Seymour Cray is the most unforgettable person I’ve ever met, much less worked with. First of all, he was obviously brilliant, a technical genius. Within the computer business, he’s an icon—like a Thomas Edison or Edwin Land. What really impressed me about Seymour was his sense of himself, his balance, and his ability to know why he was on the earth and to pursue that purpose without hesitation in a very calm way. He was centered, and I learned a lot from him about life in general.
I ran Cray Research by telling ‘Seymour stories.’ Cray Research was full of really bright, creative, independent-minded people. About the worst thing I could do as ‘the boss’ was to walk into somebody’s office or lab and start telling them what to do, because they just wouldn’t pay attention to me. Yet I wanted to provide some kind of direction. So what I did is I told Seymour stories, because everybody had total respect for Seymour, and I could illustrate good points by telling these stories.
One of my favorites was when we sold a Cray computer to Apple Computer. It was ironic that the maker of the world’s smallest computers was buying a computer from the maker of the world’s biggest computers. I called Seymour, and said, ‘Seymour, did you hear that Apple bought one of our computers?’ He said, ‘They did? That’s interesting. Why in the world did they buy one of our computers?’ I said, ‘I’m not sure, but I think they’re designing the next Macintosh with a Cray.’ There was a hesitation on the other end of the line, and finally he said, ‘Well, that’s really funny, because I’m designing the next Cray with an Apple.’
The lesson in that story is that Seymour always chose the simplest parts and tools he could find to make his machines, because he didn’t want to be dependent on somebody’s else’s technology. He always assembled by hand the first parts of any machine he designed because he wanted to make sure the machine was in fact makeable. And that would inform his design—to make it buildable as well as magnificent from a performance standpoint.
