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Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire
In this fascinating exposé, two investigative reporters trace the hugely successful career of Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Part entrepreneur, part enfant terrible, Gates has become the most powerful -- and feared -- player in the computer industry, and arguably the richest man in America. In Hard Drive, investigative reporters Wallace and Erickson follow Gates from his days as an unkempt thirteen-year-old computer hacker to his present-day status as a ruthless billionaire CEO. More than simply a "revenge of the nerds" story though, this is a balanced analysis of a business triumph, and a stunningly driven personality. The authors have spoken to everyone who knows anything about Bill Gates and Microsoft -- from childhood friends to employees and business rivals who reveal the heights, and limits, of his wizardry. From Gates's singular accomplishments to his equally extraordinary brattiness, arrogance, and hostility (the atmosphere is so intense at Microsoft that stressed-out programmers have been known to ease the tension of their eighty-hour workweeks by exploding homemade bombs), this is a uniquely revealing glimpse of the person who has emerged as the undisputed king of a notoriously brutal industry.
426 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
102 people are currently reading
6,225 people want to read
About the author
James Wallace
142 books21 followersJames I. Wallace, Ph.D., has spent his career practicing as a clinical psychologist, educational psychologist, and sport psychologist. He has practiced golf a lot, too, with little success. He has earned his knowledge of aikido by serving as the chief instructor (Sensei) of two dojos in Southern California and one in Ithaca, NY, before running the Colgate University Aikido Club in Hamilton, NY, the past quarter of a century. He lives there with his wife, Colgate University Professor Ann Jane Tierney, and he teaches P.E. courses in wellness, as well. They have two young adult daughters, Jasmine and Gemma, striving to live well in Virginia and Colorado, respectively.
In addition to his more recent book, Holy Rollers, Dr. Wallace is the author of a nonfiction book about the physical and mental aspects of athletics, [Book:On Target: Comparative Challenges of Sports & Games|31917960], along with several magazine articles about aikido.
In addition to his more recent book, Holy Rollers, Dr. Wallace is the author of a nonfiction book about the physical and mental aspects of athletics, [Book:On Target: Comparative Challenges of Sports & Games|31917960], along with several magazine articles about aikido.
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October 26, 2024
It is difficult to assess a book, without having some objective in mind. For instance, while reading a presidential biography, what is your objective? Is it to gain a better understanding of the habits and customs of the people of those times? Is to better understand the policies he enacted? Or is it to understand the private thoughts of the man, and discern what lessons you could learn from him, and apply to your own life? Or, are you, trying to find something entertaining.
These questions are important, because just as supply impacts demand, demand also impacts supply. If individuals prefer entertaining, spicy, sensationalist books, then would they really care if the facts are distorted, in favour of a more narrative set-up? (see Max Chafkin's, and Ben Mezrich). Also then would that not encourage the supply of such "spicy" books? Take the example of movie "Social Network". The movie portrays that Mark became motivated to build Facebook, and to subsequently expand it, because he got rejected by his girlfriend. That makes for an interesting story, doesn’t it? But the reality is that he met his current wife much before he built Facebook. He was in a relationship with her much before he even conceived of building Facebook. Sorkin (the writer of the film), couldn't wrap his head around the fact, that some people just like building things, because they like the process of building. In response to criticism that the film took creative liberties in portraying Mark's life, Sorkin responded by saying:
"I don't want my fidelity to be to the truth; I want it to be to story-telling"
But when you are making a movie about real people, actual events, and your movie is not ostensibly a parody, then should your fidelity not be towards the truth? For those who want a more detailed account of my view, - can read this article - https://www.theatlantic.com/entertain...
Regardless, the movie was a success, because people are drawn towards fun, and because people demand entertainment and not truth, and repeatedly conflate the two needs, as aptly predicted decades ago by the great Neil Postman, in his book "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business".
It is important to understand that this phenomenon exists both in the Left (Sorkin, Chafkin), and on the right (Arnab/Modi). It is necessary to explore this point further. Zuckerberg, recent events have revealed; has been aggressively pushing both Facebook, and Instagram, despite internal studies at FB, which reveal its addictive impact on young teens. That is a valid, factual criticism. But just because the man is dubious in one aspect, does it mean that it is permissible change other aspects of his life, to suit the narrative of an ethically dubious person? So would the fact that he is aggressively pushing FB, despite its debilitating impact on children, mean that it is okay to change the fact about his motivations behind building Facebook? I don't think so. Reality is messy and inconsistent. People are messy and inconsistent. Consistency belongs to the imaginary realm of fiction. People have positive and negative actions. Pronouncements on their life can be only be made by assessing the impact of their actions. But even if someone's life on a conjunctive analysis is substantially, net bad (say Hitler); does that mean, that if I am writing a biography on Hitler, then I can skim over the fact that he was concerned about animals and took steps to adopt vegetarianism? No, I will include all facts. On a cumulative analysis, if he has caused more harm than good, then people will condemn him for it, but as a biographer, it is NOT my job to omit facts that don't suit my narrative.
It is for this reason that I feel that fiction has had a debilitating impact on non-fiction, and journalists like Arnab Goswami, and Tucker Carlson (on the right), and Max Chafkin(on the left), are in so much demand.
And this where my monotonous sermon connects with this "Hard Drive"-the fact that this book belongs to the increasingly rare group of biographies, where the book is optimized for truth, and not for attention. Very few such biographers are left - Robert Caro, Edmund Morris, Jean Edward Smith, Michael Burlingame, Ron Chernow (to an extent), Joseph Ellis and so on. Isaacson falls somewhere in the middle. That said, I make this statement probabilistically, as I am yet to read other primary sources - Bill Gates' two business books, Paul Allen's own autobiography, Hertzfield's book and so on. Hard Drive is a semi-biographical account of Gates, since it's technically about the beginning and operation of Microsoft. That being said, despite being semi-biographical, it is more detailed (435 pages), then most biographies. Moreover, this book is only Part I. I am yet to read the sequel titled "Over Drive".
The book has incredible lessons for both personal self improvement, and as well as business strategies. Simply excellent. It shows how extremely, focused, obsessed, hard working, and competent Bill Gates was. He was, at his time, among the top 5 computer programmers in the world, and was much technically competent in his field than Jobs ever was. Jobs was somewhat competent no doubt, but in comparison to Gates he was just a charismatic marketing man (as recounted by individuals who worked under both of them). Similarly, his predictions about software turned it to be 95% correct. Most of his vision came through - such as predicting the dominance of graphical interface over text. Moreover, he was persistent. The book reveals his dark side too, his affair with a married woman, his morally dubious competitive tactics, his dominant strong arming of other companies, monopolistic behaviour, and imposition of extreme pressure on employees.
No book, can or ever will show the actual truth, but the book is the closest to the truth compared to the other books on Bill Gates. That is the gist of my review of the book.
Moving on, from the book, to my assessment of the Gates the person, I think he is an incredibly interesting and accomplished person. Before, assessing Gates life, it is necessary to ask myself from what perspective or intention am I seeking to read about him? To better understand that, it would be advisable to read my review on Theodore Roosevelt's autobiography. Briefly put, the fact is that only powerful men can beat powerful men. Only a well intentioned Machiavelli (Washington, Lincoln, Churchill) can beat a despotic Machiavelli (British empire, Jefferson Davis, Hitler respectively). Good, but naïve and idealistic men (Nehru), cannot beat despots (Mao) - see 1962 war. When good men, with naive tactics square up against fascists, they lose. Notable examples, of well-intentioned losers are Al Gore, Rahul Gandhi, Cicero, Dara Shikoh and so on.
A more Indian example is the tragedy of the police man Sanjiv Bhatt. Unlike other police officers, he stood up, and attempted to expose Modi's role in the 2002 riots. What happened? Several cases were filed against him by the Government on spurious grounds, and he is currently in Jail, with his family members putting up several pleas on Facebook, begging for help and support. A sad sight which haunts me constantly. As Roosevelt makes clear, it is not enough to have lofty ideals, you must also be practical. Therefore to ensure that you are capable of ensuring justice, you must also develop practical skills, power - in other words competence. I believe there is no one better to advise on this, compared to Soros, and Gates. In the 1990s, it was said that the Bill in the private sector (Gates) was more powerful than the one in the public sector (Bill Clinton), and this is true even for today. Gates and Soros have methodological distinctions in the manner they fight injustice, and poverty, but their ideals are similar. Both are huge contributors to the Democrat party. Everyone knows, that the most effective way to allow liberals to win the elections, and beat fascists is to simply ensure that the liberals are better funded, and to fund public opinion in favour of liberalism. Unlike a puny human rights activist, Soros has the capability and has done so repeatedly, his extensive contributions to liberal governments in eastern Europe to ensure that they (and not the fascists), come to power, contribution to "Open Society" institutions and so on. Then comes Gates, who from a Utilitarian perspective has reduced more human suffering, than any other individual alive. I doubt any has reduced human suffering as much as he has. He has spent about 45 Billion Dollars in vaccines, education and health care both in developing and developed countries. In terms of the number of lives that he has improved, no one comes close (may be Rockefeller). I, and several others possess a similar purpose, but how can you reduce human suffering to the extent he has without building the wealth he has - refer back to my discussion on Roosevelt's doctrine - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
Also, before reading this book, I used to think that, Bill Gates was a good example of an individual who was both successful, in not one but several area of life. . He succeeded in business (work life). He treated his children well , he treated his society well (philanthropic efforts), and he most importantly he treated his wife and parents well. On the last part, there is some doubt, given the recent news on his meetings with Epstein. But in the absence of facts, I will not comment, since the preponderance of probability suggests that he met Epstein only with respect to his philanthropic efforts, and not with respect to his "secret sex island". That said, my respect has somewhat reduced for Gates on the unconfirmed reports about his affairs while married. But then I can't confirm so no comments.
Moving on to what I learned about him from the book, was the guy's intense obsession with his work, see the extract reproduced below:
"Gates sometimes slept at the Microsoft
offices, just as he had slept in the computer lab at Harvard at
times rather than returning to his room at the Currier House.
One day Ed Roberts was taking a group of visitors on a tour
through MITS when he stepped over a body in the software
area. It was Gates, curled up on the the floor, sound asleep."
