in Christ: Andrew Fountain's blog

What does Microsoft have to do with Moses and the burning bush?

Back in the early 90's, Microsoft developed a remarkable piece of software, Windows NT. (Anyone who knows me will know that I am no fan of Microsoft but this product was an exception.)

What was most amazing about this software was that conventional wisdom was that it was impossible to develop something of that size and complexity in the timescale, even with a huge team. In 1994 a Wall Street Journal writer named Pascal Zachary obtained permission to interview all those involved and write a book.

The book is in some places shocking and even a little scary, because it becomes clear that what enables the project to succeed is the cult-like leadership qualities of the project leader, Dave Cutler, and his abilities to motivate his "followers" (employees) to the point where nothing else in their lives mattered, outside of working on his team. Here is a quote from the book:

Today I preached on Psalm 90
At first sight this seems like a very depressing Psalm:

7. Yes, we are consumed by your anger,
   
   and by your wrath we are terrified.

Not very encouraging. Let's see how it continues...

8. You have set our iniquities before you,
   
   our secret sins in the light of your presence.

...But it gets worse:

9. All our days pass away under your wrath,
   
   we finish our years with a moan.
   [literal translation]
10. The length of our days is seventy years
    
    or if we have strength, eighty;
    

    yet their best is but trouble and oppression;
    

    for they quickly pass and we fly away.

I am teaching a course on the Psalms right now, so I have been looking around to see what material is available on the internet. There are two excellent resources which I can highly recommend and they are both free.