When the going gets tough …


… the tough go looking for someone to take their place. That’s right. Saint Nicholas of MIT is looking for a CEO to run OLPC. Plan is that he’ll step back and be, um, chairman. In other words: It didn’t work out, so I’m bailing.

Some amazingly great inadvertently hilarious quotes from Negroponte in this article, like the following:

* “In the end, we should not be in the hardware or software business.”

(Really? Ya think?)

* “I am not a CEO. Management, administration, and details are my weaknesses.”

To that list I would add a few other things: designing computers; building computers; writing software; working with others; setting realistic expectations; listening to criticism; soliciting feedback; maintaining a grip on reality.

The real screamer comes when Double-N says his ideal candidate for someone to run OLPC would be Kofi Annan. Right, because there’s a guy with a real nitty-gritty grasp of how to run a company. Uh-huh. Loads of tech experience. Honestly, I blew miso soup out my nose and onto the keyboard of my MacBook Air when I read that one.

Larry says we should get Bono to call him and offer to take the job, and have Negroponte fly to Dublin for a meeting or something and then totally punk his ass. We’ll see.