Scobleizer - Latest Comments in Your exit interview of me

Re: Your exit interview of me

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Re: Your exit interview of me

Robert Scoble — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 22:26:22 -0000

Drew, thanks, I appreciated every one of your comments, even the ones that disagreed with what I said. I learned a lot, and that's the most I can ask for. Would love to meet you someday.

As for new company to compete with the old? I guess that's what we're getting with Google anyway. Too bad that Gates didn't just spin off an Internet division to compete with the old fogeys anyway back in the late 1990s. If he had maybe Google wouldn't have existed. But, that's the innovator's dilemma, isn't it?

Re: Your exit interview of me

Drew — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 21:31:49 -0000

I hope I'm not too late to add to this. I'm an ex-'softie who spent the last few years in the Windows division. At the risk of being lost amongst the trolls but with the hope of actually helping someone out there . . . here are my reactions.

My perception is that most 'softies might not know you because most folks live in silos. The annual tech fair is an eye opener for a lot of people who don't have any idea what the rest of the company is doing. Is it any surprise that "Scoble" isn't a buzzword internally? If I would change one thing about Microsoft culture it would be this. Or maybe the empire-building that I believe eventually leads to the silo lifestyle.

IE 7 and Vista both have (shoddy) RSS client support. Not to mention the Live initiative. It's not that everyone at Microsoft is clueless, but rather that unless something has a solid business model it just ain't gonna happen. People outside of Microsoft didn't see the HUGE internal furvor from the folks with their boots on the ground (Individual Contributors) about OSS as everyone tried to get senior management to realize that Linux, Firefox, et al. were not only viable, but possibly a threat to some of the company's bottom line. I realize this runs counter to the silo statement above, but there are certainly some if not many engineers in the company who are real geeks, seeking out all the new cool things. Heck, RaymondC's sig used to be "just another Linux hacker". For better ___ support, the mantra is always "wait for the next service pack". Probably applies in this case.

Windows release cycles seem to have changed. The old model is 1) release the RTM version and 2) everyone finally runs it once you release SP1. The new model is to add 3) there's some "refresh" release like XP SP2 or WS03 R2 that is sort of a mini-RTM for a new OS. That seems to be the mechanism to add all those features that customers really wanted but just didn't ship at RTM. I wasn't an exec. I don't know what happens most days in the war meetings. I'm just a nobody. That's only what I observed from the trenches. I suppose it's better than the wait for NT4 SP4 was.

Remaking Microsoft into two camps, the younger of which is intended to kill the elder, sounds too much like an Apple nightmare of yore. I don't think you're Mini, but maybe you're related to Steve Jobs. As an engineer, that sounds dreadful. I leave it to anyone interested to Google up that history lesson. *shudder*

I completely agree about the need for a naming dictator. Forget about the personas. I've never met Abby or Ichiro. I'm more worried about my mom. I *love* my mom. The whole Messenger confusion is only one example of the needless support headaches I have with her. Maybe in some imaginary world those things bother Abby or Ichiro. I have no idea. I only know that mom doesn't like it.

I also agree that people hate Microsoft because it is now Goliath. I still remember when it was David instead. David could fight kinda dirty 'cause he was the underdog. Goliath needs to just stand there and take the hurt. Microsoft as David has gone the way of the Blibbet. Were I a bit more superstitious I'd cry out "resurrect the Blibbet", but I'm not. Goliath isn't cool. I don't know how to change that.

As far as roles go in Windows . . . well . . . that's a deep problem. Look to the NT object manager and ask how it should be changed to "understand" roles. Start there at the core and build out. I agree that the development community as a whole (and Microsoft especially) needs to start thinking in terms of roles. In practical terms, things are a little better in Unix-land. In design terms . . . um . . . I don't want to start a flame war, so I'll lay off. Suffice it to say that there are some really smart people in the Windows division who are starting to think about roles instead of just entities and their permissions (a big part of the problem is rooted in the security model). Expect a big change in the way stuff works. In 10-15 years. :-( I hope that I didn't break my NDA somehow with these statements.

