5 ms·

Reminds me of my all-time favorite Joel Spolsky story about Bill Gates' amazing technical free-diving skills and the Excel date compatibility problem. https://

Reminds me of my all-time favorite Joel Spolsky story about Bill Gates' amazing technical free-diving skills and the Excel date compatibility problem. https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-review/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-rev...

ggg9990 8y ago
It’s easy to forget that Bill Gates was once the Jeff Dean of his time.
- copperx 8y ago
  Bill Gates is a genius, maybe even in technical stuff, but he wasn't the Jeff Dean of his time.
  - ggg9990 8y ago
    Well of course, in a way, nobody could be, because software didn’t have the impact on the world then as it does now.
    - iainmerrick 8y ago
      I don't think that's entirely fair... It's true that computers and computerisation have never been so ubiquitous as they are now, but they've still been having a big impact for a long time. Off the top of my head, credit cards and ATMs, and the purchase tracking and credit scoring agencies they enabled, have been a big deal since the 60s, says Wikipedia. (I would have guessed later!) Can't do that without a lot of software.
    - coldtea 8y ago
      I'd say it had more impact then. The major impact of software and computing was front-loaded, as in, it came with the early hanging fruits: being able to computerize banking, government data, credit card transactions, international trading, etc. This gave a huge boost to market efficiency and globalization. The rest, with the internet, apps, online sales, etc, is just another outlet for doing business. Whether a 2B2 order happens on the web, or by old-style computer networks, or even by fax, is not that much of a difference.
  - snowwrestler 8y ago
    Bill Gates had the strategic vision to see that software was not only going to be a viable industry, it was likely to be the most valuable computer industry. It seems like he was good but not a spectacular programmer himself. Barbarians Led By Bill Gates is a great book about the relatively early days of Microsoft--early enough that the book describes some instances of programmers finding and replacing Bill's code with better stuff. IIRC there is at least one story of a new guy going "who wrote this crappy code" and then finding out it was Gates.
- optimuspaul 8y ago
  I wouldn't even say Jeff Dean is the Bill Gates of today. But I'd say that would be a more correct statement.

ggg9990 8y ago

It’s easy to forget that Bill Gates was once the Jeff Dean of his time.

copperx 8y ago
Bill Gates is a genius, maybe even in technical stuff, but he wasn't the Jeff Dean of his time.
- ggg9990 8y ago
  Well of course, in a way, nobody could be, because software didn’t have the impact on the world then as it does now.
  - iainmerrick 8y ago
    I don't think that's entirely fair... It's true that computers and computerisation have never been so ubiquitous as they are now, but they've still been having a big impact for a long time. Off the top of my head, credit cards and ATMs, and the purchase tracking and credit scoring agencies they enabled, have been a big deal since the 60s, says Wikipedia. (I would have guessed later!) Can't do that without a lot of software.
  - coldtea 8y ago
    I'd say it had more impact then. The major impact of software and computing was front-loaded, as in, it came with the early hanging fruits: being able to computerize banking, government data, credit card transactions, international trading, etc. This gave a huge boost to market efficiency and globalization. The rest, with the internet, apps, online sales, etc, is just another outlet for doing business. Whether a 2B2 order happens on the web, or by old-style computer networks, or even by fax, is not that much of a difference.
- snowwrestler 8y ago
  Bill Gates had the strategic vision to see that software was not only going to be a viable industry, it was likely to be the most valuable computer industry. It seems like he was good but not a spectacular programmer himself. Barbarians Led By Bill Gates is a great book about the relatively early days of Microsoft--early enough that the book describes some instances of programmers finding and replacing Bill's code with better stuff. IIRC there is at least one story of a new guy going "who wrote this crappy code" and then finding out it was Gates.
optimuspaul 8y ago
I wouldn't even say Jeff Dean is the Bill Gates of today. But I'd say that would be a more correct statement.