He was also incredibly hardworking, see below:
"In early November of 1980, the corporate odd couple of
oficially signed the paperwork. Microsoft would develop the soft
ware for IBM's first personal compute rand supply the vital disk
operating system, or DOS. Deadlines had been set, numerous
timetables established, commitments and promises made. The
schedule would be brutal. IBM wanted aninitial working version
of the operating system and BASIC by mid-January. "They
showed us we were three months behind schedule before we
started," recalled Gates.
On Sunday nights, Gates usually took time off from work
and went to his parents' home for dinner. But he now told his
mother that she probably wouldn't see him again for six months."
In fact, his focus revealed itself, in extreme forms, such as removing the radio from his car, so he could spend his time travelling, thinking about microsoft, see below:
□ Gates was extremely focused, she said,
and did not tolerate distractions. As a result, he didn't own a
television and had disconnected the radio in his car.
He was not very extravagant given his wealth. See below:
Gates, who still flies coach rather than first class, explained to Playboy magazine in 1991 why he does not indulge himself in perks such as limousines and chauffeurs and private jets enJoyed by other Fortune 500 executives. "It sets a bad example.I think eventually you get used to those things, then you're just abnormal. I'm afraid I'd get used to it"
He followed what Peter Attia, describes in the field of Medicine, the thinking pattern of "Strong Views, Loosely Held". He would seek to follow his ideas, without compromise, but if he felt, that his employee's view was more accurate, he had the intellectual honesty to follow their idea instead. There are several other qualities of his, which can be expounded upon - vision, practicality, business and so on.
Moving on to his dark side, I followed Charles Darwin's advice, that an individual should make special effort in recording all facts which are contrary to our views. Only then can we be closer to the truth. Darwin states that humans, unconsciously omit to record facts that are contrary to our view. Until very recently, I too had that habit. Nonetheless, because I considered Gates to be one of my heroes, I took special effort in making notes of Gates' negative qualities from the book, and James Wallace did not disappoint in this regard.
First, being promiscuous is not a crime. Bill got married around 37, and before that he enjoyed himself and went out with several consenting women. Nothing wrong with that, but he did one time sleep with a married woman and that is wrong. See below:
"He's one of the few in the industry who has an enormous
technical acumen," said Osborne of Gates. "He's the only entrepreneur in the industry who will pick up the code and comment on how good it is. He has the ability to look at it and tell what the programmer is doing right or wrong." But Osborne, a very proper fellow who speaks with a very precise British accent, did cometo question Gates' judgment in one non-technical area—women. In 1982, Gates reportedly had an affair with the wife of one of Osborne Computer's overseas executives. The woman was about 40 years old and had been married several times"
Second, there's nothing wrong with being hard on one's employees. Gates did not relax, and expect others to work for him (today's CEOs). Rather he was simply a workaholic and wondered why everyone else didn't perform at a similar level. In response to a similar criticism about him, Larry Ellison responded that people with a high level of performance, expect others to do the same - Andy Grove, Michael Jordan, Kobe, Musk and so on, and that is inconceivable to such individuals why other's aren't putting similar hours. In fact, Gates on being questioned on this responded that they didn't have a problem when he made them millionaires. What he was referring to was the fact that, he was liberal with granting stock options to his employees, and it is because of his hard work, as well as the hard work of his employees, that microsoft transformed from a fledging startup to a billion dollar company, in the process making many of his employees - millionaires. I agree with Gates, especially because employees knew what they were getting into while joining Microsoft, and they could have quit whenever they wanted. Many of them also went there because they knew that as Software Engineers, microsoft was the place to be in, in the 1980s and 90s, given that microsoft and the world was at the cusp of the software revolution. But despite these points, he did sometimes cross the line. See below:
"At the beginning of September, Cole learned she needed major surgery. But because her division was due to begin shipping Excel by the end of the month, she postponed the surgery
and instead finished a series of press tours and other tasks related to the product release. Three weeks after she finally had the surgery she returned to work—much too soon, she realized
later—to finish off nearly 200 staff performance reviews that were due out by the end of October. On her third day back, Cole met with Gates to talk about firing Philip Florence, the Excel manager who had had a heart attack. He had since returned to work but wasn't getting the job done. In the middle of the discussion, Gates suddenly began shouting at Cole that she was not up to speed about a product scheduling change. I was hurting from surgery I had a fairly life threatening situation. They thought I had ovarian cancer when they did the surgery. I had a benign mass removed. It was really scary And not a great thing to go through. I didn't really want to have A hysterectomy. I was 37 at the time. So Bill's screaming at me [made me decide] 'I'm not doing it anymore.Cole gotup and wentin to talk with Jon Shirley, whom she told"I can't come into work everyday thinking it's never going to get any better than this."
Third, but anecdotal (so doubtful), he is "alleged" to have paid some women employees, lesser than the male employees. :
Gates and several of his managers would discuss from time to time whether to hire a man or a women for a particular job, according to THE SOURCE. "They would say, 'Well, let's hire two
women because we can pay them half as much as we will have to pay a man, and we can give them all this other 'crap' work, to do because they are women.' That's directly out of Bill's mouth. ... I thought it was surprising that he wasn't more sensitive to the issue. His parents were pillars of the community.
Fourth, some of his business tactics were anti-competitive but I don't consider violating competition law to be a moral wrong, merely a regulatory wrong. So I am not expounding on it.
I would conclude by saying that the book reinforces the my view that there are very few well rounded heroes. In fact, there aren't many reasonably well rounded heroes either. Bill Gates came close were it not for the above three points. I would say that learn his strengths and discard his weaknesses. That said, although from an ethical stand point he could be criticised, but from a Utilitarian stand point, he stands above all, because quantitatively he has been the greatest contributor to the efforts to reduce suffering. To conclude, learn to become competent and powerful, but discard his weaknesses. The fact that Mukesh Ambani is capable of fighting a despot like Modi is something to know. The fact that he doesn't is a separate matter. Learn Ambani's wealth building strengths, and discard his weakness (unwillingness to help). So that when you reach Ambani's level, you can do what he didn't - participate in the fight. But you need to reach that level first. You don't need to be a billionaire, be something - Nobel Prize winning economist (Abhijit Banerjee), Supreme Court Judge (Chandrachud).
I would end with Roosevelt's autobiography, which reveals how rare it is to both competent and ethical. - https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3335/...
These questions are important, because just as supply impacts demand, demand also impacts supply. If individuals prefer entertaining, spicy, sensationalist books, then would they really care if the facts are distorted, in favour of a more narrative set-up? (see Max Chafkin's, and Ben Mezrich). Also then would that not encourage the supply of such "spicy" books? Take the example of movie "Social Network". The movie portrays that Mark became motivated to build Facebook, and to subsequently expand it, because he got rejected by his girlfriend. That makes for an interesting story, doesn’t it? But the reality is that he met his current wife much before he built Facebook. He was in a relationship with her much before he even conceived of building Facebook. Sorkin (the writer of the film), couldn't wrap his head around the fact, that some people just like building things, because they like the process of building. In response to criticism that the film took creative liberties in portraying Mark's life, Sorkin responded by saying:
"I don't want my fidelity to be to the truth; I want it to be to story-telling"
But when you are making a movie about real people, actual events, and your movie is not ostensibly a parody, then should your fidelity not be towards the truth? For those who want a more detailed account of my view, - can read this article - https://www.theatlantic.com/entertain...
Regardless, the movie was a success, because people are drawn towards fun, and because people demand entertainment and not truth, and repeatedly conflate the two needs, as aptly predicted decades ago by the great Neil Postman, in his book "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business".
It is important to understand that this phenomenon exists both in the Left (Sorkin, Chafkin), and on the right (Arnab/Modi). It is necessary to explore this point further. Zuckerberg, recent events have revealed; has been aggressively pushing both Facebook, and Instagram, despite internal studies at FB, which reveal its addictive impact on young teens. That is a valid, factual criticism. But just because the man is dubious in one aspect, does it mean that it is permissible change other aspects of his life, to suit the narrative of an ethically dubious person? So would the fact that he is aggressively pushing FB, despite its debilitating impact on children, mean that it is okay to change the fact about his motivations behind building Facebook? I don't think so. Reality is messy and inconsistent. People are messy and inconsistent. Consistency belongs to the imaginary realm of fiction. People have positive and negative actions. Pronouncements on their life can be only be made by assessing the impact of their actions. But even if someone's life on a conjunctive analysis is substantially, net bad (say Hitler); does that mean, that if I am writing a biography on Hitler, then I can skim over the fact that he was concerned about animals and took steps to adopt vegetarianism? No, I will include all facts. On a cumulative analysis, if he has caused more harm than good, then people will condemn him for it, but as a biographer, it is NOT my job to omit facts that don't suit my narrative.
It is for this reason that I feel that fiction has had a debilitating impact on non-fiction, and journalists like Arnab Goswami, and Tucker Carlson (on the right), and Max Chafkin(on the left), are in so much demand.
And this where my monotonous sermon connects with this "Hard Drive"-the fact that this book belongs to the increasingly rare group of biographies, where the book is optimized for truth, and not for attention. Very few such biographers are left - Robert Caro, Edmund Morris, Jean Edward Smith, Michael Burlingame, Ron Chernow (to an extent), Joseph Ellis and so on. Isaacson falls somewhere in the middle. That said, I make this statement probabilistically, as I am yet to read other primary sources - Bill Gates' two business books, Paul Allen's own autobiography, Hertzfield's book and so on. Hard Drive is a semi-biographical account of Gates, since it's technically about the beginning and operation of Microsoft. That being said, despite being semi-biographical, it is more detailed (435 pages), then most biographies. Moreover, this book is only Part I. I am yet to read the sequel titled "Over Drive".
The book has incredible lessons for both personal self improvement, and as well as business strategies. Simply excellent. It shows how extremely, focused, obsessed, hard working, and competent Bill Gates was. He was, at his time, among the top 5 computer programmers in the world, and was much technically competent in his field than Jobs ever was. Jobs was somewhat competent no doubt, but in comparison to Gates he was just a charismatic marketing man (as recounted by individuals who worked under both of them). Similarly, his predictions about software turned it to be 95% correct. Most of his vision came through - such as predicting the dominance of graphical interface over text. Moreover, he was persistent. The book reveals his dark side too, his affair with a married woman, his morally dubious competitive tactics, his dominant strong arming of other companies, monopolistic behaviour, and imposition of extreme pressure on employees.
