
Gates Still Working Behind the Scenes at Microsoft - myinnerbanjo
https://redmondmag.com/blogs/scott-bekker/2018/10/gates-behind-the-scenes-at-microsoft.aspx?m=1
======
sonnyblarney
The primary advantage is not any kind of architectural wisdom or specific
knowledge, although that may be the case in some instances.

1) Having the 'magic of the founder' in place is worth a lot. Imagine young
Engineers getting to sit on meetings with 'the World's Once Richest Man',
world renowned, influential, 'powerful', and the 'creator' of their
initiative. It's like a celebrity who is paying attention to you and is
meaningfully participating in something you are doing. You'd never forget that
meeting. It's exciting and inspiring, and adds meaning or resonance to what
you do. It's like being a little bit a party of mythology and gives emotional
impetus to the original 'raison d'etre' of the company.

2) Satya can use Bill (I don't mean negatively) to move the needle in areas
where Satya couldn't alone. CEO's, surprisingly, don't always have a lot of
power. They are like nervous feudal lords, always worried about popular
revolts, public opinion, antagonism from the nobles (i.e. other execs). So
having someone with the tremendous power of 'authenticity' is like gold. If
Satya and Bill agree 'we need to move the company in this direction' ... Satya
alone would have a lot of convincing ... but if 'Bill says it' and starts
propagating this idea in all-hands and in meetings, then it's a done deal. It
will happen for better or worse. Having the 'founders word' is such an amazing
thing if it works in a situation.

3) Maybe he was always doing this, but having his 'extra organizational
outreach' is powerful. Calling up big CEO's of customers, politicians,
lobbyists, governmental people etc.. Who's going to turn down a call from Bill
Gates? Nobody really :). So it's a big thing to have him create connections
and pave the road ahead socially.

~~~
kthejoker2
The CTO of Schlumberger once completely ghosted Satya. His son works for
Google and they had a big push for GCP and Satya called on him to discuss
options and such and ... Crickets.

This was when Satya was a bit more of an unknown but still, ignoring the CEO
of one of the largest companies in the world is stone cold.

------
kyberias
Let me just leave this here if there are some people who have missed this
jewel: [https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-
rev...](https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-review/)

~~~
person_of_color
Anyone else cringe? The absolute worship of rich people in American culture.

~~~
SOLAR_FIELDS
I mean, I don’t think you’re getting the full picture here. The guy who wrote
that is pretty damn successful himself now (he helped create stackoverflow and
his company has had some huge successes with software like Trello) and
probably owes some part of that success to the stuff that BG invented. So
while I think your sentiment in general might be true (Americans certainly do
have a disgusting idolization of rich people) I think in this case it’s a bit
misguided.

------
duxup
Not much to that article, but Gates does seem like one of those guys who even
if not directly in the mix has more than enough experience and would still be
relevant to talk to to get some perspective / advice now and then. I imagine
some ex executives might be stuck in the mud, Bill seems like he would still
be very relevant.

~~~
pjmorris
I've heard multiple Microsoft Research researchers describe that they'd
interacted with Gates, and he was able to discuss quite technical aspects of
their fields and their work.

~~~
duxup
I only ever met one executive who was like that. It was amazing.

Dude was basically on a guided tour and like many before stopped to ask me
what I was up to. I mentioned some high level stuff and then he asked some
questions that shocked me ... in the sense that they were good questions that
really indicated he knew what I did. I answered cautiously, he asked some more
along the lines of "oh so" and we went back and forth and I realized dude just
"got it" as far as how we worked, what we were doing, challenges, and etc.

It was great, and maybe a bit sad that was the one time.

Dude in question was too good for the company at that time and moved on. The
company didn't really want someone who knew what was going on because
inevitably that meant some push back / organization / shifting momentum here
or there. So he moved on and we got a yes man who had no clue.

~~~
ryandrake
I’ve met one or two “executive level” people like this and it’s pretty
shocking. You’re used to having to dumb down what you say, to a 6-year-old’s
understanding, in order to talk to these guys, and all of a sudden you meet
one who knows the details of CDMA technology or is an expert on spatial
indexes or something. “Mind blown” moment! Sadly, like your example they don’t
seem to last, and get replaced with more political yes-men.

------
faitswulff
> "Even to this day I do some architecture things on the various products,"
> Gates said during the segment.

I really wonder what that looks like.

~~~
shdh
VMS -> WNT

~~~
packetslave
that was all Cutler, not Gates

------
Angostura
The 10 minute video referenced in the article.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzUUghxDhYM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzUUghxDhYM)

------
FatalErrorr
isn't he a board member? why would that be surprising?

~~~
WorldMaker
For a period in the Ballmer era it was said that Gates had entirely
disconnected to focus 100% on the charity work. There is some surprise that
Gates seems to be more involved in the Nadella era given how strict Gates was
said to be hands-off during Ballmer's tenure, though certainly it is still no
surprise that the charity work is still Gates' focus.

~~~
debacle
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates#Personal_life](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates#Personal_life)

> They have three children: Jennifer Katharine (b. 1996), Rory John (b. 1999),
> and Phoebe Adele (b. 2002).

Probably has something to do with it. His youngest is close to college age
now.

~~~
jdironman
That doesn't really make a lot of since though. Why all of a sudden for the
younger one? He spend most of those years in command for Microsoft, before
focusing on charity work from 2008 and up. (His children would have been
roughly 12, 9, and 6 at that time.) So, that may be a part of it but probably
not a major part.

~~~
rabidrat
He basically stepped down from active management with the birth of his second
child. (Ballmer became CEO in Jan 2000).

~~~
jdironman
Ah, I was under the impression that he had stepped down in 2008. But that was
probably from any activity at Microsoft and 2000 was when he relinquished the
CEO title. Thank you for clarifying that. It does sound like that may be more
closely related than I thought.

------
paxys
They announced he would start getting involved again when Nadella became CEO.

------
ccnafr
lol, so this article is based on a throwaway line in a YouTube video that can
be interpreted in a multitude of ways.... yeah, great reporting

------
SilverSlash
A non-article if there ever was one.

------
LordHumungous
Bill is the man.

------
ikeboy
I assume he's on the forced upgrades and data loss teams

~~~
cptskippy
Change Management and Loss Prevention are their official team names. /s

~~~
beatgammit
Ministry of Truth?

------
umichguy
Hopefully, he can steer MS away from projects like the Zune.

~~~
moolcool
You take that back, the Zune was the best portable media player ever made

------
S_A_P
I believe he is the Visual Basic product champion.

