You also find that often, one of the individuals had a very strong
personality, savaged others, and tried to get their point of view
across. Often, technical excellence is not the goal.
I can think of no finer examples than Thomas Edison vs. Nikola Tesla and
Bill Gates vs. the world. In the former case, nearly by sheer luck,
technical excellence won out. In the latter, clearly it did not.
Stefan Trethan wrote:
> If you look back in history most interesting developments have
> been worked on simultaneously, and perfected, by two or more totally
> independent individuals or groups. They just never knew ;-).