My favorite (read: least favorite) of these Tolkien-inspired menacing companies is Thiel’s Valar: “[who are] god-like immortal spirits that chose to enter the mortal world to prepare it for their living creations.”
> With Tom Lehrer's passing, I suppose this is a moment to share the story of the prank he played on the National Security Agency, and how it went undiscovered for nearly 60 years....
I worked as a contractor at Lotus for about a year, back in 1987. My client/friend told me a story about Kapor that has stuck with me, although it turned out that she was an utterly unreliable witness... so take this with a grain of salt. She was Lotus employee #70, though, so maybe it's true.
Kapor found himself in an elevator with another employee sometime after he had handed over the reins to Jim Manzi. The other employee, who apparently didn't recognize Kapor, was dressed in a full three-piece suit. "That's when Kapor decided to leave," my erstwhile friend told me. "He said, I started Lotus because I wanted a company where I could wear Hawaiian shirts and sandals. I didn't want to work somewhere where I had to wear a suit." But that's what Lotus had become, so it was time to go.
Over the years all the people that attempted to or did rip me off were wearing a suit. Now when I see someone wearing a suit alarm bells start ringing.
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