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Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

(danluu.com)
371 points greggyb | 1 comments | 28 Oct 24 21:48 UTC | HN request time: 0.206s | source
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codeflo ◴[28 Oct 24 22:41 UTC] No.41977294[source]▶
I'm not informed enough to rebut this, and don't want to be quoted in the follow-up article that suggests HN is still too dumb to get the genius of Ballmer, but here's my take.

It's only the footnote of the article that mentions Ballmer's "stage persona". I think that's the important point, and I would add that his "interview persona" might have been even worse. Back then, he was quoted as saying insanely dumb shit all the time. Like when he literally publicly laughed about the iPhone. Or when he called a Zune feature to share files between devices "squirting".

Maybe he did make all kinds of brilliant decisions internally. I wouldn't know, but neither would the stock market. If the CEO comes across as not understanding tech, it's likely the market will price that in.

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legitster ◴[28 Oct 24 22:43 UTC] No.41977313[source]▶
I think a better way of understanding Ballmer is that he really struggled to relate to end consumers, but he understood their business partners very well.
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1. toyg ◴[29 Oct 24 12:45 UTC] No.41983294[source]▶
He was very much an '80s/'90s exec. Back then, execs were not "visionaire rockstars"; they were wisecracking boomers in suits. Microsoft walked a very thin line between very different worlds, and Ballmer was closer to the old-world type than the new.