The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 28 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 4 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Ellison: Microsoft Software Is Rarely First-Rate and Never Innovates
“Microsoft software is rarely first rate. They never ever innovate, but they're good copiers.”
Jobs: Microsoft makes pedestrian, third-rate products that have no spirit
“I have no problem with their success. I have a problem that they make really third rate products. Their products have no spirit to them. They are very pedestrian. They are McDonald's.”
Ellison: Bill Gates Is Dangerous Because He Lacks Intellectual Vanity
“Most people hate to admit they're wrong, but it didn't bother Bill one bit. All he cared about was what was right, not who was right. That is what makes Bill very, very dangerous. If Bill has to choose, he'd rather win the war than win the argument.”
Ellison: Gates's true advantage is unmatched focus and endurance, not intellect
“There are a lot of people in the world smarter than Bill Gates. There are very few people in the world that have his focus and endurance.”
Jobs: Apple was worth saving because it was the only Windows alternative
“There is something good here worth saving. I don't quite know how to express it, but it has to do with the fact that Apple is the only alternative to windows and that Apple can still inject some new thinking into the equation.”
Gates: Obsessive focus without weekends or vacations was key competitive advantage
“He says a key advantage I had was being fanatical. That is taking all of my capabilities day and night and just focusing on how do you write good software. I loved being a fanatic. Eventually, I reveled in it. I didn't believe in weekends. I didn't believe in …”
Senra: Microsoft held 'Borland War Councils' and printed 'delete Philippe' T-shirts
“Gates held meetings that became known around Microsoft as the Borland War Councils, during which him and his staff plotted how to beat the Frenchman being Philippe Kahn. Gates reportedly walked into one such meeting and threw Kahn's picture down on a table and…”
Paul Allen: A Genius Programmer Can Outproduce an Average One 50 to 1
“A great programmer can outproduce an average one by 10 to one. With a genius, the ratio might be 50 to one.”
Bill Gates Claimed True AI Would Be Worth Ten Microsofts
“If you invent a breakthrough in artificial intelligence so machines can learn, that would be worth 10 Microsofts.”
Challenging Industry Heavyweights Forces Companies to Improve Their Products
“If you're a fighter, the only way up is through the top fighters in your division. So we picked fights with Microsoft and IBM because they're the ones we had to beat to reach the top. By constantly measuring ourselves against the two top heavyweights, we const…”
Public Fights with Bill Gates Greatly Enhanced Oracle's Brand
“This intentional fight that he picks against Bill Gates and Microsoft and how beneficial the positioning was. That he chose and how this message spread through the media and actually enhanced greatly enhanced not only his individual stature, but the stature of…”
Gates required Microsoft to hold one year of operating cash in reserves
“Software is a very unusual business. The development work is not that capital intensive. The first year we generated cash like mad, even though we had many customers who went bankrupt. In other words, we had a wide margin for error. I always wanted to have eno…”
Microsoft priced early software at under half in-house engineering costs
“In the early days, our sales approach was to say, if you had to write the software in-house, your fixed engineering budget would be X amount of dollars. And Microsoft's price is less than half of X dollars. We competed. Against in-house engineering budgets.”
Senra: Gates was obsessed with cost control and pressured staff on waste
“Bill was obsessed with cost control, and he is constantly hounding everyone in the company about it.”
Gates viewed a $50,000 lost contract as a $100,000 net loss
“Bill believed that if you lost a 50,000 dollar contract, he considered it a 100,000 dollar loss because Microsoft lost to 50 and his competitor gained the 50.”
Senra: Microsoft offered $90 million to buy Pixar
“So they get an offer from, Microsoft's just one of these companies. Steve's like, hey, I want a hundred twenty million for Pixar. And, you know, he just made up the number, and Microsoft will give you ninety million.”
At 30 employees, Microsoft had 28 programmers, a secretary, and Bill Gates
“When we got up to 30 employees, it was still just me, a secretary and 28 programmers. I wrote all the checks, answered the mail, took the phone calls.”
Microsoft Operated with Only 11 or 12 Employees Four Years In
“Four years in, and they had just 11 employees. I think they might have had 12 because they take that picture, that famous Microsoft picture when they're moving from Albuquerque to Seattle. And there's only 11 people in the photo, but I'm pretty sure there was …”
Senra: Bill Gates agreed with Steve Jobs that tech victory means survival
“Steve jobs said that victory in our industry is spelled survival. It's very clear from his actions that Bill Gates agreed.”
Gates rejected Ross Perot's mid-seven-figure Microsoft buyout offer in 1979
“Ross Perot tried to buy Microsoft in 1979 for quote, mid seven figures. And this is what Bill Gates said. Bill Gates said, no. I want to remain independent. Now keep in mind, Microsoft's revenue that year was just 2.4 million dollars.”
Microsoft Had $7M Revenue and Under 40 Employees Entering IBM Deal
“Now Microsoft, a company with seven million dollars in annual sales, had fewer than 40 employees, and was about to go into business with IBM, an international giant with revenues approaching thirty billion dollars a year.”
Senra: Microsoft's Initial MITS Contract Granted Exclusive BASIC Sublicensing Rights
“The deal that they signed with MITS gave them the exclusive rights to sub-licensed R software to any other company that wanted to use the AD-AD basic in their products would have to get the source code, which he describes as the recipe to basic, through MITS a…”
Microsoft was the first software company to surpass $1B in annual sales
“Well, by 1990, Microsoft had become the first software company in history to sell more than a billion dollars worth of software in a single year.”
Gates sold 5% of Microsoft for $1M solely for VC expertise
“Bill sold five percent of Microsoft for a million dollars. Can you imagine? Five percent of million of Microsoft for a million dollars to TVI, which is technology venture investors. Microsoft did not need the venture capital. Gates was essentially hiring the f…”
Gates memorized employee license plates to monitor weekend attendance
“Bill had would go out and he'd memorize the license plates of the cars in the Microsoft parking lot in the early days.”
Senra: Bill Gates maintained a top-10 list of past mistakes to avoid repeating them
“He would keep a list of mistakes and it was a top 10 list. And he'd reread that to make sure they don't make the same mistakes in the future.”