Bob Metcalfe and the “one pair of glasses” theory »

Bob Metcalfe will solve global warming, by applying lessons learned inventing Ethernet in 1974:

I call it the “one pair of glasses” theory. You see it all the time. People know one thing and they think that this one thing can be applied to every problem, because it’s the only way they know how to look at the world. They’ve got one pair of glasses.

Usually the results are just silly but this stuff can be dangerous in the hands of guys who’ve become fabulously rich with their one pair of glasses and now have too much free time on their hands. (eg, Metcalfe and Grove.) Experience has convinced them that their one pair of glasses is a super-duper magical pair that never fails. And now they’ve piled up enough money to make themselves into a huge pain in the ass.

I love the Secret Diary of Steve Jobs — hilarious and insightful.