

Idolize Bill Gates, Not Steve Jobs - hellacious
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/11/idolize_bill_gates_not_steve_j.html

======
jgrahamc
I wouldn't idolize either of them. Idolatry seems like a bad idea. How about
just reading about their lives and seeing what makes sense for you to copy for
your life?

As one Zen teacher puts it: "there are no enlightened beings, only enlightened
actions". So do the actions and ignore the beings.

~~~
brudgers
From a business perspective, Gates offers some interesting lessons -
bootstrapping allows a lot of your employees to get rich - even the
secretaries; eating your own dogfood can help you produce successful product
lines (Project, Office, Visual Studio); you don't have to sell to the the cool
kids using Pascal - BASIC is fine; and if you treat consumers like your B2B
customers, you will build market share.

------
initself
"As much as I love Apple, Inc, I would happily give up my iPhone to put food
on the plates of starving children."

No you wouldn't. If that were true, you would have already done it.

~~~
exit
hmm, i think what people mean when they say this is:

i would gladly trade the system which produces iphones for one which puts food
on the plates of otherwise starving children

there's a mismatch between the narrow "my iphone" and the broad "plates of
starving children"

~~~
13rules
Initself's point still stands ... you have the opportunity to do something
now, however small it may be, about whatever things are important to you.

Instead, the author seems to be saying, "I want someone else to change their
policies that impact the world so I can feel less guilty about the fact that I
am doing nothing."

------
pg
This is not fair to Steve Jobs. We don't have a full life to judge him by. If
this writer had to judge Bill Gates 10 years ago, he would have fallen short
of Gates now.

~~~
acabal
I don't know about that. This year they're both the same age, had both amassed
billions, and had become titans of industry. One of them publicly devoted
himself to spending his riches on improving humanity; the other continued to
enrich himself by developing what are at their core expensive first-world
gadgets (though how much he gave to charity is I believe not known).

How much does it take before you have a "full life" that you can be judged by?

~~~
pg
I think the general consensus is that a full life is more than 56 years.

------
davidjhall
I wouldn't idolize Bill Gates either -- while his recent activities are more
charitable than Jobs, he led Microsoft through some less-than-charitable
activities. I worked for Sybase which, initially partnered with Microsoft, but
which later Bill Gates had targeted, much like Jobs and the Android.

------
thedufer
The problem with idolizing Bill Gates was stated most elegantly by PG: "no
startup can be the next Microsoft unless some other company is prepared to
bend over at just the right moment and be the next IBM[...]Microsoft is a bad
data point." There is much to be admired in what Bill Gates has done with his
wealth (and little to be admired in Steve Jobs by the same criteria). But if
you're looking for an idol in the context if building a tech company, Steve
Jobs seems like the way to go.

I guess the important thing, then, is to have different people guide different
parts of your life. No one was good at everything; pick and choose their good
sides.

~~~
wanorris
One of the most important steps in Google's growth was when they cut a deal to
be the technology provider for Yahoo's search back when Yahoo dominated the
web, so perhaps finding a big company that will bend over at just the right
moment isn't as impossible as it seems?

------
staunch
Great example of where I wish I had a downvote button. This article is fluff
linkbait, but it _is_ also on topic.

~~~
pg
I agree entirely. This is what the flag link is for.

~~~
staunch
Here's why I've been confused about that I think:

<http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

> _If you think something is spam or offtopic, flag it by going to its page
> and clicking on the "flag" link._

Maybe we could get more flagging if you updated the guidelines or renamed it
"junk".

------
AlexandrB
The whole comparison is silly and a false dichotomy. Using Jobsian attention
to detail and work ethic to drive your career/business is not mutually
exclusive with donating the result to charity.

Arguably, Jobs's lifestyle is probably more suited for philanthropy because of
the (relatively) spartan nature of his tastes in fashion, housing and cars.

------
gdonelli
They both contributed to humanity in different ways.

They don't need to be one better than the other.

------
treetrouble
This post will not be well received on HN because the taste leaders here are
people who have deeply internalized the Jobs mindset for better or worse

------
jwallaceparker
Clearly there is a lot to admire in the life and careers of both men. I don't
think this is an either-or situation.

------
tobylane
Gates has done a lot of good out of the company, so yes for that work he is
better than Jobs, better than most people (bit hard to judge with
billionaires, most of them want to give away 90% of their wealth but it
doesn't make them charitable). In terms of business and innovation, when you
look at the five-ish years around the starts of the two companies the stories
I keep hearing lean a lot towards Jobs/Woz doing a better, more involved and
innovative creation.

Unfortunately the line may well be "Don't make money the way these
billionaires did, no-one did it nicely. When you have billions, give it away
like they all do."