On the inability to see small things: Absolutely any new initiative needs a business model. How much income can that new thing make? How much will the company lose if it doesn't implement that? The little things usually don't have any definable $$$ impact. I agree that there ought to be more flexibility to explore new income sources (meaning cool new tech), but unless you're in research that's probably not going to happen at Microsoft. Yes, there needs to be change. Taking small risks can pay off in the large. Taking large risks that the company keeps dumping money into might do that, too, but for my money I'd rahter have thousands of small longshot bets than only a handful of allegedly-not-longshots that seem to eventually pan out to be money pits.

Will Mac and Windows become one? Was that supposed to be a real question or a troll? Do that DaveC interview you wanted to do. Then go talk with some devs on Mach. I just don't see that happening. Ever. Apple currently (and quite happily) runs on a Unix(-like?) kernel. Windows is NT, which at heart is very VMS-like. Unix and VMS are oil and water (or vice versa). Dual booting might become more common. Once Bootcamp RTMs I'm going to go buy a Mac. There have been too many problems reported from early adopters for me to want to trust Bootcamp yet, though.

On the Google love (or not?): Google treats its engineers amazingly well. I have no idea about the non-engineers. It's biggest draw as an employer is exactly that. Work on cool stuff with very little management or process overhead, ship frequently, live/breathe tech but eat tasty healthy free food, be surrounded by some of the smartest people in the industry, and spend one day a week working on something else - whatever else, but be productive. Tell any engineer "I'm going to take away all of the little problems in your day to day life and let you just focus on solving problems". Hired. Period. That's Google. What they actually produce doesn't really excite me and I'll probably never work there, but I can see the reason they drain brains away from the likes of Microsoft.

In regard to Richard's question about Longhorn and Vista: Gotta ship the bits. Sometimes that means cutting most or all of the 3 main pillars you were building the product around. Oh, well. Anything good will eventually wander back into the source tree and ship in a later version. Maybe one day we'll finally see all of the Cairo features on a desktop. Who knows?

And about working at Microsoft: I went to Microsoft straight out of college. I spent ~7 years there working at a company that I would consider to be one of the best "finishing schools" for software engineers. On the one hand, there are smart people there working on almost anything you're interested in doing in software. On the other, it's like New York, New York - it can be rough; if you can make it there you can make it anywhere. I recommend it highly. I interviewed with several companies who told me that they prefer candidates with that kind of background.

Thanks for hearing/reading me out. I apologize for the length of the comment and also for my lack of any spelling or grammar checking. Hope it's not too offensive to the dictionary-huggers out there.

- Drew

Re: Your exit interview of me

range — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 05:05:24 -0000

Interesting stuff, I wondered how this happened.

Re: Your exit interview of me

Tobin — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 19:18:11 -0000

> Not to mention quite a few beaches in Florida,
> Hawaii, and California. Even the ones who wear
> clothes only cover a few square inches of their
> bodies.
> Comment by Robert Scoble — July 4, 2006 @ 12:11 pm

And did you stop to ask everyone if they were all heterosexual/homosexual? How could you tell? Oh, they were holding hands with a woman? I have gay friends that do that all the time. The difference is, Robert, I have some gay friends. I don't approve of the lifestyle and they know it. They don't agree with my beliefs, and I know it. The difference is that we have common sense and respect for one another's differences. They have enough sense to say that it's wrong for people to parade down a street naked just as much as anyone else.

Another tactic of the drones that schools like Berkley pump out is that they immediately tell people they are Nazis or compare them to Nazis simply because they don't let the minority viewpoints overrun majority views. How about holding up a real argument instead of resorting to ad hominem? Once you actually come back with facts and agree to stay on point, then we can discuss this intelligently. Until then, you are just another drone following the brainwashing you were given in the socialist school system we can state-run universities.

Re: Your exit interview of me

Tobin — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 18:54:00 -0000

So, Robert, you take pride in helping throw us back into the days when only the rich could vote and when, oddly enough, minorities had NO say-so in the rights of the land? "How so", you might ask?

Back in our early colonies, land ownership is what granted voting rights to an individual. This generally kept out those "pesky minorities, women and poor people" -- leaving the decision making to high-minded rich people. Never mind the fact that the majority of people were NOT rich and minorities were too busy getting beaten by their plantation "owners" to go house shopping (please DO sense my outrage and sarcasm all at once).

You support having multi-billion dollar mega-corporations push their weight around to pass laws. (and even put aside the fact that you pushed for the two richest white guys in the company to put their support behind this bill). By doing so, a single few rich guys who run the company can bowl over the opinions of the masses -- effectively putting us back before the 15th amendment, the 19th amendment, and the voting rights act.

