> It's basically 'user rant' - not what one would expect from a leader.

It is absolutely a user rant, but it's entirely appropriate for a leader to call out "this is not okay; this is a garbage experience".

> who are obviously being 'reactive' and moving in a bit of a frenzy.

That was the intent. "Fix this." This was an email to a bunch of execs who are capable of driving the actual fixes. If Gates needs to hand hold them through this then they need to be replaced.

> A good example of 'leadership' would start out with 'I take responsibility for this'

This is vacuous corporate speak, the kind of message you send to shareholders to soothe them. This is not leadership.

> hinting and the possible source of flaws, where in the process those things should have been caught...

Again, if Gates needs to do this then everyone on the To line is dead weight.

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bluegatty 2 hours ago | parent [-]

completely disagree

1) sending the org into a reactive frenzy on the minor issue when the structural issue is the problem - is bad. He's also pointing them at the symptom and not the cause.

2) 'taking responsibility' is not 'vacuous corporate speak' - that's a terribly cynical view. It's literally the case - the leader takes respnosbility because they failed to set the conditions for the good outcome.

Gates failed to institute 'design and usability' as a fundamental aspect of the product and operational culture.

The email implies that some underling is to blame which is bad framing.

3) "hinting and the possible source of flaws, where in the process those things should have been caught.." - that's literally his job.

	▲	dpark 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> sending the org into a reactive frenzy I don’t see an actual “reactive frenzy” here. I see that Gates started a conversation with the execs he believes are responsible for fixing this mess. And again, these are execs being paid millions. They do not need to be coddled. You are acting as if Gates sent this to a bunch of junior engineers. > ‘taking responsibility' is not 'vacuous corporate speak' - that's a terribly cynical view. It's literally the case - the leader takes respnosbility because they failed to set the conditions for the good outcome. It’s absolutely vacuous to say 'I take responsibility for this' when you are telling a group of people they need to fix their shit. Any CVP/EVP who fails at a job and then hears someone above them take responsibility for the failure knows they are about to be out of a job. > The email implies that some underling is to blame which is bad framing. If by underling you mean “highly paid executives” then sure. At some point people have to take responsibility for their jobs. This wasn’t a failure of some individual engineers. It was a collective failure of a group of executives to deliver a good experience. > "hinting and the possible source of flaws, where in the process those things should have been caught.." - that's literally his job It’s literally not. That’s not what CEOs of large corporations do and Gates wasn’t even CEO at this time. He was in an advisory role. His job was literally to give feedback.
	▲	robotpepi 34 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> 2) 'taking responsibility' is not 'vacuous corporate speak' - that's a terribly cynical view. It's literally the case - the leader takes respnosbility because they failed to set the conditions for the good outcome. Tbh it seems like you're autistic and simply don't understand how such a "o take responsibility" message really looks like and what effect it'd have.