When the truth becomes self-evident

There have been many ground-breaking ideas in business that have taken a long time, and a great deal of resistance before they eventually prevailed.  It's really hard to predict them or know early on which idea would end up as the one standing last.

I personally have the pleasure (or the scars) of being involved with two of these fundamental changes.  One of them was at a company called Numerical Technologies which was changing the nature of semiconductor manufacturing and adding a strong element of software to the existing ecosystem.  The need for this change was due to a fundamental shift that was taking place in the center of silicon lithography - which of course then everyone opposed.   What Numerical introduced is now the standard in semiconductor manufacturing.

The other fundamental change I was involved with was OpenAccess, and I was leading the effort at Cadence.  OpenAccess was an industrywide initiative whereby Cadence opened up it design database to the entire industry (even its competitors) to integrate onto.  It was a bold strategic move to bridge the gap with its main competition, Synopsys, whose database, while proprietary and closed, had a market share lead over Cadence.  Today, OpenAccess is the standard database for EDA companies and EDA users.  Even Synopsys is using (and publicly promoting) OpenAccess.

At the very time of my involvement in those changes, I had no idea they would be such success - I just had a feeling that they were the right thing .... and was betting on that the "truth" would eventually prevail.

That takes me to a quote by the nineteenth century German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer, who said "All truth passes through three stages.  First, it is ridiculed.  Second, it is violently opposed.  Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."

Going back to my own experiences, we (and I personally, in the case of OpenAccess) was ridiculed at first.  Then we faced very strong opposition, not only by competitors, but also by customers and users (yes, change is always hard).  And then, all of the sudden, pieces fell into place, and in both cases, the change was just accepted.

What does that teach us?  Should we just get behind any idea that is being ridiculed?  Probably not.  But I think what Schopenhauer says - especially how he says it - is quite relevant.  My experience combined with Schopenhauer's quote tells me to look for ideas that are being ridiculed while are also being violently opposed.  I am not interested in ridiculous ideas that just face some opposition - there's a lot of those.  But I'll look for those that are under duress.  To me that's the sign where I start to smell someone or something is really being threatened -- and that's what tells me the change or idea might be real - eventually.

After all, love and hate are radically related emotions.