I wrote:
>>My reading suggests that BG is mostly a business -- i.e., marketing --
>>genius, though he's clearly not some non-computer industry exec brought in
>>...BTW, a lot of evidence suggests that BG has a mild case of autism (a.k.a.
>>"Asperger's Syndrome, like Albert Einstein, my son, and many "nerds").
Wojtek asks:
>But does that explain his position? Stated differently, does that mean
>that anyone with suffcient knowledge of marketing and mild autism will end
>up in the vicinity of BG?
no way. Only the special conditions of the computer industry would allow someone like him to be so successful. Einstein was also successful, in a much better way for society, but faced unique conditions. Academia and the Institute for Advanced Study are more open to weird folks than most sectors I can think of. This country [the US] is becoming more welcoming welcoming to folks with perceptual-processing problems like autism, but the progress is slow. A lot are still tagged as "retarded" and/or given inappropriate medications.
I also think that Gates, Sr. helped BG a lot, as someone pointed out.
Jim Devine jdevine at popmail.lmu.edu & http://clawww.lmu.edu/Departments/ECON/jdevine.html "Life is like a shit sandwich. But if you've got enought bread, you don't taste the shit." -- Jonathan Winters.