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Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

(danluu.com)
371 points greggyb | 8 comments | 28 Oct 24 21:48 UTC | HN request time: 0.002s | source | bottom
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lysace ◴[28 Oct 24 22:03 UTC] No.41976931[source]▶
Wow, gotta love the recent MS fanfic.

Ballmer was just an average sales jock along for the ride.

Edit: Seems like I was proven wrong. Assumptions are... assumptions :).

replies(2): >>41976996 #>>41982410 #
1. FanaHOVA ◴[28 Oct 24 22:12 UTC] No.41976996[source]▶
I don't have a strong opinion on his tenure at MSFT, but I don't know many sales jocks with a 1600 SAT score and a degree in applied math from Harvard.
replies(2): >>41977029 #>>41977043 #
2. lysace ◴[28 Oct 24 22:15 UTC] No.41977029[source]▶
Good point.

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2002/6/4/personable-ballm...

> In high school, Ballmer scored a 1600 on his SATs and was a National Merit Scholar.

Would the Crimson verify this or just trust the claim?

replies(1): >>41977085 #
3. mixmastamyk ◴[28 Oct 24 22:16 UTC] No.41977043[source]▶
Effective sales and marketing is more dependent on math than most people realize.
replies(1): >>41977150 #
4. vlovich123 ◴[28 Oct 24 22:20 UTC] No.41977085[source]▶
He's listed on their page:

https://www.nationalmerit.org/s/1758/interior.aspx?sid=1758&...

replies(1): >>41977097 #
5. lysace ◴[28 Oct 24 22:22 UTC] No.41977097{3}[source]▶
Thumbs up.
6. lysace ◴[28 Oct 24 22:27 UTC] No.41977150[source]▶
...how?

I get that it correlates with intelligence, but with math, specifically?

replies(1): >>41977439 #
7. mixmastamyk ◴[28 Oct 24 22:57 UTC] No.41977439{3}[source]▶
Lots of metrics to analyze and statistics to crunch. Knowing where to focus the schmoozing is as important as the schmoozing itself.
replies(1): >>41999236 #
8. lysace ◴[30 Oct 24 19:32 UTC] No.41999236{4}[source]▶
:-)