No book, can or ever will show the actual truth, but the book is the closest to the truth compared to the other books on Bill Gates. That is the gist of my review of the book.
Moving on, from the book, to my assessment of the Gates the person, I think he is an incredibly interesting and accomplished person. Before, assessing Gates life, it is necessary to ask myself from what perspective or intention am I seeking to read about him? To better understand that, it would be advisable to read my review on Theodore Roosevelt's autobiography. Briefly put, the fact is that only powerful men can beat powerful men. Only a well intentioned Machiavelli (Washington, Lincoln, Churchill) can beat a despotic Machiavelli (British empire, Jefferson Davis, Hitler respectively). Good, but naïve and idealistic men (Nehru), cannot beat despots (Mao) - see 1962 war. When good men, with naive tactics square up against fascists, they lose. Notable examples, of well-intentioned losers are Al Gore, Rahul Gandhi, Cicero, Dara Shikoh and so on.
A more Indian example is the tragedy of the police man Sanjiv Bhatt. Unlike other police officers, he stood up, and attempted to expose Modi's role in the 2002 riots. What happened? Several cases were filed against him by the Government on spurious grounds, and he is currently in Jail, with his family members putting up several pleas on Facebook, begging for help and support. A sad sight which haunts me constantly. As Roosevelt makes clear, it is not enough to have lofty ideals, you must also be practical. Therefore to ensure that you are capable of ensuring justice, you must also develop practical skills, power - in other words competence. I believe there is no one better to advise on this, compared to Soros, and Gates. In the 1990s, it was said that the Bill in the private sector (Gates) was more powerful than the one in the public sector (Bill Clinton), and this is true even for today. Gates and Soros have methodological distinctions in the manner they fight injustice, and poverty, but their ideals are similar. Both are huge contributors to the Democrat party. Everyone knows, that the most effective way to allow liberals to win the elections, and beat fascists is to simply ensure that the liberals are better funded, and to fund public opinion in favour of liberalism. Unlike a puny human rights activist, Soros has the capability and has done so repeatedly, his extensive contributions to liberal governments in eastern Europe to ensure that they (and not the fascists), come to power, contribution to "Open Society" institutions and so on. Then comes Gates, who from a Utilitarian perspective has reduced more human suffering, than any other individual alive. I doubt any has reduced human suffering as much as he has. He has spent about 45 Billion Dollars in vaccines, education and health care both in developing and developed countries. In terms of the number of lives that he has improved, no one comes close (may be Rockefeller). I, and several others possess a similar purpose, but how can you reduce human suffering to the extent he has without building the wealth he has - refer back to my discussion on Roosevelt's doctrine - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
Also, before reading this book, I used to think that, Bill Gates was a good example of an individual who was both successful, in not one but several area of life. . He succeeded in business (work life). He treated his children well , he treated his society well (philanthropic efforts), and he most importantly he treated his wife and parents well. On the last part, there is some doubt, given the recent news on his meetings with Epstein. But in the absence of facts, I will not comment, since the preponderance of probability suggests that he met Epstein only with respect to his philanthropic efforts, and not with respect to his "secret sex island". That said, my respect has somewhat reduced for Gates on the unconfirmed reports about his affairs while married. But then I can't confirm so no comments.
Moving on to what I learned about him from the book, was the guy's intense obsession with his work, see the extract reproduced below:
"Gates sometimes slept at the Microsoft
offices, just as he had slept in the computer lab at Harvard at
times rather than returning to his room at the Currier House.
One day Ed Roberts was taking a group of visitors on a tour
through MITS when he stepped over a body in the software
area. It was Gates, curled up on the the floor, sound asleep."
He was also incredibly hardworking, see below:
"In early November of 1980, the corporate odd couple of
oficially signed the paperwork. Microsoft would develop the soft
ware for IBM's first personal compute rand supply the vital disk
operating system, or DOS. Deadlines had been set, numerous
timetables established, commitments and promises made. The
schedule would be brutal. IBM wanted aninitial working version
of the operating system and BASIC by mid-January. "They
showed us we were three months behind schedule before we
started," recalled Gates.
On Sunday nights, Gates usually took time off from work
and went to his parents' home for dinner. But he now told his
mother that she probably wouldn't see him again for six months."
In fact, his focus revealed itself, in extreme forms, such as removing the radio from his car, so he could spend his time travelling, thinking about microsoft, see below:
□ Gates was extremely focused, she said,
and did not tolerate distractions. As a result, he didn't own a
television and had disconnected the radio in his car.
He was not very extravagant given his wealth. See below:
Gates, who still flies coach rather than first class, explained to Playboy magazine in 1991 why he does not indulge himself in perks such as limousines and chauffeurs and private jets enJoyed by other Fortune 500 executives. "It sets a bad example.I think eventually you get used to those things, then you're just abnormal. I'm afraid I'd get used to it"
He followed what Peter Attia, describes in the field of Medicine, the thinking pattern of "Strong Views, Loosely Held". He would seek to follow his ideas, without compromise, but if he felt, that his employee's view was more accurate, he had the intellectual honesty to follow their idea instead. There are several other qualities of his, which can be expounded upon - vision, practicality, business and so on.
Moving on to his dark side, I followed Charles Darwin's advice, that an individual should make special effort in recording all facts which are contrary to our views. Only then can we be closer to the truth. Darwin states that humans, unconsciously omit to record facts that are contrary to our view. Until very recently, I too had that habit. Nonetheless, because I considered Gates to be one of my heroes, I took special effort in making notes of Gates' negative qualities from the book, and James Wallace did not disappoint in this regard.
First, being promiscuous is not a crime. Bill got married around 37, and before that he enjoyed himself and went out with several consenting women. Nothing wrong with that, but he did one time sleep with a married woman and that is wrong. See below:
"He's one of the few in the industry who has an enormous
technical acumen," said Osborne of Gates. "He's the only entrepreneur in the industry who will pick up the code and comment on how good it is. He has the ability to look at it and tell what the programmer is doing right or wrong." But Osborne, a very proper fellow who speaks with a very precise British accent, did cometo question Gates' judgment in one non-technical area—women. In 1982, Gates reportedly had an affair with the wife of one of Osborne Computer's overseas executives. The woman was about 40 years old and had been married several times"
Second, there's nothing wrong with being hard on one's employees. Gates did not relax, and expect others to work for him (today's CEOs). Rather he was simply a workaholic and wondered why everyone else didn't perform at a similar level. In response to a similar criticism about him, Larry Ellison responded that people with a high level of performance, expect others to do the same - Andy Grove, Michael Jordan, Kobe, Musk and so on, and that is inconceivable to such individuals why other's aren't putting similar hours. In fact, Gates on being questioned on this responded that they didn't have a problem when he made them millionaires. What he was referring to was the fact that, he was liberal with granting stock options to his employees, and it is because of his hard work, as well as the hard work of his employees, that microsoft transformed from a fledging startup to a billion dollar company, in the process making many of his employees - millionaires. I agree with Gates, especially because employees knew what they were getting into while joining Microsoft, and they could have quit whenever they wanted. Many of them also went there because they knew that as Software Engineers, microsoft was the place to be in, in the 1980s and 90s, given that microsoft and the world was at the cusp of the software revolution. But despite these points, he did sometimes cross the line. See below:
"At the beginning of September, Cole learned she needed major surgery. But because her division was due to begin shipping Excel by the end of the month, she postponed the surgery
and instead finished a series of press tours and other tasks related to the product release. Three weeks after she finally had the surgery she returned to work—much too soon, she realized
later—to finish off nearly 200 staff performance reviews that were due out by the end of October. On her third day back, Cole met with Gates to talk about firing Philip Florence, the Excel manager who had had a heart attack. He had since returned to work but wasn't getting the job done. In the middle of the discussion, Gates suddenly began shouting at Cole that she was not up to speed about a product scheduling change. I was hurting from surgery I had a fairly life threatening situation. They thought I had ovarian cancer when they did the surgery. I had a benign mass removed. It was really scary And not a great thing to go through. I didn't really want to have A hysterectomy. I was 37 at the time. So Bill's screaming at me [made me decide] 'I'm not doing it anymore.Cole gotup and wentin to talk with Jon Shirley, whom she told"I can't come into work everyday thinking it's never going to get any better than this."
Third, but anecdotal (so doubtful), he is "alleged" to have paid some women employees, lesser than the male employees. :
Gates and several of his managers would discuss from time to time whether to hire a man or a women for a particular job, according to THE SOURCE. "They would say, 'Well, let's hire two
women because we can pay them half as much as we will have to pay a man, and we can give them all this other 'crap' work, to do because they are women.' That's directly out of Bill's mouth. ... I thought it was surprising that he wasn't more sensitive to the issue. His parents were pillars of the community.
Fourth, some of his business tactics were anti-competitive but I don't consider violating competition law to be a moral wrong, merely a regulatory wrong. So I am not expounding on it.
I would conclude by saying that the book reinforces the my view that there are very few well rounded heroes. In fact, there aren't many reasonably well rounded heroes either. Bill Gates came close were it not for the above three points. I would say that learn his strengths and discard his weaknesses. That said, although from an ethical stand point he could be criticised, but from a Utilitarian stand point, he stands above all, because quantitatively he has been the greatest contributor to the efforts to reduce suffering. To conclude, learn to become competent and powerful, but discard his weaknesses. The fact that Mukesh Ambani is capable of fighting a despot like Modi is something to know. The fact that he doesn't is a separate matter. Learn Ambani's wealth building strengths, and discard his weakness (unwillingness to help). So that when you reach Ambani's level, you can do what he didn't - participate in the fight. But you need to reach that level first. You don't need to be a billionaire, be something - Nobel Prize winning economist (Abhijit Banerjee), Supreme Court Judge (Chandrachud).
I would end with Roosevelt's autobiography, which reveals how rare it is to both competent and ethical. - https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3335/...
August 22, 2021
Easily the best biography of a businessperson I've read. I'm surprised that the stories in this book aren't a bigger part of silicon valley lore.
