What is Digg?84 Comments
- dscx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+56And I said, I don't care if they lay me off either, because I told, I told Bill that if they move my desk one more time, then, then I'm, I'm quitting, I'm going to quit. And, and I told Don too, because they've moved my desk four times already this year, and I used to be over by the window, and I could see the squirrels, and they were merry, but then, they switched from the Swingline to the Boston stapler, but I kept my Swingline stapler because it didn't bind up as much, and I kept the staples for the Swingline stapler and it's not okay because if they take my stapler then I'll set the building on fire.
- Sphonix, on 10/12/2007, -1/+43...
*sits with eyes closed*
That’s the dumbest ***** idea I’ve heard since I’ve been at Digg...
Go on... - strangewill, on 10/12/2007, -5/+41News flash: The majority of humanity are dicks, rich/famous are not an exception.
- gramatoncleric, on 10/12/2007, -12/+43Nice people don't succeed!
- JFetch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+27From the article you would think that Gates is sitting in a chair, petting a cat, talking about sharks with frickin laser beams attached to their head.
- SillyRabbits, on 10/12/2007, -3/+25It seems perfectly reasonable that Gates expects people giving him presentations to know what they are talking about. It's not like it's a college public speaking class. They are making suggestions to the top leadership of the largest software company in the world - time is valuable. That's not the place to give advice about things that aren't well thought out. And, as the author pointed out, it really forced him to think about the ideas he was offering. Seems like that's a very healthy thing for a company.
- Sphonix, on 10/12/2007, -2/+23Calling people by their email could get a little weird:
"Hey DonkeyDick69, did you file that TPS report with the new cover sheet?" - lolhax, on 10/12/2007, -3/+22Schestowitz: Digg's very own Jack Thompson!
- benitojuarez, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20nevermind
Digg, join the 21st century and add a delete button if your post is still in editable mode. - Anpheus, on 10/12/2007, -3/+21The goal here is to weed out people who aren't willing to defend their ideas in a cutthroat market.
Nice people -do- succeed, you just won't read about it because it isn't as sensational as "***** makes billions of dollars." - scispaz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18Anyone here know someone borderline autistic or Asperger's?
I know more than one person in the tech field who exhibits these traits (little to no eye contact, blunt, testing well outside normal social bounds). - L0phtpDK, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17Read up on Herb Kelleher.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Kelleher
(bad wikipedia article, but its a start)
Quick Story: One day at Southwest HQ, I believe it the day after a poor quarter earnings was reported, Herb noticed that everyone was feeling blue. Knowing that it could not be fixed with some lame meeting, he went out side and started his new Harley. Herb drove the Harley into the building, into the main lobby. With the employees cheering him on, Herb just Rev'd the engine as loud as he could. Needless to say, they've rebounded.
Another Quick Story: He was so liked, his employees bought a full page advert in the New York times just to thank him for being their boss. He was also known to dress up in a Duck suit and greet passengers who flew Southwest (I've personally shook his hand/wing). - acontorer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16I worked for Bill. Up close he is actually a very nice man, and very bright. When dealing with people he did not see often, he could be very harsh to make his point understood quickly.
The first thing Bill ever said to me (other than hello) was "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life!" Yet I went on to work for him, be treated nicely (and very politely too), and admire him very much indeed. And he did mellow over time -- look at his amazing work in philanthropy today. - jaypatrick, on 10/12/2007, -8/+22Interestingly enough, their interview process is still fairly similar to this. I recently was put through the interview process and it's very much a trial by fire agenda. I believe that openly challenging your employees forces them to approach projects and ideas from different perspectives, and also makes them evaluate all sides of the situation thus leading to an overall better formulated plan.
- Mountaineer1024, on 10/12/2007, -3/+15Here you go, from the 1998 Antitrust deposition:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0qNVe024RvI
They apparently thought the rocking was a sign they had him worried.
Knowing how smart the man is, it'd just scare me *****. - fastsix, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12Microsoft's email names are based on some portion of a person's first name and some portion of their last name. In the earlier days it was usually the first name and first initial or syllable/breakpoint of the last name. i.e. - Bill Gates = BillG, Steve Ballmer = SteveB, Mike Maples = MikeMap. As duplicates started to occur, it became first initial, last name - i.e. Bill Gattley - BGattley. No joke, people prefer the old email name convention, as it suggests tenure. All other things equal, JimB or JimBen > JBentley.
So it's not as strange to use email names as it could be. It's more about differentiating one Bill, or one Steve, or one Mike from any other. It also provides all the information you need to contact/find the person being discussed, and in the early years, at least, made it easy to guess a person's email if you only had their name. I don't think in general that people who know and work together address each other by email names, unless to avoid confusion. - monergism, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13Powerful people dictate.
- NSResponder, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11"There is no technical brilliance without a measure of social inadequacy"
Another baseless generalization. I've certainly met many counterexamples in my career.
-jcr - Praxxus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9There is no sweeping generalization without some measure of fallacy.
That should probably be added to your theory, just to make it complete. - NSResponder, on 10/12/2007, -4/+13Sounds like you need to find a different social circle. The one you're in is giving you a very bleak outlook.
-jcr - RoboDonut, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8"talking about sharks with frickin laser beams attached to their head."
