---------- Original Message -----------
From: "plinehan" <plinehan@...>

> Basically, IB was too good for its own good!
> Any thoughts or ideas anyone?
> Paul...

------- End of Original Message -------

Different idea: projects have to hit critical mass before they can snowball to
success. Development, marketing, training, 3rd party tools, customers, "killer
apps" -- they all go together. It's not necessarily something intrinsic in the
product that causes it to gather (or not) the critical mass necessary. Whether
you call it luck, or fate, or randomness, it's all just self-justification, which
only the losers at the game care about. (i.e. Oracle's too busy selling its
product to care why it succeeded when it could just as easily have failed. Maybe
there are valuable lessons to be learned, but why should they care?)

But add one more reason: critical mass isn't just about snowballing, it's also
about not dissipating. If you don't have fame/success/drive/drugs to keep you
together, and your group's small, everything's personal, and there's nothing to
heal the wounds. Many great rock bands dissolved before they could reach their
audience, for the same reason. Ultimately, the audience (the market) suffers.

Luck, fate, and human nature.

-Philip