First, the evolution of Microsoft is extremely fascinating - and it's also nonlinear. In the early 1980s the market for personal computers was just emerging so from the later 1970s to early 1990s Microsoft had to evolve many times. In fact, Microsoft only came to owning the operating system by chance - they didn't enter the os market until they were a large company focusing on software applications. And even after entering the os market, they had a number of fumbles and directions they rejected before coming to the Windows thesis that eventually drove the company's supremacy. But ultimately, Microsoft's growth was not a foregone conclusion - in word processing, spreadsheet processing, and even in operating systems they were more often than not the number 2 or 3 player. The evolution of the space was so rapid that in the early 1990s two companies at the opposite end of the spectrum - Apple and IBM teamed up. It's a testament to Gates' ability as a founder to constantly redirect the company amongst a rapidly evolving market that drive Microsoft to be the behemoth it is today. The true irony of this text is that modern day Microsoft is the IBM of today - a company without many major innovations who wins by copying startups and beating them through distribution (i.e. teams vs slack).
I also liked that this book painted Gates as a human, with many contradictions. He was a nerd with the voice of an 11 year old who loved to race Ferraris and was a womanizer. He was one of the best technologists in the world - who also didn't know what he wanted to; in fact in early college he thought he might become a mathematician - only after seeing friends at Harvard better at the subject than him did he rule out that possibility. He was an incredible salesperson who also believed that technologists should hold middle management positions at tech companies - not MBAs.
The only unfortunate thing about this text is when it was written!! I wish the author's could have written a revised version that detailed some of the very fascinating shifts for Microsoft of the 1990s(i.e. its launching of internet explorer, thus replacing netspace as the default portal to the web, the antitrust case, etc).
First, the evolution of Microsoft is extremely fascinating - and it's also nonlinear. In the early 1980s the market for personal computers was just emerging so from the later 1970s to early 1990s Microsoft had to evolve many times. In fact, Microsoft only came to owning the operating system by chance - they didn't enter the os market until they were a large company focusing on software applications. And even after entering the os market, they had a number of fumbles and directions they rejected before coming to the Windows thesis that eventually drove the company's supremacy. But ultimately, Microsoft's growth was not a foregone conclusion - in word processing, spreadsheet processing, and even in operating systems they were more often than not the number 2 or 3 player. The evolution of the space was so rapid that in the early 1990s two companies at the opposite end of the spectrum - Apple and IBM teamed up. It's a testament to Gates' ability as a founder to constantly redirect the company amongst a rapidly evolving market that drive Microsoft to be the behemoth it is today. The true irony of this text is that modern day Microsoft is the IBM of today - a company without many major innovations who wins by copying startups and beating them through distribution (i.e. teams vs slack).
I also liked that this book painted Gates as a human, with many contradictions. He was a nerd with the voice of an 11 year old who loved to race Ferraris and was a womanizer. He was one of the best technologists in the world - who also didn't know what he wanted to; in fact in early college he thought he might become a mathematician - only after seeing friends at Harvard better at the subject than him did he rule out that possibility. He was an incredible salesperson who also believed that technologists should hold middle management positions at tech companies - not MBAs.
The only unfortunate thing about this text is when it was written!! I wish the author's could have written a revised version that detailed some of the very fascinating shifts for Microsoft of the 1990s(i.e. its launching of internet explorer, thus replacing netspace as the default portal to the web, the antitrust case, etc).
December 31, 2021
Very interesting look into the history not of Microsoft and Bill Gates only, but also software and even computers generally. I had no idea about some of the realities before I read this book.
It's a little bit funny to read about fights and wars between the companies about "standardization" the industry when you know, how that eventually went. The story ends in 1992 and of course "actors" had no (or very little) idea what tomorrow brings.
As a guy who has been working in IT industry only in "modern" era of high level programming languages, any information availability via Internet and powerful computers I can only hardly imagine the same work of software developer in 70's / 80's. But thanks to those people we are where we are and we can enjoy all the easiness of computers and software provide today.
If the world of information technology is something what fascinates you same as myself I can only recommend the book.
It's a little bit funny to read about fights and wars between the companies about "standardization" the industry when you know, how that eventually went. The story ends in 1992 and of course "actors" had no (or very little) idea what tomorrow brings.
As a guy who has been working in IT industry only in "modern" era of high level programming languages, any information availability via Internet and powerful computers I can only hardly imagine the same work of software developer in 70's / 80's. But thanks to those people we are where we are and we can enjoy all the easiness of computers and software provide today.
If the world of information technology is something what fascinates you same as myself I can only recommend the book.
July 23, 2021
Mình đọc quyển này trước hết vì được tặng. Thứ 2 là cũng hâm mộ ngài Bill. Thứ 3 là ngài ấy có con số chủ đạo 4. Nên mình siêu tò mò để đọc quyển này.
Sau khi đọc thì thấy mình biết hơn, và mường tượng được hơn về người đàn ông giàu nhất thế giới ấy. Trong ngành phần mềm máy tính. Microsoft đúng là đế chế.
Giàu ơi giàu nhưng không hề khoe khoang. Và có lẽ điều mình ấn tượng nhất ở Bill Gates là người đam mê công việc kinh khủng. Người tự tay điều hành và quyết liệt với Microsoft, đưa Microsoft trở thành đế chế như bây giờ.
Bill Gates đúng là con người tham vọng. siêu tham vọng. Luôn luôn muốn là số 1. Và sẵn sàng đập chết ăn thịt đối thủ.
Mình cũng mong chờ được đọc dài hơn nhưng mà sách đã dừng trước khi Bill Gates lấy vợ. Tiếc ghê.
Quyển này nói rõ về chặng đường phát triển của Microsoft. Bức tranh về ngành máy tính, phần mềm. Đôi khi khó đọc ghê vì ngôn ngữ trong ngành phần mềm.
Cũng đáng để bỏ thời gian ra đọc😊
HN, ngày 23.7.2021
Sau khi đọc thì thấy mình biết hơn, và mường tượng được hơn về người đàn ông giàu nhất thế giới ấy. Trong ngành phần mềm máy tính. Microsoft đúng là đế chế.
Giàu ơi giàu nhưng không hề khoe khoang. Và có lẽ điều mình ấn tượng nhất ở Bill Gates là người đam mê công việc kinh khủng. Người tự tay điều hành và quyết liệt với Microsoft, đưa Microsoft trở thành đế chế như bây giờ.
Bill Gates đúng là con người tham vọng. siêu tham vọng. Luôn luôn muốn là số 1. Và sẵn sàng đập chết ăn thịt đối thủ.
Mình cũng mong chờ được đọc dài hơn nhưng mà sách đã dừng trước khi Bill Gates lấy vợ. Tiếc ghê.
Quyển này nói rõ về chặng đường phát triển của Microsoft. Bức tranh về ngành máy tính, phần mềm. Đôi khi khó đọc ghê vì ngôn ngữ trong ngành phần mềm.
Cũng đáng để bỏ thời gian ra đọc😊
HN, ngày 23.7.2021
May 26, 2013
It's hard to resist the temptation to write a review on this masterpiece.
One of the best books i have read this year. The true story of Bill Gates's journey towards creating the giant known as MICROSOFT.
He started with the scratch at the minor age of 13, with nothing but his vision to create the software which will dominate the world in decades to come.
I would like to add that very few people know the fact that bill gates is a Harvard Law Dropout. He quits Harvard and starts his company at 20.
the people around him described him as a madman possessed by a vision who worked without sleeping for quite a stretch to make his vision reality.
This book Gives great insight into just how driven Bill Gates is, and what he gave up to achieve his success. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is fascinated with the early stages of the micro-computer revolution.
One of the best books i have read this year. The true story of Bill Gates's journey towards creating the giant known as MICROSOFT.
He started with the scratch at the minor age of 13, with nothing but his vision to create the software which will dominate the world in decades to come.
I would like to add that very few people know the fact that bill gates is a Harvard Law Dropout. He quits Harvard and starts his company at 20.
the people around him described him as a madman possessed by a vision who worked without sleeping for quite a stretch to make his vision reality.
This book Gives great insight into just how driven Bill Gates is, and what he gave up to achieve his success. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is fascinated with the early stages of the micro-computer revolution.
November 13, 2019
This is a highly recommended biography of the man behind the corporate juggernaut Microsoft, a company that found a way to lease the only essential program needed to run a computer to nearly every user in the world. In 1976 and 1980, Congress allowed the copyrighting of software and this law is how Gates became the richest man alive. MS owned DOS and later Windows, which because of cheap IBM clones became the standard. Therefore anyone who made software had to pay the Microsoft toll to get on Windows or DOS. Microsoft also made applications. Hmm I wonder if owning the platform they would run on would give them a competitive advantage? Of course it did, that’s why they destroyed WordPerfect with Microsoft Word, VisiCalc and Lotus 123 with Microsoft Excel, and on and on. Yet somehow they were never broken up. They most famously destroyed Netscape by including a free web browser with Windows.
So what’s in Bill’s brain according to authors Wallace, Erickson and Paul Allen biographer Laura Rich? One word: greed. He is one of the greediest businessmen in history and that’s saying something. But what’s inside Bill’s brain is not the focus of the story or at all the most interesting part. The rise of the PC and software industry is.
For anyone who enjoyed the documentary “Triumph of the Nerds” you will really enjoy this book. Meticulously researched and written like a novel, it’s a real page turner. The authors manage to end every chapter on a cliffhanger. The story of how Microsoft came to be is fascinating. The reason why Bill Gates and Paul Allen got there first was simply because it was their hobby at the perfect time. Once they realized that there hobby could make money (and a ton of it), they jumped at the chance.
Bill Gates, being a silver spoon fed rich kid, didn’t ever have to worry about putting food on the table so he could go all in and move to whatever town was at the epicenter of the PC. In the beginning it was in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His parents had the connections, his partner Paul Allen had the idea and programming expertise, and Bill had the drive to destroy competitors and become a king. He wasn’t interested in girls, he wasn’t interested in booze or fun. He was interested in winning. There really is little to admire about him, except maybe his work ethic and business know-how. But being a workaholic is really seen more as a vice, not a virtue. He forced everyone around him to work 12-14 hour days or even to just live in their office as he did. Just so he could destroy so-so potential competitor.
