YouSaid · the spoken record

Edwin Land

lines on the record: 27
first: 2020-07-01
most recent: 2020-07-01
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“That A had felt free to declare land was wrong despite having admittedly zero, zero actual experience in the field about which he was testifying. The design and construction of integral instant film units, something the land dedicated his entire life to. Considering his lack of experience, the air of confidence with which A had offered his baseless opinion offended land scientific sensibilities profoundly About that, let me read that sentence again. How pissed would you be considering his lack of experience, the air of confidence which with A had offered his baseless opinion offended Land's scientific sensibilities profoundly? Lann was determined to refute A completely and dramatically and insisted that he be given that opportunity land is fired up.”
2020-07-01 · Founders · #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To sum up his refuration of Codex Rival Expert, Land noted finally that the common misunderstanding that T espoused was a creationist view of color, but it's not the way it works. So he's saying you don't even understand the field that you claim to be an expert in. And now it's time for him to take on the third expert. It says Lamb was livid when he read the transcript. According to Land, not only was A's opinion based on what he considered to be inadequate scientific understanding. But A had felt free to declare land wrong despite having admittedly zero actual experience in the field about which he was testifying. Think about it from Land's perspective, how infuriating. I like to use the word livid there. This guy gets up in front of everybody in the public domain and criticizes me for something he doesn't even understand.”
2020-07-01 · Founders · #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A field of tremendous fascination for land. That's what I mean about speaking passionate. Of course, whether the judge, any human is going to be attracted to this. One, he would continue to research for in the years to come in explaining the differences. Now he's attacking the other. He dismantled all three Kodak experts. This is the second one and explaining the difference between how the East, the IC color, and how a color film must be designed to duplicate that color image land exposed what he contended was to profound inaccuracy in T's explanation.”
2020-07-01 · Founders · #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Instant camera, so why is he testifying to begin with had not taken into account in his testimony? And then during the section, I'm going to keep going back to a couple of the insights he has here. But it really is a reminder people, whether that person is a judge or not, they are attracted when other humans speak passionately about a subject they care deeply about. Again, this is a massive advantage for Edwin Land and Polaroid. Land cared deeply about light and color and perception and photography, and you're now just giving him the floor to convince the judge, the ultimate decision maker of this. So says, the judge acknowledged, I admit it's very confusing when Land jumped in, for the sake of science and truth in this court, let me just say two or three sentences. For the sake of my edification, offer the judge, meaning she's alert. She's learning, and she talks about the very end how fascinating she found the whole trial. Right when she says that, you have to think from codex perspective, uh-oh, that's not good. For the next few minutes, Land offered more than just a couple sentences. It was more of an introductory lecture in”
2020-07-01 · Founders · #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Those aren't the film units in the process Land explained. They are highly idealized statements. I always have the fear that if I agree with your simple questions, I am by implication agreeing that these charts are indeed a description of the product, and they are not. I am worried about generalizations implicit in the question that makes me a witness to something that I don't believe he protested. And then right here, this is the part that's funny. He goes, I don't even know if it's my plate even. And this is the part that I thought was funny. I don't even know if it's my place to object Land Wandered, turning to the judge in frustration, but I object to being such a witness. And then Judge Zobel immediately jumped in to respond. You're pitting Mr. Kerr, that's his attorney, Land's attorney. You're pitting Mr. Kerr out of a job, Dr. Land. All eyes turn to Polar Rights Counsel, but implicit in his response was an acknowledgement that his witness had the proceedings well under control. I will be very quiet, Your Honor said.”
2020-07-01 · Founders · #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Going back to the part that makes me laugh Lance's understanding of this subject is so deep that it's hard to explain all the intricacies of his knowledge, right? But he does come across, he's able to do this in some domains where he's just like, listen, you don't understand what you're talking about. So this is an example of that where he just, he's so confused that in a normal trial, you've probably seen on TV or otherwise usually their attorney's the one that's yelling out objection. In this case, it winds up being land. So this was a funny part. So it says on another occasion, Land had objections to another of the charts Kodak had prepared. So they're trying to explain for the judge who's non-technical. These are the ideas. Let's make visualizations. And then Land looks at the visualization. He's like, that, no, that doesn't even describe the process correctly. That visualization visualization sucks, in other words. He doesn't use those words. But he says, he explained this one inaccurately depicted one of the prior art references. I'm having trouble.”
2020-07-01 · Founders · #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Communicator, but the trial set up, it really is allowing Land to adopt the role of a teacher. This is a massive advantage because it's not like he could take complex ideas, but also explain them in more simple ways, ways that you and I can understand, right? So he's doing the same thing for the judge. So he's on the stand, right? And the judge Zobel, this is what she says to him. She goes, if I'm If I am to understand this, he's giving a piece of testimony. And so this is her response to it. If I'm to understand this, I don't yet. You have to explain it in greater detail than that, she said. Quickly becoming more comfortable on the witness stand as his role evolved into, in effect, the court's personal tutor on his favorite subject. Land obliged the judge, speaking slowly and quietly to explain the process to herself.”
