Rants // Steve Ballmer, The Unlikely American Hero

Chances are – if you lived through the 90s, you definitely remember a clip of tech CEOs dancing (rather awkwardly, one might add) to “Start Me Up” by Rolling Stones. It went viral and for a good reason. Back in the day it wasn’t very common to see tech CEOs letting loose and getting goofy while giving two craps over what anyone thinks.

The Windows 95 launch dance also have a sequel of sorts. This one is Steve Ballmer from Microsoft giving his infamous “developers developers developers” speech in 1999.

That one went viral as well and even got remixed. I’d imagine it was for the same reasons. Tech CEOs attempts at humor usually fall flat, especially in 2020s. These days when it comes to tech CEO attempts at stand-up the humor mostly turns out to be mean-spirited and most likely to involve diatribes against the woke, the LGBT, feminists and so on and so forth. But I digress.

It came as an utter shock to me that Steve Ballmer, the central figure in both videos, recently started appearing in Youtube ads and promoting something completely different from his old viral self. Its no surprise that a popular comment under this one references the developers one.

This time there’s nothing goofy going on and the ad itself is unlikely to elicit a chuckle. Its serious business and one that is sorely needed in dire times like these. USAFacts is a website that Ballmer started to educate general public how the government operates.

Now the cynical side of me will probably argue that Steve created the website because his colleague Bill Gates is now getting a deserved backlash for appearance in Epstein files. But its just about as likely that Steve is a rich man who wants others to be more educated and more in control of their lives. Whatever the reason is behind this, I commend Steve for doing something different in the age of propaganda, disinformation and mean-spirited humor.

Soundtrack: J Dilla – Ahmad Impresses Me