

Bill Gates on his last visit with Steve Jobs  - krishnasun
http://www.geekwire.com/2012/video-bill-gates-visit-steve-jobs

======
willthefirst
Steve Jobs was a big role model of mine, yet Bill Gates never came close. I'm
starting to realize that is due to the dramatic nature of Job's life, which is
very different from what we know about Bill Gates.

Yet, when things like this comes out, and stories about Jobs emerge, I start
to question whether my choice of a role model was really all that well placed.
Do you admire the guy with the entrancing personality, or the one that is
about to cure polio?

~~~
acabal
One guy made an easy to use computer, some cool movies, and then some
expensive first-world gadgets while hanging on to his massive fortune and
reputation as a jerk. The other made "PC" a household word, now runs the
largest charity in history, and is working to eradicate malaria, among other
things. Both were around the same age at the time of Jobs' death. I don't
understand why people look up to Jobs so much when Gates seems to be the
better human being by far.

~~~
commieneko
Great people are not necessarily nice people. I understand that Leonardo Da
Vinci was a jerk. Often doing something really difficult either requires you
to be a jerk, or it could just be a jerk is more likely to have the
insensitivity to do the job.

I'm old enough to remember Bill Gates was like while he was running Microsoft,
and I know people whose businesses Microsoft seriously, and unethically IMO,
damaged.

If Gates has mellowed, then cool. Once you've accomplished your goals and
squashed your opponents, then you've got time to play the nice guy and work on
your place in history. (Mr. Carnegie built a lot of libraries that did a lot
of good; after a career in industry and development that makes anything Gates
might have done pale in comparison.) Personally I think Gates got pissed when
he realized he had lost the browser wars and he couldn't own that internet
thingie.

Jobs's goals were a bit more ambitious than simply making "all the money." To
describe Jobs's work as "an easy to use computer, some cool movies, and ...
some expensive first-world gadgets." strikes me as glib and disingenuous.
Anyone who seriously thinks that needs to spend some time with normal people
and watch how they interact with technology.

And the movies are _better_ than just _cool_...

Even had Jobs lived a normal life span it's unlikely that he would have
accomplished all the universe denting he had in mind. If Jobs was a jerk, and
having met him once I can say from personal observation that he _was_ a bit of
one, he was a jerk in a hurry.

~~~
waitwhat
To imply that Bill Gates' goals were "simply making 'all the money'" is at
best intentionally misleading. Microsoft's unofficial mission statement from
1977 was "a computer on every desk and in every home". They aimed ridiculously
high, succeeded past anyone's expectations, and fundamentally changed the
world all on their own.

To dismiss the tens of billions of dollars that he is ploughing into his
foundation (and the tens of billions of dollars he convinced Warren Buffet to
also donate) as just "play[ing] the nice guy and work[ing] on [his] place in
history" is, quite frankly, ridiculous.

This is a foundation working hard on some of the most fundamental problems of
humanity: crippling poverty and devastating diseases. Sure, this gets them a
few headlines, but what do you expect when their budget is as much as the
International Red Cross and Oxfam International combined?

Bill Gates: Changed the world once. Will probably do it again.

Steve Jobs: "This changes everything. Again."

~~~
commieneko
Despite the actual verbiage used, Gate's goal wasn't a PC on every desk, it
was a computer, which he didn't sell, running his OS and software, which he
_did_ sell, on every desk. Software that locked the user into an ecosystem
that Microsoft controlled and profited by. He helped get the hardware in
place, but never got the software lock in he wanted. Not from lack of trying
though.

(see <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft>)

Ironic that Jobs's emphasis on maintaining quality and interfacing with human
psychology is faring better towards that goal; as a side effect.

While I admire your attempt at parallelism, no where in my post do I denigrate
Gate's philanthropy. Read it again. Ruthlessness and vanity have their social
uses. I grew up using a Carnegie library and am a better person for it. They
had a hell of a time tearing it down in the 1970s in order to put up a much
inferior glass box. The wreaking ball kept just bouncing off... Literally.

We'll see how well Gates's legacy performs historically. Myself, I wish he had
an interest in the space program or in energy production. But it's _his_ loot
to spend as he sees fit.

Jobs is through changing the world. At least directly. He's left some ongoing
projects, but such things seldom can continue without their visionaries. Look
at what happened to Walt Disney's urban planning experiments. Job's legacy
will be changing the way people think about and interact with technology.

My bet is that will have farther reaching consequences than any _actual_
technology.

------
oldstrangers
Is it just me, or does the interviewer seem like he just stepped off the set
of CSI: Miami?

