Doug Engelbart
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Doug Engelbart is the reason I'm in the business I'm in. He was my hero and mentor, and he set me on this life course of improving collaboration because of his intellect and his friendship.
We first met in 1998, and I started working with him in 2000. I spent two intense years learning from and working with him, and was inspired to set down this career path as a result of that time. In 2006, he got an NSF grant for his HyperScope project, which he asked me to lead.
Doug passed away in 2013. I wrote this personal tribute for him, as well as a more professional tribute that summarized my view on his contributions to the world.
I've compiled some recommended readings on Doug's ideas. I've tried to encapsulate some of the more concrete things I learned from Doug here.
Lessons Learned
Think big, then think bigger.
The urgent necessity of collaboration. Problems scaling faster than our ability to solve them.
Continuous improvement. Improving at improvement.
Collective intelligence = ability to learn and adapt.
Dynamic Knowledge Repository. Specifically, role of artifact / "knowledge product." Doesn't have to be digital.
Doing good as a life goal.
Just because it's obvious doesn't mean you're doing it. Deceptive simplicity of Doug's ideas. The challenge is in the doing.
Bicycle as metaphor for performance. Expert-oriented tools. Co-evolution.
Depression. How you evaluate success. Emotional honesty. Rubber band blog post.
Importance of language.
Don't confuse binary concept with quality of execution.
