How is Walmart a disruptive idea? They're just a big box store selling garbage from China. What did Google do to disrupt anything other than to force a supposedly free mobile OS on us so everyone and their mother could put out a cheap phone. Actually, how was/is Apple a disruptive idea? I must be missing something here that the article doesn't explain.
email at #47
AK-47 at #26
MacDonald's at #18, more disruptive to the world's health than people want to admit
the Pill at #9, disrupted a lot of narrow-minded people but also slowed down the population explosion
at least microchips at #2 and the jet engine at #1 make sense
I agree with all your points except for Walmart. You'll be hard pressed to find anything more disruptive in retail than a single store popping up in an area that will put countless mom-and-pop shops that have survived for decades out of business in short order. South Park even did an excellent episode on Walmart coming to South Park in "Something Wall Mart This Way Comes."
How can Jane Fonda's workout tape (aerobics on VHS) beat the smartphone? But it did. So much for taking this list seriously.
Yeah, what a joke.
At least they give the iPhone credit for ushering in the era of smartphones, since it's the only phone mentioned under smartphones, but smartphones are way too low on the list.
Those workout tapes in the eighties were merely a fad. Smartphones are not a fad and far more people use them than the small amount of people who got caught up in the workout fad. Just take a walk outside or step on any mass transit. Practically everybody has their heads buried in their phones.
Leo Laporte and John Dvorak (both with a publishing and media background) have previously said exactly where these idiotic lists come from and it's even dumber than you think.
So where do these idiotic lists come from? Are you going to spill the beans?
He said he knew it would be special but yet he left the company.. Right..
He's hardly the only, nor the first, person to leave a company who thought that the company in question was special in some way or other.
At the time he left, in addition to being burned out from work, he was recovering from the aftereffects of having crashed his airplane at Santa Cruz Sky Park airport in 1981. Add to that having ideas he wanted to work on that Apple wasn't interested in, nor intended to support him doing.
I met him a couple of times while I was at Apple, nice guy, full of ideas, not at all what you'd call a company man. Which is just fine.
Up next: Top 10 stupidest lists made my so called professionals.
1) "Top 10 stupidest lists made my so called professionals." (This gets number one simply for making a list about dumb lists.) 2) "85 Most Disruptive Ideas of the Past 85 Years" by Businessweek. (Perhaps if they used some scientific measure so we can independently verify their definition of disruptive it would make sense, but they don't.) 3) "Who Wore It Best?" by various entertainment-based media outlets. (This needs to explanation.) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10)
It's silly to say Aople is an "idea." Apple would be a footnote in history if not for Steve Jobs' relentless pursuits. GPS and credit cards are ideas, as is Google's PageRsnk algorithm, but companies are not.
I agree. Ideas are cheap, even worthless unless you can execute.
The post-1997 Apple that Jobs created (by whatever means necessary), focusing the company on great products are his enduring legacy.
Up next: Top 10 stupidest lists made my so called professionals.
1) "Top 10 stupidest lists made my so called professionals." (This gets number one simply for making a list about dumb lists.)
2) "85 Most Disruptive Ideas of the Past 85 Years" by Businessweek. (Perhaps if they used some scientific measure so we can independently verify their definition of disruptive it would make sense, but they don't.)
3) "Who Wore It Best?" by various entertainment-based media outlets. (This needs to explanation.)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
Any other ideas?
4) Any list compiled by IDC.
Still waiting for their prediction that Windows Phone 7 will overtake the iPhone by the year 2011 to come true.
Google, seriously!!! There search was better then Yahoo's so I switched (you only switch when something is noticeably better) but if Google never existed my life wouldn't change in the least. The same goes for Walmart, it's better then KMart but if it never existed I would still shop at KMart and couldn't care less.
What a silly list. "Poverty Lab"? "IS-LM Curve" (does anyone even teach it anymore?) "Shadow Banking"? "High frequency trading"? "White board?" "Kitty litter"? "Singapore"? "Facebook"? C'mon, seriously?
No penicillin. No space program. No satellites. No laser. No air-conditioning. No skyscrapers. No elevators. (OK, maybe the last three are >85 years old, but still....)
Woz was a one trick pony. The Lisa/Macintosh were way out of his league as a hardware engineer. My son met him at the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana when he visited there for a conference. My son was working at the time in the Granger Engineering Library (h e was a civil engineering student) when Woz showed up. Nice guy according to reports.
How many commenters in here are going to point to previous examples of similar technology?
WE KNOW!
That's not the point of this story just like innovation does not equal originality.
Apple didn't invent the personal computer. Some guy in his basement probably did first. But Apple did patent it, they sold the most (initially) and they set the market expectations for the technology.
What Apple did was 'disrupt' the current computer market by making it more accessible to the average user than business computers thus forcing competing computer makers to completely re-shift their focus and products. That's why you have Microsoft coming in and basically "stealing" the Mac's interface and using it for Windows which goes on to disrupt the PC market yet again.