2020-07-01 · Founders · #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So this sentence really, I want you to, well, let me read it to you. This is really interesting to me. Land's reputation is one of the most innovative figures in technology was also on the line, meaning that if the lawsuit, if the judge finds that you invalidate the patents, meaning that land wasn't as innovative as everybody thought he was, right? He would at last be able to fight for the vindication of his life's work and the very survival of the company he had founded, built and led for more than 40 years. Think about that all that is contained in that one sentence, forty years of sacrifice. A lifetime is at stake.”
2020-07-01 · Founders · #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So that's land. Anybody at the top of the company? One person knows where they're going. This master plan must be supported by the efforts of many others, the people that they hire, right? But the single dominant individual, and I like that he uses that word because we've talked about this phenomenon multiple times. The company might start out with a bunch of co founders, right? But inevitably in every single book that we've covered, one person is the main person clearly. This master plan must be supported by the efforts of many others, but the single dominant individual must constantly assure himself that the individual efforts complement one another and create support for an integrated system. So he used that philosophy to build an integrated camera system. It could be applied to a ton of different domains.”
2020-07-01 · Founders · #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Land wanted to make sure that they did not lose sight of what he believes to be the company's primary mission, which is to make instant photography the photographic system of the masses. This is a direct quote from Land now. They are not entitled to any neglect whatsoever of making the most out of the great initial opportunity, and I honestly believe that the basic amateur field is in its infancy, not its maturity. He says he threatens to derail the diversification plan if the company's new manager stray too far from his original vision. So there's a document that takes place that is one of Polaris' attorneys summarizing all, like they were doing their own research, not only against Kodak, but against Polaroid. And in this document, there was this fascinating paragraph because really what I'm about to read to is a summary of Land's philosophy on how to build a technology company. It says creation of a new technology such as one-step photography requires that a single individual have in mind the objective to be reached, right?”
2020-07-01 · Founders · #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“of Polaroid's position and clearly look forward eagerly to having his day in court So there's a paragraph I found in the middle of all this. It was really fascinating. And land explicitly stating he does not believe in diversification. So he's no longer running the company this time, but he also has still has influence with the people that are running company. So he's very upset that they're going away from the field they have a monopoly on and where they've been focused on. So it says it had been almost a year since he had stepped down as Polar Hief executive, Bill McCoon had reorganized top management by appointing four senior vice presidents to oversee the diversification of polaroids' activities beyond instant photography. Land thought this was a dumb idea. The strategic move did not make Land happy. So he talks about, he's insisted over and over again to shareholders he had no plans to diversify. It would be madness, he said. Now that we are in the 90-yard line with the other guy 30 yards behind to run around nothing, meaning to take a focus on where it needs to be. Now to sheer frustration, he took the unusual step.”
2020-07-01 · Founders · #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And now we hear Land's view that this is not business, this is personal, and I'm going to fight you. He clearly did not look at the case solely from a business point of view. Ultimately, this was a personal battle for him. On a visceral level, Lane could not help react emotionally to the basic thrust of Kodak's invalid defense, which in essence asserted that the so-called inventions disclosures in the Polaroid patents were not worthy of protection because they either had been previously discovered or more insultingly were so trivial that it would have been obvious to any reasonable person. Oh boy, he couldn't help but view this line of attack by Kodak as a denigration of the work he and his colleagues had done, a work that he spent his entire life to. It was bad enough that Kodak could challenge him and his company in the field they had created by using patented and protective technology. But the more Kodak assailed Polaroid's inventions, the angrier Land began. He believed in the righteousness.”
2020-07-01 · Founders · #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And there's just one sentence I want to read to you before we get into the actual because the trial starts, it starts and ends with Land. So the very first day the testimony is from Land then many months go by. And then the very last person to testify. Land comes back. He's like, because he had, he felt that Kodak's experts were so juvenile in their understanding of instant photographies. Like, I have to correct the record. But before I get this, this is the importance of focus. This is really not only how land approach a trial, but how he approaches life. Land lived in his own world, one in which science demanded total immersion and obliviousness.”
2020-07-01 · Founders · #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So that some of you might be too young, but that is the theme song from a movie that came out in the 1970s. It's a movie Rocky, and it's where he wakes up early. He's training for the biggest challenge of his life. And that's really what I felt when this section is like, okay, yes, I'm all in. And not only I'm all in, like, I'm taking this, this is a personal vendetta for me. And this is the point in his life where he's also, it compounds because he's losing control of his company. And so he's dedicating almost every waking hour to preparing for this trial. And that preparation does not disappoint.”
