The Sex Analogy
Andy Grove said every generation thinks they invented sex. They cannot conceive that their grandparents ever experienced the same thing.
Technology works the same way. Every generation believes their moment is the big one. The most transformational. The fastest. The most important.
Grove said we cannot make that judgment objectively. We know what we are struggling with. We do not know what another generation struggled with or how much impact it had.
We all think that the technology that is new to us is bigger and more transformational than all the technology that happened before.
Technology Is a River
Making a transatlantic phone call decades ago had at least as big an impact on people as sending an email today. Or accessing a web page.
Grove compared technology to a river. There are rapids and there are slower parts. But the river never stops. It just keeps flowing.
Some periods move faster. Then they slow down. But characterizing any single moment as the historically fastest is a mistake.
I kind of look at technology as a river. The river just keeps going down and technology keeps flowing.
Gut vs. Analysis Is the Wrong Question
Grove said framing the debate as gut feeling versus analysis is wrong. They are not independent.
Gut feeling that does not rely on analysis as a sanity check is arbitrary and likely wrong. Analysis that does not answer questions raised by intuition is sterile.
The best decisions come from synergy between the two. Intuition is not arbitrary — it is a summation of thousands of experiences. Combined with analysis, it is better than either alone.
Intuition is not arbitrary. Intuition is a summation of many many experiences. Synergy between intuition and analysis is better than either.
On Steve Jobs
When asked about other Silicon Valley founders, Grove said he was very impressed with Steve Jobs.
He called Jobs one of the creative minds of the last 15 to 20 years. Consistently creative. Not a one-hit wonder.
The two were reasonably good personal friends — a rare admission from a man known for his intensity.