You stated that you wanted churches to stay out of politics yet our whole political system was created out of the need for religious liberty. I also didn't see you complaining when Congress made a law that created the Department of Education and then prohibited the free exercise of religion there (which had been done since we landed on Plymouth Rock).

Be truthful, you aren't fighting for minorities, you are pushing an agenda that would not have passed if you really believed in the democratic process.

Furthermore, this country was not founded on minority rule; it was founded on majority rule. All individuals are conferred the same rights, but when those votes are tallied, the most votes win. If that means that the majority of people say that you can't wear purple shirts on Friday, then by golly, that's what needs to happen. This is why these decisions were supposed to be left to the states and local governments. Communities could make up rules that made sense to them, and some large group of nay-sayers from across the country couldn't force them to change just because they felt they should.

The point being Robert, you subverted the democratic system, pushed for two rich white guys to put their weight behind a law, then got out of the state so that you could revel in screwing the system once again. Let me guess, you voted for Kerry?

Re: Your exit interview of me

Lauri — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 02:21:28 -0000

@68

Dmad, its a joke...of course Bush cant run again. But the Dems better start trotting out something new other than "I hate George W Bush" if they hope to ever get elected again.

Granted, for most conservatives GW is far too liberal - so, the Dems better pull one big rabbit out of their hats come 08.... but I dont think its likely.

Re: Your exit interview of me

Robert Scoble — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 00:56:30 -0000

Irwin, I don't know. Where you been all this time?

Re: Your exit interview of me

irwin — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 00:48:25 -0000

Scoble - I've worked at MS for more than 5 years - how is it that I've never heard of you nor what you do?

Re: Your exit interview of me

Barry — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 16:10:04 -0000

Dmad, while I'm mostly with you (& Lauri) on "gay rights" (and Lauri on "representative republic"), I must say that Scoble's proof is more compelling than you suggest with your latest rhetorical flourishes.

It is NOT irrelevant that Scoble has been recently rated so highly as a "communicator" -- against distinguished peers and competitors. And the gig was not discretely "extracurricular." It's pertinent to his point that Scoble can communicate.

Now, you may argue that Scoble would be little without his Microsoft leverage. Maybe (though he'd likely reply with more historical evidence, e.g., Ch.9). But how many employees had opportunity to leverage Microsoft? And where is the near equivalent...at the same ethical level (i.e., excluding mini)? Maybe Scoble is not just a compelling communicator (external to Microsoft) but also a persuasive politician (internal).

And you could press your point on ROI. Coming from the Direct Marketing world, I sympathize. We want everything to be denominatable, trackable. But some things can't be. Some values can't be so reduced. "Helping to change the face of Microsoft" is a fuzzy feat. (But it might be a real feat, nonetheless!)

But to suggest that Scoble's role (not mere "job") is "plug and playable".... Really? (Technically, Steve Jobs' job is too. How many more copies of hardware has Steve directly sold...than, say, Sculley?)

Now, granted, Scoble is no CEO, President, or Founder of Apple or Microsoft. But that's not the point. We are entering a new (tech) era, and Scoble has been one of its chief communicators...for a chief company and her customers.

And consider the "News." Were Rather, Jennings, Brokaw (or Cronkite) heads of their companies? Yet are their roles "plug and play"? Blogging may be different, but not so completely as you seem to suggest. Not for non-News companies...

Yesterday it was PR, today it is blogger as "bridge" between customer and corporation. What if 1,000,000 read him and 1% soften toward Microsoft while Microsoft actually becomes more "friendly"? Is there no value there?

Finally, are you quite sure that no one, nowhere, has reconsidered buying Microsoft (stock or product) in partial consideration of Robert's words? (If so, I'll happily provide a personal case study.)

As we learned from one of the founders of "Direct Marketing": "The pen is mightier than the sword." Words change the world. While I do not support Robert in his use of them for certain advocacies, I recognize his distinctive skills for what they are. Their value should not be understated.

Re: Your exit interview of me

mickell — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 01:58:59 -0000

Cool.

Re: Your exit interview of me

Dmad — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 00:26:32 -0000

@66. Well, I must admit you are sticking to the talking points, well. Rights being taken away for "protection". Seems no one had a problem with it during Roosevelt's tenure, but could that be because he was a Dem? Nah!

