Steve Ballmer

The IBM deal. I can't unsee it. Microsoft figured out a way to take someone else's dominance and wholesale transfer that into their dominance for the next generation. The fact that IBM called the project chess is so deeply ironic because Bill Gates was playing chess and they played checkers.

they just didn't end up capturing any value out of it yep and if i could make a less cheeky comment on it i would say it's that a new technology generation when something becomes possible and opens up a new market it enables a shift in the point of integration in a value chain the old value chain of ibm if you shipped the mainframe you had all the power

they just didn't end up capturing any value out of it yep and if i could make a less cheeky comment on it i would say it's that a new technology generation when something becomes possible and opens up a new market it enables a shift in the point of integration in a value chain the old value chain of ibm if you shipped the mainframe you had all the power

But in this new world of PCs, if you controlled the operating system that all the users were familiar with and all the developers wanted to target, you had all the power. I think that is not necessarily obvious unless you went through it and have the hindsight of history to be able to articulate it.

But in this new world of PCs, if you controlled the operating system that all the users were familiar with and all the developers wanted to target, you had all the power. I think that is not necessarily obvious unless you went through it and have the hindsight of history to be able to articulate it.

It arguably created like $3 trillion of value, so.

It arguably created like $3 trillion of value, so.

Yep, absolutely.

Yep, absolutely.

I mean, you watch every early interview with Bill, and you read a lot of his writing, and he's a great writer. I mean, it's awesome that so many of his memos leaked, whether intentionally or unintentionally, over time.

I mean, you watch every early interview with Bill, and you read a lot of his writing, and he's a great writer. I mean, it's awesome that so many of his memos leaked, whether intentionally or unintentionally, over time.

Yes. He really did view himself as a steward of the software ecosystem and had this steadfast belief that software was magic and was going to change the world. Over the next 20 years, from 75 to 95, software did change the world and Microsoft enabled it to happen.

Yes. He really did view himself as a steward of the software ecosystem and had this steadfast belief that software was magic and was going to change the world. Over the next 20 years, from 75 to 95, software did change the world and Microsoft enabled it to happen.

So again, good, bad, or ugly, whatever you think of the company, they were sincere in... I think the ugly part is a lot of people want to hate on the value capture because, God, did they capture value. But they were sincere in their desire and ability to create, too.

So again, good, bad, or ugly, whatever you think of the company, they were sincere in... I think the ugly part is a lot of people want to hate on the value capture because, God, did they capture value. But they were sincere in their desire and ability to create, too.

Yep. Is that your splinter? The splinter in your mind?

Yep. Is that your splinter? The splinter in your mind?

Listeners who are new to the show, we've been iterating on how we end episodes. And we decided on this recently of, you know, how should we land the plane? It's to talk about the thing that we can't stop thinking about.

Listeners who are new to the show, we've been iterating on how we end episodes. And we decided on this recently of, you know, how should we land the plane? It's to talk about the thing that we can't stop thinking about.

Crazy. All right, David, I have some trivia for you.