some quotes on which to comment:
[…]it has to be acknowledged that Lick wasn’t much of a manager in the conventional sense. […] “[he] gave all the applicants [for a secretary] the Miller Analogies Test and hired the one with the highest score. We had a string of brilliant young women who lasted about three months before resigning in violent boredom.”
[this is according to Alan Perlisk, founder of one of the first undergraduate programming courses] Programming was for everyone, he insisted, not just the science and engineering majors. It was a fundamental intellectual skill, like mathematics or English composition. […] Lick couldn’t have agreed more: programming, like mathematics (or psychology), was one of those disciplines that could simultaneously yield both practical applications and profound insights[….]
[this describes Bob Taylor’s management style at PARC] And to achieve that goal [a system of information technology, the electronic office], Taylor knew, he somehow had to get all these maverick geniuses moving in the same direction, without forcing everyone to move in lockstep. […] in short, he had to set things up so they would freely follow their own instincts – and end up organizing themselves.
more thoughts to follow on these points.