[net-gold] Microsoft's Lesson For Public Education
- From: "David P. Dillard" <jwne@xxxxxxxxxx>
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- Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2012 07:19:42 -0400 (EDT)
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Date: Sat, 7 Jul 2012 13:54:43 -0700
From: Richard Hake <rrhake@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: Net-Gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: AERA-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Net-Gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Net-Gold] Microsoft's Lesson For Public Education
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ABSTRACT: EDDRA2's Mike Martin at <http://yhoo.it/Pw1ks5> wrote:
(paraphrasing): "Everyone in education should read 'Microsoft's
Downfall: Inside the Executive E-mails and Cannibalistic Culture That
Felled a Tech Giant' at <http://vnty.fr/M4dJvA>.. . . . . What
educators need to know and to trumpet widely is precisely Microsoft's
'astonishingly foolish management decision' to focus on ranking
employees instead of focusing on consumers, a ranking system that
Bill Gates is now trying to impose on public education. . . . .
Gates' ideas will stop teachers from developing education that is
effective for children and instead focus on things that look good in
the evaluation system."
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As sequels to the above, see the Microsoft/Gates put-downs at, e.g.:
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1. Barbara and David Mikkelson's Urban Legend "Car Balk" at
<http://bit.ly/RAGFjJ>;
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2. Louis Menand's hilarious "The End Matter: The nightmare of
citation" at <http://nyr.kr/McQrGm>;
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3. Gene Glass' insightful "High Button Shoes and Education Reform" at
<http://bit.ly/KcWqIs>.
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Mike Martin (2012) of the EDDRA2 list wrote (paraphrasing):
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"I suggest everyone in education should read 'Microsoft's Downfall:
Inside the Executive E-mails and Cannibalistic Culture That Felled a
Tech Giant' [Vanity Fair (2012)]. . . . . . What educators need to
know and to trumpet widely is precisely Microsoft's 'astonishingly
foolish management decision' to focus on ranking employees instead of
focusing on consumers, a ranking system that Bill Gates is now trying
to impose on public education. . . . . Gates' ideas will stop
teachers from developing education that is effective for children and
instead focus on things that look good in the evaluation system."
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Vanity Fair (2012) wrote:
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"Analyzing one of American corporate history's greatest mysteries-the
lost decade of Microsoft-two-time George Polk Award winner (and
V.F.'s newest contributing editor) Kurt Eichenwald traces the
'astonishingly foolish management decisions' at the company that
'could serve as a business-school case study on the pitfalls of
success.' Relying on dozens of interviews and internal corporate
records-including e-mails between executives at the company's highest
ranks-Eichenwald offers an unprecedented view of life inside
Microsoft during the reign of its current chief executive, Steve
Ballmer, in the August issue. Today, a single Apple product-the
iPhone-generates more revenue than all of Microsoft's wares combined."
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As sequels to the above, see, e.g.:
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111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
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1. Barbara and David Mikkelson's Urban Legend "Car Balk" [Snopes.com
(2010) <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snopes.com>], bracketed by lines
"SSSSS. . . ."]:
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SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
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At a computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the
computer industry with the auto industry and stated: "If GM had kept
up with the technology like the computer industry has, we would all
be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."
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In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release
(by Mr. Welch himself. . . .[[Snopes.com points out that Welch was
president of GE, not GM]]. . . . .) stating:
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If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be
driving cars with the following characteristics:
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1. For no reason at all, your car would crash twice a day.
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2. Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you would have to
buy a new car.
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3. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left-turn would cause
your car to shut down and refuse to restart, and you would have to
reinstall the engine.
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4. When your car died on the freeway for no reason, you would just
accept this, restart, and drive on.
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5. Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought
'Car95' or 'CarNT', and then added more seats.
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6. Apple would make a car powered by the sun, reliable, five times as
fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would run on only five per cent
of the roads.
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7. Oil, water temperature and alternator warning lights would be
replaced by a single 'general car default' warning light.
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8. New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.
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9. The airbag would say 'Are you sure?' before going off.
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10. Occasionally, for no reason, your car would lock you out and
refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle,
turned the key, and grabbed the radio antenna.
