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The question wasn't how hard they worked, but how must value they created. As a trivial example, digging a ditch and then filling back in has work X and value 0
by a1369209993 5y ago
The question wasn't how hard they worked, but how must value they created. As a trivial example, digging a ditch and then filling back in has work X and value 0, wheras digging the same ditch and then digging slightly further to connect it to a river and provide convenient water for irrigation has work X/2(+1) and value 1 (in some arbitrary units). Forbe's list is populated by people whose work ultimately consists primarily of creating problems for others to solve.
- ksdale 5y agoThat seems obviously untrue as well. The business world runs on Excel. Before Amazon, shipping so cheap and so fast was unimaginable, not to mention being able to find anything, anywhere. SpaceX is making getting stuff into orbit possible again after a very long time. Despite the fact that ads suck, Google has created a ton of value in my life. All of this stuff is far from perfect, but it's definitely value.
- a1369209993 5y ago> The business world runs on Excel. (To take the most straightforward example.) Bill Gates did not write Excel. None of the programming or other actual, object level work involved in creating the value of Excel was done by Bills Gates, personally. It was done by programmers and other employees at Microsoft. Not even much, and not "obviously" even any, of the meta-level work of separating those who benefited from Excel from their money (nominally, and to a limited extent actually, to support those who did the object-level work) was done by Bill Gates. The question is what value Bill Gates produced, not his employees.
- ksdale 5y agoOk so he wrote an operating system. And then you'll say that wasn't actually valuable, leaving aside the question of whether Microsoft would have existed at all without him.