Glory Days | How Hard Could It Be? by Joel Spolsky

Glory DaysAs Bill Gates retires, our columnist recalls what it was like to work for the world's most successful entrepreneur Were there any obstacles that would keep her from increasing sales? Maybe. Pat was doing all her business in New York City, and it looked as though she might have saturated the market there. In that case, she might have to think about expanding geographically. I checked out

[shinfukui]

Watching nonprogrammers trying to run software companies is like watching someone who doesn't know how to surf trying to surf.

[azaburecipes]

Joel Spolsky comments, "And I had assumed that Bill had completely forgotten me -- ... -- until I noticed a short interview with him in The Wall Street Journal in which he mentioned, almost in passing, something along the lines of how hard it was to replace, say, a good program manager for Excel."

[aki1770]

Joel Spolsky reflects:""Bill doesn't really want to review your spec," a colleague told me. "He just wants to make sure you've got it under control. His standard MO is to ask harder and harder questions until you admit that you don't know, and then he can yell at you for being unprepared(.....)"