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> The cult of personality ~~around Marissa~~ is just confusing ~~to me~~. Lest we forget Elizabeth Holmes, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs and for those old enough to re
by antt 8y ago
> The cult of personality ~~around Marissa~~ is just confusing ~~to me~~.
Lest we forget Elizabeth Holmes, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs and for those old enough to remember Bill Gates in the 90s.
If you're lucky you die before you start making terrible decisions. A quote from Napoleon that he supposedly said while in exile "Had I been hit by a canon ball on my entry into Moscow I would have been remembered as the greatest statesman and general the world had ever seen".
- JudasGoatse 8y agoElizabeth Holmes is the only appropriate comparison here. Those others were worshipped because they actually created value. Marissa never did that. In fact, like Holmes, she destroyed quite a bit of it.
- antt 8y agoHardly, they are worshiped because they have good spin doctors and are/were attention whores. Value creation is a dangerous proposition to measure people by, after all today's value is tomorrow stock market crash.
- JudasGoatse 8y agoReally, are you arguing that Bill Gates and Steve Jobs did nothing but spin? Their companies are worth hundreds of billions of dollars decades later. If you think that's just an illusion then I hope you're smart enough to have someone else manage your money ... and possibly everything else in your life.
- antt 8y agoGates broke the law and nearly destroyed his company. Had he been less well politically connected the appeal would have gone another way and we would have had at least three Microsofts today. Like I said, 'value' is a dangerous proposition to measure anyone by.
- JudasGoatse 8y agoLol. Ifs, buts, shoulda-beens, almost-weres. I'm sure most successes flirt with failure at some point. So what? There's no arguing that both men created immense value. It's totally appropriate that they're lauded for it. I don't know why you're trying to be such a spoilsport about it. Don't begrudge smart, hardworking people their success, it makes you look like a bitter wingnut. I mean, really: Microsoft and Apple are shams? That's the hill you want to defend?
- antt 8y agoThere are no ifs and buts. Microsoft wasn't destroyed as a monopoly by the skin of its teeth. Much to the detriment of posterity. Here's hoping the next president starts treating digital monopolies like regular ones.
- Udik 8y agoSo Bill Gates proved his incompetence by growing a company to the point of becoming a monopoly, at risk of dismemberment by the antitrust?
- JudasGoatse 8y agoForget it, he's obviously a wingnut.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- w0utert 8y agoI think Bill Gates was brilliant leading Microsoft. I hated about everything Microsoft did, I hated their software, and to this day I hate their history of crushing alternatives/competitors that were much higher quality than whatever Microsoft was selling. They are a much better company today, but in the past Microsoft was really a bully of a company. None of this speaks against Bill Gates being a genius making Microsoft as powerful and successful as it was and still is though, to the contrary. You may not have liked his style (I didn't), but he did a lot of things right. It's why 90% of business are more or less chained to the Windows platform to this day.
- conradfr 8y agoI guess sociopaths can do no wrong except live too long. But it would be the opposite for Bill Gates wouldn't it?
- Tomis02 8y agoBill Gates was actually very technical, so at least he had that going for him. Completely agree with the rest.
- antt 8y agoHe was, he also was acting like the founder of a tiny startup while being the CEO of the largest company in the world.