Comment by jschwartzi
8 years ago
That's actually what happened according to the story. The lead admitted that Carmack was right, and then Jobs got angry at the lead for not making a good technical decision from the outset.
8 years ago
That's actually what happened according to the story. The lead admitted that Carmack was right, and then Jobs got angry at the lead for not making a good technical decision from the outset.
Without knowing what were the requirements and why that decision was made, it isn't possible to infer whether the original design was even the ideal solution to the problem stated by the original requirements (see chesterton's fence).
Managers such as steve jobs don't make technical decisions. They specify requirements which then need to be met by the tech guys. This anecdote sounds an awful lot like a manager changing his mind regarding a requirement after he was pointed out a technical consequence.
We also know Jobs could turn on a dime.
It’s entitely possible he previous shot down the correct way because it would take too long for too small a benefit.
That's what I believe as well. To me this whole episode shows an erratic manager being abusive to staff once he was faced with the technical consequences of having imposed a design requirement.
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