Gates knows software

A nice annecdote by Joel Spolsky on how one day the big man came in to review something Joel had written.

3 responses to “Gates knows software”

  1. Reinder says:

    Interesting. Do you reckon the “fuck counter” has that as his official job counter? Is he still working there? If not, can I have that job? Counting the number of times Bill Gates says “fuck” during an assessment sounds like a cushy and fun number to me.

  2. brankl says:

    Oh, great, now it has that word on my blog! :-)

    Anyway, er, I don’t know, really. You should probably take this up with Microsoft’s personnel office. Or talk to Bill Gates’ office directly.

    But from what I understand, there is currently no Microsoft employee who has as sole task to count teh Bill’s outbursts. Rather, a peer of the developer being grilled is given that task.

    All in all I think you have a good chance if you argue the point that it is much cheaper and better to have one single person do all the counting. After all, after a while you would know all the nuances in all Gates’ fucks. When he swallows a word, does that count as a fuck? Is fuckhead a fuck? But what if dildo is a synonym for fuckhead, does dildo count as fuck? These temporary counters would not know, but you would be knee-deep in Bill’s fucks.

    Aren’t you glad you asked?

  3. Ken "Custom Software" Red says:

    I don’t think Bill knows software that well anymore lol.

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