Regardless, I love hearing Gates speak candidly.

~~~
tomclancy
Horrible interviewer

~~~
colonel_panic
He's there to make Bill sound more authentic by comparison.

------
tedsuo
I'm so happy to see what he's doing with his money. They way he earned it was
problematic to say the least (see the ECIS paper for a succinct history, if
you are interested:
[http://www.ecis.eu/documents/Finalversion_Consumerchoicepape...](http://www.ecis.eu/documents/Finalversion_Consumerchoicepaper.pdf)).
But I have to say, he's making up for it with how he's choosing to spend it. I
definitely did not see that coming.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
Every time I heard about his "charitable" works, he seems to be flying into
developing nations and taking a stance against more open intellectual property
rights (in medicine as well as software) or, coincidentally, giving them lots
of cash when they're talking about adopting open computing systems.

Admittedly, I've kind of lost interest so I've not paid any attention recently
but I assume he's stopped that nonsense. Because it's tacky enough to actually
lower my already poor opinion of him as a human being. (I'd also heard the
foundation was mostly his wife and father's doing and he wasn't particularly
interested in it, but again that's going back a few years, maybe that's
changed too.)

~~~
smackfu
Rarely will people admit to having such strong opinions about things they know
so little about.

~~~
thebigshane
"We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand." - Eric
Hoffer

Rare to admit maybe, not rare to occur.

------
kenny_r
I get a "Sorry but this video is no longer available." message.

My internet is routed through a proxy in Germany right now, is it still
available in other countries?

~~~
paul9290
Now that is another reason Hollywood needs to be killed!

These restrictions are ridiculous; it's 2012.

------
navs
Gates also mentions working with Wozniak. I'd like to hear some Wozniak
stories.

~~~
redthrowaway
Have you read the ones on folklore.org?

[http://www.folklore.org/ProjectView.py?project=Macintosh&...](http://www.folklore.org/ProjectView.py?project=Macintosh&characters=Steve%20Wozniak&detail=medium)

~~~
navs
Oh yes but we can never have too many Woz stories.

------
swombat
This Telegraph article covers the same topic but better than the text in this
article (I haven't watched the video):
[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/9041726/Bill-
Ga...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/9041726/Bill-Gates-I-
wrote-Steve-Jobs-a-letter-as-he-was-dying.-He-kept-it-by-his-bed.html)

------
melvinram
This interview might be interesting to others interested in Bill's foundation
work:

<http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11456>

------
lyime
It's a treat to hear them talk about each other.

~~~
peterkchen
I agree. Especially since Bill has always been quite modest as well about his
interactions with Steve.

------
bgentry
Seeing him speak so candidly like this makes me think of how unfairly Bill
Gates was vilified during Microsoft's peak in the 90s.

~~~
redthrowaway
Oh, it was entirely fair. Microsoft only stopped being evil once Gates left.
Its predatory and monopolistic behaviour was driven primarily by him,
personally.

Bill Gates is, I suspect, a much better person now than he was in the 90s, and
the world is a better place because of it. His current laudable campaigns do
nothing to detract from his past misdeeds, however. He was evil, now he's
good. I'm glad that he's devoting the same energy and passion to stamping out
Malaria and AIDS as he did stamping out Netscape and Linux. Hopefully he'll be
more successful, as well.

~~~
tfb
Maybe Bill Gates was never truly "evil". Maybe he just did what he had to do
to amass the wealth that is required to do truly great things like stamping
out Malaria and AIDS. Who is to say he wasn't planning his philanthropy all
along? I certainly am. It's one of the main driving factors behind the
business goals I work towards every day. I think Bill Gates has always been
kind of misunderstood.

~~~
oldstrangers
I think Bill Gates is generally misunderstood because we don't fully
appreciate just how intelligent he is. He's not routinely creating or
providing answers (in the way that a scientist like Einstein was constantly
offering up new ideas), so it's hard to really measure. He's inherently
private, which only hinders our understanding of him even more.

But I think historically, we will look back on him as having some of the most
influential and profound ideas (and decisions) of the 21st century.

No one person has done as much for humanity as Bill Gates has, perhaps in the
history of the world. The only comparisons are perhaps to someone like Jonas
Salk.

~~~
mixmastamyk
> No one person has done as much for humanity as Bill Gates

Ok, now its clear you're in love or delusional.

What has he done but spend money? I haven't heard of a single breakthrough
from that money, btw. Not that I'm really expecting any, these things take
time.

Your placement of a ruthless business person (now giving away to charity)
above einsteins and saints feels creepy frankly.

