The Cephalopod Problem

Abraham Maslow’s psychology was born in chaos: a brutal childhood, antisemitic barriers, and a Catskills resort where exploited staff finally walked out mid service, a real-life Dirty Dancing class war that never left him. As Nazis drove Europe’s intellectual elite to New York, Maslow fused behaviourism, Gestalt insight and humanistic ideals into a theory that treated workplaces as engines of human growth, if management stopped acting like the enemy. Then a tech CEO applied it inside Nonlinear Systems, setting the stage for Andy Grove to turn MBO into something that still shapes how modern companies set goals.Find out more about the Visionaries, Rebels and Machines:BUY THE BOOK HEREListen to more episodes of the podcast here.Download sample chapters here.Ask Jamie questions here.Learn more about our people:Jamie Dobson: LinkedInJoin Jamie’s Substack If you enjoyed this episode then please either:Follow, rate, and review on Apple PodcastsFollow and rate on SpotifyWatch our videos on our YouTube Channel! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Christmas Day 1974, Intel boss Andy Grove is staring down a disastrous detour into consumer gadgets, and scribbling a diary note that hints at something bigger than the Microma watch: a new way to run knowledge workers. By splicing Peter Drucker’s management by objectives with Abraham Maslow’s psychology, Grove invents OKRs to solve two headaches at once, complacent risk-avoiders and brilliant self-actualisers who will not focus. Later, executives turn that humanistic tool into a weapon, so what happens when goal setting becomes a licence to humiliate?Find out more about the Visionaries, Rebels and Machines:BUY THE BOOK HEREListen to more episodes of the podcast here.Download sample chapters here.Ask Jamie questions here.Learn more about our people:Jamie Dobson: LinkedInJoin Jamie’s Substack If you enjoyed this episode then please either:Follow, rate, and review on Apple PodcastsFollow and rate on SpotifyWatch our videos on our YouTube Channel! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Intel is drowning in its own success: memory chips made Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore and Andy Grove rich, then Japanese rivals like Fujitsu and Hitachi arrive with better DRAM, leaving Intel trapped in denial as recession bites and customers complain. In 1986, with losses mounting, Grove asks what new management would do, then makes the brutal leap to abandon memory, close plants and bet everything on microprocessors, even without an anchor customer. When Compaq cracks IBM’s BIOS and makes the 386 PC explode, Intel’s near-death pivot reshapes the modern computer industry, and saves the company by reinventing it.Find out more about the Visionaries, Rebels and Machines:BUY THE BOOK HEREListen to more episodes of the podcast here.Download sample chapters here.Ask Jamie questions here.Learn more about our people:Jamie Dobson: LinkedInJoin Jamie’s Substack If you enjoyed this episode then please either:Follow, rate, and review on Apple PodcastsFollow and rate on SpotifyWatch our videos on our YouTube Channel! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Intel invents a technology that will change the world, yet fails to see its true potential. As rivals close in and pressure mounts, Andy Grove develops the ruthless management playbook that still influences Silicon Valley today. Then a single business decision sparks one of the most consequential partnerships in technology history.Find out more about the Visionaries, Rebels and Machines:BUY THE BOOK HEREListen to more episodes of the podcast here.Download sample chapters here.Ask Jamie questions here.Learn more about our people:Jamie Dobson: LinkedInJoin Jamie’s Substack If you enjoyed this episode then please either:Follow, rate, and review on Apple PodcastsFollow and rate on SpotifyWatch our videos on our YouTube Channel! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Intel nearly threw away the invention that changed the world. Meanwhile, Andy Grove was wrestling with a management experiment that could either save the company or break it. This episode reveals how a series of unlikely decisions helped shape the future of modern technology.Find out more about the Visionaries, Rebels and Machines:BUY THE BOOK HEREListen to more episodes of the podcast here.Download sample chapters here.Ask Jamie questions here.Learn more about our people:Jamie Dobson: LinkedInJoin Jamie’s Substack If you enjoyed this episode then please either:Follow, rate, and review on Apple PodcastsFollow and rate on SpotifyWatch our videos on our YouTube Channel! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From a failed digital watch to the philosophy that would remake modern management, this is the story of Andy Grove learning to lead when neither he nor Intel had a blueprint. It traces how fear, flawed products, difficult people and Peter Drucker’s ideas helped transform Grove from an anxious engineer into the architect of a new kind of high-tech company. And just when Intel begins to find its system, a peculiar computer on a chip appears on the horizon — setting the stage for the next revolution.Find out more about the Visionaries, Rebels and Machines:BUY THE BOOK HEREListen to more episodes of the podcast here.Download sample chapters here.Ask Jamie questions here.Learn more about our people:Jamie Dobson: LinkedInJoin Jamie’s Substack If you enjoyed this episode then please either:Follow, rate, and review on Apple PodcastsFollow and rate on SpotifyWatch our videos on our YouTube Channel! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From fleeing war-torn Europe to walking into the heart of Silicon Valley, this is a story of survival turning into something much bigger. It traces how one outsider navigated identity, ambition, and opportunity to shape the modern tech world. And just when it feels like the journey settles, it sets up a mindset that would change how companies operate forever. Find out more about the Visionaries, Rebels and Machines:BUY THE BOOK HEREListen to more episodes of the podcast here.Download sample chapters here.Ask Jamie questions here.Learn more about our people:Jamie Dobson: LinkedInJoin Jamie’s Substack If you enjoyed this episode then please either:Follow, rate, and review on Apple PodcastsFollow and rate on SpotifyWatch our videos on our YouTube Channel! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A boy survives war and oppression, making impossible decisions just to stay alive. At the same time, a quiet breakthrough in technology is about to reshape the world. Their paths are worlds apart, yet they’re closer than you’d think.Find out more about the Visionaries, Rebels and Machines:BUY THE BOOK HEREListen to more episodes of the podcast here.Download sample chapters here.Ask Jamie questions here.Learn more about our people:Jamie Dobson: LinkedInJoin Jamie’s Substack If you enjoyed this episode then please either:Follow, rate, and review on Apple PodcastsFollow and rate on SpotifyWatch our videos on our YouTube Channel! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Before computers were machines, they were people crunching numbers by hand and making mistakes that shaped history. This episode uncovers how a scattered set of ideas about code, logic, and machines finally clicked into something world changing. And at the center of it all is one mind that quietly built the foundation for the digital world you live in today.Find out more about the Visionaries, Rebels and Machines:BUY THE BOOK HEREListen to more episodes of the podcast here.Download sample chapters here.Ask Jamie questions here.Learn more about our people:Jamie Dobson: LinkedInJoin Jamie’s Substack If you enjoyed this episode then please either:Follow, rate, and review on Apple PodcastsFollow and rate on SpotifyWatch our videos on our YouTube Channel! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

History is messier and darker than your textbooks ever told you, and this finale pulls no punches. It connects the telegraph, racism, and propaganda to the tech and algorithms shaping your world right now. If you think technology is neutral, this episode might change your mind.Find out more about the Visionaries, Rebels and Machines:BUY THE BOOK HEREListen to more episodes of the podcast here.Download sample chapters here.Ask Jamie questions here.Learn more about our people:Jamie Dobson: LinkedInJoin Jamie’s Substack If you enjoyed this episode then please either:Follow, rate, and review on Apple PodcastsFollow and rate on SpotifyWatch our videos on our YouTube Channel! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.