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Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

danluu.com

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Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#231

Post by fshbbdssbbgdd »

itake wrote: post #203
skyyler wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does suck. But in this culture that Steve exists within, those positions are paid mostly by tips. He certainly could afford to help out the people that prepared his iced tea ritual for him in a timely manner, but he did not.

> But in this culture that Steve exists within, those positions are paid mostly by tips. False. Presumably this was in WA, employers have to pay full wages. there is no carve out "tipped" wage (most) of the rest of the USA has. Currently, min wage in Redmond (King County) is $20.29/hr. Many businesses in King County do not allow tipping.

If you make more than 1x your wage in tips, then you are mostly paid in tips - regardless of whether your state has a tipped minimum wage law.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#233

Post by datavirtue »

cryptica wrote: post #165
pensatoio wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Yes it's weird. It's basically charity re-framed as capitalism. As if it's the waiter's performance which determines their tip as opposed to just blind luck. If each waiter could provide their own menu on which they could set their own prices individually and take their own hidden cut, then that would be fair capitalism. They'd make a lot more money because consumers would be too lazy or too embarrassed to ask a diff…

Lick the hand.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#234

Post by datavirtue »

legitster wrote: post #75

Having spent some time at the Microsoft campus, I can tell you this is basically the consensus view from employees today. Ballmer was not a cool, trendy, or fun CEO who people rallied behind - but he more or less "got the job done". He was the captain of a massive ship with a turning radius the size of a continent guiding it through icebergs. Azure's success was specifically set in motion under Ballmer. Owed to the f…

Surface is selling like hotcakes.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#235

Post by datavirtue »

cyberax wrote: post #144
legitster wrote: post #75

Having spent some time at the Microsoft campus, I can tell you this is basically the consensus view from employees today. Ballmer was not a cool, trendy, or fun CEO who people rallied behind - but he more or less "got the job done". He was the captain of a massive ship with a turning radius the size of a continent guiding it through icebergs. Azure's success was specifically set in motion under Ballmer. Owed to the f…

I remember working with Microsoft as a client in 2000-s, it was awesome. We started as a startup, and enrolled in a BizSpark program. It gave us basically free access to Microsoft tools and with very responsive support. We later transitioned into volume licensing, that also was simple and straightforward. The business side of Microsoft was a streamlined unstoppable train at that point. The technical side, not so much…

WPF is still unmatched.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#236

Post by godelski »

xandrius wrote: post #229
AdieuToLogic wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What frugality? He was paying the full price that it was being sold at. By that logic, most reading these comments should expect to hear from their employer: What annual bonus? What stock options? The company is paying full price that your time was being sold at.

Annual bonus is either performance based or as a retainer to make up for differences in the wages since the person was hired. Stock options are because you could be paid more or you are taking risks for future rewards. A mandatory tip is because your employer doesn't want to pay you full wage and instead of increasing the price and pay you more, they pass it over to the customers. So they get the same profits without…

  > Annual bonus is either performance based

  >>>> We'd even have it ready for him before he showed up so he never had to wait! 

  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#237

Post by nailer »

So azure was a hit and Office moving to a saas model was a hit.

Balmer lost: the most popular consumer operating system, the most popular web browser, the most popular media player, the most popular instant messaging platform.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#238

Post by datavirtue »

paulpauper wrote: post #126
fnord123 wrote: post #59

A rare miss by Mr. Luu. > Ballmer wins... 2010: Microsoft creates Azure The Azure project was run by Nadella before he became CEO. And it succeeded despite Ballmer. Azure was seen as the Microsoft cloud, where people ran Windows Servers. But Microsoft had long lost the battle for the server space to Linux. When Ballmer stepped aside, only then could Nadella drop the limiters and push the Microsoft <3 Linux perspectiv…

Agree .Balmer was a disaster. Microsoft stock basically languished from 2003-2013 as everything else went up.

I was looking at the candles for all of Microsoft the other day and was surprised (and kind of pissed) that Microsoft didn't really take off until 2015. You could have gotten Microsoft dirt cheap for decades compared to the current issue price.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#239

Post by mvdtnz »

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…

If you want more money per drink put it on the menu price. Don't passive-aggressively await each customer's random generosity.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#240

Post by spookie »

hyperhopper wrote: post #167
hermanradtke wrote: post #36

> Much like Gary Bernhardt's talk, which was panned because he made the problem statement and solution so obvious that people didn't realize they'd learned something non-trivial I really want to see this video, but I cannot find it anywhere. I checked https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcGKfGEEONaDvuLDFFKRf... but I believe Gary asks that his videos not be shown (which I am fine with). I also checked https://www.…

His "using you're types good" talk being censored is my go-to example for how "cancel culture" and "wokeness" has gone too far, a good useful talk not meant to be harmful to anybody, with no evidence that anybody was hurt by it, is removed from the world for the far reaching fear that one day some person might not be happy about it. The fact that years later people still want to learn from it and nobody has every tal…

What was "wrong" about the talk exactly?
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