![]() ![]() And so they needed the browser to be at the front of the ecosystem.īut what's required to operate that way is to realize that documents are, like, the most important thing, and that if you're Microsoft, and you lose Lotus 123, people will go find something else to do their documents. And then Google did the same thing: The reason why Google Docs came out was because the Google team was completely scared that if Windows continued being at the front of the ecosystem, then they could never innovate. And the reason Apple built the iWork suite was mostly because Jobs was very worried about Microsoft's hold on Office driving all Mac sales. Microsoft was not actually that interested in building Excel, they were just super worried that Lotus wouldn't keep up with Lotus 123 on Windows. ![]() ![]() One, I think that every innovation we saw in the space came from a platform company, whose primary goal was to evangelize the platform. Why is that? I think there are two reasons. I can think of very few industries that have undergone less change than the document/productivity space. And yet, the thing that we all stare at all day long, that runs our businesses, our teams, our families, that hasn't changed in 50 years. Or databases, totally different, things like search engines didn't even exist, there are all these new things. You can't compare VMS and Unix to Android and iOS. Not to sound too grand about it, but I can think of very few industries that have undergone less change than the document/productivity space, in that 40- or 50-year period. All that happened with VisiCalc, Harvard Graphics and WordStar. How the blinking cursor works, and what slides look like, and even dumb things like the way the spreadsheet is laid out. If you look at WordStar, Harvard Graphics and VisiCalc, we're basically living the same metaphors as what those folks did in the late '70s and early '80s. The running joke at the company is that if Austin Powers popped out of his freezing chamber, he wouldn't know what clothes to wear, or what music to listen to, but he could work a document, a spreadsheet or a presentation. What is it about the world or the industry or the tech right now that is making this the moment? Why is this all happening now? After decades of everybody just kind of trying to do Microsoft Word, but slightly better, it feels like all at once everything is changing. Below are excerpts from our conversation, edited for length and clarity. You can hear our full conversation on the latest episode of the Source Code podcast, or by clicking on the player above. ![]()
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