5 ms·

I have no problem with the guy, but has anyone noticed that there's a fluff piece about Larry nearly every year around this time?

by psbp 11y ago

MCRed 11y ago
More than that I've noticed about 30 years of consistent and regular fluff pieces to glamorize people such as Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. One of the notable exceptions is Steve Jobs who stopped giving interviews to these kinds of reporters in the 1980s, and also stopped getting covers around that time (after that, if he's on a cover he's holding a new product.) One observable consequence of this is that Steve Jobs who gave us so much is widely reviled, while Bill Gates who destroyed the packaged software industry, almost killed the internet and went so far as to have schools raided by SWAT to make them buy windows licenses for their computers (computers that were Macs, by the way, back when Macs ran PowerPC and couldn't run windows anyway)... is widely regarded as a humanitarian[1]. Jeff Bezos (whom I've known personally) is widely regarded as a Tech guy (despite being really just a pointy haired boss.) There's a reason these guys spend money on PR-- the PR becomes the public perception. [1] I've been in the room when both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos lost their cool (three separate occasions, fortunately I was not the target.) Steve was quietly upset "how are we going to fix this?" and "we're never going to let this happen again, are we?" with all the weight those comments imply. Bezos and Gates both lit into the person with a clear intention to make their victims feel like nothing (both in different ways brought up the victims family as well.) I worked at Amazon and Microsoft, but not Apple.
- abawany 11y ago
  Re. Gates/humanitarian: he is not regarded as one for his work at Microsoft but due to his work at the Gates Foundation. Are you able to say that the world would be better off if the Gates Foundation did not exist?
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - johansch 11y ago
    The more relevant question is: would the world be better off if Microsoft (and thus also the Gates Foundation) never existed?
- Nullabillity 11y ago
  > One observable consequence of this is that Steve Jobs who gave us so much is widely reviled, while Bill Gates who destroyed the packaged software industry Hahaha, what? iOS set a huge negative precedence and pretty much killed off any hope for a mainstream phone that wasn't focused on consuming pre-approved content.
  - eli 11y ago
    > iOS set a huge negative precedence That's unfair. Before iOS you typically had to go to your carrier's app store to download anything. Verizon's policies about who gets listed and how much it costs were much worse than iOS.
    - enjo 11y ago
      PalmOS had a wide open app model and it was awesome.
      - jshevek 11y ago
        Yes. The iPhone was a huge step backwards in my opinion, but at the time the only people who seemed to understand this were PalmOS users.
        robotresearcher 11y ago
        And Blackberry users. Blackberry was pretty damn good.
        Nullabillity 11y ago
        Even S60 had a pretty decent open market.
      - Spooky23 11y ago
        Yes, the dozen applications available were great.
        11y ago
- pboutros 11y ago
  To be fair, Larry Page apparently declined several times to be interviewed for this article.
- tamana 11y ago
  Jobs gave these interviews for Apple products not himself. He arranged massive puff pieces (magazine covers) on Apple and their products to coincide with launches of new products.
- tamana 11y ago
  Jobs gave these interviews for Apple products not himself. He arranged massive puff pieces (magazine covers) on Apple and their products to coincide with launches of new products.
lukasm 11y ago
Was gonna say. But why? Just pure PR?
ProAm 11y ago
Probably because of Davos?
IBM 11y ago
I seem to read one around their earnings reports.
ekianjo 11y ago
Just like there is a piece on Musk every now and then. I dont mind either way but these articles are really shallow in substance.
- avmich 11y ago
  I'd like to know what innovation Larry brings to the company these days. Especially technical innovation, rather than managerial one, as the primary meaning of the word. Musk is the chief technical specialist in SpaceX, as he put himself. It's unclear what he does on this role, but his explanations are touching some rather deep details, so at least he looks like having a good understanding of technical aspects of SpaceX systems.
  - colechristensen 11y ago
    Aerospace vehicles are designed in a hierarchy with a whole lot of individuals specializing in one piece of one subsystem, but by the nature of aircraft everything is very codependent. You can't just design thermo, avionics, structures, aero, payload, etc. in a vacuum; the tiniest details of one subsystem have reverberating effects in all of the others. At the top you usually have a set of old guys (you might have read Skunk Works, those old guys are Kelly Johnson and Ben Rich in that book) but in this case Musk and likely a few others... a set of people who have to know a little bit about everything and enough to drive the important piece of engineering of the moment towards a successful project.
  - tamana 11y ago
    Wow some people think Musk is the chief technical specialist on SpaceX? That guy is an awesome self-promoter.
- ignoramous 11y ago
  Larry Page and Elon Musk probably have hired the same PR firm? Not a far fetched possibility given that they're friends with each other themselves.
  - visakanv 11y ago
hgh 11y ago
Alphabet earnings report coming up: http://www.nasdaq.com/earnings/report/goog http://www.nasdaq.com/earnings/report/goog

I have no problem with the guy, but has anyone noticed that there's a fluff piece about Larry nearly every year around this time?

by psbp 11y ago

I have no problem with the guy, but has anyone noticed that there's a fluff piece about Larry nearly every year around this time?

