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legitster • yesterday at 9:56 PM • 4 replies • view on HN

There is an obvious pattern for these high level executive roles. They are all workaholics, they are not particularly loyal, they all have loose moral compasses, they don't have any clear line between work and their personal life, and they treat relationships like business arrangements.

This feels so common that I would not even be quick to assume this is some sort of unknown betrayal to his family. One of the revelations about the Gates' lives was that Bill's promiscuity was apparently baked into their marriage agreement. At this level, your marriage might just be like a fixed mailing address for someone who has multiple homes.

Not to excuse this in any way. But these are the personalities of medieval lords and kings.


Replies

sho_hn • today at 2:36 AM

> One of the revelations about the Gates' lives was that Bill's promiscuity was apparently baked into their marriage agreement.

Are there details on this? Yes, I do like the sordid gossip.

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famouswaffles • today at 3:43 AM

Jensen and Lori met in early 1980s or so when they were 17 and 19 years old respectively. Moreover they got married in 1985, 13 years before Nvidia was even founded. Quite different from Bill and Melinda hooking up after Microsoft don't you think ? Not to mention his apology.

hn_throwaway_99 • today at 3:41 AM

> I would not even be quick to assume this is some sort of unknown betrayal to his family

But (unless "unknown" is doing a lot of work in your sentence) Huang literally said this in his letter to NVidia employees: "I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry."

Otherwise, I agree with a lot of what you said. In the 2000-2015 timeframe, I really idolized a lot of these successful tech leaders - they seemed incredibly smart, hard-working, and talented (though also of course lucky). But over time I came to the realization that many of them just fundamentally think very differently than I do, and I view that other way of thinking with disgust. The main issue is it seems like nearly all of their relationships are transactional, and they have a lack of empathy and willingness to be ruthless that is simply anathema to me.