[edster]

Great post.

I agree he was a bit unprofessional. Gates' awareness probably did fall off as his earlier emails were buried under the mountain of new stuff. Rather than shouting "Hey look at me" he should have sent a gentle reminder about improvements that have been made in the last week or whatever. Bring him back to top of mind in a positive way. Who wants to get stuck working with a guy that annoying.

Copying Jobs as if he were an active part of the project is a total dick move, BTW. He should be thankful that Steve routed him to the right person. The only future communication to Jobs should have just been a quick thank you for the introduction.