Bill Gates

Let's do that now. Listeners, we've been trying out this new way of ending episodes. How do we land the plane? What is the one takeaway that is really sitting with me after having done all this research, talked through it with David, hardened our thinking by bouncing ideas off of each other? What is the thing that you can't get out of your mind?

Yeah, irrelevant, failing, can't do consumer. The counterfactual is Amazon. If they had a consistent message that they went forward with, such as, we're a company who invents and wanders. Amazon has failed at so many things. So many things. Publicly, huge bets that have totally failed, and yet... Huge consumer failures.

Yeah, irrelevant, failing, can't do consumer. The counterfactual is Amazon. If they had a consistent message that they went forward with, such as, we're a company who invents and wanders. Amazon has failed at so many things. So many things. Publicly, huge bets that have totally failed, and yet... Huge consumer failures.

People are like, what a beautiful thing that Jeff Bezos has imbued into this company. This idea that we invent and wander, we make these bold bets, we embrace failure. I mean, Kindle Fire, or I guess Kindle Fire kind of counts. Certainly the phone...

People are like, what a beautiful thing that Jeff Bezos has imbued into this company. This idea that we invent and wander, we make these bold bets, we embrace failure. I mean, Kindle Fire, or I guess Kindle Fire kind of counts. Certainly the phone...

Maybe. If LLMs hadn't become a thing, I'd be with you. It turns out it might be good distribution for a good LLM if they actually... Yeah, sure.

Maybe. If LLMs hadn't become a thing, I'd be with you. It turns out it might be good distribution for a good LLM if they actually... Yeah, sure.

It's an option on LLMs.

It's an option on LLMs.

There's grocery, Amazon Go, local. I mean, all the restaurant stuff. It's a narrative problem.

There's grocery, Amazon Go, local. I mean, all the restaurant stuff. It's a narrative problem.

You're right. I think yours is better than mine. Now that's my new land the plane. Do you want to hear what mine was before? Yeah, tell me what was on your mind. All right. Ultimately, Bill Gates is right. Technology companies are always extremely at risk of disruption.

You're right. I think yours is better than mine. Now that's my new land the plane. Do you want to hear what mine was before? Yeah, tell me what was on your mind. All right. Ultimately, Bill Gates is right. Technology companies are always extremely at risk of disruption.

Even if you won the battle today, even if you're the most dominant company today, it is so easy for you to lose and become irrelevant tomorrow. You may keep a great business because these things are sticky. As we know, IBM made a lot of money for a long time. But even without the whole DOJ thing... Microsoft probably would have vested themselves.

Even if you won the battle today, even if you're the most dominant company today, it is so easy for you to lose and become irrelevant tomorrow. You may keep a great business because these things are sticky. As we know, IBM made a lot of money for a long time. But even without the whole DOJ thing... Microsoft probably would have vested themselves.

Microsoft almost certainly would have missed mobile because there's no chance they would have realized that the business model that Google had meant that they were going to win in mobile when they came in from the side and gave away the software for less than free. Microsoft was going to have these huge downstream misses because technology moves so fast and is such a dynamic landscape.

Microsoft almost certainly would have missed mobile because there's no chance they would have realized that the business model that Google had meant that they were going to win in mobile when they came in from the side and gave away the software for less than free. Microsoft was going to have these huge downstream misses because technology moves so fast and is such a dynamic landscape.

If all this era did was give them a free option to play in the cloud and AI era, or even just say the AI era, that would have been great. But also what they did was they tripled revenue and profits.

If all this era did was give them a free option to play in the cloud and AI era, or even just say the AI era, that would have been great. But also what they did was they tripled revenue and profits.

Yep. It's a great takeaway. Carve-outs?