Mannerisms

As he worked on developing a MOS transistor, his colleagues shunned him. They thought the engineer was anti-social in not subscribing to the consensus view that bipolar transistors were the future.

One day the engineer's company was visited by a group from an American company called RCA. When the Americans saw what the lonely engineer was doing they said: "We also believe that MOS transistors are the future."

Then the lonely engineer became the celebrated engineer, with an honoured place in the Japanese company.

MORAL: Don't emphasise consensus at the expense of professional insight.

TOMORROW MORNING: TEN BEST SEMICONDUCTOR APPLICATIONS