I really liked this InformationWeek article with Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu. I liked it in part because I think Mark is an exceptional person. But I also liked it for its insight into why Ubuntu has done so well.

Hint: It has a lot to do with making a very geeky thing (Linux desktop) less geeky.

That said, Mark is brilliant and quite technical. We had dinner together last week in London, and Mark was trying to convince me that I could write code if I wanted to. No, I really can't/couldn't. I find that developers tend to underestimate just how isolated and special their talents are. They seem to think that we all share that talent but choose to deploy it elsewhere.

Not so.

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