The book was written before Gates became a media darling philanthropist. It ends when he was at his height around the release of Windows 95. But Gates philanthropy is a smokescreen. For all he’s donated, he’s still at the top of the billionaires club. His investments make him so much money that he can give away billions and still make it all back. There’s Bill Gates - the image he made for himself and then there’s the real Bill Gates - the evil, manipulative bully who got lucky.
So what’s in Bill’s brain according to authors Wallace, Erickson and Paul Allen biographer Laura Rich? One word: greed. He is one of the greediest businessmen in history and that’s saying something. But what’s inside Bill’s brain is not the focus of the story or at all the most interesting part. The rise of the PC and software industry is.
For anyone who enjoyed the documentary “Triumph of the Nerds” you will really enjoy this book. Meticulously researched and written like a novel, it’s a real page turner. The authors manage to end every chapter on a cliffhanger. The story of how Microsoft came to be is fascinating. The reason why Bill Gates and Paul Allen got there first was simply because it was their hobby at the perfect time. Once they realized that there hobby could make money (and a ton of it), they jumped at the chance.
Bill Gates, being a silver spoon fed rich kid, didn’t ever have to worry about putting food on the table so he could go all in and move to whatever town was at the epicenter of the PC. In the beginning it was in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His parents had the connections, his partner Paul Allen had the idea and programming expertise, and Bill had the drive to destroy competitors and become a king. He wasn’t interested in girls, he wasn’t interested in booze or fun. He was interested in winning. There really is little to admire about him, except maybe his work ethic and business know-how. But being a workaholic is really seen more as a vice, not a virtue. He forced everyone around him to work 12-14 hour days or even to just live in their office as he did. Just so he could destroy so-so potential competitor.
The book was written before Gates became a media darling philanthropist. It ends when he was at his height around the release of Windows 95. But Gates philanthropy is a smokescreen. For all he’s donated, he’s still at the top of the billionaires club. His investments make him so much money that he can give away billions and still make it all back. There’s Bill Gates - the image he made for himself and then there’s the real Bill Gates - the evil, manipulative bully who got lucky.
March 8, 2017
There is a passage in the book which sums up Bill Gates business mind perfectly. It was taken from John Steinbeck’s novel Cannery Row:
The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. All those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.
This is a compelling story about a man whose passion for computer operating systems left us with the Microsoft legacy we live today. From BASIC to MS Dos to Windows the book explores the early development life of Microsoft (up until 1991) and what drove Bill Gates to be one of the richest man alive today. The book also explores some of Gates personal lifestyle choices and his personality such his arrogance, self-belief in his own brilliance and fortitude to be a doer rather than a sayer, but it also explores his humble use of money and his view that it is the work and the results that matters not the fruits of the labour.
Unlike Steve Jobs who had the vision and the ability to make others do his bidding, Gates had the vision, the mathematical skills to create original computer code and the business acumen to steal other company inventions and pass them off as Microsoft’s. Gates’s vision was not hardware, but software, but not just software but the standardised operating system that would rule them all. And he did it. Today we know that Microsoft has lost a lot of ground to Apple and Google, but there is no denying that Microsoft still owns the greatest share in the O/S market. The groundwork of how that happened is all here in this book.
Awarded 4 stars because it could have done with more direct quotes and interviews with Gates or Paul Allen (co-founder of Microsoft) and the fact it was published in 1992 it began to show its age at the latter stages of the book when it explored the direction that Microsoft will take, new technologies and whether Bill Gates will marry (who cares!). As a source of history in the development of Microsoft and the roots that was to become Windows 95, it is an excellent book.
The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. All those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.
This is a compelling story about a man whose passion for computer operating systems left us with the Microsoft legacy we live today. From BASIC to MS Dos to Windows the book explores the early development life of Microsoft (up until 1991) and what drove Bill Gates to be one of the richest man alive today. The book also explores some of Gates personal lifestyle choices and his personality such his arrogance, self-belief in his own brilliance and fortitude to be a doer rather than a sayer, but it also explores his humble use of money and his view that it is the work and the results that matters not the fruits of the labour.
Unlike Steve Jobs who had the vision and the ability to make others do his bidding, Gates had the vision, the mathematical skills to create original computer code and the business acumen to steal other company inventions and pass them off as Microsoft’s. Gates’s vision was not hardware, but software, but not just software but the standardised operating system that would rule them all. And he did it. Today we know that Microsoft has lost a lot of ground to Apple and Google, but there is no denying that Microsoft still owns the greatest share in the O/S market. The groundwork of how that happened is all here in this book.
Awarded 4 stars because it could have done with more direct quotes and interviews with Gates or Paul Allen (co-founder of Microsoft) and the fact it was published in 1992 it began to show its age at the latter stages of the book when it explored the direction that Microsoft will take, new technologies and whether Bill Gates will marry (who cares!). As a source of history in the development of Microsoft and the roots that was to become Windows 95, it is an excellent book.
March 3, 2011
One of the best and most interesting books I've ever read. About the guy hated by many, and loved by many others. Some call him the inventor of computers, GUI interface, or even the internet (for those with little knowledge), others call him a fraud and not ever a tech guy.
I'm not Bill Gates fan, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying a magnificent journey, knowing who he is, how he turned to be, and what is his real story. The interesting thing about Bill Gates's story is it has a lot of struggle, ups and downs, and controversies. You would know how a guy dropped his Harvard Bachelor program to pursue an idea with nothing much to hold onto.
It is fun as a biography, full of business and market lessons, and you will get to know who Bill Gates really is, and what he really did or did not.
Bad thing about the book is, it was written in 1993, back when Microsoft was still an empire. Yes Windows is still most popular OS, but it's going down, and for a decade Microsoft are failing to compete with new emerging technologies, with the one exception of Xbox.
Soon there should be another.... the falling of the Microsoft Empire.
I'm not Bill Gates fan, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying a magnificent journey, knowing who he is, how he turned to be, and what is his real story. The interesting thing about Bill Gates's story is it has a lot of struggle, ups and downs, and controversies. You would know how a guy dropped his Harvard Bachelor program to pursue an idea with nothing much to hold onto.
It is fun as a biography, full of business and market lessons, and you will get to know who Bill Gates really is, and what he really did or did not.
Bad thing about the book is, it was written in 1993, back when Microsoft was still an empire. Yes Windows is still most popular OS, but it's going down, and for a decade Microsoft are failing to compete with new emerging technologies, with the one exception of Xbox.
Soon there should be another.... the falling of the Microsoft Empire.
December 11, 2018
This book really gave an insight to how Microsoft started and the story of it's founders. I am truly smitten by how software was being developed in those era, it took people driven by vision, passion and a dream to make the computers we now enjoy a reality. It was a great read!
June 24, 2017
Good book about Bill Gates that cuts through a lot of bullshit popular in biographies and presents facts instead. Interesting.
June 16, 2021
biography of Bill Gates, the genius programmer, entrepreneur and thinker
Read
October 1, 2022small flakes of dandruff on the shoulders of his black suit
Welcome to the Space Needle,” the elevator operator intoned. “You are in the west elevator travelhng at ten miles per hour, or 800 feet per minute.
memorize chapters 5, 6, and 7 of the Book of Matthew, which are better known as the Sermon on the Mount.
in 1943, Gates enlisted in the Army. By the end of World War II two years later, he was enrolled in officers’ training school at Fort Benning, Georgia. Discharged in 1946 as a first lieutenant, he promptly enrolled at the University of Washington, where he became the first member of his family to graduate from college.
Gates often rocks himself in a chair, elbows on knees, to contain his intensity, especially when the talk is about computers; it’s not unusual to walk into a room of Microsoft managers and find most of them rocking in sync with him during an important meeting.
Cates’ “uneventful” childhood
Even as a child Cates had an obsessive personality and a compulsive need to be the best. "Any school assignment, be it playing a musical instrument or writing papers, whatever, he would do at any or all hours of the day.”
Cifted children—those with IQs near or above the genius level—sometimes grow up to be socially inept, due to limited childhood interactions and experiences. Bill and Mary Cates were determined to see that that didn’t happen to their son. They tried to expose him to as many opportunities and experiences as possible. When he was old enough, he was encouraged to join Troop 186 of the Boy Scouts.
Lakeside always drew on the city’s big-money estabhsh- ment. Many of the boys who had passed through the school over the years were the movers and shakers of the community. It was a fiercely competitive environment at every level. "Even the dumb kids were smart,”
When Albert Einstein was four or five years old and sick in bed, his father gave him a magnetic pocket compass. In his Autobiographical Notes, written 60 years later, Einstein described the compass as “a wonder.” It may well have determined the direction of his life as a theoretical physicist. Bill Cates undoubtedly cannot explain why he reacted as he did to his own “wonder,” the computer.
Cates’ first computer program, a series of instructions telling the computer what to do, was a tick-tack-toe game. He then wrote a program for a lunar lander game, which required the user to make a soft landing on the moon before expending all fuel in the spacecraft and crashing on the moon’s surface. As his programming skills developed, Cates taught the computer to play Monopoly. These early programs were written in a computer language known as BASIC (Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code.)
Gates talked about this relationship between computers and mathematics in the book Programmers at Work by Susan Lammers
Gates had always been very good at math. In fact, he was gifted. He later scored a perfect 800 on the math portion of his college boards. He could see the simplest way to do things in mathematics.
“Paul thought I had this attitude like I understood things,” Gates said. “So when he got stuck he would say, ‘Hey, I bet you can’t figure this out!’ He would kind of challenge me . . . and it was pretty hard stuflF.”
One day, Cates went to Allen’s home, only to be amazed by Allen’s collection of sci-fi books.
“He had read four times as much as I had,” recalled Cates. "And he had all these other books that explained things. So I would ask him, ‘How do guns work? How do nuclear reactors work?’ Paul was good at explaining stuff. Later, we did some math stuff and physics stuff together. That’s how we got to be friends.”
The Lakeside Programmers Group was dedicated to finding money-making opportunities to use The Machine in the real world.“I was the mover,” Gates said. “I was the guy who said, ‘Let’s call the real world and try to sell something to it.’ ”
Worse, the computer “lost” everything it had been working on—a case of electronic Alzheimer’s.
You would see him playing tennis occasionally, but not much else.
industry hackers and “phone phreaks”
“He was clearly much more ethereal and intellectual than practical.. . .”
