Reflections on My Career at Microsoft • Hacker News Board

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#31

Post by Baeocystin » Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 6:58 PM UTC

username90 wrote: post #19

didibus wrote: post #13

> At its core, Microsoft is a company that makes its money the old fashioned way: by creating products of value that people willingly part with their money to use. Call me skeptical, but there's not a whole lot of products I willfully pay Microsoft for. Most of them I pay for with a strong feeling of resentment that I have simply no other choice, since there are no competitors to the market or the lock in is too stro…

Good point, I have never once felt "Wow, a new Microsoft product, can't wait to buy it!". Instead it is usually more like "Oh shit, a new Mirosoft product, I hope I wont be forced to buy it to stay compatible".

I've felt this about Microsoft hardware, for what it's worth. I really like their mice, keyboards, and the Surface line.

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#32

Post by dag11 » Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 6:58 PM UTC

tpmx wrote: post #21

So.. I just posted something here and it was immediately (like within 30 seconds) flagged and buried. https://imgur.com/a/pBRO4nD What does this say about about Microsoft people on HN? You may be sorta new employees, but the company you signed up for is not new. Microsoft set back the development of computing quite a bit during the 80s/90s/00s, before it became less relevant. You guys should study the behavior of Ger…

Making blanket, vague criticism against "millenials" isn't particularly great discourse.

Edit: And after your edit just now adding a reference to Germany is _so close_ to being Godwin's Law? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#33

Post by tpmx » Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 6:58 PM UTC

oneepic wrote: post #28

tpmx wrote: post #21

So.. I just posted something here and it was immediately (like within 30 seconds) flagged and buried. https://imgur.com/a/pBRO4nD What does this say about about Microsoft people on HN? You may be sorta new employees, but the company you signed up for is not new. Microsoft set back the development of computing quite a bit during the 80s/90s/00s, before it became less relevant. You guys should study the behavior of Ger…

I didn't flag it, but it's a weird jab at millennials.

Have you seen the reactions to the billg AmA's on reddit? They love this guy. Obviously it's all super-engineered by some very crafty PR firm.

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#34

Post by pc86 » Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 7:04 PM UTC

tpmx wrote: post #33

oneepic wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't flag it, but it's a weird jab at millennials.

Have you seen the reactions to the billg AmA's on reddit? They love this guy. Obviously it's all super-engineered by some very crafty PR firm.

These nonsense comments smack of a personal agenda that is more concerned with hating him because he has money than anything to do with this article, which is the point of discussion here. Gates' Reddit AMA response and how much money he has is irrelevant in the context of an article about Nadella's leadership of a Microsoft nearly two decades after his departure.

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#35

Post by dwoozle » Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 7:08 PM UTC

jarjoura wrote: post #11

I'm not so sure the problem with Microsoft was its toxic culture. So many of the key points in that article you could say ring true of Apple. Steve Jobs relished in the fact that people feared him. He literally built an entire company of yes men, right down to the chefs in the kitchen. It meant, when his strategy was right, the company did well. However, when it was wrong, it also hurt the whole company. Tim Cook is…

The Jobs model works when you have a Jobs, or Gates, or Musk, someone whose inherent talent is so strong that the organization can look to him for all decisions. But the strategy for running a company in the long term cannot assume such a pope. If you have Michael Jordan on your basketball team your strategy can be “give him the ball” — if you are just five ordinary guys you will need a philosophy.

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#36

Post by tpmx » Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 7:09 PM UTC

pc86 wrote: post #34

tpmx wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you seen the reactions to the billg AmA's on reddit? They love this guy. Obviously it's all super-engineered by some very crafty PR firm.

These nonsense comments smack of a personal agenda that is more concerned with hating him because he has money than anything to do with this article , which is the point of discussion here. Gates' Reddit AMA response and how much money he has is irrelevant in the context of an article about Nadella's leadership of a Microsoft nearly two decades after his departure.

What about these comments of mine are nonsense, in your optionion? Please clarify in detail.

I'm not hating at Bill Gates for having money. I'm hating at him because he abused the market and set us back. We would have been so much further by now in terms of software development if it hadn't been for him.

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#37

Post by hiei » Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 7:12 PM UTC

repolfx wrote: post #27

Shebanator wrote: post #8

An interesting article, which I think accurately describes my brief time at Microsoft during the Ballmer era (our startup was acquired after the bubble burst). But his definition of "made men" seems very vague and very convenient. The people who Nadella appointed to higher positions were almost entirely people who had been at Microsoft for many years. Why are some "made men" and some are not? The definition seems pri…

Worse, it seems more about whether they're men at all. I got to the end and stopped reading. I thought this article was going to get into specifics of what these so called "made men" did wrong, it turned out to be a ra-ra feminist piece. I've learned the hard way these sorts of people often have very wrong and warped ideas of what makes people successful or unsuccessful so that was a disappointment. Not worth reading…

He's not going to name names. Those lifers in MS probably know who he's talking about, he did name products as well. Those folks can infer. Ra-ra feminist piece? Think we're reading different things. What he said regarding women rings true.

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#38

Post by tpmx » Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 7:12 PM UTC

dag11 wrote: post #32

tpmx wrote: post #21

So.. I just posted something here and it was immediately (like within 30 seconds) flagged and buried. https://imgur.com/a/pBRO4nD What does this say about about Microsoft people on HN? You may be sorta new employees, but the company you signed up for is not new. Microsoft set back the development of computing quite a bit during the 80s/90s/00s, before it became less relevant. You guys should study the behavior of Ger…

Making blanket, vague criticism against "millenials" isn't particularly great discourse. Edit: And after your edit just now adding a reference to Germany is _so close_ to being Godwin's Law? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law

I referenced post-WW2 Germany for their demonstrated ability to deal with a past national sin. Sorry, I thought that was an obvious reference.

Edit: Did you really miss the word "after"?

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#39

Post by hiei » Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 7:14 PM UTC

didibus wrote: post #13

> At its core, Microsoft is a company that makes its money the old fashioned way: by creating products of value that people willingly part with their money to use. Call me skeptical, but there's not a whole lot of products I willfully pay Microsoft for. Most of them I pay for with a strong feeling of resentment that I have simply no other choice, since there are no competitors to the market or the lock in is too stro…

I would agree on the consumer level, enterprise not so much. Making big moves in ERP space among other places.

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#40

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet » Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 7:18 PM UTC

didibus wrote: post #13

> At its core, Microsoft is a company that makes its money the old fashioned way: by creating products of value that people willingly part with their money to use. Call me skeptical, but there's not a whole lot of products I willfully pay Microsoft for. Most of them I pay for with a strong feeling of resentment that I have simply no other choice, since there are no competitors to the market or the lock in is too stro…

> Call me skeptical, but there's not a whole lot of products I willfully pay Microsoft for.

I have met many, many people who gladly pay for Office (specifically, Excel) or Visual Studio, so much does it increase their productivity. I'm not one of them, but I'm not an accountant and the code bases I work with are small and don't require VS's incredible tooling.

There are also adherents of the cult of Visio, but I honestly can't fathom what they see in it.

Microsoft can be faulted for many things, but the reason it is so successful is that it made some really good products that still haven't been surpassed.