Levy_S-Hackers-Heroes-Computer-Revolution

attitudes had almost brought the company to bankruptcy and ruin.Dick particularly wanted an end to Summer Camp. He had heard stories about therowdy goings-on, the drugs, the impromptu parties, the pranks during workinghours ... he'd even heard from the janitorial staff that there'd been actual fucking inthe office at night! Those kinds of things had to stop. He particularly wanted Kento maintain a more executive-like relationship with his employees, and to promotemore orderly, rational lines of communication. How can you maintain ahierarchical structure when the chief executive gets in his hot tub with low-levelemployees?To Dick's mind, the flow of information should be channeled with discretion, withan unambiguous interpretation controlled by the people at the top. People whodon't have the broad view of things should not be upset by getting dribs and drabsof information. What Dick had to contend with at On-Line, though, was anincredible rumor mill, fed by the unfettered flow of information that company hadbeen accustomed to. And Ken Williams, Dick said, "nurtures [the rumor mill]rather than quells it. He has no sense of discretion!" Everything was public recordwith Ken, from his personal life to his bank account.Dick was convinced, though, that Ken knew On-Line needed responsiblemanagement, or it would die. But Ken was so reluctant to step back. Sunderlandcould settle the personnel situation, bring in carefully considered candidates, keepthe payroll under control ... and then Ken would tell him, bang, that he just hiredsomebody to be his administrative assistant, a job opening that did not exist untilthat very minute. "And who did he hire?" Dick would say. "Some guy driving aPepsi truck in L.A.!""This is casebook stuff," Dick said. He recalled reading about it in business school:entrepreneur who gets going on a brilliant idea, but can't handle it when thebusiness gets big. It all came from the hacker origins of the company. Ken wassaying that the time for hackers was over; he wanted to limit programmers' powerin the company. But he wasn't making it easy for Dick.It was particularly tough trying to negotiate the royalty down from 30 to 20percent when the programmers had the impression that the company was rolling inmoney. It really wasn't, but no one believed that when they saw green just aboutfalling from the windows. Everyone knew about the house Ken was buildingoutside of town. It would be four hundred feet long. A party room that would bethe biggest in the area. A crew of over a dozen were working full-time on it ... theyhad constructed an entire office on the work site, with phone hookups andeverything. The house was not even half finished, and already Ken had invited the