2020-07-01 · Founders · #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Understatement. No one knew whether the process would encourage or discourage him. And so they set up a meeting with Edwin Land, and this is where he enters into the arena. So I'm going to read this section to you, and I'm going to tell you what popped into my mind after when I read it. At this meeting, Land made it clear for the first time that he was willing and in fact anxious to participate fully in this case. This is somebody does not half-ass things. That use of the word fully cannot be underappreciated. To him, this meant that consistent with his nature of tackling problems head on and with complete immersion, he was going to prepare himself for the endeavor in a most comprehensive way. That section fired me up. I have no idea why, but immediately, this is what I heard playing in my mind when I read that section.”
2020-07-01 · Founders · #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Scientists of today respond to that ancient American urge for adventure, then the form that adventure takes is the form of invention. And when an invention is made by this new tribe of highly literate, highly scientific people, new things open up, always those scientific adventurers have the characteristic no matter how much you know, no matter how educated you are in science, no matter how imaginative you are, of leading you to say I'll be darned whoever thought that such a domain existed. So he's talking about the way we learn through scientific experiment, through trial and error produces insights that we could have never guessed, that we could never guessed on our own, that we couldn't have just thought up, that it took action to get these insights. That's extremely important. That's probably a good reason why you should read so many biographies, too, right? Because Edwin Land's telling us there's certain things that you're just not going to learn unless you experience them. And there's these experiments that have played out through thousands of years in history.”
2020-07-01 · Founders · #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Off diesel, the internal combustion engine. He was the first inductee ever admitted during his lifetime. So, this is what he said. The reason I bring that up as basic introduction to this next part, because I found it fascinating, this is what Land said when he was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame. And I just thought it was interesting while he's going through this with, you know, having his work threatened. In his acceptance speech, Lan chose to pay tribute to the process of invention by analogy to the basic American sense of adventure and exploration. This is a direct quote from him. We are becoming a country of scientists, but however much we become a country of scientists, we will always remain first of all that same group of adventurous transcontinental explorers pushing our way from wherever it is comfortable into some more inviting, unknown, and dangerous region. Now those regions today are not geographic. They are not the gold mines of the West. They are the gold mines of the intellect. And when the great scientist and the innumerable scientists”
2020-07-01 · Founders · #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But not the same thing as living it day to day, as it being your entire reason to exist as it did with land. He's just going to have a massive advantage. And so while this is going on, Edwin Land's inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. So there's a series of people that he's joining. I want to read this to you. One, because I want to find biographies on the people on this list that I haven't covered yet and make future episodes of founders out of them. Also to give you like where is again how important Edwin Land is in a historical context. So it says Land was joining in August and highly selected group that includes the most important inventors in history, including Alexander Graham Bell, the telephone, Eli Whitney, the Cotton Gin, the Wright brothers, the plane. I don't know how to pronounce his first name, Guillermo Marconi, the radio, Samuel Morse, the Telegraph, Cyrus McCormick, the Reaper, Charles Goodyear, Vulcanized Rubber, and Ruth.”
2020-07-01 · Founders · #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This would be our obligation even if one step photography were but one component of our business, where it is our whole field and where we have dedicated our whole scientific and industrial career to Thus, with this manifesto, the stage was set for what was to become one of the most historic patent battles in American legal history. And around this time, he's also giving public speeches and interviews. And this results in one of his most famous quotes. And so reprising his role as the champion of patents, this time in real life instead of an academic context, Land proclaimed, The only thing that is keeping us alive is our brilliance. The only way to protect our brilliance is our patents. This is our very soul we're involved in. Our whole life. For them, it's just another field. I want you to bring, I want you to keep that last sentence, that last part in mind too when we get to the actual trial and the benefit of, you know, this is Land had a huge advantage. This is something he lived and breathed every day for 50 years, where even if you, you know, the attorneys at Kodak hired, they studied this for maybe five years, 10 years. A good amount of time, don't get me wrong.”
2020-07-01 · Founders · #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That kind of perspective elicits from Edwin Land this maniacal, super focused, mad genius, somebody you do not want as an adversary. But I want to make clear though, at this point, he's not communicating that to anybody outside the world but himself and his small group of assistants and everything. So he does a lot of the prep work in secret. He doesn't even tell his own attorneys. So I'll get to that. There are just so many interesting parts and there's flat out, there's times in this book where I would jump out of my seat. I would like fired up other times when I'm just laughing at just land the way he land speaks. So I'm going to get to some of that stuff in a minute. But before that, I want to tell you in Land's own words why he felt he had no choice but to sue Kodak. So it says Land summed up the necessity for suing Kodak in a rare but wonderfully articulate interview.”
