“It’s an incredibly demoralizing message to hear someone say, ‘During your review period you worked 80 hour weeks, exceeded your documented tasks, and to top it off you fed a multitude with only a fish and a loaf of bread! Unfortunately someone else in your peer group did all of those things plus walked on water and therefore you will be getting a lower compensation ranking,’ Never mind having to come home to a spouse and explain that your work/life sacrifice the past year isn’t going to yield what you thought it would thanks to an arbitrary model. Now imagine you’re a manager and you have to deliver that message!”

//

The bible reference is pretty fun.

It's much easier to be a critic than a creator.

I concur that it's much easier to be a critic than a creator.

Also, I disagree that this was Microsoft's "lost decade".

In the last decade Microsoft took Xbox to the top and invented Kinect. Two extraordinary things.

Also, they bought Skype, which will continue to change the world and disrupt the carriers. Microsoft seems very committed to Skype's future.

In the next decade Microsoft is poised to make Windows Mobile great, and Surface has the potential to be world-changing.

That's two more extraordinary things.

This glass is definitely more than half-full.

Truth. Microsoft is a favorite target of critics; I sense google is becoming that way too.