I finished reading Steve Jobs Biography a couple of days ago and out of the several bookmarks I have in the book, one is Steve’s comments on Bill Gates. While we would look at Steve’s comments and Bill’s reply later, it is worth noting that Gates visited Steve at his home when he was on the recent medical leave and they spoke warmly for almost 3 hours (Again revealed in the Biography).
They spoke about the past and complimented each other for their accomplishments. But then, the book by Walter Isaacson has comments from Steve, that aren’t very generous for Bill Gates and as we know, the Apple CEO was always vocal about a lot of things.
So here is what he says about Bill Gates –
“Bill is basically unimaginative and has never invented anything, which is why I think he’s more comfortable now in philanthropy than technology.” – Steve Jobs In his biography by Walter Isaacson
Now Abc news had this opportunity to talk to Bill Gates and while the 8 min video had some talk of Gates work in education space and footage from Bill & Melinda Gates foundation can be seen, you would notice that the final question thrown at Bill Gates was about Steve Jobs Biography and his comments about Steve. Our take of course is that both guys have their reservations about each other and if you notice even in the biography, while both had goods word to say about each other during their 3 hour meet, both of them had a small comment starting with ‘but’ to add in person when Walter Isaacson talked to them.
However Steve has had his opportunity to put in print his opinions (one more time), and Bill Gates gives his response on a video. He basically says he isn’t bothered by that, but that comes only after some diplomatic and strong character portraying of Jobs. Here you go:
What do you think about the love and hate relation between the two CEOs?