22 Nov
2011
22 Nov
'11
4:39 p.m.
On 22/11/11 2:08 PM, Richard wrote:
In article<4ECBE7B1.9030301 at bitsavers.org>,
Al Kossow<aek at bitsavers.org> writes:
I agree, but my point wasn't about Simonyi. It was about "prodigies" and
people who feel their ability to read and write code is prodigious (for
now...)
Most Valley wealthy were simply in the right place at the right time; I
think that's fairly self evident by now.
--T
On 11/22/11 10:05 AM, Richard wrote:
ok, we're back to my comment on being a good programmer. When I read
the interviews in "Programmers at Work", of which Simonyi is one, and
I see the example code they're publishing and the answers they're
giving, I'm like "sounds like most people I've worked with", not OMFG!
he's a genius! a prodigy! one-in-a-million!
I'm just sick of seeing people who became wealthy because they were in
the right place at the right time being called "genius" and
"prodigy". who happened to be lucky enough to work at MSFT
He was working at PARC on Bravo-X and was courted by MSFT
to develop WSIWIG word processing. He had a history with
Lampson/Thacker et. al. back to the Berkeley/BCC days. You
don't stay with that crew based on just luck.