Tioga Herald

New York Times Book Review (17 Dec. 2023): The Greatest Capitalist Who Ever Lived – Thomas J. Watson, Jr.

The book, The Greatest Capitalist Who Ever Lived: Tom Watson, Jr and the Epic Story of How IBM Created the Digital Age (by Ralph Watson McElvenny and Marc Wortman) is about Thomas J. Watson, Jr., but also includes information about his upbringing under IBM founder, Thomas J. Watson, Sr. and the Watson family. Senior is not presented in the best light and Junior is presented as quite a rebel who initially had no interest in taking the reigns at IBM. 

The review was published in the New York Times Book Review on 17 Dec. 2023. The byline is Tim Wu, a law professor at Columbia University, New York City. Mr. Wu also recently published, The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age. We are enticed to purchase both Wu’s book and the book he reviewed.

Much of what Wu writes here makes sense. For instance, he says the title of the book should not be about the “greatest capitalist,” but about the “greatest manager.” The reason is the ability of Junior to delegate rather than dictate. Junior accomplished a great deal at IBM, due to this approach. From the time I led groups as a teen to today, I have always tried to delegate and it works better than fighting between several groups because they “step on each other’s toes.” It was taught to me by my mother, who also had been a leader in our community and church. And I really agree that Junior is not the greatest capitalist who ever lived. In agreement with reviewer Wu, I think there are others who fit the bill for being the greatest capitalist, better than Junior. And many who are made out to be the best capitalist are the ones who only support supply-side Reaganomics and the trusts and monopolies which are evidently discussed in Wu’s book about the “curse of bigness.” Texas big really is bad for America, its commerce, and our economy. Sounds as if me and Wu are in agreement. But I need to read his book.

Related to this idea of bigness is what is learned by Wu in his review regarding AT&T pulling out of the computer business in the 1950s. However, it should be added that, after Junior, IBM became a model of “bigness” so strong that it controlled Reagan and our government. When the personal computer was introduced, AT&T, developer of the Unix operating system at Bell Labs, wanted to enter the PC market. According to a colleague in the corporation where I once worked in Florida, AT&T had a plan to use Unix as an operating system and work from the model of rental of telephones used to introduce PCs. In other words, like phones, AT&T’s vision was to rent computers for the home which would be run by a far superior operating system called Unix. Many people agree that Unix (now Linux) is better than the IBM / Microsoft DOS / Windows operating systems. 

Computer science professors I know are in agreement because Unix is a tight system, whereas the Microsoft “code” is too open and easily changed, thus PCs can be sabotaged too easily. The claim made by such professors was that Unix run by AT&T would be harder to sabotage and PC users would not have as much responsibility to watch over the code on their own computer. 

But why did IBM’s PC begin to predominate and AT&T once again, in the late 1980s, abandoned the market to IBM. Reagan supply-side economics and his friendly relations with GE and IBM. Reagan. The man who said in his 1981 inaugural address that “government is the problem.” Reagan pushed for government deregulation and supply-side economics which help create the “bigness” we see today in monopolistic style trusts. But in 1984, he pushed government to be involved in business, something he proclaimed should not be happening. Reagan. A big liar and hypocrite. 

In 1984, Reagan broke up AT&T. Reagan had the government choose between AT&T and IBM. As a result he forced control of big business be put in one company. He got the government involved rather than allow “free market” to take force. 

I had learned FORTRAN and COBOL while taking computer science courses at SUNY Utica/Rome. At the time, I was working for an U.S. Air Force contract at Griffiss Air Force base in Rome, NY. 

I also took courses learning how to use a DEC PDP-11. I learned Assembly Language on the PDP-11. I also learned Unix because the PDP-11 minicomputer utilized Unix. Sadly, DEC executives made the statement, something involved with really cuckoo vision of the future: that computers would never be used in the home! Where is DEC today?  

When employed by an “IBM shop” in Florida, I found out I was working in a division of the corporation with a vice-president who was pushing Unix and a minicomputer called the Fortune computer. My colleague was working on this and tried to convince this person (me) who has had many friends at IBM, that Unix was better and I needed to use the Fortune machine. At the time, I was not convinced, but I did something many people today refuse to do: I LISTENED to my colleague. In one sense, he made sense and I am open-minded, described by many as “thinking outside the box,” as one of my good characteristics. 

I began at the corporation before Reagan destroyed AT&T. After the destruction of AT&T, the vice-president for whom me and my colleague worked was forced to give up the Fortune Unix machine. In the process, the VP over IT decided to take my colleague into his organization, in return for allowing my VP’s organization to purchase IBM PCs and software with a Novell LAN. Ironically, in later years Novell became involved with Unix when AT&T no longer worked with it from Bell Labs. The full details of the tumultuous history of Unix can be found at a Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix 

When I learned to use the IBM PCs with the Bill Gates (Microsoft) DOS / Windows environments, and having knowledge of Unix from my days of learning the system in upstate New York at SUNY, I found that my colleague was correct. The problem was I listened, but never took him seriously. Sadly, that is exactly how I get treated when I write and discuss many matters pertaining to our lives. No listening, only everyone thinking they are experts who dig in their heals thinking they are better than what I have to say. On the Air Force base, we often had a word for experts: ”drips under pressure.” Too many today who are like that, sad to say. 

After all, we all have something to offer to the lives in our community of people and to society. If one is in error, then it is best for that one person to acknowledge being in error, not cling to it like a “drip under pressure.” 

Related to this book is information from a documentary about Thomas J. Watson, Sr. He pulled himself up from his bootstraps, beginning with nothing, as he grew up here in upstate New York. While working for NCR, he worked to put competitors out of business. The Federal Justice system of regulation, pretty much begun by “trust buster” Teddy Roosevelt, called NCR to task for working to eliminate competition. Watson, Sr., almost ended up in jail, as other executives who were caught doing destruction to competitors. 

Some see this impact on Sr. as a learning experience, as he created IBM. In other words, when faced with jail, he did not dig in his heals, but went along. This is very unlike Trump today who simply digs in his heals for the wrongs he has done in attempting to work against the U.S. Constitution and inspire an insurrection on 6 January 2021. He has even indicated he wishes to be a dictator over the USA. 

Interestingly enough, Trump liked hypocritical Reagan who claimed government should not be involved in business and then got involved, on the side of IBM, in 1984, in destroying IBM’s competition. What if AT&T had NOT been destroyed and did have the opportunity to compete with IBM with phone systems which would be rented. Apple and the Smartphone eventually gave us something akin to “rental,” when we pay those huge costs to purchase a phone over time. I find it awful and would prefer having the AT&T model with Unix, as was a plan in the 1980s. But we will never know about the “what if….” will we? 

However, I look forward to reading this book about Thomas J. Watson, Jr. I agree with the reviewer, Wu, that Jr. might just be the best “manager,” but not the best capitalist. 

I also look forward to reading Wu’s book about ‘the curse of bigness” and what happens with anti-trust in the “gilded age.”