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11. GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of
road maps from Rand-McNally (a subsidiary of GM), even though they
neither need them nor want them. Trying to delete this option would
immediately cause the car's performance to diminish by 50 per cent or
more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the
Justice Department.
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12. Every time GM introduced a new model, car buyers would have to
learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would
operate in the same manner as the old car.
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13. You would press the 'start' button to shut off the engine.
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SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
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For the origins of the above "urban legend," floating around the
internet since at least early 1997, see <http://bit.ly/RAGFjJ>.
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2. For another Microsoft put-down see Louis Menand's (2003) hilarious
"The End Matter: The nightmare of citation." Menand wrote:
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". . . .it is time to speak some truth to power in this country:
MICROSOFT WORD IS A TERRIBLE PROGRAM. . . . .[[EMPHASIS in the
original]]. . . . Its terribleness is of a piece with the
terribleness of Windows generally, a system so overloaded with icons,
menus, buttons, and incomprehensible Help windows that performing
almost any function means entering a treacherous wilderness of
pop-ups posing alternatives of terrifying starkness:
Accept/Decline/Cancel; Logoff/Shut Down/Restart; and the mysterious
Do Not Show This Warning Again. You often feel that you're not ready
to make a decision so unalterable; but when you try to make the
window go away your machine emits an angry beep. You double-click.
You triple-click. Beep beep beep beep beep. You are being held for a
fool by a chip."
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333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333
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3. For another Gates-education-idea put-down see Gene Glass'
insightful "High Button Shoes and Education Reform." Glass wrote:
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"I leave it to the readers to make their own interpretations of the
mind-set that lies behind these kinds of allocations. . . . [[of the
Gates Foundation]]. . . . As for me, that mind-set shows little faith
in the development of better education for the vast majority of
America's children, particularly children in poverty. It is a
mind-set that comes about from drinking the kool-aid that the
'market' will lead America's schools to the promise land."
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Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
Links to Articles: <http://bit.ly/a6M5y0>
Links to SDI Labs: <http://bit.ly/9nGd3M>
Blog: <http://bit.ly/9yGsXh>
Twitter <http://bit.ly/juvd52>
GooglePlus: <http://bit.ly/KwZ6mE>
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". . . . it is time to speak some truth to power in this country:
MICROSOFT WORD IS A TERRIBLE PROGRAM"
- Louis Menand (2003)
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REFERENCES [All URL's shortened by <http://bit.ly/> and accessed on
07 July 2012.]
Glass, G.V. 2012. "High Button Shoes and Education Reform," Glass'
blog "Education in Two Worlds," 29 March, online at
<http://bit.ly/KcWqIs>. See also Hake (2012a,b).
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Hake, R.R. 2012a. "Google Donates One Million Dollars to Local
Schools," online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at
<http://bit.ly/KMcNNw>. Post of 17 Jun 2012 14:45:21-0700 to AERA-L
and Net-Gold. The abstract and link to the complete post are also
being transmitted to several discussion lists and are also on my blog
"Hake'sEdStuff" at <http://bit.ly/KdQZZF> with a provision for
comments.
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Hake, R.R. 2012b. ""Gates Foundation Dispenses 400 Million/Year to
Education," online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at
<http://bit.ly/Mmc1aB>. Post of 18 Jun 2012 10:33:07 -0700 to AERA-L
and Net-Gold. The abstract and link to the complete post are also
being transmitted to several discussion lists and are also on my blog
"Hake'sEdStuff" at <http://bit.ly/NKPfwR> with a provision for
comments.
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Martin, M. 2012. "A true lesson for public education," online on the
OPEN! archives of EDDRA2 at <http://yhoo.it/Pw1ks5>.
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Menand, L. 2003. "The End Matter: The nightmare of citation." New
Yorker, 6 October, online at <http://nyr.kr/McQrGm>.
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Snopes.com. 2010. "Car Balk" online at <http://bit.ly/RAGFjJ>.
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Vanity Fair. 2012. "Microsoft's Downfall: Inside the Executive
E-mails and Cannibalistic Culture That Felled a Tech Giant," 3 July;
online at <http://vnty.fr/M4dJvA>.
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