Entrepreneurship and Innovation Can and Should be Ethical and Humane: The Shining Example of Fred Brooks (RIP)

Very sad to see the passing of truly one of the most impactful (and often overlooked for the magnitude of his impact) and greatest people in the history of the computer industry, Fred Brooks, but happy to see him acknowledged with a robust obituary in The New York Times.

His vision and then subsequent implementation of the first commercial operating system (System/360) essentially made not just the software industry viable but arguably the entire computer industry. To put it simply, he allowed software that was written to be abstracted from the hardware allowing that investment and progress to continue independently of the rapidly evolving hardware (which was driven exponentially, powerfully, and inexorably by Moore’s Law). I had always profoundly admired him while I worked at IBM, because he (the Hacker) along with Thomas Watson, Jr. (the Hustler), created the dominant company that IBM became—so much so that our only serious competitor when I started working there in the early 1980s was the US Antitrust Division which constantly (and appropriately) brought anti-trust litigation against IBM. And creating IBM, really created the computer industry.

I also treasured and still do treasure his book “The Mythical Man Month” which crossed the line from straight engineering wisdom to wisdom of how to better understand how human systems work with technology as well. Both are needed to produce advancements.

I had the enormous privilege of working with him at SensAble Technologies when he was the head of the Computer Science Department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I remember him as clear as day as one of the nicest people you could ever meet. He was already a legend and I was in awe of him. He was in his 60s, yet he had more energy, intellectual curiosity, and youthful zeal than any student I had ever met. The conversations were electric. I was stunned when this old man (to me then) wanted to pull all-nighters to keep working on the projects (admittedly with Thomas Massie then in his twenties and the true hacker founder). I was blown away.

His contributions make him a towering figure in the history books but, to me, he was an even better human. It makes me so happy to hear he lived such a full life in wonderful Chapel Hill and the most joyous part of the whole article to me is “In addition to his son Roger, Dr. Brooks is survived by his wife; his brother, John Brooks; two more children, Kenneth Brooks and Barbara La Dine; nine grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.” RIP Fred and kudos for a life well lived.

I have so much respect for people like Fred and Bob Metcalfe and Mitch Kapor who have been such impactful figures in this field yet can also be such decent humans and give back. This is the model we should celebrate. We certainly see some examples that are not aligned with this humanistic way of living and too often it is celebrated in many forms of media. Sometimes I have heard very misguided people state that you need to be like that to be impactful. Not true! Fred was a shining example. Let us not forget that part too. Maybe that is the best legacy of all for the rest of us in today’s world.