[throwaway47861]

I am surprised nobody mentioned this guy's failure to deliver the Essential Phone in time (whether it's essential is a huge argument point by itself).

Cynically speaking, to me that's a paid article to keep hype around the persona since he's losing a lot of PR points lately.

I am not taking such a "visionary" seriously unless he manages to ship the one consumer-level product he promised.

And yes, many of his ideas are COMMON SENSE, I can't for the life of me understand the praise.

[Steko]

> this guy's failure to deliver the Essential Phone in time

Hasn't been a good month for Essential. The phone he promised in June didn't ship in July, lost VP's of marketing and communication and today Google hired away his lead UX designer to fill the same role for Google Home.

[throwaway47861]

Exactly what I was also aiming at; such mass exodus events signal either (a) that Rubin hired a bunch of greedy freeloaders that leave after the first signs of struggle, or (b) he is a dictator who's not pleasant to work with.

Both of these aren't promising.

[DAddYE]

Can’t agree more. Also the “invention” of android is debatable to me. Wasn’t a rushed response to iOS?

[dingo_bat]

AFAIK Android was already under development but arrival of iPhone caused it to be completely modified before release.

[cel1ne]

It was originally an OS for cameras. It's a pain to develop on. I believe they used an automated tool to convert a C-codebase to Java (judging from method name, usage of bit-fields instead of enums etc.)

[flamedoge]

I feel like a lot of those common sense ideas could still use streamlining to put in homes. Why can't I live like Rubin? Why should these devices be only for the rich? Hook up a hydrometer and switch and sell it to me as relative humidity aware fan controller.

[civilitty]

Nitpick: Hydrometers measure the specific gravity of liquids and are mostly used for beverages such as to calculate a liquid's sugar or alcohol contents.

You're thinking of hygrometers, which measure relative humidity using capacitive, resistive, or gravimetric methods.

[throwaway47861]

I think the hyped euphemisms are carefully crafted to make the people feel important if they buy something. It's a very regular psychological technique in marketing.

[j45]

Not sure a 1st generation device or creator can be judged like that.

New devices and manufacturers don't typically improve the 3rd or 4th generation.

Rushed devices are largely premature, unusuable, and still move things forward: iPhone 1, Galaxy Note 1..

When did quality, functionality, delivering on scale and time get better? iPhone 3-4, Galaxy Note 3-4, LG G3-G4, Samsung S3-S4, iPad 3-4, Nexus 4-5.

Hype aside, the first effort isn't something that should be undercut.

[throwaway47861]

I don't disagree.

What I am saying is that writing such articles is embarrassing and reads like a paid hype. Plus the guy really doesn't have much under his belt.

I and many other practical people dislike person cults. Especially such forced ones.

[j45]

The thing that has stood out to me about innovators, and innovation, is they live in a mindset of possibility, not doubt or skepticism.

Guys like Rubin have built something that touched a lot of people, and grew to be much larger than them. I think that's not really something I can look to anyone to credit, or discredit, than, say someone else who has done the same.

I'm not sure if everyone is the type to take an the article immediately as gospel, or trying to immediately debunk it as gospel.

Maybe Wired has been been in my life through a few internet generations. Wired once was a key way of bringing attention to corners of the internet that weren't always easy to locate.

[6stringmerc]

Moeller Air Car rings a bell...wonder if any of the SV pursuits got the memo...