Tim Harford
speaker
411 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Sep 2026
last heard 11 Sep
Tim Harford’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 1.
Appearances
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford · Talent, Time and Money: The Curse of General Magic · 11 Sep 2026
podcast
Google, Amazon, news websites.
It wasn't General Magic's fault that the world had yet to catch up with Mark Peratt's imagination.
Just as it wasn't Clive Sinclair's fault that when he launched his aerodynamic bathtub in 1985, it didn't perform like an electric sports car does today.
Just because you can imagine the idea, it doesn't mean that you or anyone else can build it.
That's as true for the pocket crystal as it was for the C5.
Some ideas have to wait for their time.
One technology commentator explained on the documentary General Magic that I think there's actually nothing General Magic could have done to succeed because they were at the wrong time.
That sounds plausible, but he's wrong.
General magic could still have triumphed if it hadn't been for one surprising problem.
We'll find out what that problem was after the break.
In his book Inside the Box, David Epstein argues that general magic was operating under a surprising disadvantage.
They simply had no constraints.
Some of the best hardware and software engineers in the world were working there, along with superb designers and marketing experts, all led by the charismatic prophet Mark Peratt.
They had money, lots of money.
Apple had invested from the start.
Then each alliance member contributed millions of dollars just to join the club.
Then money from retail investors poured in.
We had too much money, one of the company's vice presidents told David Epstein.
We never had to worry about payroll.
What startup in the world never has to worry about payroll?
Showing 261–280 of 411 · page 14 of 21
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