Gates' Greed (was: Nuke Redmond!)

From: Paul Braun <nerdware_at_laidbak.com>
Date: Tue Jan 16 23:01:38 2001

<<snippage>>
>
  Also, with regards to his
> persistence in pursuing monopolistic tactics: with his fortune, why
> doesn't the man just give it up, sell Microsoft to someone else, in
> whole or in pieces, and just enjoy life? Why does he keep working, at
> Microsoft, still trying to totally dominate the market, doing work
> that's of no real benefit to society? It's not like he's working at
> purshuing some sort of intellectual pursuit, which would make more
> sense to keep working at. It appears to be just plain greed... or,
> ok, to be kind, perhaps the poor man's got an obsessive/compulsive
> disorder he can't shake.
>

If you read any of the unbiased stuff written about him, mainly by
people who aren't under his thumb, you'll find that the money
doesn't matter to him anymore. His main drive always has been,
and always will be, to win at everything. Doesn't matter how he
does it, but he has an uncontrollable need to win.

But only in things he knows he can win. If it's a field that he can
clearly see that he's outclassed, he'll just walk away, saying,
"We've determined that it's inconsequential, so we're not going to
waste any more time on it." That way, he still appears to have
conquered.

Goes back to his days at Harvard. He knew he sucked at math, so
instead he played a lot of poker, which he knew he could win at.

I've talked to a couple of guys who have known him since the old
days. His character, at it's core, hasn't really changed from the day
Paul Allen brought that copy of the Jan '75 issue of Popular
Electronics back to the dorm room and he was frantic that
someone else might have already started writing software for the
Altair.

Read a lot of what's written about Gates by guys like Bob Cringely.
Guys who aren't starstruck. Guys who don't work for ZDNet. That
warm, fuzzy, Mr. Rogers look on the TV commercials covers up a
pretty focused, ruthless mentality.




Paul Braun WD9GCO
Cygnus Productions
nerdware_nospam_at_laidbak.com

"A computer without a Microsoft operating system is like a dog without a bunch of bricks tied to its head."
Received on Tue Jan 16 2001 - 23:01:38 GMT