On: Microsoft’s Creative Destruction

[bensummers]

So, they managed to destroy a competitor producing a tablet computer, only to fail to produce their promised product because of infighting?

(See Jerry Kaplan's book, "Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure" for the depressing story.)

How exactly is this defensible behaviour?

[rbanffy → bensummers]

Apparently, a lot of unethical behaviors feel defensible when one works at Microsoft.

I think it may have something with the height where they place the bar.

[maurycy → bensummers]

It's defensible on the personal level.

People from other cubicles felt threatened, and they had to defend themselves. ;-)

[bensummers → maurycy]

I meant the behaviour of saying to the market "we're making something which will be far better than this shipping product" so loudly that no one bought the shipping product.

The fact that their internal politics made it impossible to release something better in the first place is just adding insult to injury.

Read the book, it's a good story.