Jared Diamond is a UCLA professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of (most recently) Guns, Germs, and Steel. In the book, he looks at colonization in the period of pre-Inca history and ascribes European superiority to geography and demographics. Almost as interesting culturally was that the LA Times magazine, which recently featured the author, chose to mention that “his book was on Bill Gates’ reading list.” Presumably, the discerning
reader is supposed to be overwhelmed by the fact, and truly believe that the first step toward opening the floodgates of fortune and earning his next $100 billion in paper money lies in purchasing Diamond’s book. Yes,
William H. Gates, Jr. has indeed been imputed the role of a prophet not only in the realm of fruitful investing (with a little help from friend Warren Buffett), wealth creation, and lasting business but also of an all-knowing
guru shaping the development of knowledge, opinion and belief.

Ramos Forgotten

Sanjay Parthasarthy who goes by the official title of GM, Worldwide Customer Service
Tools, manages Microsoft’s corporate Web site in addition to the intranet and product development activities for the formidable sales and marketing function. Microsoft.com is almost symbolic of the firm’s size – it is the
seventh largest Web site in the world and the only corporate site to feature in such a ranking’s list. It has, on a normal day, about 5 million people accessing it for downloads, support, and information – in that order. Sixty