Dealers of Lightning
by Michael A. Hiltzik
The story of Xerox PARC: the personal computer, Ethernet, the GUI and laser printing, invented in one lab and mostly commercialized by others. A classic of innovation and corporate failure.
Read it if…
you want the definitive account of PARC and why Xerox missed it.
See the book →
Skip it if…
you want a short read.
Try instead: Hackers →
Three things you will actually use
- Invention is not commercialization.
- Culture clash kills transfer.
- Freedom produced the ideas; structure lost them.
Do this first
Read the chapter on Steve Jobs's visit.
Our verdict
Invention without capture.
See the book →
Compare with other Entrepreneurship books
The Facebook Effect
David Kirkpatrick · Entrepreneurship
Formative years, sympathetically.
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