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Didn't Steve Ballmer start off at MSFT essentially in a biz ops role, supporting execs when the company was super small? Interesting how he became technical as

Didn't Steve Ballmer start off at MSFT essentially in a biz ops role, supporting execs when the company was super small? Interesting how he became technical as the company grew. Pretty rare.

re-thc 2y ago
> Didn't Steve Ballmer start off at MSFT essentially in a biz ops role Yes, business manager. > Interesting how he became technical as the company grew. That's not clear from this. This shows he knew some concepts as part of managing different teams in the company.
- hi-v-rocknroll 2y ago
  Ballmer was good at riding coat-tails of others as a supporting figure but eventually started running MSFT into the ground. He demanded to personally evaluate every M&A activity >$10M. No bueno.
sudo_bang_bang 2y ago
He graduated with a mathematics degree from Harvard so the concept of binary search would have likely been familiar to him. But you’re right, as far as I can tell, he never did any technical work like programming in his career.
- ezero 2y ago
  Not only that, he was also better than Gates at math. From the acquired podcast episode on Microsoft: > Ben: He's gregarious. Anyone who's ever met Steve or seen a video of Steve, you are well aware that this man has a presence. But the thing that people don't know about him is he is so unbelievably analytical. Steve is the guy that outscored Bill Gates on the Putnam exam. source: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/microsoft https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/microsoft
throwaway984393 2y ago
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__coaxialcabal 2y ago
It's surprising the extent to which the tech community overfits towards classifying intelligent individuals as either exclusively technical or nontechnical. Recruiters are especially weak in this regard, e.g., if you've ever been effective at sales or people leadership, you are likely ineffective at swe or data science or vice versa. The most intelligent folks I've worked with are very diverse in their interests and abilities. You can see this in an elementary school GT classroom. Why does the tech community believe this is always an either/or proposition?
- re-thc 2y ago
  > The most intelligent folks I've worked with are very diverse in their interests and abilities. > as either exclusively technical or nontechnical This applies outside of tech or generally in any role e.g. if you're a backend engineer they assume you don't know frontend or if you're a marketing specialist you're not good at sales. I never get it either. We're people not machines but most people have this assumption like we're a game character - you get a job / trait and that's it.
- Eumenes 2y ago
  Because we live in an era of specialization. Look at a companies job page - even startups have silos. I don't think this is strange or unusual. Its hard to be good at everything. If I'm spending 8+ hours per day doing sales, where am I going to find the time to be good at other things? Most people are working for the weekend or to spend time with their families. Diving into far off subjects related to work isn't always exciting.
- aeonik 2y ago
  Technical is just a code word for "having a detailed understanding of something". Almost everything is technical if you focus on it long enough, because almost everything is complicated. This is because almost everything interacts with the real world, which is hellishly complicated and detailed.
  - andrewflnr 2y ago
    That's a (potentially) good perspective, but not how people use "technical" in the wild.

Didn't Steve Ballmer start off at MSFT essentially in a biz ops role, supporting execs when the company was super small? Interesting how he became technical as the company grew. Pretty rare.

re-thc 2y ago

> Didn't Steve Ballmer start off at MSFT essentially in a biz ops role Yes, business manager. > Interesting how he became technical as the company grew. That's not clear from this. This shows he knew some concepts as part of managing different teams in the company.

hi-v-rocknroll 2y ago
Ballmer was good at riding coat-tails of others as a supporting figure but eventually started running MSFT into the ground. He demanded to personally evaluate every M&A activity >$10M. No bueno.

sudo_bang_bang 2y ago

He graduated with a mathematics degree from Harvard so the concept of binary search would have likely been familiar to him. But you’re right, as far as I can tell, he never did any technical work like programming in his career.

ezero 2y ago
Not only that, he was also better than Gates at math. From the acquired podcast episode on Microsoft: > Ben: He's gregarious. Anyone who's ever met Steve or seen a video of Steve, you are well aware that this man has a presence. But the thing that people don't know about him is he is so unbelievably analytical. Steve is the guy that outscored Bill Gates on the Putnam exam. source: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/microsoft https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/microsoft

throwaway984393 2y ago

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__coaxialcabal 2y ago

It's surprising the extent to which the tech community overfits towards classifying intelligent individuals as either exclusively technical or nontechnical. Recruiters are especially weak in this regard, e.g., if you've ever been effective at sales or people leadership, you are likely ineffective at swe or data science or vice versa. The most intelligent folks I've worked with are very diverse in their interests and abilities. You can see this in an elementary school GT classroom. Why does the tech community believe this is always an either/or proposition?

re-thc 2y ago
> The most intelligent folks I've worked with are very diverse in their interests and abilities. > as either exclusively technical or nontechnical This applies outside of tech or generally in any role e.g. if you're a backend engineer they assume you don't know frontend or if you're a marketing specialist you're not good at sales. I never get it either. We're people not machines but most people have this assumption like we're a game character - you get a job / trait and that's it.
Eumenes 2y ago
Because we live in an era of specialization. Look at a companies job page - even startups have silos. I don't think this is strange or unusual. Its hard to be good at everything. If I'm spending 8+ hours per day doing sales, where am I going to find the time to be good at other things? Most people are working for the weekend or to spend time with their families. Diving into far off subjects related to work isn't always exciting.
aeonik 2y ago
Technical is just a code word for "having a detailed understanding of something". Almost everything is technical if you focus on it long enough, because almost everything is complicated. This is because almost everything interacts with the real world, which is hellishly complicated and detailed.
- andrewflnr 2y ago
  That's a (potentially) good perspective, but not how people use "technical" in the wild.