Now that you’ve been introduced to Burrell Smith, you can get a feel for the kind of eccentric behind the original Macintosh. This is a charming guy, a hard worker, and a creative character. These types of people are the foundation of Apple’s success through innovation.
While it’s great to read these examples of creative things that these employees have done, it’s much more valuable to understand how they got about becoming this type of person. The story “Make a Mess, Clean it Up!” from Folklore.org provides that key analysis using a lesson in Burrell’s style of video gaming. Notice that even in the first few paragraphs, the idea of innovation comes to mind immediately.
“Working 90 hours a work week requires frequent, and highly effective, work breaks. In the center of Macintosh work area in Bandley 3 we had a ping pong table, a nice stereo system, and a Defender video game machine. We found that competitive play gave us a jolt of adrenaline, and a refreshed mind-set when we resumed work. We also learned a lot about our coworkers and how they excel during competition. While playing Defender one day I got some great insight into how Burrell accelerates his own learning process.”
Make a Mess, Clean it Up! [Folklore.org]
