  Nobody in the place did anything useful, so they were all
easily replaceable if need be.  Of course, they didn't need to be
replaced because no one ever quit and no one ever got "hired away".

Next time I buy a car, I'll go to the junk yard and pick up one without
an engine or wheels.  It'll be easy to find, cheap to buy, won't use
much gas or need much repairs, won't need to have license plates, won't
get into wrecks, and nobody'll be stealing it.  Heck, it'll last me a
lifetime.

I wonder if IBM regrets having hired "iron men" like Gene Amdahl and
H. Ross Perot, who both left the company and even went into competition
against IBM?  Does CDC regret having allowed "iron man" Seymour Cray
to design its 6000 series systems, now that Cray is gone (and is also
in competition with CDC)?  Or maybe the Apple Computer Company wishes
it had been founded by someone other than the "iron duo" of Steve Jobs
and Steve Wozniak.  Perhaps Lockheed wishes it hadn't had Bill Kelly
around to single-handedly design the Super-Constellation, the U-2, and
the SR-71.

A colleague once had a poster that read, "A ship in the harbor is safe,
but that is not what ships are made for."  A company without competent
employees is safe from losing any valuable employees, but they're not
too likely to turn a profit, eh?
-- 
Doug Pardee -- Terak Corp. -- !{ihnp4,seismo,decvax}!noao!terak!doug
               ^^^^^--- soon to be CalComp