Bill Gates leaves Microsoft board

erek

erek

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Unreal. Wonder if it means much

“Bill founded our company with a belief in the democratizing force of software and a passion to solve society’s most pressing challenges. And Microsoft and the world are better for it. The board has benefited from Bill’s leadership and vision. And Microsoft will continue to benefit from Bill’s ongoing technical passion and advice to drive our products and services forward. I am grateful for Bill’s friendship and look forward to continuing to work alongside him to realize our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/13/bill-gates-leaves-microsoft-board.html
 
People always say they'll stop working. Then they stop working and go insane from the boredom, then they start spending their money to keep themselves occupied, and then they realize "shit I'm spending all my money, I'd better go back to work". Having money, even a lot of it, means you just have more options. Working at your own pace or part time is what most retirees tend to do,
not working at all is just a path to bitterness as you find buying mroe shit doesn't really equate to having a smile on your face. But you know...it don't hurt :)

Bill and The Two Steves were the "guys" when I was growing up, these guys were sort of on my radar and put me on the path that got me into 'puters and arguably got me into my career....I salute Bill for inspiring me, not like worship or anything, but just being a guy in the early 80's who didn't have a huge leftover 1970's style Beard and courderoy jacket like all the punch-card guys had, kinda made the whole thing about
computers less off-putting to a younger guy like me than those creepers with the huge 70's hair and beards did. He looked like a geek. He didn't intimidate.

The guy probably has cancer or something and wants to spend his time, and his cash, doing meaningful things....running businesses even as a figurehead probably means nothing to him at this point. Every time I see him I'm reminded I ain't young anymore either.
 
HeadRusch said:
People always say they'll stop working. Then they stop working and go insane from the boredom, then they start spending their money to keep themselves occupied, and then they realize "shit I'm spending all my money, I'd better go back to work". Having money, even a lot of it, means you just have more options. Working at your own pace or part time is what most retirees tend to do,
not working at all is just a path to bitterness as you find buying mroe shit doesn't really equate to having a smile on your face. But you know...it don't hurt :)
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I don't think people realize how much money ~$90 Billion is. It is practically impossible to "spend all my money." If he spent $1 Million every single day, it would take him 246 1/2 years to spend all his money assuming he didn't return any investment on his money.
 
HeadRusch said:
People always say they'll stop working. Then they stop working and go insane from the boredom, then they start spending their money to keep themselves occupied, and then they realize "shit I'm spending all my money, I'd better go back to work". Having money, even a lot of it, means you just have more options. Working at your own pace or part time is what most retirees tend to do,
not working at all is just a path to bitterness as you find buying mroe shit doesn't really equate to having a smile on your face. But you know...it don't hurt :)

Bill and The Two Steves were the "guys" when I was growing up, these guys were sort of on my radar and put me on the path that got me into 'puters and arguably got me into my career....I salute Bill for inspiring me, not like worship or anything, but just being a guy in the early 80's who didn't have a huge leftover 1970's style Beard and courderoy jacket like all the punch-card guys had, kinda made the whole thing about
computers less off-putting to a younger guy like me than those creepers with the huge 70's hair and beards did. He looked like a geek. He didn't intimidate.

The guy probably has cancer or something and wants to spend his time, and his cash, doing meaningful things....running businesses even as a figurehead probably means nothing to him at this point. Every time I see him I'm reminded I ain't young anymore either.
Click to expand...

You should probably read the stated reasons for him stepping down. He's stepping down in order to focus more fully on his foundation, which is going to mean a lot of work. You also act like he was some super busy guy at Microsoft. It's not like he was there day to day running operations. He's not stepping down from "running" things at MS (even though he really wasn't doing that) to do less work, he's doing it to focus on even more work running a huge charitable foundation.
 
kirbyrj said:
I don't think people realize how much money ~$90 Billion is. It is practically impossible to "spend all my money." If he spent $1 Million every single day, it would take him 246 1/2 years to spend all his money assuming he didn't return any investment on his money.
Click to expand...
Where do I sign up for this “spend $1 mil a day” challenge?
It sounds better than the tide pod ice bucket challenge while trying to swallow a tablespoon of ground cinnamon that I am accustomed to.
 
End of an era, even if Gates hasn't really played a major role in decision-making at Microsoft for a long time.

He's been great for philanthropy and advancing science, although I mainly remember his post-CEO influence on Microsoft by how he helped the company miss the boat on mobile. Remember how Gates practically had a pen fetish and could not envision touchscreen devices without them? He initially downplayed the iPad precisely because it didn't have a pen... and then Apple managed to outsell several years of Tablet PCs in the space of several months.
 
vegeta535 said:
I though he basically had zero involvement in MS operations for at least a decade now.
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Quite the opposite actually.

According to a new report from Re/code's Kara Swisher, who has broken much of the news about Microsoft's CEO search, Microsoft insiders say "Nadella has always been [Gates'] favorite candidate," and the selection has primarily been the decision of the Microsoft co-founder. So why are reports now emerging that Gates may step down as chairman of the company? Swisher says it's because he will actually be more involved on Microsoft's products, and he would even remain on the board if he does step down from the chairman role.
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https://www.neowin.net/news/satya-n...es-to-help-with-product-problems-at-microsoft

Gates has stated he'll spend "considerable time" with Microsoft's new CEO, though it was previously reported that his say in the choice of that person wouldn't be as great as many believed. Several articles have noted that another member of Microsoft's board, John Thompson, is leading the search process, though Swisher's source states that "nothing is going to happen without [Gates]," implying that the Microsoft founder may have the final say in who leads the company.
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https://www.neowin.net/news/report-bill-gates-to-be-much-more-involved-in-microsoft-with-new-ceo

Instead, Gates will be spending more time helping Nadella, as Re/code had reported several weeks ago, especially in the technology and product area, with the title of “technology advisor,” working full-time several days a week at Microsoft.
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https://www.vox.com/2014/2/4/116230...microsoft-ceo-as-expected-with-gates-stepping

There was more than one article I recall from the 2014 era that basically stated Satya would take the position of CEO provided Bill would dedicate more time to personally helping Satya guide the company in the right direction. I'm not sure where the exact article I'm thinking about was, but it had a quote from Satya himself stating as such, and gave some breakdown about how much time Bill would spend at Microsoft. I'd imagine that this has run it's course by now and Bill's help is no longer needed. It's possible that even 3 years ago they started transitioning to the eventual leave for Bill, but certainly in the past 5 years he was still an important voice inside of the company.
 
erek said:
Unreal. Wonder if it means much

“Bill founded our company with a belief in the democratizing force of software and a passion to solve society’s most pressing challenges."
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sounds way more like an obituary if you ask me :barefoot:

sfsuphysics said:
Awww how cute, billionaires slumming it for the day a couple hours and then get to go home to their mega mansions without having to eat all the food you grabbed from work that they were going to throw out anyways :D
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no kidding here when I say the video that auto-played after the Gates Warren video was called Wretched
 
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