Measuring History: How One Unsung Company Quietly Changed The World by Snow Blake

Author:Snow, Blake [Snow, Blake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-10-22T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

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Wonderful Things

Many years ago, not long after National Instruments opened its first office in India, Jeff Kodosky was meeting with customers. It was his first time visiting what is expected to overtake China someday as the most populous country on Earth.

For this trip, Kodosky was honoring some “premier users” of LabVIEW—the very men and women that National Instruments often recognizes for their remarkable achievements in engineering, science, and research while using their marquee test and measurement tool.

To this day, despite the many awards he has received for his own work, Kodosky confides that these types of award ceremonies are his favorite. “I’m deeply touched when people tell me that LabVIEW changed their lives, made their careers, or allowed them to accomplish something they couldn’t have done without it,” he says.

After bestowing one award upon an honoree that day, the man being recognized immediately bent down and reverently touched Kodosky’s shoes. Although he didn’t know it then, Kodosky had just participated in the ancient Indian ritual of padasparshan (“touching the feet”), which is the greatest mark of respect in Hindu culture to honor experience, wisdom, and achievement.

According to the age-old tradition, when the fingertips of an admirer’s hands are joined to the idol’s feet, they become receptors of the positive energy, goodwill, and intelligence emanating from above in the giver’s brain. To some westerners, padasparshan can appear to be a God-like form of worship. To easterners, however, it’s simply an attempt to draw closer to greatness while paying their respects.

In truth, all Kodosky had done was invent a graphical programming language that allowed scientists and engineers to accurately test and measure their creations faster and better than before. But to this man and countless others, this seemingly innocent, if not serendipitous, act had a profound impact on their output. And although “touching the feet” is unique to India, the level of respect for both LabVIEW and its maker is widely shared by other cultures and individuals around the world.

Indeed, National Instruments is undoubtedly a for-profit company. It’s neither a charity nor human rights nonprofit. But in the many years I’ve worked in journalism, I’ve yet to encounter a company with seemingly as much admiration or twinkle-eye enthusiasm among its devoted customers as National Instruments. Probably not as much devotion as rabid Apple users or the loyal obsession of Disney fans or public notoriety of Nike sneakerheads. But there is clearly a measurable amount of reverence for any who are familiar with NI’s name.

Why is that? I’ll tell you why. National Instruments has contributed to or played an important role in the creation of some of the world’s most wonderful things. Things both big and small. Things that run on electricity and things that don’t. Things that go way up in the air or deep into the sea. Things that keep us safe, connect us with loved ones, move us around, and even save lives. To be clear, National Instruments didn’t necessarily invent these things. But their popular tools like LabVIEW and other products certainly helped the many geniuses who did.

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