would have been proud of. “Abandoning the SycaPhone means you’ve wasted x number of hours and however much money, but money comes and goes and the clock always comes back around. This chip is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity — if you ignore it you miss out on everything. Within a year there will be a chip in every American’s left hand. You have to ask yourself whether Sycamore wants a monopoly on the biggest thing ever.”
“You make good points, Mr Jacobs, but—
Something the professor said came to Kurt’s mind and he decided it was time to strike. He had to hook Amos and he had to do it now. “Look, the SycaPhone might be a big idea and you might have been pursuing it for a long time, but now there’s a bigger idea in your sights and you owe it to yourself to go after it. I guess what I’m trying to say is: when you catch sight of a marlin, to hell with the catfish.”
Amos nodded a decision and announced that he had two more questions for each of the finalists, after which he would crown the victor.
He started on the right, with a tall bespectacled contestant whose pitch had come early in the night. This first finalist answered his questions fairly predictably: he wanted to win because working at Sycamore was his dream, and he deserved to win because his idea — the impossibly ambitious and seemingly pointless plan to make the Lenses function underwater — would make Amos a lot of money.
Kevin Chang , Kurt remembered; that was it . Kevin’s trifling innovation and cardboard delivery were emblematic of the general quality of contestant he was up against.
Second came the shorter and fatter of the stereotypical computer guys. His age was hard to determine, perhaps 35, and he still looked tremendously uncomfortable to be standing in a tuxedo while addressing a television audience of millions. “I want to win so I have a platform to further, and, uh, further my projects and goals. I deserve to win because my home security system is stronger than the hacker’s and he showed disrespect to all of us when he stormed out. He shouldn’t win.”
Amos took delight in the personal attack on Kurt — it would go down well with the viewers, accustomed to such drama as they were. He moved along the line giddily. “And now we come to the legendary Kurtonite. So, Mr Jacobs, why do you want to win?”
Amos hoped that Kurt would ignore the question and instead react to the previous jibe, but no; his head was in the game and he answered without hesitation. “Because I promised my niece that I would. This is for her. And her brother. Maybe even their dad, too. They’re the reason I came back.”
“How nice,” Amos lied. “And now tell the world why you deserve to win.”
Kurt turned away from the crowd, dropped his microphone and looked Amos square in the eye. Although Amos was ex-military, above all else he was a marketing man; Kurt knew that a solid tagline would seal it. He held his breath for a long count of three and spoke quietly. “The tree of life... in the palm of your hand.“
Amos grinned and offered Kurt his hand in victory. The audience hailed the symbolic gesture as Amos whispered the three words that would change the world forever.
“Welcome to Sycamore.”
4
Kurt handed everything over to Sycamore immediately after the contest. Amos asked him to stay at home until further notice while they worked on manufacturing a chip small enough and powerful enough to utilise his operating system from within a consumer’s hand. Kurt was forbidden from talking to the press or commenting online.
He enjoyed a quiet week knowing that his ideas were being put into practice and received a call from his old acquaintance Terrance Minion after nine days. The chip was ready, Minion claimed, and Amos wanted Kurt to be the first person to receive it.
The weather outside of Kurt’s window was unseasonably filthy but he didn’t care; the days of struggling through the rain belonged to the past. Kurt
“You make good points, Mr Jacobs, but—
Something the professor said came to Kurt’s mind and he decided it was time to strike. He had to hook Amos and he had to do it now. “Look, the SycaPhone might be a big idea and you might have been pursuing it for a long time, but now there’s a bigger idea in your sights and you owe it to yourself to go after it. I guess what I’m trying to say is: when you catch sight of a marlin, to hell with the catfish.”
Amos nodded a decision and announced that he had two more questions for each of the finalists, after which he would crown the victor.
He started on the right, with a tall bespectacled contestant whose pitch had come early in the night. This first finalist answered his questions fairly predictably: he wanted to win because working at Sycamore was his dream, and he deserved to win because his idea — the impossibly ambitious and seemingly pointless plan to make the Lenses function underwater — would make Amos a lot of money.
Kevin Chang , Kurt remembered; that was it . Kevin’s trifling innovation and cardboard delivery were emblematic of the general quality of contestant he was up against.
Second came the shorter and fatter of the stereotypical computer guys. His age was hard to determine, perhaps 35, and he still looked tremendously uncomfortable to be standing in a tuxedo while addressing a television audience of millions. “I want to win so I have a platform to further, and, uh, further my projects and goals. I deserve to win because my home security system is stronger than the hacker’s and he showed disrespect to all of us when he stormed out. He shouldn’t win.”
Amos took delight in the personal attack on Kurt — it would go down well with the viewers, accustomed to such drama as they were. He moved along the line giddily. “And now we come to the legendary Kurtonite. So, Mr Jacobs, why do you want to win?”
Amos hoped that Kurt would ignore the question and instead react to the previous jibe, but no; his head was in the game and he answered without hesitation. “Because I promised my niece that I would. This is for her. And her brother. Maybe even their dad, too. They’re the reason I came back.”
“How nice,” Amos lied. “And now tell the world why you deserve to win.”
Kurt turned away from the crowd, dropped his microphone and looked Amos square in the eye. Although Amos was ex-military, above all else he was a marketing man; Kurt knew that a solid tagline would seal it. He held his breath for a long count of three and spoke quietly. “The tree of life... in the palm of your hand.“
Amos grinned and offered Kurt his hand in victory. The audience hailed the symbolic gesture as Amos whispered the three words that would change the world forever.
“Welcome to Sycamore.”
4
Kurt handed everything over to Sycamore immediately after the contest. Amos asked him to stay at home until further notice while they worked on manufacturing a chip small enough and powerful enough to utilise his operating system from within a consumer’s hand. Kurt was forbidden from talking to the press or commenting online.
He enjoyed a quiet week knowing that his ideas were being put into practice and received a call from his old acquaintance Terrance Minion after nine days. The chip was ready, Minion claimed, and Amos wanted Kurt to be the first person to receive it.
The weather outside of Kurt’s window was unseasonably filthy but he didn’t care; the days of struggling through the rain belonged to the past. Kurt
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