No one is saying gays don't get treated unfairly. But, often it's their own doing because they shout from the rooftops that they are gay and demand that they get special rights? Do you come into a room and announce you are straigth. Again, I could care less what your sexual proclivities are, it shouldn't be relevant to anything.

Your denseness never ceases to amaze me. I never said heterosexuals don't engage in PDA's. Gays do to, I have no problem with that. What I said was heterosexuals don't organize "Straight Pride" parades and demand that attention be given to them because f of their sexual choice like many gays do. I have met, worked with, and are friends with many gays that are in fact embarrassed by such parades and the demands to heard, given "special rights" and wanting to use the court system to create laws rather than enforce them. They feel that in the long run it is counterproductive. Amazingly by not choosing to shout their gayness from the rooftops saying "We're here and we're queer", they find that they get treated rather fairly.

As for your attack on MacBoy, again your defensiveness gets in the way of seeing his point. So you got good irrelevant scores at some random tech conference. Other than you, who the hell cares? No one but you likely remembered it a day later. How many of those scores resulted in more sales of MS software? Shipping Vista sooner? Taking share away from your competitors? Yea, again, I know numbers that translate into profits don't matter to you when it doesn't support your position, but his point was your actual job at MS seemed to be easily plug and playable, not your extracurricular activities.

And Lauri, not sure what you would be showing Bush in '08. He can't run again.

Re: Your exit interview of me

Robert Scoble — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 20:12:11 -0000

Thanks for correcting me, I just misspoke there. Too much emotion, not enough thinking. Heheh.

At times of "protection" is when we always hand over our rights. We're so predictable.

Re: Your exit interview of me

Lauri — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 19:53:07 -0000

Robert,

I suggest you learn about the actual country you live in: the US is a representative republic regardless of what you wish we were, which means we are NOT a representative democracy.

As for Republicans taking away your rights? LOL! Thats a good one. I always get a kick out of the predictable responses of people who hate that the President's first job is to protect the country.

But we'll show Bush come 08... cause I'm never voting for him again!

Re: Your exit interview of me

Robert Scoble — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 19:05:31 -0000

Macboy: how do you know that Apple didn't offer me a job? I turned down quite a few jobs around the industry for more money than I'm making at Podtech.

And a Scoble can be created quite easily? Hmmm, it takes at least nine months and a Scoble has to be involved in the process and all the ones I know are already taken! :-)

But, seriously, if you think that a new one of me can be created quickly then you are smoking good dope over there in Steve Jobs' land. Can you bring some to my house in Half Moon Bay when I arrive?

You did miss that I got the best reviews at Google's Zeitgeist after only Malcolm Gladwell, didn't you? That I beat a Vice President of Microsoft's audience scores there who also spoke. That I beat the CEOs from AOL, Yahoo, and many other big name places. If it's so easy to communicate with audiences why didn't anyone else beat me?

Communication is NEVER as easy as it seems.

Hell, all of Bill Gates speech writers and coaches still haven't helped HIM become as good a communicator as Steve Jobs.

Re: Your exit interview of me

Macboy — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 18:44:00 -0000

Scoble, I've read your blog for a few years now and admittedly have had mixed feelings about most of your writing. I've never commented here before but given I work for Apple I want to clarify that what you do, whether you call it communication or carry around a camera, is not at all comparable to the what Steve Jobs. The reason MS is not willing to pay you X dollars is because you don't have a measurable impact on their bottomline, it's simply not worth it because they can create a new Scoble very easily. On the other hand, someone like Steve Jobs. a great developer or even a salesmen deal directly with the companies business and thus are valued for higher. They cannot be replaced so easily.

Your type of work, blogging, is of value to Podtech. That is their core business, and thus they are willing to compensate you for it. Hopefully that helps clarify to you why MS or even us at Apple wouldn't pay you more then 100k a year.

Re: Your exit interview of me

Robert Scoble — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 18:16:31 -0000

Lauri,

I didn't say you're a Nazi. Please be a careful reader. I said you would have LOVED the 1940s society in Germany. Why? Cause the majority kicked ass over the minority.

I answered the question very straightforward: we live in a representative democracy. Where law rules, not the mob. You want the mob to rule. I don't.

