If his wishes were to shut down the LCM+L, fire all its staff, and auction off its collection, why didn't he do that while he was still alive? To me it seems like the actions of a vindictive family member who wanted to destroy the best things her brother had created in his life.
This conversation is tiresome. It comes up every time the LCM is mentioned. Jody Allen is simply respecting her brother’s wishes.
Paul Allen had many projects. Only a handful were ever intended to outlast him. LCM was not one of them. He wanted his fortune liquidated and donated. That’s exactly what his sister is doing.
I’ve been through the Microsoft loop(s) several times over the years, and (to borrow from Tolstoy) each was unhappy in its own way. There were great people who would have been a pleasure to work with but always at least one joker in the deck. One just had to laugh because it was so obvious it wasn’t me.
I remember speeding through the loop for something closely analogous to my job at the time, only to be suddenly told by the hiring manager (who up to that time was a strong supporter) in a final interview that I wasn’t qualified. Not wanting to invest any more energy, I formally withdrew, only to get a call from him protesting why I’d do such a thing. Or being told to leave at the end of the day only to be called to drive back 20 miles immediately during dinner, and finding out later that was a mistake. Or being literally screamed at (spittle in my face!) that HPC was only MPI and nothing but MPI. Or being yelled at that Windows Server was exactly the same as an enterprise storage system like EMC/HP/Hitachi. The hits go on.
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