Dealers of Lightning Quotes

“You're wasting my time,” he snarled. “Why don't you get the hell out of here?”

Bob Taylor to Max Palevsky after Palevsky rejected time-sharing as commercially unviable.

It reveals Taylor's fierce, confrontational side and his absolute dedication to interactive computing, even against powerful executives.

“He was crazy,” Wessler recalled. “People greeted the whole idea with disbelief and gave him a very tough time. He painted this picture of walking around with a computer under your arm, which we all thought was completely ridiculous.”

Barry Wessler on Alan Kay's Dynabook vision at a graduate student conference.

This passage is powerfully ironic in hindsight, highlighting how revolutionary ideas are often dismissed before becoming commonplace.

“The use of computers has developed at least as fast as anticipated, but not in the manner anticipated by most prognosticators.”

Jack Goldman writing in his proposal for the new Xerox research lab.

This observation acknowledges the unpredictability of technological progress, a timeless insight for any innovator. It underscores the need for basic research that can adapt to unforeseen directions.

“I never got the feeling that the people at Xerox understood that something like this didn't pay unless you really did basic research like IBM—treat it as a big undertaking that would need years to give you any return.”

Max Palevsky, SDS founder and new Xerox board member, objecting to the proposed research center.

Palevsky's blunt criticism highlights the tension between short-term corporate thinking and long-term research investment. It serves as a cautionary reminder that innovation requires patience and commitment.

“He set off to build Xerox a shrine to a new science.”

The closing image of Goldman after receiving McColough's blessing to establish the lab.

The metaphor of a 'shrine' elevates the lab from mere facility to a sacred mission, encapsulating the ambition and reverence for fundamental research that would define Xerox PARC.

“Research is a steady-state thing. You can’t just turn it on and off.”

Pake explaining his concern about Xerox's long-term commitment to research.

This succinctly captures a fundamental truth about scientific research—it requires sustained investment, not intermittent funding—making it a timeless quote for innovation advocates.

“George, I think these people here in Rochester have had a heady success with xerography. But I’m not sure they're adaptable enough to take on new and different technologies. If we're going to bring new technologies into Xerox it would be better to do it in a whole new setting.”

Xerox CEO Peter McColough explaining to George Pake why a new research center should be built in Palo Alto rather than expanding the existing Rochester lab.

This quote reveals a strategic insight about organizational culture and the need to escape entrenched mindsets to foster breakthrough innovation.

“The computer not as tool, but as demigod.”

Wes Clark's critique of the centralized mainframe computing model at MIT.

The phrase brilliantly encapsulates the intimidating, worshipful attitude toward early computers that personal computing would eventually overthrow.

“I just decided that we were going to build a network that would connect these interactive communities into a larger community in such a way that a user of one community could connect to a distant community as though that user were on his own local system.”

Bob Taylor explaining his decision to build the ARPANET to Charles Herzfeld.

This sentence concisely articulates the original vision of the internet as a seamless network connecting interactive communities, a foundational concept that resonated throughout the chapter and beyond.

“But the ground underneath was just covered with olives. I thought, ‘Wow, this is California, the food is just lying there on the ground!’ I picked one up and put it in my mouth and just about died from the acidity in it.”

David Biegelsen, a new Ph.D. recruit, recalls his first impression of PARC's courtyard.

The vivid, humorous anecdote captures the blend of wonder and harsh reality that defined PARC's early days, symbolizing the gap between naive expectations and the challenges of innovation.

“Here I was fresh out of graduate school and I didn’t have the vaguest idea of what I was to do. I was groping through the insecurity of trying to find something really worthy of this job. But the area was so beautiful, so lush and green, and there was this mixture of wonderful good luck of this really great job and the need to make something happen.”

David Biegelsen reflects on the daunting freedom and excitement of starting at PARC.

It perfectly captures the pioneer spirit and the anxiety of creating something from nothing, resonating with anyone who has faced a blank slate with high expectations.

