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Malcolm Gladwell asserts that Gates, not Jobs, will be remembered in 50 years

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Re: Malcolm Gladwell asserts that Gates, not Jobs, will be remembered in 50 years

#11

Post by franze »

some weeks ago i got talked into setting up the internet connection on windows vista machine (of a friend) - a very simple task i though. it was a horrible and unbelievable stupid experience. it took me two hours(!!!)

according to a quick google at least 88 000 000 windows vista copies had been sold. i expect that at least (and on average) every vista user had run into a similar issue at least once (probably more often, but lets calculate with "just once").

this means at least 176000000 hours have been wasted in a similar fashion. that's 7333333.33333333 days or 20091.324200913 years. well, if we calculate with a life expectancy of 70 years, this means that this was the life time of 287 people.

well, i think with this track recoded, yeah, bill gates will be remembered.

Re: Malcolm Gladwell asserts that Gates, not Jobs, will be remembered in 50 years

#12

Post by jhermsmeyer »

shpoonj wrote: post #5
rprasad wrote: post #4

Everyone remembers Carnegie, Mellon, Rockefeller, and Stanfurd because of their generous acts. Nobody remembers their almost-as-successful, but far less generous competitors. To date, Bill Gates has donated more money to charity than Steve Jobs was ever worth. Steve Jobs...has donated less money to charity than your average churchgoer.

Oh so you have Jobs' personal finance records? That's amazing! And you're breaking the news here on HN of all places! Okay but seriously, you don't have a clue what Jobs did with his money and neither do I. So there's no point speculating.

I have talked to directors of Bay Area charities that tell me that Jobs was a generous donator personally. In fact this just happened 2 weeks ago, and the person defended him vehemently.

So there's one anecdotal data point for you.

Re: Malcolm Gladwell asserts that Gates, not Jobs, will be remembered in 50 years

#13

Post by shpoonj »

kennywinker wrote: post #10
shpoonj wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh so you have Jobs' personal finance records? That's amazing! And you're breaking the news here on HN of all places! Okay but seriously, you don't have a clue what Jobs did with his money and neither do I. So there's no point speculating.

According to the NYT "there is no public record of Mr. Jobs giving money to charity" ( http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/the-mystery-of-steve-... ). Giving publicly is important if you want to be remembered for your charitable work.

Right. Wanting to be remembered is just as selfish of an act as attaching your name to a donation.

Whether Jobs donated anonymously or didn't donate at all, I can respect him so much more for not chasing attention and approval.

Re: Malcolm Gladwell asserts that Gates, not Jobs, will be remembered in 50 years

#14

Post by cremnob »

chollida1 wrote: post #6

Is this considered a controversial point? I would have thought that most people would have thought the same thing. it's really been amazing to see how Bill Gates reputation has rebounded in tech forums in the past 5 years. 5 years ago it would be the rule rather than the exception for Bill to be bad mouthed in tech forums. Now I've noticed that it's mostly the opposite. My guess is that in 50 years Bill Gates will be…

It's controversial among tech geeks (but that shouldn't be surprising considering the PC vs Mac fanboyism) but really this article is just linkbait.

Re: Malcolm Gladwell asserts that Gates, not Jobs, will be remembered in 50 years

#15

Post by emarcotte »

franze wrote: post #11

some weeks ago i got talked into setting up the internet connection on windows vista machine (of a friend) - a very simple task i though. it was a horrible and unbelievable stupid experience. it took me two hours(!!!) according to a quick google at least 88 000 000 windows vista copies had been sold. i expect that at least (and on average) every vista user had run into a similar issue at least once (probably more oft…

And Bill Gate's contribution to Vista was what, exactly? I think you're missing the point of this article, not to mention stretching on your math.

Re: Malcolm Gladwell asserts that Gates, not Jobs, will be remembered in 50 years

#16

Post by faramarz »

rprasad wrote: post #4

Everyone remembers Carnegie, Mellon, Rockefeller, and Stanfurd because of their generous acts. Nobody remembers their almost-as-successful, but far less generous competitors. To date, Bill Gates has donated more money to charity than Steve Jobs was ever worth. Steve Jobs...has donated less money to charity than your average churchgoer.

Malcolm did not assert this statement based on Gates financial contributions to charities. He says Bill Gates will be remembered, because he (almost has) will eliminate Malaria.

Re: Malcolm Gladwell asserts that Gates, not Jobs, will be remembered in 50 years

#17

Post by ImprovedSilence »

franze wrote: post #11

some weeks ago i got talked into setting up the internet connection on windows vista machine (of a friend) - a very simple task i though. it was a horrible and unbelievable stupid experience. it took me two hours(!!!) according to a quick google at least 88 000 000 windows vista copies had been sold. i expect that at least (and on average) every vista user had run into a similar issue at least once (probably more oft…

Was Bill Gates even around for vista? I thought he stopped his msft day job years ago?

Re: Malcolm Gladwell asserts that Gates, not Jobs, will be remembered in 50 years

#18

Post by firefoxman1 »

chollida1 wrote: post #6

Is this considered a controversial point? I would have thought that most people would have thought the same thing. it's really been amazing to see how Bill Gates reputation has rebounded in tech forums in the past 5 years. 5 years ago it would be the rule rather than the exception for Bill to be bad mouthed in tech forums. Now I've noticed that it's mostly the opposite. My guess is that in 50 years Bill Gates will be…

It's just like how Carnegie wasn't spoken of very well until later in his life, after he became a philanthropist. On the other hand, Fred Harvey (a very Jobs-like entrepreneur and a hero of mine) is remembered by very few.

I'm sure you could find dozens of other examples throughout recent history, but the thing I've noticed is that the true heroes don't care if they're remembered; they're content in knowing they made a meaningful contribution to humanity.

Re: Malcolm Gladwell asserts that Gates, not Jobs, will be remembered in 50 years

#19

Post by sliverstorm »

shpoonj wrote: post #13
kennywinker wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the NYT "there is no public record of Mr. Jobs giving money to charity" ( http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/the-mystery-of-steve-... ). Giving publicly is important if you want to be remembered for your charitable work.

Right. Wanting to be remembered is just as selfish of an act as attaching your name to a donation. Whether Jobs donated anonymously or didn't donate at all, I can respect him so much more for not chasing attention and approval.

So you're completely discounting the value of Gates attempting to inspire others to give- particularly other rich people?

Re: Malcolm Gladwell asserts that Gates, not Jobs, will be remembered in 50 years

#20

Post by rprasad »

jhermsmeyer wrote: post #12
shpoonj wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh so you have Jobs' personal finance records? That's amazing! And you're breaking the news here on HN of all places! Okay but seriously, you don't have a clue what Jobs did with his money and neither do I. So there's no point speculating.

I have talked to directors of Bay Area charities that tell me that Jobs was a generous donator personally. In fact this just happened 2 weeks ago, and the person defended him vehemently. So there's one anecdotal data point for you.

You can verify donations to public charities when they file their (publicly accessible) information returns for the tax year. If Steve Jobs was a generous donor, he will show up in their returns for 2011 or 2012 (which should become available in the next few months, or next year, respectively). A lot of research has been done by a lot of journalists looking for a Steve Jobs entry in the donor lists of many charities (in prior years, i.e., 2010 or earlier), and they haven't found any yet. (This doesn't mean that he never made any donations, it is however strong evidence that Steve Jobs did not donate much, if anything, until the last few months of his life.)
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