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Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

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Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#281

Post by funksta »

bjoveski wrote: post #272

If you want to learn more about MSFT during Ballmer era, i highly recommend the acquired podcast: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/microsoft-volume-ii They come to the same conclusion as Dan - that Ballmer did a ton of things right and he was actually a much better CEO than the credit he's given today. Part 1 of the podcast focuses on Bill Gates' era - both episodes are super engaging, the research and preparation th…

Great podcast and I really enjoyed their MSFT episodes.

I thought their pro-Ballmer angle was interesting at the time too (it was the first long-form defense of his tenure that I had heard), but I wasn't sure how much of that was due to him being a primary source for the podcast's material.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#282

Post by jimbob45 »

legitster wrote: post #178
snowwrestler wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is hindsight bias. Because other people took some of his later initiatives and made them successful, it’s tempting to look back and grant him these as wins. We should resist that temptation and judge him on the results he delivered. MS was the essential tech company, king of the world, and under his leadership their innovation stalled, they lost in markets where they were leading, the stock stagnated, and huge p…

Hindsight works both ways. Developing OSes and software was clearly an unsustainable business. It's obvious in hindsight that cloud infrastructure was the way to go. But at the time placing a lot of different bets to find a few successful product-market fits was the best you could ask for.

Developing OSes and software was clearly an unsustainable business. It's obvious in hindsight that cloud infrastructure was the way to go.

Cloud infrastructure has become a commodity though and you can replace your cloud provider easily (theoretically, lol). What moat can MS or anyone else build around cloud infrastructure? Compare to OS' where MS may never have had a competitor catch up if they'd kept up speed on their OS teams.

Same with video games these days. Adding in digital casinos may seem nice but now you're just the same as every other digital casino offering.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#283

Post by walthamstow »

adventured wrote: post #214
01100011 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We allow wages you can't live on but then expect customers to randomly make up the difference but only for some jobs. Make too little to afford an apartment, healthcare and food and you work in the food service industry? You deserve a tip. You work in a meatpacking plant? Oh, get screwed.

Waiters in the US make more than their peers in: Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan, Canada, New Zealand, etc. That's thanks entirely to the tip system.

Britain has tips. Every restaurant adds 12.5% as an 'optional' charge but they know full well that Brits are allergic to causing a fuss and will never ask it to be removed.

Do US waiters really get paid more than UK with PPP/forex? You seem to have the data to hand.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#285

Post by ryandv »

godelski wrote: post #245
not_a_bot_4sho wrote: post #124

Funny story. I used to see Steve almost every weekday for a couple of years. I can't speak to his business skills, but I can attest that he never once offered a tip for his daily black iced tea. We'd even have it ready for him before he showed up so he never had to wait! He would pay with cash, and I'd hand him his change and drink, and that was that. It's funny to me now: one of the richest men in the world and he n…

Everyone, chill Regardless of how you feel about tipping culture we're not talking about the average person nor are we talking about the average * experience* . The dude is worth north of $100bn, and is making nearly $10k per minute![0]. Someone who cannot spend his wealth. Someone who'd have to spend tens of millions of dollars every single day just to stop his wealth from growing. Someone who makes money faster tha…

This is eye-opening. I make a fraction of what Steve does and am still dumb enough to be hitting 20% at the machine every time I go out.

If 0% is good enough for Mr. Ballmer, it's good enough for me.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#286

Post by godelski »

keyle wrote: post #264
godelski wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone, chill Regardless of how you feel about tipping culture we're not talking about the average person nor are we talking about the average * experience* . The dude is worth north of $100bn, and is making nearly $10k per minute![0]. Someone who cannot spend his wealth. Someone who'd have to spend tens of millions of dollars every single day just to stop his wealth from growing. Someone who makes money faster tha…

"Everyone, chill" then proceeds to drop emphasis , F words and other strong words. Maybe take a page of your own book.

Chill because you all are giving me anxiety that I don't need.

Idk how to tell you this, but this is a pretty common pattern for human speech. You see it in plenty of countries, plenty of cultures. Welcome to Earth. Words mean more than the literal dictionary interpretation of them.

Edit:

I only have sass in me tonight.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#287

Post by seizethecheese »

lmpdev wrote: post #164
not_a_bot_4sho wrote: post #124

Funny story. I used to see Steve almost every weekday for a couple of years. I can't speak to his business skills, but I can attest that he never once offered a tip for his daily black iced tea. We'd even have it ready for him before he showed up so he never had to wait! He would pay with cash, and I'd hand him his change and drink, and that was that. It's funny to me now: one of the richest men in the world and he n…

Tipping is a fundamentally flawed and exploitative system

> exploitative

I worked in restaurants, and let me tell you, I never felt exploited in tipped positions. If anything, I felt like lucky at least compared everyone else in the restaurant industry. The real exploitation happens in the back of the house…

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#288

Post by gs17 »

not_a_bot_4sho wrote: post #124

Funny story. I used to see Steve almost every weekday for a couple of years. I can't speak to his business skills, but I can attest that he never once offered a tip for his daily black iced tea. We'd even have it ready for him before he showed up so he never had to wait! He would pay with cash, and I'd hand him his change and drink, and that was that. It's funny to me now: one of the richest men in the world and he n…

Reminds me of his visit to my undergrad. He had a niece or nephew or something (I never met them) who went there, and he was going to visit them. The university planned what amounted to a large science fair to showcase all the projects around and everyone was required to put something together. The day came, he walked in, made a beeline for his relative's project, talked to them for a minute, then hurried right out. My mentor ran after him trying to get him to take some merchandise.

In retrospect it's pretty obvious there was a big miscommunication, and he didn't really seem rude about it (supposedly he did talk to a project they put outside the hall because it used a Kinect IIRC). It really wouldn't surprise me to find out the university told him we just so happened to have this research fair going on the day he'd be visiting.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#289

Post by pinkmuffinere »

keyle wrote: post #264
godelski wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone, chill Regardless of how you feel about tipping culture we're not talking about the average person nor are we talking about the average * experience* . The dude is worth north of $100bn, and is making nearly $10k per minute![0]. Someone who cannot spend his wealth. Someone who'd have to spend tens of millions of dollars every single day just to stop his wealth from growing. Someone who makes money faster tha…

"Everyone, chill" then proceeds to drop emphasis , F words and other strong words. Maybe take a page of your own book.

I read “everyone chill” to mean “there’s a lot of bad takes here”, not literally “remain calm”. In that context, I think the comment makes sense — they’re illustrating just how wrong the common take is

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#290

Post by neeleshs »

stouset wrote: post #274
neeleshs wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that shifting responsibility to the customer?

The responsibility is already on the customer. It shouldn’t be, and restaurants should have to pay their workers minimum wage. But it isn’t that way, and stiffing service workers isn’t the way to fix it.

Neither is stiffing the customers to the tune of 15-20 percent.
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