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An internal team 'hoodwinked' Bill Gates into launching the Xbox project

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Re: An internal team 'hoodwinked' Bill Gates into launching the Xbox project

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to change the statement much to make it unequivocally true: just change "computers" to "desktop computers".

Which are nowhere near the most common type of computer, so it's a fairly significant change.

honestly what kind of gymnatics we have to do in order to just accept the fact that

windows is most popular os on desktop/home/work(non-server) PCs?

Re: An internal team 'hoodwinked' Bill Gates into launching the Xbox project

#132

"world's most reviled software" Right, yeah, people hated Microsoft's software so much that they bought it by the bucket load. Also that comment about midway being problematic. Why is it problematic!? Did WW2 not happen? Who'd actually be offended?

Do they? I thought people just got windows with their PC and didn’t buy it. Lots of people use office at work, but I don’t know anyone that bought it personally. Google docs works fine for 99.9% of what people need office software for.

Office was and is so popular because it's better than the competition. Microsoft originally had hoped someone else would provide decent office type software. But it was crap so they wrote their own.

Re: An internal team 'hoodwinked' Bill Gates into launching the Xbox project

#133
post #130

'He tells us: "Eventually somebody would come back to you with your idea – they would say, 'Hey, you know, this doesn't need Windows at all'. And you have to control your urge to fucking kill them, because you've been telling them that for two years and now they finally come up with it like it's their idea. But that's the Jedi mind trick." ' OMG. I learned this a few years ago working in a corp environment with stubb…

If your goal is to change the world--incepting some politician to change their position or some businessperson to alter their product--that makes a lot of sense... if you are working for some company extracting value from you, why would you ever do this? I can't imagine it would help your career any... shouldn't you be spending all of that effort finding a less toxic place to work?

I agree. I imagine the idea is you do it when you'll still get to lead/work on the project and it'll be enjoyable/beneficial to your career.

Re: An internal team 'hoodwinked' Bill Gates into launching the Xbox project

#134

'He tells us: "Eventually somebody would come back to you with your idea – they would say, 'Hey, you know, this doesn't need Windows at all'. And you have to control your urge to fucking kill them, because you've been telling them that for two years and now they finally come up with it like it's their idea. But that's the Jedi mind trick." ' OMG. I learned this a few years ago working in a corp environment with stubb…

I've seen this in companies too. You keep reminding them about this thing, and then eventually they come up with this idea themselves. I have the feeling that the idea doesn't reach their mind but their subconscious, and then that one reminds their mind again. It seems they have to ponder on it for a while, maybe hear it multiple times, before it reaches their mind again as their own idea.

It makes you wonder how many of your own ideas were actually that from others.

Re: An internal team 'hoodwinked' Bill Gates into launching the Xbox project

#135

"world's most reviled software" Right, yeah, people hated Microsoft's software so much that they bought it by the bucket load. Also that comment about midway being problematic. Why is it problematic!? Did WW2 not happen? Who'd actually be offended?

It's the only software in the world I've tried to actively avoid buying and failed. At least 7 times now.

It's the shopping channel of software. Whether or not you wanted it it comes bundled.

I'm pretty sure it'd be a lot less popular if every OEM had a check box that said Ubuntu that deducted the license fee. MS frowns upon that sort of thing, though.

Re: An internal team 'hoodwinked' Bill Gates into launching the Xbox project

#136
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> to get one of these types on board with your idea you have to find a way to convince them the idea was originally theirs I forget where I read it, but I recall reading several times that this was how people at Apple had to present stuff to Steve Jobs to get him onboard with it. He'd initially dismiss it, then come back with the exact same idea as if it were his own. EDIT: According to this URL, it was from the Isaa…

That's what set Steve Jobs apart. Your typical executive could take months between rejecting your idea and proposing it as their own. But Jobs could compress this down to a week.

I recently learnt that Jobs would ask people in the elevator what they were working on and fire people then and there if he didnt like it.

Now I hear that the next week he would take these ideas as his own.

Ruthless.

Re: An internal team 'hoodwinked' Bill Gates into launching the Xbox project

#137

"world's most reviled software" Right, yeah, people hated Microsoft's software so much that they bought it by the bucket load. Also that comment about midway being problematic. Why is it problematic!? Did WW2 not happen? Who'd actually be offended?

The early 2000s were peak Micro$oft hate time. You had to at least pretend to hate Microsoft if you wanted to have any technical credibility.

Re: An internal team 'hoodwinked' Bill Gates into launching the Xbox project

#138

'He tells us: "Eventually somebody would come back to you with your idea – they would say, 'Hey, you know, this doesn't need Windows at all'. And you have to control your urge to fucking kill them, because you've been telling them that for two years and now they finally come up with it like it's their idea. But that's the Jedi mind trick." ' OMG. I learned this a few years ago working in a corp environment with stubb…

I've seen this in companies too. You keep reminding them about this thing, and then eventually they come up with this idea themselves. I have the feeling that the idea doesn't reach their mind but their subconscious, and then that one reminds their mind again. It seems they have to ponder on it for a while, maybe hear it multiple times, before it reaches their mind again as their own idea. It makes you wonder how man…

Frustratingly high in my case, apparently. The good news is that Google often allows you to easily verify that fact. The bad news is that Google often allows you to easily verify that fact.

Re: An internal team 'hoodwinked' Bill Gates into launching the Xbox project

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which are nowhere near the most common type of computer, so it's a fairly significant change.

honestly what kind of gymnatics we have to do in order to just accept the fact that windows is most popular os on desktop/home/work(non-server) PCs?

Yes and zOS is the most popular OS for mainframes.

Re: An internal team 'hoodwinked' Bill Gates into launching the Xbox project

#140
post #130

'He tells us: "Eventually somebody would come back to you with your idea – they would say, 'Hey, you know, this doesn't need Windows at all'. And you have to control your urge to fucking kill them, because you've been telling them that for two years and now they finally come up with it like it's their idea. But that's the Jedi mind trick." ' OMG. I learned this a few years ago working in a corp environment with stubb…

If your goal is to change the world--incepting some politician to change their position or some businessperson to alter their product--that makes a lot of sense... if you are working for some company extracting value from you, why would you ever do this? I can't imagine it would help your career any... shouldn't you be spending all of that effort finding a less toxic place to work?

I tend to think of bureaucracies as a mechanism for outsourcing the "real-life" parts of a project I care less about. The marketing, the litigation-responding, the budgeting. The cost is you sometimes have to deal with this. Sometimes it's still worth it. Whether or not it's toxic depends on whether or not you wanted them to take credit for it, or whether it was a surprise.

Not every "idea" that crosses one's mind is worth taking credit for. They are not that great to begin with.

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