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Pirates of Silicon Valley, fact or fiction?

Mar 11

Written by: Peter Henry
Thursday, March 11, 2010 11:51 AM

Pirates of SiliconValleyLast night I watched the Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999), awesome movie!  Very cool to see Hollywood's impression of my favourite two companies (the one I love to love and the one I love to hate LOL).

But as I was watching it, with more than ten years after it's initial release, I couldn't help but come to some conclusions.

  • Gates wasn't featured nearly as much as I thought he would have been in the movie.  In fact, he was kind of minor player, almost secondary to Steve Job's character.  He was portrayed as VERY smart, but it was his business skills which were illustrated in the movie which propelled Microsoft to the top, not his insanely brilliant technical abilities (well, that and his uhm uh, driving skills LOL).  I like their illusive references to Gates' infamous uh, hhmmm pics1 and pics2 (check out the links LOL).
  • Steve Jobs wasn't nearly as a technical savant as I gave him credit for, not even close IMHO.
    • He was however a genius at manipulation, and awesome at "herding cats."  He was a master motivator.  Unfortunately it was to the negative extreme, he pushed all the right buttons all the time.  I LOVED it when the employee put Jobs up against the wall, he got what he deserved IMHO, I started to wonder, what-ever happened to THAT guy?  If anyone knows, please post a comment!
    • Jobs was also a bit too artsy-fartsy about "visions" for my liking.  Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING was about something bigger than you.  Crap man, that got old PDQ, sometimes it's not about the bigger picture and just about compiling that bit of code and going out for wings and drinks to watch the hockey game with friends. 
    • The thing I found COMPLETELY mind boggling was how he continued throughout the movie to tout family values with regards to the company, but well, hhhmm how do I put this respectfully, disregarded his real family.  I guess I thought with his own family history, he would have gone overboard with his own family with maybe minor disregard to the company, but it just wasn't portrayed like that in the movie.  Steve's gone through some personal issues since then, and with recent iPhone/Touch success has certainly excelled professionaly, so kudos to him for that.  But he's not really someone people should be looking up to as a mentor, IMHO.
  • Steve Ballmer was (I believe) unfairly portrayed as a bit of doufuss, uncoordinated, playboy car salesman.  I HIGHLY doubt Gates would have put him in charge of running Microsoft SINCE that time if all of those things were completely true.  I do have NO doubts about buying a tie from someone in a washroom for $30!  That stuff is very cool, hey man, you have a problem, you solve it anyway you can with what you have!!!!
  • And finally, the BIGGEST surprise of all was Steve Wozniak!  This guy is so cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  He's all about making people laugh, and learning!  The guy's a GURU in my books!  This guy is the kind of guy you could/should have as a mentor IMHO!  He's NOT a money grubbing, corporate tie wearing backstabbing jerk!  He's really and truely all about the technology.  Apparently now a days he's teaching computer (presumbably on Macs LOL) to children.  See, even today, he's still all about learning and sharing!
    • I really think Woz is the ONLY person Jobs would ever take BS from!  Why?  Cause they were  together before they were famous!  Today Jobs knows he's king of the mountain and believes it!  He doesn't have to take crap from anyone who disagrees with him, except from Woz (IMHO).

I can understand a company president spewing visionary quotes, but all the time?  I can see "driving your employees" too, but to what extreme?  To the point of infighting?  Working 80 hours a week is maybe great when you're just out of school, single, driven, and want to change the world.  But when you're 40, 50 or even 60 and you look back on your life and you're STILL SINGLE, smelly and still coding in a corner, you have to ask if that "vision" really worked for you?

There, that's my take on a great movie!  Now it's time to go grab a coffee and get coding!  (and hope I don't get some cease and desist letter from Apple/Jobs! LOL)

Copyright ©2010 Peter Henry

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