Gates told his fiiend Paul Carlson that he would be a millionaire by the time he was 30 years old.“ “Some might just say it to brag. Some might say it as if they had the measure of themselves. Bill was in that second category.”
Kent and I ended up writing most of the payroll program, a COBOL program. and as compensation we got free computer time. The payroll project was actually "pretty boring,” according to Gates. "You had to understand state taxes, payroll deductions . . . that kind of stuff.
wise beyond their years.
money had not been mentioned. Paul, Bill and I didn’t want to be paid hourly rates, so we mentioned piece rates for programmed products or royalty arrangements. The royalty scheme went over big. We get about ten percent of the money ISI gets because of one of our programs—we get more in the long run and the company doesn’t need to tie up any of its capital.”
"If anybody wants to know why Bill Gates is where he is today, in my judgment it’s because of this early experience cutting deals,” said Marvin Evans, Kent's father.
Gates quickly showed his talent for making business deals. He bought 5,000 McGovern-Eagleton buttons for a nickel each—$250 worth. When George McGovern dropped Thomas Eagleton from the presidential ticket. Gates sold the scarce buttons as collector’s items for $25 each, making several thousand dollars in profit.
“Pong.” (This game had been designed by Nolan Bushnell, and it made him rich and famous. He sold the game through his startup company. Atari.)
Although Gates may not have had much experience with girls, he did have experiences of another kind that set him apart from many of his peers at Harvard. He had already been out there in the “real world.” He even had his own company, Traf- 0-Data.
“He would focus on something and really stick with it. He had a determination to master whatever it was he was doing.
Ballmer was usually awake. He was able to go without sleep as long as Gates could. They had the same intensity level, the same unlimited energy source. They were on the same wavelength. In Gatesspeak, it’s known as “high bandwidth communication,” Gates and Ballmer would start rocking in sync, talking at the same time but hearing every word the other said.
Hey, I’m going to sit in a room, staring at a wall for five years, and even if I come up with something, who knows. So it made me think about whether math was something I wanted to do or not.
Welcome to the Space Needle,” the elevator operator intoned. “You are in the west elevator travelhng at ten miles per hour, or 800 feet per minute.
memorize chapters 5, 6, and 7 of the Book of Matthew, which are better known as the Sermon on the Mount.
in 1943, Gates enlisted in the Army. By the end of World War II two years later, he was enrolled in officers’ training school at Fort Benning, Georgia. Discharged in 1946 as a first lieutenant, he promptly enrolled at the University of Washington, where he became the first member of his family to graduate from college.
Gates often rocks himself in a chair, elbows on knees, to contain his intensity, especially when the talk is about computers; it’s not unusual to walk into a room of Microsoft managers and find most of them rocking in sync with him during an important meeting.
Cates’ “uneventful” childhood
Even as a child Cates had an obsessive personality and a compulsive need to be the best. "Any school assignment, be it playing a musical instrument or writing papers, whatever, he would do at any or all hours of the day.”
Cifted children—those with IQs near or above the genius level—sometimes grow up to be socially inept, due to limited childhood interactions and experiences. Bill and Mary Cates were determined to see that that didn’t happen to their son. They tried to expose him to as many opportunities and experiences as possible. When he was old enough, he was encouraged to join Troop 186 of the Boy Scouts.
Lakeside always drew on the city’s big-money estabhsh- ment. Many of the boys who had passed through the school over the years were the movers and shakers of the community. It was a fiercely competitive environment at every level. "Even the dumb kids were smart,”
When Albert Einstein was four or five years old and sick in bed, his father gave him a magnetic pocket compass. In his Autobiographical Notes, written 60 years later, Einstein described the compass as “a wonder.” It may well have determined the direction of his life as a theoretical physicist. Bill Cates undoubtedly cannot explain why he reacted as he did to his own “wonder,” the computer.
Cates’ first computer program, a series of instructions telling the computer what to do, was a tick-tack-toe game. He then wrote a program for a lunar lander game, which required the user to make a soft landing on the moon before expending all fuel in the spacecraft and crashing on the moon’s surface. As his programming skills developed, Cates taught the computer to play Monopoly. These early programs were written in a computer language known as BASIC (Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code.)
Gates talked about this relationship between computers and mathematics in the book Programmers at Work by Susan Lammers
Gates had always been very good at math. In fact, he was gifted. He later scored a perfect 800 on the math portion of his college boards. He could see the simplest way to do things in mathematics.
“Paul thought I had this attitude like I understood things,” Gates said. “So when he got stuck he would say, ‘Hey, I bet you can’t figure this out!’ He would kind of challenge me . . . and it was pretty hard stuflF.”
One day, Cates went to Allen’s home, only to be amazed by Allen’s collection of sci-fi books.
“He had read four times as much as I had,” recalled Cates. "And he had all these other books that explained things. So I would ask him, ‘How do guns work? How do nuclear reactors work?’ Paul was good at explaining stuff. Later, we did some math stuff and physics stuff together. That’s how we got to be friends.”
The Lakeside Programmers Group was dedicated to finding money-making opportunities to use The Machine in the real world.“I was the mover,” Gates said. “I was the guy who said, ‘Let’s call the real world and try to sell something to it.’ ”
Worse, the computer “lost” everything it had been working on—a case of electronic Alzheimer’s.
You would see him playing tennis occasionally, but not much else.
industry hackers and “phone phreaks”
“He was clearly much more ethereal and intellectual than practical.. . .”
Gates told his fiiend Paul Carlson that he would be a millionaire by the time he was 30 years old.“ “Some might just say it to brag. Some might say it as if they had the measure of themselves. Bill was in that second category.”
Kent and I ended up writing most of the payroll program, a COBOL program. and as compensation we got free computer time. The payroll project was actually "pretty boring,” according to Gates. "You had to understand state taxes, payroll deductions . . . that kind of stuff.
wise beyond their years.
money had not been mentioned. Paul, Bill and I didn’t want to be paid hourly rates, so we mentioned piece rates for programmed products or royalty arrangements. The royalty scheme went over big. We get about ten percent of the money ISI gets because of one of our programs—we get more in the long run and the company doesn’t need to tie up any of its capital.”
"If anybody wants to know why Bill Gates is where he is today, in my judgment it’s because of this early experience cutting deals,” said Marvin Evans, Kent's father.
Gates quickly showed his talent for making business deals. He bought 5,000 McGovern-Eagleton buttons for a nickel each—$250 worth. When George McGovern dropped Thomas Eagleton from the presidential ticket. Gates sold the scarce buttons as collector’s items for $25 each, making several thousand dollars in profit.
“Pong.” (This game had been designed by Nolan Bushnell, and it made him rich and famous. He sold the game through his startup company. Atari.)
Although Gates may not have had much experience with girls, he did have experiences of another kind that set him apart from many of his peers at Harvard. He had already been out there in the “real world.” He even had his own company, Traf- 0-Data.
“He would focus on something and really stick with it. He had a determination to master whatever it was he was doing.
Ballmer was usually awake. He was able to go without sleep as long as Gates could. They had the same intensity level, the same unlimited energy source. They were on the same wavelength. In Gatesspeak, it’s known as “high bandwidth communication,” Gates and Ballmer would start rocking in sync, talking at the same time but hearing every word the other said.
Hey, I’m going to sit in a room, staring at a wall for five years, and even if I come up with something, who knows. So it made me think about whether math was something I wanted to do or not.
April 11, 2021
I believe that this book provided good insight on the backstory of Microsoft and Bill Gates overall. Although sometimes I found that some parts of Bill Gates life was a little over-explained or some aspects of Bill Gates life were only starts of ideas and not actual facts. I feel like some of the book focused more on opinionated research rather than fact but overall I think it helped me see the backstory of Bill Gates from a new perspective than I had seen previously. About half of the people that were mentioned in the book had a couple of pages on how Bill Gates is a good guy while other people have almost the exact opinions than the others saying how he is conceited or arrogant. The different views of Bill Gates combined with an overall summary of his life was an interesting read and although I don't enjoy reading non-fictional books I found this book keeping my attention much better than others.
June 20, 2017
Do đọc sách dịch nên cá nhân mình thấy cả quyển sách tác giả Nguyễn Tố Nguyên (NXB Thế giới) dịch không hay. Nhiều đoạn mình phải tự hỏi là không biết tác giả dịch hay chị google dịch nữa!
Bỏ qua phần khuyết điểm đó thì nhìn chung giá trị về mặt nội dung mà cuốn sách mang lại là không thể phủ nhận. Qua gần 500 trang sách, điều mà mình thấy nội bật nhất ở con người Bill Gate đó chính là tính cách. Ông là một người hướng công việc. Mọi suy nghĩ, mọi hành động của ông đều là về công việc. Đối với nhân viên cấp dưới ông như một cơn lốc, lúc nào cũng thể nổi tam bành, sẵn sàng chửi bới thậm chí là sỉ nhục ngay trước mặt nếu như nhân viên đó làm không tốt nhiệm vụ. Đối với các đối thủ cạnh tranh, Bill Gate như kẻ sát nhân khát máu, sẵn sàng ăn thua, tìm đủ mọi cách để chiến thắng đối thủ. Với mỗi một sản phẩm tung ra thị trường Gate muốn nó phải là tiêu chuẩn, phải là thước đo để các công ty khác làm theo. Với một con người vừa tài giỏi lại vừa có tinh thần như vậy thì việc Microsoft (hay một cái tên khác nếu lịch sử ghi nhận Bill Gate thất bại, dĩ nhiên ông không cho phép điều đó xảy ra) trở thành một đế chế là điều chắc chắn sẽ xảy ra.
Ngoài là một con-người-của-công-việc ra, Bill Gate còn là một người khá thú vị. Ông thích ăn bánh hamburger, thích lái xe tốc độ cao (ông xuýt thì bị tước bằng lái vĩnh viễn), thích sưu tập rượu hảo hạng, và dĩ nhiên thích đọc sách, đọc một cách ngấu nghiến.
Cuốn sách còn cung cấp cho ta những thông tin liên quan đến lịch sử phát triển của máy tính cá nhân. Như vì sao IBM từ một kẻ khổng lồ trong ngành bỗng hóa một công ty tầm thường, hay vì sao các sản phẩm của Microsoft lại thường mở đầu bằng chữ Microsoft. Và còn nhiều thông tin khác nữa!
