An Evening with Bob Metcalfe

Meeting Bob Metcalfe yesterday evening was a great honor and pleasure. I was looking forward to his interview, but did not expect such funny answers to sometimes rather technical questions.

Metcalfe talked at length about his years in college and the events that led to his invention of the Ethernet. It was really interesting to hear about his determination to get his Ph. D. from Harvard, a university he did not particularly get along with, while conducting his research at MIT and eventually taking a job in Palo Alto, 3000 miles away, while working on his dissertation.

Right around the time Metcalfe started his company 3Com, he was lucky enough to meet Steve Jobs, who wanted to recruit him, but failed in part because Metcalfe was 9 years older than Jobs. Still the two men became friends and Jobs even attended Metcalfe's wedding (which is not something to wish for according to Metcalfe, since seeing Steve there is now the only thing people remember about the happy occasion). Metcalfe had some other great stories about Jobs and it was really great to get a little bit better insight into the life Jobs led.

It was interesting to hear about Metcalfe's views on failure (he was fired as CEO from his own company - much like Steve Jobs) and innovation and it was definitely an evening well spent.