Metcalfe and Contributions

OK. First, a disclaimer: I know Bob Metcalfe. He was the Chairman of the board of a company I founded. He's still a member of the board.

Suggesting that his contribution was inferior to other approaches, or "didn't work" or whatever is patently absurd, but it also misses a major point: Ideas are cheap -- lots of people have interesting ideas, from the guy who wanders up and down the street talking about free energy from his inter-stellar visitor friends to Nobel prize winners. Ideas are cheap. Turning them into reality takes more than most people have: ambition, drive, resilience, and often charisma.

Ethernet at the start was not a slam dunk. (I have a copy of the note from Robert Bachrach at PARC completely trashing the idea of Ethernet and CSMA.) Bringing three different vendors together was not a slam dunk. Building a new company is never a slam dunk.

Folks who build stuff take risks. Some of the risks may seem DOA in hindsight. Success is never a slam dunk.

However, posting anonymously is always a slam dunk: nothing risked. (Unless your mommy happens to open the door.)