2020-07-01 · Founders · #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Okay, so they're filing the lawsuit. And what I found really fascinating is no one was sure if VAN would participate in the trial. So let me tell you a little bit about that. So that's Polari lawyers who knew him best confided they had some doubt as to whether LAN would ever play any active role in any aspect of the legal battle. Would he ever be willing to surrender his precious privacy to participate in the public arena of a lawsuit? Up to this point, he hadn't even seen fit to meet Polaroid's trial counsel. Could he be relied on to become a witness on behalf of his company and subject himself to examination and pre-trial dispositions or in a courtroom? Under the circumstances, the Polaroid legal team had to consider its strategic options, fully aware of the real possibility that the case would have to be conducted without the active help of the company's most famous figure.”
2020-07-01 · Founders · #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This time, LAN has announced that the SX70 is something that's real. Kodak knows about it, but they haven't seen it. It takes like a few years. I think it's like two years from the time they learn about it until they get their hands on one. And this is their response because they're trying to, during this entire development period, Kodak is trying to create their version of it. They come up with an idea. And they have a prototype and then their hands on an SX-70. You're like, oh, we're screwed. So it says there's no doubt that these Kodak engineers were amazed and disturbed by what they witnessed land demonstrated at the two events. A sleek metallic rectangle that with a push of a button snapped the shutter and then ejected the film unit from the camera. No components were removed by the camera or by the users. Literally, you don't do anything but press a button. It was an elegant system of camera and film that the Kodak engineers ultimately dubbed a masterpiece of engineering. It was readily apparent to all that Polaroid system was far superior.”
2020-07-01 · Founders · #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This idea where he's like, and for how the company is well run, it's making a ton of money. He's like, I'm the last person in the world to undersell or understate Kodak. Why is he saying that? Because he's one of the, he probably understands Kodak, one of the people in the world at this time that understand Kodak the best, right? So he's like, I'm not underestimating these guys. But from his perspective, he's like, this doesn't make sense, land acknowledge. But we are so far out ahead in conceptualization and insight and understanding and in patents that we can not only hold the lead, but move out well, well ahead of everyone else in the domain of instant photography.”
2020-07-01 · Founders · #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's right. So it says, word of codec statement apparently spread quickly to some attendees of the Polaroid meeting when during a question and answer period, a polaroid shareholder asked Land about Kodak's statement, Land exuded complete confidence in Polaroid's position and genuine skepticism about Kodak's ability to deliver on its promises anytime soon. So he said something really smart. The first sentence he says is, I'm the last person in the world to undersell or underestimate Kodak. He had respect for George Eastman, he had respect, a great respect for the technologies that they invented.”
2020-07-01 · Founders · #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“If you can state a problem, then you can solve it. From then on, it's just hard work. So in this section of the book, they're talking about a lot of the work that went into all the research that you had to do to actually qualify and to make sure that your patents are legitimate. This is before the lawsuit happens. And really from this section, the inside I took from this section was that Edwin Land knew that you have to protect fragile new ideas from being killed too early. And this is the way he did that. Land's basic idea might have seemed straightforward, but making it work was like trying to run a car without gasoline. So they're talking about the development of the SX-70 again. But Land was not to be dissuaded. He began to staff his teams with the sharpest and most creative minds of Polaroid, sequestered them as best as he could, and inspire them with his unique creative vision and can-do-yeahthing attitude. Land's persistence, his personal brand of tunnel vision, was a necessity. So remember, they've already described Land as having blinders on, right?”
2020-07-01 · Founders · #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Accomplish in mind, he's saying at the very think, start work backwards almost, right? Think about what is the perfect realization of that and then figure out how to work backwards to actually achieve that. So he did that process with the, it took him 30 years to figure it out, but the SX-70, the camera, the Polaroid camera that's famous now, you press a button and then you don't have to do anything else. The picture comes out, and in about a minute you see it, right? When they were meeting in that famous meeting between Edwin Land and Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs said the same thing. And at the time he wasn't developing the iPhone, but he talked about developing the Mac and realizing what everything he thought a computer should be and working backwards from that. So he says, you always start with a fantasy. Part of the fantasy technique is to visualize something as perfect. Then with the experiments, you work back from that fantasy to reality, hacking away at the components. So it's telling us to work backwards. Something another thing he says is,”
2020-07-01 · Founders · #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Edwin Land, of course, has a lot of great ideas, but I would say if you only had to select one, this may be the single most important idea to take away from the life and career of Edwin Land because it can be applied to so many different things. And it says Land had learned early on that total and grossment was the best way for him to work. He strongly believed that this kind of concentrated focus could also produce extraordinary results for others. Land said, my whole life has been spent trying to teach people that intense concentration for hour after hour can bring about in people resources they didn't know they had.”
2020-07-01 · Founders · #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source