Steve Ballmer
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
But if you wrote an emulator on a bigger, more powerful computer that could sort of mimic the computer that you're actually targeting, you could go years before actually ever running the software on the target device and just work off of what the manual says, as long as the manual is correct and matches how it actually works.
But spoiler alert, that totally becomes Microsoft. The seeds of Microsoft are selling language interpreters for new processors, new hardware, new computers that enable you to write familiar programming languages on that new hardware.
But spoiler alert, that totally becomes Microsoft. The seeds of Microsoft are selling language interpreters for new processors, new hardware, new computers that enable you to write familiar programming languages on that new hardware.
Yeah, he cared a little bit less about programming languages and a little bit more about operating systems. So that's how they diverge for the few years here.
Yeah, he cared a little bit less about programming languages and a little bit more about operating systems. So that's how they diverge for the few years here.
It's so good. This quote is incredible because basically Paul Allen brings up Moore's law to Bill Gates. They don't use that language there. But in 1971, that is what's happening. And for Paul, this is just an observation of, hey, there's an exponential thing happening here. Seems like it's going to keep happening. It's been happening. And Bill's shaking. And he's like, What?
It's so good. This quote is incredible because basically Paul Allen brings up Moore's law to Bill Gates. They don't use that language there. But in 1971, that is what's happening. And for Paul, this is just an observation of, hey, there's an exponential thing happening here. Seems like it's going to keep happening. It's been happening. And Bill's shaking. And he's like, What?
Exponential phenomena don't just happen. That's incredibly, incredibly rare and immediately gets Bill's wheels turning on. What does this mean for the world? If that's actually true, we need to act and do something profoundly different than anyone's ever done before because this enables new things that no one ever thought could be possible.
Exponential phenomena don't just happen. That's incredibly, incredibly rare and immediately gets Bill's wheels turning on. What does this mean for the world? If that's actually true, we need to act and do something profoundly different than anyone's ever done before because this enables new things that no one ever thought could be possible.
Yeah. And it's also the reason why Microsoft is going to form into such a different type of company that's ever come before it. Why they can break all the rules, why they can sell just software, even though that's never been a thing before, why their business model can be so much different than everyone else's business model.
Yeah. And it's also the reason why Microsoft is going to form into such a different type of company that's ever come before it. Why they can break all the rules, why they can sell just software, even though that's never been a thing before, why their business model can be so much different than everyone else's business model.
I mean, in prepping for this episode, we got to talk with Pete Higgins, who ran Excel and was an executive overseeing Office for a long time in the early days. And he had this great quote to us, which was, computer on every desk was wackadoo stuff. People laughed at it. It was absolutely wild.
I mean, in prepping for this episode, we got to talk with Pete Higgins, who ran Excel and was an executive overseeing Office for a long time in the early days. And he had this great quote to us, which was, computer on every desk was wackadoo stuff. People laughed at it. It was absolutely wild.
People thought, I don't know, maybe one in 10 people in their finance group or something will have one at some point. This is the profoundness of an exponential decrease in price or increase in power of computing is it's going to become universal.
People thought, I don't know, maybe one in 10 people in their finance group or something will have one at some point. This is the profoundness of an exponential decrease in price or increase in power of computing is it's going to become universal.
It's literally a quote from Paul Allen. So Bill was the number one math student in the state of Washington. And he gets there, and he does this theoretical math class, Math 55, and gets a B. And Paul says, when it came to higher mathematics, he might have been one in 100,000 or better. But there were people who were one in a million or one in 10 million, and some of them wound up at Harvard.
It's literally a quote from Paul Allen. So Bill was the number one math student in the state of Washington. And he gets there, and he does this theoretical math class, Math 55, and gets a B. And Paul says, when it came to higher mathematics, he might have been one in 100,000 or better. But there were people who were one in a million or one in 10 million, and some of them wound up at Harvard.
Bill would never be the smartest guy in the room, and I think that hurt his motivation. He eventually switched his major to applied math. Ha, ha, ha, ha.