Pirates of Silicon Valley "You don't get it Steve, that doesn't matter"
Craig BickerstaffCited 5× on HN, 2022–2025
other · general · evergreen · 2022–2025 on HN
A short scene from the film Pirates of Silicon Valley where Steve Jobs confronts Bill Gates after the Macintosh announcement over Windows copying Apple's work, and Gates replies that it doesn't matter.
HN quotes the scene when a better product loses to a more pragmatic or dominant competitor.
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5 comments from Hacker News
> We were sure that a better product would win people over and lead to viral success. It didn’t. Things grew, but so slowly that we ran out of money after a few years before reaching break even. Relevant apocrypha: ▶ this video
> It isn't. Slack is better. "You don't get it Steve, that doesn't matter." [1] That actually does not matter if Teams is making larger progress than Slack. I prefer Slack over Teams too, but to disregard the market force and market position of Teams is naive. [1] ▶ this video
Off Topic: >Google’s core business is thriving, but that almost seems beside the point. I have vidid memory of a scene in Private of the Silicon Valley, where Microsoft is winning, and Apple is losing. But Steve Jobs said they have the better products. And Bill Gate replied "It doesn't matter." The movie was 25 years ago at the time it finally strike me what I was so irritated about. No one gives a damn about quality, they only cares about the money. 25 Years later ( Well I thought Google were bad for more than a decade but I guess it is more accepted now. ) Google are making all the money but their products are absolutely crap. While not crap but degradation of quality is happening to Apple too. As many comments have already pointed out, AI wont save Google. Google has a leadership and culture problem along with Management issues. It is a bit like 2012 - 2017 when people were so certain Intel will continue to lead in SemiConductor with healthy profits and business. Until 2020 they realise Intel finally did fall behind and the culture and management couldn't turns things around. [1] ▶ this video
Using Microsoft products is for people that did not read the fable of the Scorpion and the Frog. link The character of Microsoft as a company is well known since their early days. It is not wise to trust them. ▶ this video
Microsoft is in a tough place in that respect, because its user base is so broad by design (as a default program in Windows 11 now). It can never be fully optimized for professionals in formal environments, nor professionals who prefer more casual environments. This Pirates of Silicon Valley scene comes to mind [0]. Teams may not be the most optimized software for formal versus informal users, but that doesn't matter because it's trying to have a broad appeal. ▶ this video