3 ms·
> Ballmer is an opportunist, pure and simple. You say that as if it were a condemnation. Everybody who runs a business is an opportunist, pure and simple.
by ThrowawayR2 7y ago
> Ballmer is an opportunist, pure and simple.
You say that as if it were a condemnation. Everybody who runs a business is an opportunist, pure and simple.
- jacquesm 7y agoTo a coarse approximation, yes. But very few people would go to the lengths that Ballmer was prepared to go to. In a more just society these guys would be behind bars rather than pretending to be philanthropists.
- ThrowawayR2 7y ago> But very few people would go to the lengths that Ballmer was prepared to go to. Larry Ellison? Scott McNealy? I'm sure I could think of others if I had the time. Ballmer was merely the most visible because MS was at the top of the food chain at the time.
- jacquesm 7y agoGood point about Ellison and McNealy, Jobs figures in there somewhere as well given how he treated his business partner.
- fortran77 7y agoThat would be fine if he didn't pretend to be a man of "principles" built on a foundation that can not be shaken.
- ThrowawayR2 7y ago* cough * "Don't be evil." * cough * .
- asveikau 7y agoEveryone who runs a business, just like everyone in any other life circumstance, must balance multiple concerns at the same time. So, the need to make money, and the need not to be a jerk. They can and should overlap in the same individual. We've gone through periods in our culture where we glorify greed and self-interest. (Commentary like yours makes me think of Reaganites or Ayn Rand.) We've gone through other periods where we acknowledge the need to band together. (Think 1960s hippies.) A functioning person probably needs both types of influence at various times of their lives. I get really tired of how many people glorify or worship the former and neglect the latter.