Revisiting the spectacular failure that was the Bill Gates deposition
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Re: Revisiting the spectacular failure that was the Bill Gates deposition
#2The entire thing is on YouTube. Part one starts here: https://youtu.be/m_2m1qdqieE
Worth a watch imo.
Re: Revisiting the spectacular failure that was the Bill Gates deposition
#3While there might or might not be questionable or illegal things that Bill Gates did, by himself or as the MS corporation at that time, the over-fixation of the article on how he is talking to the attorney in the deposition seems misguided and amateurish.
Boies: What non-Microsoft browsers were you concerned about in January of 1996?
Gates: I don’t know what you mean “concerned.”
Boies: What is it about the word “concerned” that you don’t understand?
Gates: I’m not sure what you mean by it.
Boies: Is—
Gates: Is there a document where I use that term?
Boies: Is the term “concerned” a term that you’re familiar with in the English language?
Gates: Yes.
Boies: Does it have a meaning that you’re familiar with?
Gates: Yes.
If you are on the other side of this, it is your job to prevent this use of language and make sure that they don't manage to implicate yourself in any way, by nonchalant use of words. Being vigilant about your use of specific words in specific contents, and about querying what exactly they are trying to say by each question seems like a good default approach to the problem of not giving your opponent attorney more ammunition than they should fairly have. I imagine Mr. Gates was used to mistreatment by lawyers and simply speaks their language at that point.
Re: Revisiting the spectacular failure that was the Bill Gates deposition
#4While there might or might not be questionable or illegal things that Bill Gates did, by himself or as the MS corporation at that time, the over-fixation of the article on how he is talking to the attorney in the deposition seems misguided and amateurish. Boies: What non-Microsoft browsers were you concerned about in January of 1996? Gates: I don’t know what you mean “concerned.” Boies: What is it about the word “con…
If you haven’t been deposed this will look weird. But depositions are about “gotcha” moments, so your job as the person being deposed is to play the game and only answer questions with minimal information and force the attorney asking questions to really work for it. It’s about being purely logical. If they ask you what two plus two is, respond vaguely and ask for clarification. “Are you asking about numbers? Or objects? What does plus mean in the context of this question.” Etc.
Re: Revisiting the spectacular failure that was the Bill Gates deposition
#5While there might or might not be questionable or illegal things that Bill Gates did, by himself or as the MS corporation at that time, the over-fixation of the article on how he is talking to the attorney in the deposition seems misguided and amateurish. Boies: What non-Microsoft browsers were you concerned about in January of 1996? Gates: I don’t know what you mean “concerned.” Boies: What is it about the word “con…
Yes. Just reading the snippet you included, I'm on Bill's side here. "Concerned" can mean all sorts of things!
If he answers "Netscape Navigator", then the Boies will continue on with the meaning that Gates was viewing them as a competitive threat.
If he answers "None", then Boies can go down the path of Microsoft not giving a damn about interoperability with 3rd-party software.
Re: Revisiting the spectacular failure that was the Bill Gates deposition
#6While there might or might not be questionable or illegal things that Bill Gates did, by himself or as the MS corporation at that time, the over-fixation of the article on how he is talking to the attorney in the deposition seems misguided and amateurish. Boies: What non-Microsoft browsers were you concerned about in January of 1996? Gates: I don’t know what you mean “concerned.” Boies: What is it about the word “con…
If you haven’t been deposed this will look weird. But depositions are about “gotcha” moments, so your job as the person being deposed is to play the game and only answer questions with minimal information and force the attorney asking questions to really work for it. It’s about being purely logical. If they ask you what two plus two is, respond vaguely and ask for clarification. “Are you asking about numbers? Or obje…
The NYT has an amazing video where they got actors to play out the transcript of one of these sorts of depositions.
Re: Revisiting the spectacular failure that was the Bill Gates deposition
#7While there might or might not be questionable or illegal things that Bill Gates did, by himself or as the MS corporation at that time, the over-fixation of the article on how he is talking to the attorney in the deposition seems misguided and amateurish. Boies: What non-Microsoft browsers were you concerned about in January of 1996? Gates: I don’t know what you mean “concerned.” Boies: What is it about the word “con…
Stop it Jian Yang
Re: Revisiting the spectacular failure that was the Bill Gates deposition
#8While there might or might not be questionable or illegal things that Bill Gates did, by himself or as the MS corporation at that time, the over-fixation of the article on how he is talking to the attorney in the deposition seems misguided and amateurish. Boies: What non-Microsoft browsers were you concerned about in January of 1996? Gates: I don’t know what you mean “concerned.” Boies: What is it about the word “con…
If you haven’t been deposed this will look weird. But depositions are about “gotcha” moments, so your job as the person being deposed is to play the game and only answer questions with minimal information and force the attorney asking questions to really work for it. It’s about being purely logical. If they ask you what two plus two is, respond vaguely and ask for clarification. “Are you asking about numbers? Or obje…
To the public, it looks like another "It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is."
The general public hates lawyers. But it hates weasels even more. And CEOs acting like weasels even more than that. That's why congressional hearings are sometimes delightful to watch. It feeds our hatred of CEO "others."
There are plenty of CEOs who can talk to lawyers, even in a public forum, and do it well. Splitting hairs never looks good. It makes you look guilty.
Re: Revisiting the spectacular failure that was the Bill Gates deposition
#9While there might or might not be questionable or illegal things that Bill Gates did, by himself or as the MS corporation at that time, the over-fixation of the article on how he is talking to the attorney in the deposition seems misguided and amateurish. Boies: What non-Microsoft browsers were you concerned about in January of 1996? Gates: I don’t know what you mean “concerned.” Boies: What is it about the word “con…
Yes. Just reading the snippet you included, I'm on Bill's side here. "Concerned" can mean all sorts of things ! If he answers "Netscape Navigator", then the Boies will continue on with the meaning that Gates was viewing them as a competitive threat. If he answers "None", then Boies can go down the path of Microsoft not giving a damn about interoperability with 3rd-party software.
Exactly. If he would have questioned the word 'browser' then he would have played games.
Re: Revisiting the spectacular failure that was the Bill Gates deposition
#10While there might or might not be questionable or illegal things that Bill Gates did, by himself or as the MS corporation at that time, the over-fixation of the article on how he is talking to the attorney in the deposition seems misguided and amateurish. Boies: What non-Microsoft browsers were you concerned about in January of 1996? Gates: I don’t know what you mean “concerned.” Boies: What is it about the word “con…
The opening question here pre-supposes he was concerned. Unless the prior discussion had Gates explicitly saying he was concerned (which I assume it didn’t based on Gates asking about a document using the term), then it makes complete sense to me to respond with a question rather than an answer. I’d have probably gone with “When did I say I was concerned about non-Microsoft browsers in January 1996?”