Blink author Malcom Gladwell remarks that 50 years from now, Bill Gates will be remembered for his philanthropic work, but Steve Jobs will be forgotten. However, I believe invention is much more influential than charity.
Attention-getting author Malcolm Gladwell knows how to stir things up. In a recent talk at the Toronto Public Library, the Tipping Point and Outliers author made some controversial comments. He said history will remember Bill Gates, not Steve Jobs, because of his philanthropic work. He added that 50 years from now, no one will even remember Microsoft.
This is where Gladwell completely loses touch. There is no indication that Microsoft, or Apple, for that matter, will be corporations lost to history. I suspect he had a recent system crash and decided to make this assertion.
Anything is possible, but Microsoft is a company that survives. It was modeled after IBM and if Gladwell was transported back to the 1950s, he would probably say the same thing about IBM.
(After Google or Facebook buys Microsoft in 2030, you can throw this column in my face.)
The most important thing anyone can do is improve the lives of other people and I believe this is done by invention more effectively than by charity. This is done by commerce.
I think charitable activity is wonderful, but it's only important because commerce fails large segments of the human population in many parts of the world. Fixing this failure would be a better goal than tossing money at lonely beggars. But commerce seems to fail when too much money, in the form of profits, has been taken out of the system and has to be returned via charity. It's an awkward model.
If Bill Gates, in fifty years, becomes more memorable, it will be only because he outlasted the competition. He's not a quitter or a guy who looks forward to retiring.
In a 1984 Mac ad that ran in Newsweek, the top three software guys stand together, each wearing a different color Izod shirt.
The big three were Bill Gates, Mitch Kapor, and Fred Gibbons. At the time, Fred Gibbons was probably the smartest of the three and the most successful running the Software Publishing Company (SPC). Next was Kapor, who founded Lotus Development, which became the dominating software company of its era, dwarfing Microsoft. Lastly, there was Gates.
Over the next 20 years, there would only be Gates.
Gibbons suffered a debilitating stroke that drained his energy and influence. Kapor sold out to IBM, which took him out of the game. Gates wins.
There were other attempts at hegemony within the field and none were successful. Gates finally gave up and decided to run a charity, the biggest in the world. The guy is unbelievable.
But will Steve Jobs be forgotten? Knowing how he was worshiped by his minions, I think it will take more than 50 years. The stories about his mean spirit won't help.
I can only equate him to Al Sloan, the most famous businessman of his era. Who remembers him? How about the automobile pioneer, William Durant? Read his story. He was a fantastic character.
In general, the great men of commerce are passed over by history in favor of the important politicians, the philanthropists who insist on putting their names on every building they can, and the few celebrities from the world of art, literature and cinema who have some sort of odd staying power.
But 50 years from now, we'll be using devices that were influenced more by Jobs than Gates. That seems to me to count for something.
You can Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter @therealdvorak.
More John C. Dvorak:
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