MCRed 11y ago

More than that I've noticed about 30 years of consistent and regular fluff pieces to glamorize people such as Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. One of the notable exceptions is Steve Jobs who stopped giving interviews to these kinds of reporters in the 1980s, and also stopped getting covers around that time (after that, if he's on a cover he's holding a new product.) One observable consequence of this is that Steve Jobs who gave us so much is widely reviled, while Bill Gates who destroyed the packaged software industry, almost killed the internet and went so far as to have schools raided by SWAT to make them buy windows licenses for their computers (computers that were Macs, by the way, back when Macs ran PowerPC and couldn't run windows anyway)... is widely regarded as a humanitarian[1]. Jeff Bezos (whom I've known personally) is widely regarded as a Tech guy (despite being really just a pointy haired boss.) There's a reason these guys spend money on PR-- the PR becomes the public perception. [1] I've been in the room when both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos lost their cool (three separate occasions, fortunately I was not the target.) Steve was quietly upset "how are we going to fix this?" and "we're never going to let this happen again, are we?" with all the weight those comments imply. Bezos and Gates both lit into the person with a clear intention to make their victims feel like nothing (both in different ways brought up the victims family as well.) I worked at Amazon and Microsoft, but not Apple.

abawany 11y ago
Re. Gates/humanitarian: he is not regarded as one for his work at Microsoft but due to his work at the Gates Foundation. Are you able to say that the world would be better off if the Gates Foundation did not exist?
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- johansch 11y ago
  The more relevant question is: would the world be better off if Microsoft (and thus also the Gates Foundation) never existed?
Nullabillity 11y ago
> One observable consequence of this is that Steve Jobs who gave us so much is widely reviled, while Bill Gates who destroyed the packaged software industry Hahaha, what? iOS set a huge negative precedence and pretty much killed off any hope for a mainstream phone that wasn't focused on consuming pre-approved content.
- eli 11y ago
  > iOS set a huge negative precedence That's unfair. Before iOS you typically had to go to your carrier's app store to download anything. Verizon's policies about who gets listed and how much it costs were much worse than iOS.
  - enjo 11y ago
    PalmOS had a wide open app model and it was awesome.
    - jshevek 11y ago
      Yes. The iPhone was a huge step backwards in my opinion, but at the time the only people who seemed to understand this were PalmOS users.
      - robotresearcher 11y ago
        And Blackberry users. Blackberry was pretty damn good.
      - Nullabillity 11y ago
        Even S60 had a pretty decent open market.
    - Spooky23 11y ago
      Yes, the dozen applications available were great.
      - 11y ago
pboutros 11y ago
To be fair, Larry Page apparently declined several times to be interviewed for this article.
tamana 11y ago
Jobs gave these interviews for Apple products not himself. He arranged massive puff pieces (magazine covers) on Apple and their products to coincide with launches of new products.
tamana 11y ago
Jobs gave these interviews for Apple products not himself. He arranged massive puff pieces (magazine covers) on Apple and their products to coincide with launches of new products.

lukasm 11y ago

Was gonna say. But why? Just pure PR?

ProAm 11y ago

Probably because of Davos?

IBM 11y ago

I seem to read one around their earnings reports.

ekianjo 11y ago

Just like there is a piece on Musk every now and then. I dont mind either way but these articles are really shallow in substance.

avmich 11y ago
I'd like to know what innovation Larry brings to the company these days. Especially technical innovation, rather than managerial one, as the primary meaning of the word. Musk is the chief technical specialist in SpaceX, as he put himself. It's unclear what he does on this role, but his explanations are touching some rather deep details, so at least he looks like having a good understanding of technical aspects of SpaceX systems.
- colechristensen 11y ago
  Aerospace vehicles are designed in a hierarchy with a whole lot of individuals specializing in one piece of one subsystem, but by the nature of aircraft everything is very codependent. You can't just design thermo, avionics, structures, aero, payload, etc. in a vacuum; the tiniest details of one subsystem have reverberating effects in all of the others. At the top you usually have a set of old guys (you might have read Skunk Works, those old guys are Kelly Johnson and Ben Rich in that book) but in this case Musk and likely a few others... a set of people who have to know a little bit about everything and enough to drive the important piece of engineering of the moment towards a successful project.
- tamana 11y ago
  Wow some people think Musk is the chief technical specialist on SpaceX? That guy is an awesome self-promoter.
ignoramous 11y ago
Larry Page and Elon Musk probably have hired the same PR firm? Not a far fetched possibility given that they're friends with each other themselves.
- visakanv 11y ago

hgh 11y ago

Alphabet earnings report coming up: http://www.nasdaq.com/earnings/report/goog http://www.nasdaq.com/earnings/report/goog