Jeffrey Snower: I was demoted by Microsoft for inventing PowerShell

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Microsoft Technology Researcher 、PowerShell inventor Jeffrey Snover On twitter Talked about He once invented  PowerShell And being demoted by Microsoft .

The discussion began with investors Peter Thiel Discuss the virtues of courage ：“ Courage is not always rewarded in business ”, and Snover Think “ Courage is a key characteristic of future leaders and former employees ”. To prove his argument , He told a secret that had been buried for more than ten years ：

When I was later PowerShell When making a prototype , A friend warned me that this is something that makes people get fired . Luckily I didn't get fired , But was demoted by Microsoft .

For more than 10 years , Before I was promoted to outstanding engineer , I never mentioned it to anyone .

Snover On 2009 year 3 On the “ Outstanding engineer ” Honor , and PowerShell  The downgrade event occurred in   2006 Some time years ago . At that time, he took time to develop PowerShell , By Microsoft from L69 Demote to L68, Microsoft even tried to demote him to L67, And strongly suggest that this is a pay cut / A downgrade with financial implications , As a warning .

Some people are curious “ How can designing a prototype of a new product lead to such serious negative consequences ？”, but Snover There was no positive response to the reasons for the downgrade , Instead, it compares Microsoft with Google ：“ Microsoft doesn't have Google's 20 % policy .”

According to foreign media theregister Introduce ： there 20 % Policy refers to Google in 2004 When listed in , Founder Sergei · Brin and Larry · Page at IPO The letter said ：“ We encourage our employees to work in addition to their regular work items , take 20% Spend time on what they think is best for Google ”.

Maybe Microsoft at that time , Yes, the tech geek is at work “ loaf on a job ”, Study a project and work “ irrelevant ” Dissatisfied with your programming language / uneasy , Which gave him a downgrade warning . After all, when Ballmer was in power , The sales leader has Microsoft's entire company around “ Everything is revenue oriented ” To make policy , and PowerShell At that time, it was regarded as something that could not bring income , Therefore, it is also regarded as a huge waste of working time .

in addition ,Snover He often criticizes his employer in a gentle way , But because of Snover He is the inventor of many star products of Microsoft —— Include Azure、Windows Server、 Ancient PowerShell , therefore , His “ Critical freedom ” Relatively speaking, it is still very high .