“The summation of human experience is being expanded at a prodigious rate, and the means we use for threading through the consequent maze to the momentarily important item is the same as was used in the days of square-rigged ships.”

Vannevar Bush wrote this in his essay about the coming information glut.

It poignantly captures the timeless problem of information overload and the inadequacy of old methods, a concern still relevant decades later.

“It was like someone turning on a light. Love at first sight is perhaps the wrong term to use, but it was as close to that as you can get.”

Bill Duvall, an early disciple, described his first encounter with Doug Engelbart's vision.

This metaphor conveys the almost epiphanic impact Engelbart had on his followers, emphasizing the rarity of such transformative intellectual encounters.

“The second is the most dangerous system a man ever designs.”

Frederick Brooks, an IBM executive, in his book The Mythical Man-Month.

It succinctly captures the danger of overambitious second projects, a theme central to the chapter.

“It was not a very realistic enterprise,” he acknowledged. “But at the time it seemed great, the proper next step, as second systems often do.”

Butler Lampson reflecting on the Berkeley 500 project.

It shows the mix of enthusiasm and unrealistic optimism typical of the second-system effect.

“You'd drive by on the street and never know what it was.”

Chuck Thacker describing the nondescript BCC building that housed the computer designers.

The contrast between the mundane exterior and the brilliant work inside is a powerful image.

“He had this word for what was happening. He called it ‘biggerism.”

Charles Simonyi recalling Chuck Thacker's term for overengineering the system.

The word 'biggerism' perfectly encapsulates the tendency to add unnecessary complexity.

“By the time I got to school, I had already read a couple hundred books. I knew in the first grade that they were lying to me because I had already been exposed to other points of view.”

Alan Kay describing his early education and self-taught beginnings.

This quote resonates with anyone who felt constrained by conventional schooling, celebrating the power of independent learning and critical thinking.

“I was in figmo, when you're at your old base but everybody knows you're about to go somewhere else. You're not for real anymore on this old base. You sit around and play cards and read books, one of the best things in the military.”

Alan Kay explaining his idle period in the Air Force before being transferred.

It captures a moment of serendipitous downtime that led to his discovery of programming, illustrating how unexpected detours can shape a life's path.

“If ‘the medium is the message,’ then the message of low-bandwidth time-sharing is ‘blah.”

Alan Kay and Adele Goldberg wrote this in a later paper.

It humorously captures the inadequacy of early time-sharing systems compared to children's expectations, and is a clever twist on McLuhan's famous phrase.

“The big whammy for me came during a conference tour of the University of Illinois, where I saw a one-inch-square lump of glass and neon gas in which individual spots would light up on command—it was the first flat-panel display. I spent the rest of the conference calculating just when the silicon of the FLEX could be put on the back of the display.”

Alan Kay recalling his reaction upon seeing the first flat-panel display at a conference.

This moment encapsulates Kay's visionary drive and the technical challenges he faced, highlighting the gap between vision and technology.

“We upset the apple cart and didn’t realize how badly.”

Bob Taylor reflecting on PARC's proposal to buy a PDP-10 from DEC, upsetting Xerox's computer division SDS.

This line captures the unintended consequences of a well-intentioned technical decision, highlighting the clash between research and corporate politics.

“The only lie in the analysis we did,” Lampson later remarked, “was that we never could actually have done it because you couldn't have motivated people to do such a pointless thing.”

Butler Lampson explaining why the analysis to port PDP-10 software to the Sigma was unrealistic.

It reveals the human factor behind technical decisions and the absurdity of forcing engineers to do work they would not find meaningful.

“Butler Lampson seems to understand those guys’ machines better than they do.”

George Pake to Bob Taylor after Lampson and Thacker dissected the Sigma 7's shortcomings to its designers.

This line underscores the extraordinary depth of knowledge at PARC and the respect they commanded, even from their own management.