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End of an era. Jeff's concept of the API mandate was such small and pivotal moment in technology, I may put it up there with Edison's lightbulb or James Watt's
by legitster 5y ago
End of an era.
Jeff's concept of the API mandate was such small and pivotal moment in technology, I may put it up there with Edison's lightbulb or James Watt's addition of the condenser to the steam engine.
There is a lot left if Bezos' career. There is no telling what he will do next or what his final legacy will be. But regardless, Amazon is quite a thing. It's not the biggest or wealthiest corporation on the planet, but it is far and away the most important right now.
It's quite a thing he made. It will be interesting to see what Amazon does without him.
(But again, I may have said the same thing about the Gates/Balmer era of Microsoft, but I think Microsoft has arguably done better since).
- thefourthchime 5y agoLet's not conflate the Gates in Balmer era at Microsoft. The Gates era produced some of the finest software Microsoft ever made, Windows 2000, Visual Studio and Office 2000. They had a real focus on developers, and developer support (remember when MSDN didn't suck?). In spite of Balmer jumping up and down on stage yelling "Developers!!", he had no idea how to build a software company and subsequently nearly drove it into the ground.
- azinman2 5y agoLet’s also recognize that while clearly both of these guys (Bezos and Gates) are clear outliers in talent and execution, they themselves did not build these companies and products alone. They were supported by thousands and thousands of people. And many of them coming up with the important ingredients that made it all happen.
- legitster 5y agoHaha! Fair enough. Although, to give Ballmer some credit, he inherited a lot of structural problems in the business, and I merged their eras because it was never very clear when Gates actually let go of all of the reigns.
- taneq 5y ago> In spite of Balmer jumping up and down on stage yelling "Developers!!" ... If you actually know how to support developers you don't need to jump up and down on stage screaming about it.