Có điều quyển sách mới kể đến những năm 90 thì đã kết thúc, nên mình sẽ tìm một quyển khác cập nhật mới hơn để dõi xem người giàu nhất thế giới đã làm gì để tiếp tục đưa để chế của ông lên tầm cao mới.
Bỏ qua phần khuyết điểm đó thì nhìn chung giá trị về mặt nội dung mà cuốn sách mang lại là không thể phủ nhận. Qua gần 500 trang sách, điều mà mình thấy nội bật nhất ở con người Bill Gate đó chính là tính cách. Ông là một người hướng công việc. Mọi suy nghĩ, mọi hành động của ông đều là về công việc. Đối với nhân viên cấp dưới ông như một cơn lốc, lúc nào cũng thể nổi tam bành, sẵn sàng chửi bới thậm chí là sỉ nhục ngay trước mặt nếu như nhân viên đó làm không tốt nhiệm vụ. Đối với các đối thủ cạnh tranh, Bill Gate như kẻ sát nhân khát máu, sẵn sàng ăn thua, tìm đủ mọi cách để chiến thắng đối thủ. Với mỗi một sản phẩm tung ra thị trường Gate muốn nó phải là tiêu chuẩn, phải là thước đo để các công ty khác làm theo. Với một con người vừa tài giỏi lại vừa có tinh thần như vậy thì việc Microsoft (hay một cái tên khác nếu lịch sử ghi nhận Bill Gate thất bại, dĩ nhiên ông không cho phép điều đó xảy ra) trở thành một đế chế là điều chắc chắn sẽ xảy ra.
Ngoài là một con-người-của-công-việc ra, Bill Gate còn là một người khá thú vị. Ông thích ăn bánh hamburger, thích lái xe tốc độ cao (ông xuýt thì bị tước bằng lái vĩnh viễn), thích sưu tập rượu hảo hạng, và dĩ nhiên thích đọc sách, đọc một cách ngấu nghiến.
Cuốn sách còn cung cấp cho ta những thông tin liên quan đến lịch sử phát triển của máy tính cá nhân. Như vì sao IBM từ một kẻ khổng lồ trong ngành bỗng hóa một công ty tầm thường, hay vì sao các sản phẩm của Microsoft lại thường mở đầu bằng chữ Microsoft. Và còn nhiều thông tin khác nữa!
Có điều quyển sách mới kể đến những năm 90 thì đã kết thúc, nên mình sẽ tìm một quyển khác cập nhật mới hơn để dõi xem người giàu nhất thế giới đã làm gì để tiếp tục đưa để chế của ông lên tầm cao mới.
May 13, 2023
Naprawdę ciekawa pozycja, dzięki której można dowiedzieć się sporo o Microsofcie, niestety mniej o samym założycielu. Na pewno imponuje sposób prowadzenia negocjacji, pożerania innych firm przez firmę Gatesa. Szkoda, że pozycja sprzed 30 lat. Przydałoby się nowa pozycja uwzględniająca minione dekady od wydania książki.
October 20, 2023
Really well researched: not only following Gates, but also the industry from the history of pcs, to competitors and a lot more. It grounds every decision Gates made to this context, and makes it much easier to absorb somehow. Learned a bunch about business from just a couple pages in the announcement of windows because of this.
Also striking to see how much better written this is compared to Elon’s biography. Both set out to portray controversial characters, but I’d imagine most people who read the Elon one came away admiring him more. Things often times oversimplified for the mass, and consolidated almost like a textbook of Elon’s principles. Hard drive is more like investigative journalism, objective but well written and addicting. Definitely surprised me with how vicious and ruthless Bill Gates was.
Also striking to see how much better written this is compared to Elon’s biography. Both set out to portray controversial characters, but I’d imagine most people who read the Elon one came away admiring him more. Things often times oversimplified for the mass, and consolidated almost like a textbook of Elon’s principles. Hard drive is more like investigative journalism, objective but well written and addicting. Definitely surprised me with how vicious and ruthless Bill Gates was.
October 11, 2017
Hard Drive is the best account I've read on Microsoft and Bill Gates. It's a very old book (1993) but super detailed, well-researched on Microsoft and Bill Gates. It builds on a number of other older books on Microsoft and other companies (eg IBM), articles and interviews with people. There are lots of titbit stories and quotes from people. Microsoft copied a lot of ideas from smaller one-product companies, and drove them out of business.
While I've read and learned about Bill Gates' tenacity, reading the detailed stories really open my eyes of how ridiculously competitive, insensitive, ferocious he was, very different from the current mellow philanthropic image.
The book also displays/shares the kind of culture that will be successful vs others (eg IBM ..etc):
- It's the lean and flat organisation structure. Employees are empower to make changes quickly without too much bureaucracy.
- Hiring well, only hire the smartest and most driven people, especially fresh grads. Experience is not as important. During interviews, ask open-ended questions about how they spend their time, and what do they feel about unfinished business.
- The leader is the one that drives the culture.
While I've read and learned about Bill Gates' tenacity, reading the detailed stories really open my eyes of how ridiculously competitive, insensitive, ferocious he was, very different from the current mellow philanthropic image.
The book also displays/shares the kind of culture that will be successful vs others (eg IBM ..etc):
- It's the lean and flat organisation structure. Employees are empower to make changes quickly without too much bureaucracy.
- Hiring well, only hire the smartest and most driven people, especially fresh grads. Experience is not as important. During interviews, ask open-ended questions about how they spend their time, and what do they feel about unfinished business.
- The leader is the one that drives the culture.
January 2, 2021
Fantastic account of Bill Gates and the early days at Microsoft. The book goes to great length to capture Gates' childhood in Seattle and his initial interest in computers, along with his friendship with Paul Allen. Microsoft was an intense work environment with employees working nearly nonstop to push themselves to meet Gates' impossible deadlines. Equally impressive is Gates' own dedication: no one worked harder than him in the early days. What's fascinating about the story is the degree to which Gates was able to continuously adapt, with spreadsheet software, DOS, partnership with IBM, and eventually Windows. It's incredible to hear about the dominant tech companies of the '70s and '80s in various spaces, many of which are no longer in existence. The book was published in 1992 so ends up missing the continued explosive growth of Microsoft, the tech bubble, and the antitrust lawsuit in the late '90s/early 2000s, but it nonetheless gives a very compelling account of the history of the company.
November 23, 2024
A very good book for those who are more interested in the business side of things rather than personalities and their lives. Hard Drive is written by journalists, so you know what style to expect.
To build a company like Microsoft, many unlikely things need to happen all at once. Bill Gates was born in the right place and at the right time. His well-off family could afford to put him in a school where he could tinker with computers - something that was unheard of in any other school across the country. The computer revolution wave was coming, and Bill was there to ride it. In the same school, he met Paul Allen, his soon-to-be co-founder of Microsoft.
Bill is and was also a force of nature. He combined extraordinary intelligence and a relentless competitive spirit. The type of person you never want to compete against.
Building Microsoft was as abnormal of an experience as it can get. Young 20-somethings were building software (that no one knew how to make) and they literally dedicated their lives to the process. Life was work, deadlines were tight, and tensions were high. Bill was the type of boss that today no one would like to work for. It is inconvenient, but that is apparently how world class companies are built in their first years.
Business wise, Bill was at once very conservative and outlandishly risk taking. He always kept a ton of cash in the bank account to have runway, and developed different businesses in parallel since it was not clear whether it was hardware, applications, operating systems, or something else entirely, that would capture the most value.
One of the many bets was developing an operating system for IBM, which later became the golden goose. Applications such as Microsoft Excel would come later.
It is astonishing that Microsoft could have been built without any capital raised. While they did raise one round from a VC, they did not need this money and it sat in the bank. It is today a 3 trillion USD company.
To build a company like Microsoft, many unlikely things need to happen all at once. Bill Gates was born in the right place and at the right time. His well-off family could afford to put him in a school where he could tinker with computers - something that was unheard of in any other school across the country. The computer revolution wave was coming, and Bill was there to ride it. In the same school, he met Paul Allen, his soon-to-be co-founder of Microsoft.
Bill is and was also a force of nature. He combined extraordinary intelligence and a relentless competitive spirit. The type of person you never want to compete against.
Building Microsoft was as abnormal of an experience as it can get. Young 20-somethings were building software (that no one knew how to make) and they literally dedicated their lives to the process. Life was work, deadlines were tight, and tensions were high. Bill was the type of boss that today no one would like to work for. It is inconvenient, but that is apparently how world class companies are built in their first years.
Business wise, Bill was at once very conservative and outlandishly risk taking. He always kept a ton of cash in the bank account to have runway, and developed different businesses in parallel since it was not clear whether it was hardware, applications, operating systems, or something else entirely, that would capture the most value.
One of the many bets was developing an operating system for IBM, which later became the golden goose. Applications such as Microsoft Excel would come later.
It is astonishing that Microsoft could have been built without any capital raised. While they did raise one round from a VC, they did not need this money and it sat in the bank. It is today a 3 trillion USD company.
March 7, 2020
Đầu tiên theo cá nhân mình thì mình muốn rate cho cuốn sách 3,5 sao nhưng mà không có nên vì vậy đành rate cho 4 sao vậy
Cuốn sách khá đầy đủ về cuộc đời của Bill Gates: +Từ lúc còn bé ông đã thuộc 1 bài kinh bằng 1 cộp báo gộp lại không hề vấp một đoạn nào, khi học ở Lakeside ông mê máy tính đến mức quên ăn quên ngủ, làm sập cả 1 hệ điều hành lúc bấy giờ, sau khi học Havard ông nói rằng muốn tìm người giỏi hơn nhưng đáng buồn không ai giỏi hơn mình cả. Gates có máu tranh đua rất cao từ khi còn bé cho đến lúc trưởng thành, ông đã từng tuyên bố trờ thành triệu phú lúc còn tuổi đôi mươi và quả thật ông đã làm được. Ngoài ra, Ông là 1 người đam mê tốc độ bằng chứng ở việc ông thường xuyện bị cảnh sát bắt vì tội quá tốc độ và trả lại chiếc Porsche 911 cho hãng vì tốc độ không đạt được như hãng đã bảo với ông.
