On one side the Xanadu implementations over the decades are a complete failure.
On the other side, imho some of the ideas will survive and one day make it into successful software projects. Good ideas aren't destroyed by poor excecution.
“ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions.”
But here I'd like to think about likely world changing tech. As long as the (successful) execution comes one day, it doesn't matter if it happens 20 years ago or 10 years from now.
Maybe if you only have a business focus. He was apparently not interested in fundamental research.
Likewise other theoretical and fundamental work. Note that this is aside from the question of who gets "credit." Fortune tellers take credit for predictions. This is about what it takes to do good work under most circumstances.
[0] Wikipedia
I'm a bit adamant about this (and willing to eat the downvotes -- fair is fair). Every individual contributor (IC) has experienced credit for something they've worked on being given to a colleague or manager who comes in at the last minute and claims to have blurted out an idea at a meeting.
I've gotten plenty of credit for ideas -- 20+ patents. What I'm proud of is the part of a patent called "reduction to practice," where you figure out the details that prove an idea to be workable, and typically result in additional claims. I've informally adopted a standard that an "idea" has the same requirements as a patent, specifically a study of background information and an explanation of how something can be reduced to practice. I'm super generous with credit, especially towards my junior colleagues.
Ideas are a dime a dozen. And as a musician, I got over the difference between "doing" something, and making money, long ago.
We stand on the shoulders of giants