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Bill Gates tries to install MovieMaker (2003)

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Re: Bill Gates tries to install MovieMaker (2003)

#51

Post by bluegatty »

They think it's 'some issues' :) :) :)

It's a fundamental, cultural and systemic lack of concern for those issues.

An 'afterthought' that should be 'integral'.

That Gates did not realize that means it's 100% on him.

1000% actually.

He was struggling with the language of design and usability in 2003, not even realizing even the implications of what he was seeing (because it would require total rethink).

Like a cars coming out of the factory with missing parts ... blame it on the guy on the line?

No. Something is deeply wrong.

I really like Gates - but it's beyond shocking how these cultures work and how myopic they are.

I worked for a Fortune 50 - and it's pretty amazing to watch how an army of actually smart people with 'one eye' can be so competent many ways, but blind in others.

I don't like to put Jobs on a pedestal but obviously this is something he understood (even then with gaping holes).

Re: Bill Gates tries to install MovieMaker (2003)

#52

Post by Melatonic »

neilv wrote: post #46

Big-corporate dysfunction is one of the reasons I like working in early startups. (Startups that act like startups. Which means neither mimicking nor tolerating big-corporate style dysfunction. Otherwise, you have the worst of both worlds: soul-sucking big-corporate culture and difficulty executing, without the big-corporate paycheck and sometimes resume prestige boost.)

Don't underestimate working for the medium size business nobody has heard of but prints money doing something semi boring. They won't change the world but it's often a reliable paycheck without all the BS

Re: Bill Gates tries to install MovieMaker (2003)

#53

Post by vachina »

herodotus wrote: post #32
colechristensen wrote: post #28

The reason why Apple won is Steve Jobs cared about quality and was an asshole about it and the inertia from that after his death has not entirely decayed yet. The people in that thread need a good Linus Torvalds style rant about their incompetence and several of them should just have been fired.

Yes. When I was working at Apple, I was developing some animation stuff for Keynote. I came in to work one day, and my build was broken completely. Turned out that Roger Rosner had demonstrated this animation feature to Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs hated it, and before then end of the evening the code had been stripped from the Keynote build.

This rigor is also upheld to the ODM too. This is why we like to work with them, we all come out learning a lot at the end of the project.

Re: Bill Gates tries to install MovieMaker (2003)

#55

Post by jmathai »

I feel, many times, the way Bill did in that email. Seems most people don’t mind or care.

I wondered how anyone successfully filed for unemployment a few years ago when I had to. But many seem to do it successfully.

I tell my wife that I pay too much attention to the details and have a low tolerance for poor work. I wish I didn’t notice though as it seems like a nice life!

Re: Bill Gates tries to install MovieMaker (2003)

#56

Post by vachina »

neko_ranger wrote: post #44
486sx33 wrote: post #8

Interestingly, Gupta didn’t reply at all, despite being named on bill’s original email directly. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/anoop/ He was natural-user-interface director at the time

Protecting his izzat

LOL

Re: Bill Gates tries to install MovieMaker (2003)

#57

Post by saaaaaam »

sajithdilshan wrote: post #27

Read the whole thing and all I saw was zero accountability, zero ownership and zero consequences. That’s how great products die or become a nightmare. Every team keeps on passing the ball to other team and nothing gets fixed or done or improved.

But it didn’t. And Microsoft is worth $3.5 trillion. So maybe actually everyone should take a leaf out of the Microsoft book.

When something is on fire, pass the buck to other people and stand around saying “that thing is on fire… wouldn’t it be great if someone called the fire brigade? I have the number here. One of you guys, give them a call.”

Re: Bill Gates tries to install MovieMaker (2003)

#58

Post by Atreiden »

MomsAVoxell wrote: post #45
techteach00 wrote: post #17

This is a good and bit surprising one. I have a hard time believing the CEO of Palantir has this many generational points I agree with, Zuck too, but I do. https://www.techemails.com/p/mark-zuckerberg-peter-thiel-mil...

Holy crap, Thiel is using deep brainwashing techniques in his mail to Zuck and his people. If you know, you know ..

I read through it and had a few things I've flagged in my head - the ego fluffing, repeated usage of "Millennial" to the point of redundancy, and the framing of things in terms of "big picture", but can you elaborate on "deep brainwashing techniques"? I'm genuinely interested. This entire email thread feels a bit surreal to me

Re: Bill Gates tries to install MovieMaker (2003)

#60

Post by saaaaaam »

EGreg wrote: post #19

“Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable? The file system is no longer usable. The registry is not usable. This program listing was one sane place but now it is all crapped up.” That does not sound like something Bill Gates would say…

It’s from an email chain published as part of a 2007 lawsuit - so it looks like he did indeed say it.
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