Comments on: Jobs, Gates, and the road behind

By: Scott Rosenberg’s Wordyard » Blog Archive » Gates and Ballmer at D: Lament for lost youth

Wed, 28 May 2008 05:28:29 +0000

[...] off tonight with a double interview with Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. After last year’s psychodramatically rich confrontation between Gates and the other Steve in his life, this event was decidedly more tepid. Gates has had [...]

By: Seeing Inside The Minds Of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates - Dawud Miracle @ dmiracle.com - (formerly Healthy WebDesign)

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 14:54:07 +0000

[...] been a lot of posts written about the interview. Many folks have covered their relationship or the relationship between Apple and [...]

By: Sam Penrose

Sam Penrose — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 00:29:43 +0000

My comments were a bit misleading … I actually meant to refer to the love-in that was the D Conference, not your coverage of it. I understand the impulse the rich and powerful have to use their wealth and power to construct peer groups with other rich and powerful folks. The classic model has been, AFAICT, the exclusive retreat — the Bohemian Club, etc.

There’s something different (new?) about the role commentators play when the event is not just marketing but also in some weird way social — or maybe not, maybe it’s just Sundance/Cannes/Oscar night for the silicon set. It’s not that the analytical turn of mind that draws me to work such as yours can’t be (or in this case wasn’t) applied to D, it’s more that I am not sure what it means to be analytical about so many layers of solipsism and spin. Anyway … back to reading PDFs on programming language design :-).

By: Scott Rosenberg

Scott Rosenberg — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 04:00:14 +0000

I can understand being conflicted! But I didn’t think I was treating either of them “qua acquaintances” so much as viewing them as performers on a public stage. Lord knows I’ve written enough business- and tech-heavy analyses of these guys’ companies and their products over the years. But this was a personality-driven event, and it seemed to call for a response along those lines…

By: Sam Penrose

Sam Penrose — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 22:50:48 +0000

I’m a little conflicted by all of this emphasis on these public figures as people-qua-acquaintances. On the “pro” side: we’re hardwired to do it, it can lead to insights, and it’s fun. On the “con” side, *because* we’re hardwired to do it, we do way too much of it and it gets way too much attention. It’s a little cheap and easy, and in practice it tends to compete with rather than complement less-personality-based analysis.

By: Scott Rosenberg’s Wordyard » Blog Archive » Last of the rock stars?

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 19:39:30 +0000

[...] Guterman’s post (also here) about the Gates/Jobs show at D is thoughtful, and I like his thinking out loud here: They do have so much in common. When Gates [...]

By: John McKinley

John McKinley — Thu, 31 May 2007 23:13:27 +0000

Thanks for such a wonderful writeup. It is a bittersweet moment to see Bill Gates enter his last period at the helm of Microsoft. These two have been so incredibly influential over their 31 year (Jobs) and 33 year (Gates) tenures, this session felt a bit like a passing of a generational baton, although to whom I am not quite sure (beyond the Google trio). I can’t imagine a subsequent period with such continuity of senior leadership ever happening again. I’m not sure that’s a good or bad thing. Only time will tell.

By: El Yanqui

El Yanqui — Thu, 31 May 2007 21:17:00 +0000

This was the SuperBowl for all of us geeky fanboys. That was a great meeting and a good writeup of the event.

By: Life Imitates Advertising Part The Second | Brilliant! Cheers!

Life Imitates Advertising Part The Second | Brilliant! Cheers! — Thu, 31 May 2007 21:16:03 +0000

[...] Well as I predicted, which was hardly going out on a limb, the meeting between Jobs and Gates went according to the Mac v. PC script. While no death star was mentioned—nor was it denied—the meeting did clearly show the personality differences between the Mac and the PC cult figureheads. Unsurprisingly, Mac was charming and affable while PC was a bit stuffy. [...]

By: Manas

Manas — Thu, 31 May 2007 17:36:05 +0000

Gates & Jobs @ D5…

This is nothing short of a historic meetup - two icons of the World today (not just the tech world) Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. The two met at the D5: All Things Digital - The Wall Street Journal Executive Conference and sat down with Walt Mossberg and…