from Hacker News

Oral History of Andy Bechtolsheim (2015) [pdf]

by stmw on 2/8/25, 3:13 AM with 6 comments

• by FearNotDaniel on 2/8/25, 5:29 AM

  For those not immediately familiar with the name [0], he's one of the founders of Sun Microsystems and its chief hardware designer back in the day. Very impressive. But the document has no intro and takes several pages to talk about his childhood in Bavaria before you get to find out who we are talking about and why he is significant.

  [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Bechtolsheim

• by myrandomcomment on 2/8/25, 4:37 AM

  I have met a ton of very smart people in my time in the valley. In general I have found there to be various degrees of arrogance that goes along with the success and wealth. I can say 100% that Andy is one of the smartest people on the planet but is at the same time humble. It was my experience that he treated everyone with courtesy and respect. Furthermore he was greatly indulgent with his time for even the most junior engineer.

• by drmpeg on 2/8/25, 5:30 AM

  Here's the video. He talks fast, so it's pretty easy to sit through.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjR7sRASjdo