“You're bad at your job because you think your job is getting positive stories and you should be thinking about your job as having interesting stories that showcase something about the company. And sometimes those are going to be less positive, but they're going to be more memorable.”
GeekWire · October 2026
Shaw recounting what a reporter told him during a heated phone call early in his time at Microsoft; he says he pulled his car over to take it. He thought the reporter was wrong at first, then decided he was exactly right.
Transcript
…was Rob Guthback because he would call me all the time. And I would say, oh my God, I have to call Rob Guthback. And so she thought his name was Rob Guthback. But anyway, I mean, I was driving through Madison Park and I had to pull over because we were yelling at each other about this story. Were
your kids in the back?
No, they were not in the back. This was just me solo, but I figured I really needed to pull over for this one. And what he said is he said, like, you're bad at your job because you think your job is getting positive stories and you should be thinking about your job as having interesting stories that showcase something about the company. And sometimes those are going to be less positive, but they're going to be more memorable.
Whoa.
And I was like, you're so wrong. And then I went off and I thought about it. And I realized he was exactly right. And so if you're doing a really good job working with anybody who is reporting about the company in the broadest possible sense of the world, what you hope for is you hope that they are…
us an example. Like, what's a story that you feel like it was risky, but we did it. And we feel like even though it wasn't completely positive, it did do a good job reflecting the company.
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