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Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

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Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#151

Post by bjornsing »

pm90 wrote: post #93
dwoozle wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is exactly correct. Organizations that create dependency on such highly performing individuals can coast on their talent while they're around but once they're gone, its hard to replace them. Usually these uber-productive individuals are required and necessary during the early stages of a corporation where you literally need that kind of productivity to survive. Once an org matures though, there is no such requir…

Oh yea? So at what point do you feel Apple had no more use for Steve?

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#152

Post by taurath »

com2kid wrote: post #92
ephermata wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There were at least two programs when I was there. I heard a lot more about them under Ballmer than under Satya. HiPo -- for junior to mid level -- special training, networking, and seminars. MiniMSFT comments section mentions this from time to time. Bench -- for mid to later career, usually on the way to "partner" or above level -- same as HiPo, but may be asked to work on a project with others in Bench, may see att…

Ah thanks for jogging memory in regards to the names. :) > Neither one had any official impact on ratings, rewards, or career velocity. Ah interesting, my understanding was that people who can gone through HiPo were sorta blessed. Then again I guess in theory the people who get selected for HiPo should already be doing the work to make their career velocity look good. I saw all sorts of interesting stuff while I was…

It was only because they weren’t good enough that they didn’t succeed, not that they were “too early”. Right idea, wrong execution, or frequently the hardware not being there yet, and not pouncing when it was.

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#153

Post by taurath »

Nimitz14 wrote: post #132
JohnFen wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apparently you've never used Visual Studio. It is amazing. I've used it heavily for years, and I disagree with this assessment. I avoid it whenever I have the option.

So you just accept using a 2nd rate C++ IDE? Because there isn't any debate, Visual Studio is the best.

“There can be no criticism of Visual Studio” seems wrong on the face of it.

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#154

Post by tinus_hn »

wbl wrote: post #150
GordonS wrote: post #85

> The unsurprising result is that Windows continues its tradition of boring... Come on, I understand the criticisms of botched updates, but Microsoft under Satya has been anything but boring - the incredible push towards open source is something many thought could never happen! WSL and the upcoming WSL2 are likewise anything but boring - Linux! In Windows!

Windows NT had personalities for decades. It's a very old capability.

They were there from the beginning. Personalities are a feature only Microsoft can use though and it’s only now that they appear to be using it for something positive. It could be another embrace and extend attempt though.

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#155

Post by pm90 »

bjornsing wrote: post #151
pm90 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly correct. Organizations that create dependency on such highly performing individuals can coast on their talent while they're around but once they're gone, its hard to replace them. Usually these uber-productive individuals are required and necessary during the early stages of a corporation where you literally need that kind of productivity to survive. Once an org matures though, there is no such requir…

Oh yea? So at what point do you feel Apple had no more use for Steve?

It’s hard to give a good answer as I’m not privy to what was going on within Apple when he worked there. If I had to guess, I would say that Apples future was safe after the release of the first iPhone, and that Jobs could have stepped down at that point and the company would have done just fine.

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#156

Post by throwaway0889 »

solidasparagus wrote: post #140
throwaway0889 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> saying idiotic things like "no one would buy such an expensive phone" (about the iPhone). This is something that people keep saying but he way actually right and at this point this is just an Internet meme. I remember that moment. The iPhone costed $800 with a phone plan. Insane. Nobody does that even today, so in that regard he was right. Only after the iPhone 3 and $200 phone with a contract did it ever start sel…

The original iPhone did $745M in revenue before the iPhone 3G was released (not 100% sure if that the one you're talking about since there was never a phone called the iPhone 3). Not exactly 'nobody'...

Then why did the price drop 4x and sales grew 3x with the iPhone 3g?

Seriously, if price wasn't a problem and Ballmer was wrong, why did Apple even drop the price?

Truth is this wasn't that long ago, I still remember it, and the price drop was a huge deal to a lot of people.

Articles like these were everywhere.

https://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_090622.html

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#157

Post by coldtea »

inetknght wrote: post #98
FakeComments wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience of presenting as female online in video games is I got a lot more attention, help, and outright handouts. I want to see an actual study, because my anecdata doesn’t match the claimed experience.

You don't think that getting more attention, help, and outright handouts isn't its own form of bullying? You don't think it hints at an ever-more underlying reason behind the attention, help, and handouts?

>You don't think that getting more attention, help, and outright handouts isn't its own form of bullying?

Yes, if we distort bullying out of all sense to just mean "different treatment"...

In that sense, a rich person who receives more attention, the best seats in the house, VIP treatment where they go, are also "bullied".

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#158

Post by vezycash »

com2kid wrote: post #120
breck wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing you said surprises me. It was fucking amazing. The v2 was a great leap over the v1, which was a leap over the other competitors. You could just tell how much effort went into those things. And you could tell that everyone was on board with making the best product possible, hunting for 10x+ leaps, and putting the user first. Thank you! As a user it changed my life. I will never not wear them (on the Versa 2 no…

> I would love to read the high-level strategic thinking behind that. 1. It was the time of "One Windows". It didn't run Windows, and Windows wasn't going to ready to run on a wearable anytime soon. 2. It was expensive to manufacture. Curved screen, curved batteries, 2 rigid bodies. Everything about the industrial design was completely custom. It was amazing we even pulled it off at all. 3. Microsoft is afraid of ent…

> Microsoft is afraid of entering new HW territories,

Correction: Nadella is afraid of entering new HW... He came on board with a chain saw and cut like crazy

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#159

Post by vezycash »

throwaway0889 wrote: post #156
solidasparagus wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The original iPhone did $745M in revenue before the iPhone 3G was released (not 100% sure if that the one you're talking about since there was never a phone called the iPhone 3). Not exactly 'nobody'...

Then why did the price drop 4x and sales grew 3x with the iPhone 3g? Seriously, if price wasn't a problem and Ballmer was wrong, why did Apple even drop the price? Truth is this wasn't that long ago, I still remember it, and the price drop was a huge deal to a lot of people. Articles like these were everywhere. https://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_090622.html

Thanks for the link. Many people feel that things we take for granted today were obvious successes in the past. Almost none of them ever hit the ground running.

Electricity, the internet, eCommerce, iPhone, even Bitcoin weren't obvious hits in the least. If the success of bitcoin was guaranteed or obvious, In 2009, I'd have bought 111,111 bitcoins for $100 at $0.0009 per bitcoin.

Now, I'd be a billionaire.

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#160

Post by mkr-hn »

DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #104
anon1m0us wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you get your employer to hear you? I don't think these problems are isolated to women. I think women just don't understand that there's an "old boys club" that attacks other men too. I know lots of men who say the same things. Pitting employees against each other. The masters recruiting spies from among the ranks to report dissenting comments from the servants. Cutting back on coffee breaks. Not being allowed…

> How do you get your employer to hear you? At the risk of sounding flip, I'd say a lawsuit generally works.

Then they're the person who sued their last employer.
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