[minikites]

Rational decision-making can lead you to talk yourself out of great, gutsy ideas:

In the article about Steve Jobs at Corning re: Gorilla Glass:

> This turned Jobs around, and he said he wanted as much gorilla glass as Corning could make within six months. “We don’t have the capacity,” Weeks replied. “None of our plants make the glass now.”

> “Don’t be afraid,” Jobs replied. This stunned Weeks, who was good-humored and confident but not used to Jobs’s reality distortion field. He tried to explain that a false sense of confidence would not overcome engineering challenges, but that was a premise that Jobs had repeatedly shown he didn’t accept. He stared at Weeks unblinking. “Yes, you can do it,” he said. “Get your mind around it. You can do it.”

[JoeAltmaier]

Weeks was being a Negative Nelly. What he said was a non-sequitur. Not making it now does not necessarily lead to not having any in 6 months. Jobs was gently pointing that out. I suppose he could have said "Then get the capacity! I don't want to hear excuses!" but that probably wouldn't have worked out so well.