Where Else Can You Get Stories Like This?
Sure, there are some publications that come up with gems like this.
Wired, Fast Company, and Business 2.0 come to mind.
But the web and blogs are vastly superior because the people who lived the stories get to tell them.
There’s no journalist to get the story wrong, miss the punch line, or leave out that critical detail.
Tom Evslin’s story of creating the product that was the predecessor to Acrobat (called "Glue") is just great.
I love the part where he comes up with the idea driving down 101 and almost crashes the car. It points out that great product ideas come out of solving a real need in an innovative way. And the answer is almost always an exercise in reduction to the most simple solution.
I also love that Tom followed up that exercise in genius by making not one, but five critical mistakes. I don’t love that Tom has had to live with that burden for the past 15 years. But I love the fact that he’s willing to share all of them with us.
And I also love his use of the word bloasting. That’s a good one.
Go read it.