4 ms·

You have to take the good with the bad. Steve and Bill were able to accomplish what they did because of their unique personality quirks. Those same quirks make

You have to take the good with the bad. Steve and Bill were able to accomplish what they did because of their unique personality quirks. Those same quirks make them not always compassionate or empathetic people. No one is perfect. Steve was who he was. A lot of people who were closest to him seemed very sad that he passed. He must have made a positive impression on them.

soperj 5y ago
Sorry, but disavowing your daughter to not pay child support, or trying to recoup someones shares because they have cancer isn't a personality quirk.
- adventured 5y ago
  Since it's important to be accurate when you're condemning someone - Gates never tried to take back Paul Allen's shares. That isn't merely a bit of nuance. It never happened. The only thing that ever happened was the infamous discussion between Gates and Ballmer, which Allen overheard. Gates offered to purchase the shares in 1983, which Allen rejected. Allen is quite clear about what happened in his book Idea Man. A detestable conversation by Gates, certainly. And yet Allen checked out of Microsoft in 1982 and kept his enormous fortune from it and Gates never tried to take it from him. Everyone on HN would spontaneously combust if they were judged by their worst thoughts or conversations, without exception.
  - soperj 5y ago
    They were discussing ways to dilute his shares. Bill tried to buy him out at a much reduced rate ($5 a share). When they went public a couple years later, the share price was $35 on the first day. Either way the whole thing was precipitated because he wasn't being as productive on account of having cancer. Bill likes to say that the relationship was repaired near the end of Paul's life, but at the same time, he wouldn't take or return a call from him when he was on his death bed, which they talk about in the mini-doc "Inside Bill's Brain".

soperj 5y ago

Sorry, but disavowing your daughter to not pay child support, or trying to recoup someones shares because they have cancer isn't a personality quirk.

adventured 5y ago
Since it's important to be accurate when you're condemning someone - Gates never tried to take back Paul Allen's shares. That isn't merely a bit of nuance. It never happened. The only thing that ever happened was the infamous discussion between Gates and Ballmer, which Allen overheard. Gates offered to purchase the shares in 1983, which Allen rejected. Allen is quite clear about what happened in his book Idea Man. A detestable conversation by Gates, certainly. And yet Allen checked out of Microsoft in 1982 and kept his enormous fortune from it and Gates never tried to take it from him. Everyone on HN would spontaneously combust if they were judged by their worst thoughts or conversations, without exception.
- soperj 5y ago
  They were discussing ways to dilute his shares. Bill tried to buy him out at a much reduced rate ($5 a share). When they went public a couple years later, the share price was $35 on the first day. Either way the whole thing was precipitated because he wasn't being as productive on account of having cancer. Bill likes to say that the relationship was repaired near the end of Paul's life, but at the same time, he wouldn't take or return a call from him when he was on his death bed, which they talk about in the mini-doc "Inside Bill's Brain".