I've seen what that gets us. Our Republican mob is taking away rights left and right.

And, if you think Gays are treated equally well everywhere (even in California, where I have observed hate acts on playgrounds and murders on the street of San Francisco) you are drinking better Merlot than I am on this Fourth of July. Can I have some?

Since you lived in New Orleans (I'm still not sure about that) then you might talk to Ernie the Attorney and hear his stories of sex acts that take place during Mardi Graw. Heterosexual ones. Right out in front of everyone. And I'm not talking about the flashing of mamary glands that Maryam and I saw either.

Re: Your exit interview of me

Lauri — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 16:02:12 -0000

and one last thing, then im truly done with discussing anything of merit on your blog.

the naked gays who simulate sex on the streets in their Pride Parades are just an embarrassment to society as a whole. so, comparing a girl in a bikini on a beach to a gay male in assless chaps simulating sex with his partner of the moment is a bit of a stretch, even for you.

Re: Your exit interview of me

Lauri — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 15:50:01 -0000

One more thing; as for the gays who are in the closet still? That isnt because of what society says; its because they are inherently dishonest people. Dishonest with themselves, and everyone around them.

If we have to give them special rights so they can come out of the closet, then thats just sad. Nobody makes that decision but THEM. Not us.

And before you try that childishness of "guess YOU dont know any gay people!!!" I have a great brother who is gay, as well as a few uncles .. various friends, and our family doctor for the first 8 years we lived here.

Go try painting someone less intelligent into a corner with your hand wringing... it aint working.

Re: Your exit interview of me

Lauri — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 15:47:00 -0000

Robert, I lived in New Orleans for about two years.. so, try again.

And are you calling me a Nazi? Wow... truly classy. And since the gays are NOT in fact "being crapped on" by the majority, this issue is less than interesting to me.

Guess you just cannot answer it truthfully; you'd prefer to have our laws legislated to us, than let the public have any say. Its the way of the lefties ... make laws that the rest of us spend decades trying to extract back out, since they are wholly unecessary.

And for being such an advocate for "tolerance" you have shown zip, zero none for anyone that doesnt agree with your leftie bent. Good luck with that.

Re: Your exit interview of me

Robert Scoble — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 15:11:45 -0000

Not to mention quite a few beaches in Florida, Hawaii, and California. Even the ones who wear clothes only cover a few square inches of their bodies.

Re: Your exit interview of me

Robert Scoble — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 15:09:56 -0000

Lauri, you've obviously never been to New Orleans. Or Las Vegas during New Years. Or, San Francisco during Bay to Breakers. There are naked heterosexuals there in public. In Berkeley one naked guy even went to UC Cal.

And we don't live in a Democracy. If we did we'd see the majority beat up the minority everytime.

Sounds like you'd be happy in Nazi Germany. There the majority had its say.

I'm more into protecting minorities from being crapped on by the majorities.

Re: Your exit interview of me

Robert Scoble — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 15:06:58 -0000

Lauri, then you might explain why many Microsoft employees wrote me and said "thanks" and explained why they remained in the closet. See, even if something is illegal, still doesn't make it uncommon. It's very hard to prove discrimination, too. Truth is we don't have many people who have an open mind to people who are different than themselves.

Re: Your exit interview of me

Lauri — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 14:29:47 -0000

Joe, we are not a constitutional democracy, we are a Republic... big difference.

as for gays being fired from a job, simply because they are gay? That is already illegal. but it is illegal under an umbrella of issues that are illegal to fire someone for, and have been for some time now.

MS is among the frontrunners in the business world for allowing same sex benefits...

what Robert supposedly "talked Steve Balmer into supporting" was SPECIAL rights, for an already protected class of people; the American Worker.

Re: Your exit interview of me

Joe Clark — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 14:05:23 -0000

The United States seems alone among constitutional democracies in its inability to see the dangers of subjecting minority rights to majority votes. It seems impossible to eradicate the myth that people should be punished, e.g., by being fired from a job, because others disapprove of them. Adherents are curiously willing to use 21st-century technologies like blogging, and 20th-century methods like lobbying, to perpetuate a philosophy that seems nothing more than medieval.

Seen at a purely pragmatic level, if you run a business in a state that's hostile to minorities, even to minorities you think justly and properly deserve hostility, your business is gonna suffer. Deservedly.