I watched the whole video of discussion between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs on D5. Link. It was such an amazing insight into their minds. All these years, all the media around them has hyped a hatred among these two people. But I learned that it’s not true. These two people were thinking at such a high level that rivalry between them was a good one. The respect they had for each other was immense and not a single moment they showed any signs that they had any bad feelings about each other.
What was silly was that, Kara the lady who was interviewing them, kept trying to make them say bad things about each other. All her questions were towards that end. It’s as if she believed that these 2 guys can’t be in the business without competing thoughts about each other. She kinda sounded annoying to me. As for Mossberg, he should prepare more about his questions. I know this show is all about executive discussion and may be he doesn’t need a paper to keep track of what he wants to ask – but boy he was lost sometimes.
I learned great amount about Bill G and Steve J. Bill Gates is a inside out engineer. He is very technical, keeps track of all the advances in Technology and knows what he is talking about. He always starts talking about technical things a level higher than everyone in the room would think. He is extremely knowledgeable about what he talks about. He has some fancy ideas as to how the future is going to be which do sound a little over the top. But in all technical respects he knows a lot of stuff.
On the other hand Steve Jobs, is all about passion and experience. He is committed to do one thing and dot it better. He thinks in terms of day by day basis. He has a grand plan or idea about future but he is flexible enough to change it. He is about bringing the best from within. He doesn’t have all the answers, but he is not that good at making partnerships – so he does selective partnerships based upon his terms. No wonder that’s why Apple’s market share is so small but unique. He is the poster child of someone who is rebellious but right. It’s hard to be like that. If you are rebellious, people think that you are against the mainstream thoughts. But Steve Jobs has a skill of knowing better than mainstream and he pulls it off in a rebellious way.
So, I learned when you are at that level. There are no bad feelings about each other or each other’s companies. It’s just bad choices and having the high order thinking these guys have – they mend and fix their mistakes everyday. They learn from them and this is what makes them great. I enjoyed hearing them talk. Awesome.
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