No, that would be Linus Torvalds.
"For example, the GPLv2 in no way limits your use of the software. If you're a mad scientist, you can use GPLv2'd software for your evil plans to take over the world ("Sharks with lasers on their heads!!"), and the GPLv2 just says that you have to give source code back. And that's OK by me. I like sharks with lasers. I just want the mad scientists of the world to pay me back in kind. I made source code available to them, they have to make their changes to it available to me. After that, they can fry me with their shark-mounted lasers all they want. " - Torvalds - ell0bo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9I too interviewed a bit back for an internship there, about 2 years ago. All it did for me was make me think the guy was a jack ass, and decide from then on that I will in no way ever work for Microsoft after how that guys treated me. I've had plenty of interviews, and some I bombed and some I really nailed, but that was the only one where I walked out of there going "F* this guy" and just wanted to hit someone. I like to think I can handle pressure rather well, but this guy was just plain rude and arrogant.
- modishdigg, on 10/12/2007, -8/+14why do i feel like this story is complete bull *****
- Malakym, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9A black turtleneck and a smug smile.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Wow, I have more respect for Bill Gates now
- fkr3, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8"but really isn't all that smart at all"
Right. He just got lucky and tripped over a mountain of cash, every year, for decades. - NSResponder, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I've heard that Dave Thomas' employees loved him, too.
-jcr - EtherGnat, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Can somebody tell me where all the hatred for the Zune comes from? I've played with a Zune, and aside from questionable wireless features it seems like a fairly solid player. People that have them seem happy with them. Most of the venom seems directed at the Zune's "iPod killer" designation, but I'm pretty damn sure Microsoft has never made any such claim--in fact the claims I've seen directly from Microsoft were pretty modest.
Seriously, why all the hate? - scispaz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Dude, watch any video of him. Even when he doesn't rock it is a clear effort. You can actually see him catching himself in some videos.
- Osjpr, on 10/12/2007, -6/+11*****! So if an employee scratched their balls that would cost Microsoft $100?
- TexanPsycho, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Bill Gates? A bully? Never.
- Confuseus, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8because it's not made by Apple
- Junkyarddawg, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6"There was nothing quite as absurd as a newly-hired college graduate thinking he could be as smart or rich as billg if he could only manage to be as rude."
I've not worked at Microsoft, but god almighty do I ever recognize that. It gets even more absurd once you yourself get to a position of authority, and these... there's no word for it but "clueless n00bs", suddenly start sucking up to you just as blatantly and cluelessly as they previously were rude. - quantumcore, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8Then again, as the article said, you don't know how many ideas Microsoft may be missing out on from those not up to being so imposing. Yeah sure everyone should read over their ideas and make sure they all add up correctly, and they should be tested - but surely Gates should actually LOOK and see if what he's shouting down is crap before he does it.
- consonance, on 10/12/2007, -6/+10Sounds like Steve Jobs. What's new?
- ahpro, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5At no point does it actually say hes referring to bill gates. Could be somebody else who has that email address.
- Churnd, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Google seems to have gotten it right, without the bullying (or so it seems).
- andrebsd, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I'm sure that's happened... to which Bill promtly said "Your fired."
- Mistuke, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5lol, i wonder if anyone has ever flipped out and went "Up yours bill"
- Darcy, on 10/12/2007, -5/+9Because like most digg stories, it probably is.
- OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Don't be fooled by the "jovial, absentminded geek" persona he puts on in public. Bill Gates is a ruthless robber baron.
- drzeus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3sillyrabbits, I would argue that if someone is presenting to billg, they've probably had to go through a few other people first. Bill should most definitely try to help these folks if their ideas aren't *quite* top notch. At that point, a little polish will probably help bring about innovative products.
- stockjones, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4There is hubris and snobbery with most leaders. Bill is no exception. I'm sure the same could be said of Jobs, Ellison etc. All leaders get humbled at various times as well.
- uidzero, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5It also gives your employees panic attacks and ulcers. There's a happy middle ground I am sure.
- Malakym, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Same here. I used to think of him as a spineless pussy. Now I actually think he'd hold his own in a slap-fight against Jobs.
- TimDigg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Except Ellison could kick both of thier asses with one hand tied his back....
Yea I said it!! - jalaram, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Joel Spolsky's first BillG review as a comparison.
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/06/16.html - dhughes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2 I've had bosses like that, they think they are doing something profound by testing you like that. I think it's sadistic and they get a kick out of doing it and it has nothing to do with weeding out the bad products or lazy workers. It makes the entire company suffer.
It's worse than the trickle down project time-line where the boss wants it done in a month, as the project gets through the process down through the managers to the people who actually do it, it's suddenly gone from a month to three weeks to two weeks to finally one week. Look at me boss I did it faster (but I drove every employee working on the project insane with stress).
When performance review time comes around and everyone slams the boss you can bet, if the company you work for is any good, the boss will be gone for some reason; downsizing, combining of departments or some other fake reason they give your boss to make it appear his position was legitimately eliminated. - Malakym, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Dwight Schrute and Andy Bernard, maybe?
- myfreepress, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I can tell you that getting married, having kids, and getting old has mellowed the man quite a bit.
I would even put out there that, I believe, today's Bill would have fired 1983 Bill. -
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