Dear Dr. Hill,
I realize you may not reply to this, so no matter about that.
How is the fundamental proliferation of technology working against your effort?
As you write, a galloping horde of developers comes up with new technology.
The internet was not there like today when you wrote the 2nd edition, and I can
imagine you could now structure your effort, which generically is to encompass
electronics understanding (pardon my words), with a web software "container"
for the thousands of technology developers out there today. This would be a
kind of intelligent wikipedia of electronics with teaching tracks going through
it, like expeditions in the jungle. This has wiki inclusivity combined with
articulate context establishment. (editing.)
It was possible to be a "Renaissance man" years ago, but I wonder if the
exclusive book format is right still. Recall that the Stanford Professor
decided to put his AI course notes on the web for his class, a few years ago.
He was surprised to find 100,000 subscribers shortly later.
The internet has brought changes of a "formal" nature to traditional
institutions. In classic business theory, most institutions cannot adapt. (HBR
paper "Marketing Myopia.") The writer of that seminal strategy paper counseled
to identify the real business that you are in. He said buggy whip companies
were in the transportation business. That's the form which contains their
content, their particularity.
In the case of AoE, what "business" are you really in? I wonder if that
business is really clear expository writing about abstruse technology. And then
I ask myself, "What is the disruptive technology which will replace your
current form, the book? I see a kind of teaching wikipedia, where technology
proponents can write things which you edit and place within a scientific
framework. (I imagine that framework, besides classical physics, would have to
include ideas of software, practical AI, cybernetics (feedback), etc.)
There is disruption of the outward form of what you do (the book) and there is
disruption of the deep structure of what you do. The issues today seem much
less "physical" and much more architectural and "systems" oriented. I don't
know what the current context should be, but I think its got initials like SNR,
DSP, AI, in it.
A MOOC as I'm describing it must have software technology along with it. For example, a transparent language translation between 10 languages: Chinese and English, etc.
I'm going to suggest a way to do all this. Go to a VC and get 25 million to
create a giant wiki-MOOC to teach electronics technology to the world. The
income is from tuition: A course with $20 tuition and 100,000 students every 6
months - you do the math. As well, electronics companies will want in to teach
their particular brand of technology.
Finally, how do you prevent business hot-shots from taking it over and ruining
it? (They are like hired tigers who will eat you.) Simple: create a business
structure where you are on the board and the CEO is subservient to you. You
will have ultimate control, but make damn sure you know your limits. You just
need a CEO with technical training, management skills, who is honest. Focus on
the honest factor. Hire "at will." The idea is your articulate technology vision guides everything.
Thanks for listening. I certainly have AoE on my shelf, and I am realistic
about the difficulty of changing form for most people. I just think there is a MOOC tsunami out there. I suppose changing form is just to study it in its own right.
jb
"There is change and those who resist it." - Buddha.