[arethuza]

Here is Joel's account of a review meeting with Bill:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/06/16.html

"a person who came along from my team whose whole job during the meeting was to keep an accurate count of how many times Bill said the F word. The lower the f*-count, the better."

I don't think you get to be the richest guy in the world just by being exceptionally smart.

[winestock]

That story, Joel's reaction to Gates, and the reaction of the other Microsofties has always disturbed me. Gates' behavior wasn't an example of competence; he was a bully on a power trip.

The cognitive load of asking a question or making an objection is generally lighter than giving an honest counter-argument. Especially if the question or objection is a profanity-smeared act of belligerence and the answers have to be polite or else you're fired.

"Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer." - Charles Caleb Colton

[teyc]

One of the biggest problems running a software company is getting hoodwinked by a developer, because they might handwave a problem away.

The second problem is one of scalability.

How does a leader make sure that the technical decisions are correct without having to learn very deeply about it?

One is by constantly probing for weaknesses and see if people have difficulty defending their choices, and seeing if the trade offs were reasonable.

The second is to develop a fierce reputation so that the person is sufficiently prepared before presenting his thesis.