Flavor bug squashed (sort of)

[Stephen Robbins <Stever@ivory.s4cc.symbolics.com>]

    Date: Tue, 24 May 88 06:51:09 pdt
    From:     ragosa%psyche@BOEING.COM (Rich Ragosa - BH AI Center - (215) 591-4295)

    No one has said anything about it, but I suppose it's common knowledge.
    Regardless, does anyone have any comments on the recent layoff of
    200+ Symbolics personnel? I suppose you could see it coming down
    Main St. for quite awhile, but it still came to a shock to us here.
    Do you suppose this is the beginning of the end of the LISP machine as
    we know it?

As one of the Symbolians staying...

Layoffs are tough.  Watching your friends be laid off is hard.  Deciding
whether or not to stay, yourself, is harder.

I consider:

        - The layoff wasn't purposeless.  I hope it put us in a
          position to survive and go forward enough to generate more
          revenue, or at least become viable to the investment community.

        - There's nothing more fatal than the assumption "the end is
          here."  It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

          This \doesn't/ mean not to look our for yourself;  it just
          means that it certainly WILL be the end if everyone assumes
          it is and leaves.

For now, I'm here.

I hope it isn't the beginning of the end.  The idea of writing C on UNIX
doesn't exactly thrill me.  And I'm doing everything I can to help it be the
end of the beginning (where we've learned our lessons and can proceed, a bit
older and wiser) instead.

- Stephen