Tim Harford

speaker

411 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Sep 2026 last heard 6d ago

Tim Harford’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 1.

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Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford · Talent, Time and Money: The Curse of General Magic · 11 Sep 2026 podcast

For example, when a couple of General Magic's young engineers flew out to Japan to show Mitsubishi a hardware prototype, their hosts abruptly halted the meeting to call in more employees, all dressed in factory overalls.

Apologising, the host asked the General Magic team to start again with the demo, from the beginning.

So they did.

Well, this is where there's no modem because we've done it entirely in software.

No modem?

Just software?

Incredible.

There's a moan from the audience.

One man, a manager called Mr Kato, slumps forward and strikes his head against the desk.

The host apologises again.

You have just obsoleted Kato-san's division.

Like I say, wonderful things.

What else were General Magic obsoleting?

The answering machine, for one.

General Magic's operating system included a digital voicemail feature.

Arcade machines.

General Magic were writing games, in case you got bored while sitting in the back of a cab or waiting for an appointment.

You could just pull out your Pocket Crystal and play a game.

Books too.

There was a virtual library stocked with e-books.

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