When people think that they, or their guru, have The Truth — ‘This is It!’ — they are what Nietzsche calls ‘epileptics of the concept’: people who have gotten an idea that’s driven them crazy.<\/i>
\n — Joseph Campbell (1904-1987)<\/p>\n
Well, my interview bit led off the video montage. No laughter, but I wan’t struck by lightning, nor has my e-mail stopped working.<\/p>\n
OTOH, the interviewers did refer to my question specifically a few times. The question of MS’ behavior came up repeatedly during Ballmer’s segment. <\/p>\n
Ballmer is a big, jolly, balding, teddy bear of a man. He looked and sounded like someone whom it would be fun to have over to dinner, fun to work with, or even for. He reminded me of some of my friends. <\/p>\n
And listening to him and his answers and resposes and statements, I had an epiphany. <\/p>\n
Microsoft is not evil, any more than a shark or a bear or a scorpion is evil. Not evil, just very, very dangerous. <\/i><\/p>\n
Because they’re geeks. They’re in this business, most of them, because they like to see people using the neat stuff they’ve built. They’re convinced they have the right answers, and they are enthusiastic about spreading, not to mention enforcing those answers. <\/p>\n
Enthusiasm <\/i>is an interesting word. It literally means embued with the divine spirit. You’ve got God on your side, rooting you along. <\/p>\n
MS isn’t really intrested in quashing the competition. They just want people to use their stuff. They don’t mind other peoples’ products or standards. It’s just no fun, no source of pride, unless they can improve on them. <\/p>\n
(The only animus I heard from Ballmer was toward Sun. Real anger there over the Java litigation. Although, even there, Ballmer made it clear that it was not enough to simply license a Java VM — if they could not “improve” it, then they could not feel “pride of ownership.”)<\/p>\n
MS realizes it is not liked. Ballmer seemed a bit confused as to why, but recognizes it. He said they were “humbled” by the lack of support from their friends during the anti-trust proceedings. <\/p>\n
They just want to be liked. In a way they remind me very much of the United States. We want to be liked. We don’t understand why people don’t like us, why they reject the ideas and products we impose on them as the “best” way. We’re willing to cooperate with others — as long as we get our way. <\/p>\n
Because we’ve got the right idea, and we want to “see people use our stuff,” right?<\/p>\n
In the best light, Microsoft is the big, geeky friend who comes over to your house, takes over your keyboard, downloads a bunch of software, and reconfigures your PC to be “better.” As a “favor.” And then leaves, sure he’s done the right thing, while you try to figure out how the heck to connect back to the Internet again, and what happened to your old e-mail.<\/p>\n
I’ve been there. I’ve had it done to me. Hell, I’ve done it myself. <\/p>\n
In the worst light, they are holy warriors, out to spread the Word, and willing to sadly (but with some bewilderment) behead anyone who won’t convert. <\/p>\n
Ballmer was quite clear on it. “Nobody wants to be the 800 lb. gorilla,” Ballmer said (in response to my <\/i>question, hoo-hah). But … what motivates his people? “To see people use their stuff.”<\/p>\n
Not to serve mankind. Nor to make lots of money. To see people use their stuff. <\/p>\n
Thqt’s ego, sure. But it’s true. I’ve done application development. It’s 100% true. The worst thing a creator, an author, can face is being ignored, having yor work shelved. You live to have your “baby” used. <\/p>\n
Sure, there are greedy people at MS. And there are power-seekers. But I’m willing to give the company as a whole the benefit of the doubt. They think they know the best answer to everything, and they want to give it to us. Hard. <\/p>\n
If only we’d lie back and enjoy it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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Fun!(h\/t +Gretchen Sher) Bored at work? Here\u2019s a Google-style digital map of the Roman Empire to play with If you're anything like me, you'll have spent many years fretting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130837,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/09\/so-whos-the-new-mcu-director-of-shield.html","url_meta":{"origin":1149,"position":1},"title":"So who's the new (MCU) Director of SHIELD?","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 9-Jun-16 6:36pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Clark Gregg says he hasn't been told yet, but does know Coulson's back out in the field as \"merely\" an Agent (as we saw in the denouement of the season finale). I actually think that's a pretty good development. 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