Google is the same way. They weren't first with a search engine but they allowed users to get the best results with the minimal amount of searching just enough to force counter-innovation from competitors or force them out of the market completely.
Comments
I agree with all your points except for Walmart. You'll be hard pressed to find anything more disruptive in retail than a single store popping up in an area that will put countless mom-and-pop shops that have survived for decades out of business in short order. South Park even did an excellent episode on Walmart coming to South Park in "Something Wall Mart This Way Comes."
[VIDEO]
How can Jane Fonda's workout tape (aerobics on VHS) beat the smartphone? But it did. So much for taking this list seriously.
Yeah, what a joke.
At least they give the iPhone credit for ushering in the era of smartphones, since it's the only phone mentioned under smartphones, but smartphones are way too low on the list.
Those workout tapes in the eighties were merely a fad. Smartphones are not a fad and far more people use them than the small amount of people who got caught up in the workout fad. Just take a walk outside or step on any mass transit. Practically everybody has their heads buried in their phones.
I loved my Jeep Wrangler, but my busty gf didn't. Think Madeline Kahn in History of The World Part 1.
I think thats the point. They were the first company to ever run with the big box model. Thats why they always say Walmart destroyed main street.
Leo Laporte and John Dvorak (both with a publishing and media background) have previously said exactly where these idiotic lists come from and it's even dumber than you think.
So where do these idiotic lists come from? Are you going to spill the beans?
He said he knew it would be special but yet he left the company.. Right..
He's hardly the only, nor the first, person to leave a company who thought that the company in question was special in some way or other.
At the time he left, in addition to being burned out from work, he was recovering from the aftereffects of having crashed his airplane at Santa Cruz Sky Park airport in 1981. Add to that having ideas he wanted to work on that Apple wasn't interested in, nor intended to support him doing.
I met him a couple of times while I was at Apple, nice guy, full of ideas, not at all what you'd call a company man. Which is just fine.
1) "Top 10 stupidest lists made my so called professionals." (This gets number one simply for making a list about dumb lists.)
2) "85 Most Disruptive Ideas of the Past 85 Years" by Businessweek. (Perhaps if they used some scientific measure so we can independently verify their definition of disruptive it would make sense, but they don't.)
3) "Who Wore It Best?" by various entertainment-based media outlets. (This needs to explanation.)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
Any other ideas?
Any article with a number in the title denoting a list of something is disgusting.
I agree. Ideas are cheap, even worthless unless you can execute.
The post-1997 Apple that Jobs created (by whatever means necessary), focusing the company on great products are his enduring legacy.
I'll try to dig up a transcript later, it's funnier when they tell it.
4) Any list compiled by IDC.
Still waiting for their prediction that Windows Phone 7 will overtake the iPhone by the year 2011 to come true.
What a silly list. "Poverty Lab"? "IS-LM Curve" (does anyone even teach it anymore?) "Shadow Banking"? "High frequency trading"? "White board?" "Kitty litter"? "Singapore"? "Facebook"? C'mon, seriously?
No penicillin. No space program. No satellites. No laser. No air-conditioning. No skyscrapers. No elevators. (OK, maybe the last three are >85 years old, but still....)
I could go on....
Walmart ahead of TV and where is the Radio, you got to be kidding me with this list!
And the Jeep but not the Model T ....
Walmart ahead of TV and where is the Radio, you got to be kidding me with this list!
Model T and Radio are more than 85 years old. The BW list goes back only 85 years.
There were computers (even PCs) before Apple came around.
Claiming no Apple, no Google is something of an idiocy.
Radio and television are both older than 85 years old, in terms of invention.
Claiming no Apple, no Google is something of an idiocy.
Eh? I think you have that backward.
Woz was a one trick pony. The Lisa/Macintosh were way out of his league as a hardware engineer. My son met him at the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana when he visited there for a conference. My son was working at the time in the Granger Engineering Library (h e was a civil engineering student) when Woz showed up. Nice guy according to reports.
Woz was a few tricks pony
- Apple I
- Apple II
- disk drive
- Apple IIc
- Apple II OS (with Randy Wigginton)
- the Basic interpreter for the Apple II
- ...
I think that's not too bad for just 1 guy
How many commenters in here are going to point to previous examples of similar technology?
WE KNOW!
That's not the point of this story just like innovation does not equal originality.
Apple didn't invent the personal computer. Some guy in his basement probably did first. But Apple did patent it, they sold the most (initially) and they set the market expectations for the technology.
What Apple did was 'disrupt' the current computer market by making it more accessible to the average user than business computers thus forcing competing computer makers to completely re-shift their focus and products. That's why you have Microsoft coming in and basically "stealing" the Mac's interface and using it for Windows which goes on to disrupt the PC market yet again.
Google is the same way. They weren't first with a search engine but they allowed users to get the best results with the minimal amount of searching just enough to force counter-innovation from competitors or force them out of the market completely.