It's the thing that get us to the thing...
I finally finished watching this 4 season show and have to said I am really impressed. I have to say that I missed a bunch of things that either I forgot at the time or just went over my head. I remember that I used to watch it every week so it wasn't a whole bench, which might also be the issue with the experience of the story. Also the last season had some production issues and was launched only as webisodes making the catchers miss them completely.
In the end I think that HCF was a great show, and it should be watch as a bench based show. It gives you a timeline of what the IT industry was coming from Dallas TX. Which wasn't exactly the birth of everything like the people in Palo Alto. And I think that was a trend as it seems that location was part of why these projects always end up sitting from the side lines of the industry. Yes it was great business, and it work but it never reached a massiveness of the scale that products coming from the valley came to be.
Also as I've been showing lately, it wasn't only happening in the US, but also in Europe and Japan were having their own type of revolutions. So HCF could be happening all on its own in Japan, France, and the UK. Remember such epic games like Bandersnatch, which was an actual game, developed by the company Tuckersoft.
Also in Japan, there was the advancements performed by NEC, Nintendo, Toshiba, etc. I actually wish to connect to older geeks from Japan to give me what it was to be there and what was what back then. I might enter in a big rabbit hole to catch that one. If anyone from the #hivejapan community happens to be an OG, please ping me... I am looking for you!!
Is hard to choose a main character here as each one story is quite relevant and is important to also acknowledge how competitive they are between them. Even with friendship and family in the middle, they would choose to implement their agenda upon others and move on as easy as that. Even if they say sorry or else, their mind and will is chosen everytime. Something that I encounter not just on the most obvious characters but on the more 'soft' characters like Gordon's wife. I think is a valuable skill for CEOs but also recognize how ruthless the business is.
Another lesson I took is how to go about forcing a company and be willing to burn the boats, sometimes quite literately to get what you want. Manipulate people and create scenarios that will push them the way you need them to go. Even when are kicking and screaming about it. Is quite impressive how McMillan come as a tornado that swipes everyone around him and them advance them into the future.
All in all a great lesson map on how to view your position in a company that might not be living to their best expectations. Other quite interesting example is Ryan, the avid coder that was couldn't explain or push his vision to upper management and end up frustrated until he finally have to ask a competitor for a break and eventually end up coming with his ideas being valued. Thing don't always pan out, but it shows how a different way is possible.
