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kottke.org posts about Xerox PARC

Research principles of the legendary Xerox PARC

Xerox PARC was one of the most influential technology companies of the past 50 years. Among the technologies invented and/or developed there include Ethernet, laser printers, the modern mouse-controlled GUI, and WYSIWYG text editing. On Quora, former PARC researcher Alan Kay shared the principles under which research at the company operated; here are the first five:

1. Visions not goals

2. Fund people not projects โ€” the scientists find the problems not the funders. So, for many reasons, you have to have the best researchers.

3. Problem Finding โ€” not just Problem Solving

4. Milestones not deadlines

5. It’s “baseball” not “golf” โ€” batting .350 is very good in a high aspiration high risk area. Not getting a hit is not failure but the overhead for getting hits. (As in baseball, an “error” is failing to pull off something that is technically feasible.)

(via @pieratt)