Comment by tonyedgecombe
14 hours ago
"In 1990, with John Sculley's blessing, I left Apple with Marc Porat and Andy Hertzfeld to co-found General Magic and help to invent the personal communicator."
Sculley really wasn't the right person to lead Apple. He should have been begging them to do it in-house.
Sculley also joined the Board at General Magic too ... and them missing out on the web/internet, in hindsight, was the death nail.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Magic
Sometimes the smart think is to encourage folks to do their thing, and if it's successful buy it back in-house.
That has never really worked in the long run for anyone who’s tried it. (Counterexamples welcome; I can’t think of any.)
I don’t disagree with that assessment of Sculley but I’m not sure if that would have helped anyone. What the movie makes clear is that General Magic very badly needed adult supervision (all these “geniuses”! doing absolutely nothing of value! together!), and I’m not sure Apple of that era would have been capable of providing it in a productive way.