Steven Sinofsky

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Articles

232. From Typewriters to Transformers: AI is Just the Next Tools Abstraction

1 week ago | hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com | Steven Sinofsky

AI is a tool-driven revolution. That’s why it unnerves people. Freeman Dyson said in 1993, “Scientific revolutions are more often driven by new tools than by new concepts.” That’s AI. For those deep in tech, AI is clearly a new paradigm—a sweeping theorem of software. Most paradigm shifts precede new tools. But with AI, we fast-forwarded: from paradigm to tools in under a decade, now used by hundreds of millions.
231. When It Comes to Tariffs, China is Different

1 month ago | hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com | Steven Sinofsky

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229. "Tech Goes Hardcore" ... Again.

2 months ago | hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com | Steven Sinofsky

On an article this week talking about tech "going hardcore" (always a big fan of that word given Microsoft's 1980s recruiting slogan—hardcore software) which is mostly about RTO, meritocracy, and some cutbacks on perks. With a little bit of layoffs mixed in. See Tech Employees Getting the Message: Playtime’s Over. Our industry goes in cycles. When I started at Microsoft in 1989 the company had seen a flat stock price for two years after the IPO pop (see October crash).
DeepSeek Was Inevitable

Jan 31, 2025 | piratewires.com | Steven Sinofsky

Steven Sinofsky is an investor, engineer, and the former leader of the Office and Windows divisions at Microsoft. Early in his career, he was Bill Gates‚Äô technical assistant during the development of Windows 95 and the rise of the internet as we know it. Today in Pirate Wires, he provides a historical perspective on DeepSeek and explains why core technologies inevitably become commoditized.
đźDeepSeek: everything you need to know right now.

Jan 27, 2025 | exponentialview.co | Azeem Azhar |Jasmine Sun |Dylan Patel |Steven Sinofsky

My WhatsApp exploded over the weekend as we received an early Chinese New Year surprise from DeepSeek. The Chinese AI firm launched its reasoning model last week, and analysts belatedly woke up to it. The firmâs consumer app jumped to number 1 in the Apple AppStore and American stock markets, overly indexed on big tech, are taking a pounding.Â Weâve been tracking DeepSeek for a while.
228. DeepSeek Has Been Inevitable and Here's Why (History Tells Us)

Jan 27, 2025 | hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com | Steven Sinofsky

TL;DR for this article: DeepSeek was certain to happen. The only unknown was who was going to do it. The choices were a startup or someone outside the current center of leadership and innovation in AI, which is mostly in the US clustered around trillion-dollar companies. It turned out to be a group in China, which for many (me too) is unfortunate. But again, it absolutely was going to happen. The next question is will the US makers see this with clarity.
227. CES 2025: An Abundance of (AI) Experimentation

Jan 12, 2025 | hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com | Steven Sinofsky

This year’s enormous Consumer Electronics Show proved to be a transition year with many established product lines showing incremental improvements or focusing on B2B areas and new product lines showing a rush to demonstrate their relevancy to AI. It’s still early. Let’s get two things out of the way. First, CES continues to be HUGE. I mean literally the show is just enormous and has sprung back to life post-pandemic.
Remembering Mike Maples, Sr.

Jan 10, 2025 | hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com | Steven Sinofsky

The computer industry lost a legendary executive this week with the passing of Mike Maples, Sr. He was a mentor, leader, and role model to a generation of Microsoft employees, including me. By any account, Mike created the product culture that was critical to scaling and executing what became the modern Microsoft admired by so many. Mike joined Microsoft in 1988. He was an unexpected hire to many, as he came from IBM.
225. Systems Ideas that Sound Good But Almost Never Work-"Let's just…"

Dec 28, 2024 | hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com | Steven Sinofsky

@Martin_Casado tweeted some wisdom (as he often does) in this: He asked what else and I replied with a quick list. Below is “why” these don’t work. I offer this recognizing engineering is also a social science and what works/does not work is context dependent. One life lesson is that every time you say to an engineer (or post on X) that something won’t work it quickly becomes a challenge to prove otherwise.
223. On the Toll of Being a Disruptor

Nov 25, 2024 | hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com | Steven Sinofsky

It is tempting to want to see the positives of technology disruption as distinct from the disruptive nature of the person or organization causing disruption. As we all know it is pretty easy to be disruptive in meetings, the workplace, or online without being a force for a disruptive innovation. That causes us to wonder if it is possible to lead such change without being disruptive. In practice being disruptive is probably a necessary part of bringing a disruptive change to the world.