The Trusty Servant

In the old days we had the great techie himself, before he moved on to saving the planet:

There are just two small points to consider here. The first is the paradox of how the world’s greatest coder came to mastermind the production of some of the world’s worst code. The second, for those who want to delve into arcana, is the interview with Bill in earlier, more carefree times in Programmers at Work, interviews by Susan Lammers, Microsoft Press 1986, ISBN 1556150148, 0914845713. A classic case of the victors rewriting history. If you read carefully the chapter on the great Bill, you will discover that he was a beta minus programmer, but by putting him in the same book as some alpha minus programmers, the myth was cemented.

Of course, one should always be wary of techies, of any stripe. They sometimes slip things in. Someone, whether Susan or some nameless editor or subeditor, subtitled the book: “Interviews with 19 programmers who shaped the computer industry”. I sometimes wonder if Bill regretted letting that slip through. It sounds great, except that it is true, but perhaps not quite the way that Bill had in mind when he commissioned this nonsense.

Indeed, after the carefully cultivated dandruff on the suit shoulders, that interview was perhaps the single most important piece of misdirection. Don’t be fooled. Bill is just a throwback to the Robber Barons. However, I believe one should give credit where it is due. He did have one amazing technical achievement. He managed to propagate, and achieve almost universal acceptance for, the myth that software is inherently buggy. You know the nonsense, now spouted by endless second-rate computer science professors, about how the amazing complexity of this wonderful stuff means that we have to put up with, well, serious flaws. One just cannot squeeze all the errors out. Absolutely masterful. I can think of no on else in history who has been universally admired for shipping shoddy product.

But the baton has now been passed to his old buddy, who has a slightly more energetic approach. Here he is explaining why everyone should be so happy that he has piled up so much money in return for holding back software progress by at least ten years and inflicting endless hassle and misery on a worshipping public.

I find it never loses its fascination. Go on, watch it again! Maybe even pause around 0:36, but that might give you nightmares …