+Ông sẵn sàng chỉ tay và cãi lộn lại rất to với giáo viên hoặc bạn bè của mình nếu họ sai, Gates thường cười cợt những người bạn bè bằng tuổi khi trả lời chậm. Ông cũng sẵn sàng hét vào mặt nhân viên, tranh cãi và ném bút chì vào họ, đấm tay xuống bàn làm việc. Ông là con người ưa chủ nghĩa hoàn hảo. Mọi sản phẩm của ông đều phải hoàn hảo và phải cập nhập liên tục.
+Ngoài tính cách và công việc của Gates ra chúng ta còn biết được Gates đã trải qua vài mối tình điểm hình là đã từng yêu một người phụ nữ 40 tuổi đã từng lập gia đình, những mối tình không thành vợ chồng vì tính cách tập trung hết mình vào công việc của Gates.
Ngoài Bill Gates ra chúng ta còn biết được nơi thành lập đầu tiên của MicroSoft không phải ở nước Mỹ mà là ở New Mexico, Paul Allen là người đồng sáng lập với Gates,... Tiếp đó đến lịch sử của ngành máy tính ( To bằng 1 căn phòng và vận hành tốn hàng ngàn giờ đồng hồ ) và đế chế IBM, Apple, các phần mềm khác cạnh tranh nhau và với MicroSoft cạnh tranh bằng cách loại đối thủ của họ thay vì chiến thắng trên doanh thu.
Cuốn sách khá đầy đủ về cuộc đời của Bill Gates: +Từ lúc còn bé ông đã thuộc 1 bài kinh bằng 1 cộp báo gộp lại không hề vấp một đoạn nào, khi học ở Lakeside ông mê máy tính đến mức quên ăn quên ngủ, làm sập cả 1 hệ điều hành lúc bấy giờ, sau khi học Havard ông nói rằng muốn tìm người giỏi hơn nhưng đáng buồn không ai giỏi hơn mình cả. Gates có máu tranh đua rất cao từ khi còn bé cho đến lúc trưởng thành, ông đã từng tuyên bố trờ thành triệu phú lúc còn tuổi đôi mươi và quả thật ông đã làm được. Ngoài ra, Ông là 1 người đam mê tốc độ bằng chứng ở việc ông thường xuyện bị cảnh sát bắt vì tội quá tốc độ và trả lại chiếc Porsche 911 cho hãng vì tốc độ không đạt được như hãng đã bảo với ông.
+Ông sẵn sàng chỉ tay và cãi lộn lại rất to với giáo viên hoặc bạn bè của mình nếu họ sai, Gates thường cười cợt những người bạn bè bằng tuổi khi trả lời chậm. Ông cũng sẵn sàng hét vào mặt nhân viên, tranh cãi và ném bút chì vào họ, đấm tay xuống bàn làm việc. Ông là con người ưa chủ nghĩa hoàn hảo. Mọi sản phẩm của ông đều phải hoàn hảo và phải cập nhập liên tục.
+Ngoài tính cách và công việc của Gates ra chúng ta còn biết được Gates đã trải qua vài mối tình điểm hình là đã từng yêu một người phụ nữ 40 tuổi đã từng lập gia đình, những mối tình không thành vợ chồng vì tính cách tập trung hết mình vào công việc của Gates.
Ngoài Bill Gates ra chúng ta còn biết được nơi thành lập đầu tiên của MicroSoft không phải ở nước Mỹ mà là ở New Mexico, Paul Allen là người đồng sáng lập với Gates,... Tiếp đó đến lịch sử của ngành máy tính ( To bằng 1 căn phòng và vận hành tốn hàng ngàn giờ đồng hồ ) và đế chế IBM, Apple, các phần mềm khác cạnh tranh nhau và với MicroSoft cạnh tranh bằng cách loại đối thủ của họ thay vì chiến thắng trên doanh thu.
March 11, 2025
One of the best Bill Gates biographies out there.
After having read a few Bill Gates biographies I've realized a lot of them are basically puff pieces: they soften up the edges of the subject and they exaggerate his good traits in order to portrait him in a better light.
This is not the case with "Hard Drive". Here the good and bad personality traits of Bill Gates are in full display. On the one hand is bratty, arrogant and in general a spoiled upper middle class kid. On the other, and this is a bit atypical given his affluent upbringing, he has the ambition and the work ethic of Genghis Khan. From a young age in school, later on high school, college Traf-o-data and finally Micro-Soft(as it was initially named) Bill Gates's work ethic is unparalleled. At one point he mentions that he found himself in flow by working for 36 hours and crashing and sleeping 12. He maintained that rhythm for months.
Not only that but his personal life is also on display and full of contradictions. On the one hand he is the pampered nerd, son of affluent parents who is shy and not very successful with girls, in school at least. On the other hand, and once Microsoft gets going, he is a speed freak, driving Porsches at night, dating some of his female employees, mostly secretaries and visiting the red light district area of Seattle.
The business tactics and ruthless actions taken by Microsoft's founder are also on full display here as he relentlessly destroys the competition to gain ever increasing market share.
All in all the rawest and also one of the most entertaining of Bill Gates's biographies.
After having read a few Bill Gates biographies I've realized a lot of them are basically puff pieces: they soften up the edges of the subject and they exaggerate his good traits in order to portrait him in a better light.
This is not the case with "Hard Drive". Here the good and bad personality traits of Bill Gates are in full display. On the one hand is bratty, arrogant and in general a spoiled upper middle class kid. On the other, and this is a bit atypical given his affluent upbringing, he has the ambition and the work ethic of Genghis Khan. From a young age in school, later on high school, college Traf-o-data and finally Micro-Soft(as it was initially named) Bill Gates's work ethic is unparalleled. At one point he mentions that he found himself in flow by working for 36 hours and crashing and sleeping 12. He maintained that rhythm for months.
Not only that but his personal life is also on display and full of contradictions. On the one hand he is the pampered nerd, son of affluent parents who is shy and not very successful with girls, in school at least. On the other hand, and once Microsoft gets going, he is a speed freak, driving Porsches at night, dating some of his female employees, mostly secretaries and visiting the red light district area of Seattle.
The business tactics and ruthless actions taken by Microsoft's founder are also on full display here as he relentlessly destroys the competition to gain ever increasing market share.
All in all the rawest and also one of the most entertaining of Bill Gates's biographies.
March 16, 2022
Cuốn này ra đời năm 1992, tức là vô cùng xa xôi. Nếu mà ra đời sau khi MS ra Win95 hoặc sau khi Gates dính quả án độc quyền phải rút chân ra MS khá nhiều thì chắc sẽ hay hơn nhỉ?
Cuốn này về cơ bản là nhiều thông tin nhất về Gates trong các cuốn mình đọc, nhưng viết kém nhất. Nó cứ bị thiếu trọng tâm ấy.
Vài điều về Gates:
+ Gates là người làm việc với cường độ kinh khủng. Vô cùng kinh khủng. Thời gian đầu khởi sự, chuyện không muốn bỏ thời gian ra tắm là chuyện thường tình.
+ Gates cũng hơi lôi thôi. Mô tả thường thấy là gàu và quần áo luộm thuộm. Có lần chụp ảnh tạp chí mà cái áo rách cả 2 nách, rồi thì vết ố khắp nơi.
+ Gates mê mạo hiểm. Việc đua xe tầm 150km-200km/h là chuyện thường gặp. Gates là người ưa thử thác và khám phá, trải nghiệm.
+ Gates là người tham vọng và có vẻ xã hội Mỹ là xã hội khuyến khích con người tham vọng từ sớm.
Một vài điều rút ra:
+ dù làm sản phẩm ban đầu phần đa đều tệ so với các đối thủ, nhưng bằng khả năng làm việc khủng khiếp của MS (nhanh, linh hoạt, và số giờ tầm 80h/tuần là bình thường), nên MS có thể lật ngược thế cờ trong rất nhiều TH.
+ sẵn sàng nắm bắt các cơ hội, đớp lấy những miếng bánh ngoại cỡ.
+ tầm nhìn đúng đắn là rất quan trọng. Gates với hiểu biết sâu về kỹ thuật đã đúng trong hầu hết ván cược. Những lúc cược sai thì sự linh hoạt và khả năng làm việc của MS cũng giúp cứu vãn được vấn đề.
Cuốn này về cơ bản là nhiều thông tin nhất về Gates trong các cuốn mình đọc, nhưng viết kém nhất. Nó cứ bị thiếu trọng tâm ấy.
Vài điều về Gates:
+ Gates là người làm việc với cường độ kinh khủng. Vô cùng kinh khủng. Thời gian đầu khởi sự, chuyện không muốn bỏ thời gian ra tắm là chuyện thường tình.
+ Gates cũng hơi lôi thôi. Mô tả thường thấy là gàu và quần áo luộm thuộm. Có lần chụp ảnh tạp chí mà cái áo rách cả 2 nách, rồi thì vết ố khắp nơi.
+ Gates mê mạo hiểm. Việc đua xe tầm 150km-200km/h là chuyện thường gặp. Gates là người ưa thử thác và khám phá, trải nghiệm.
+ Gates là người tham vọng và có vẻ xã hội Mỹ là xã hội khuyến khích con người tham vọng từ sớm.
Một vài điều rút ra:
+ dù làm sản phẩm ban đầu phần đa đều tệ so với các đối thủ, nhưng bằng khả năng làm việc khủng khiếp của MS (nhanh, linh hoạt, và số giờ tầm 80h/tuần là bình thường), nên MS có thể lật ngược thế cờ trong rất nhiều TH.
+ sẵn sàng nắm bắt các cơ hội, đớp lấy những miếng bánh ngoại cỡ.
+ tầm nhìn đúng đắn là rất quan trọng. Gates với hiểu biết sâu về kỹ thuật đã đúng trong hầu hết ván cược. Những lúc cược sai thì sự linh hoạt và khả năng làm việc của MS cũng giúp cứu vãn được vấn đề.
Shelved as 'act47-org'
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February 26, 2021
An illuminating tale of how a brilliant and driven young man fell forward into creating the software industry as we know it. This book chronicles Bill Gates’ life from his upbringing in Seattle, his quest for direction at Harvard, his gambles in Albuquerque, and ultimately Microsoft’s rise as the “standard setter” of the software industry. It’s a fascinating look into how a household name like Bill Gates became who he is. Through quotes from executives and employees both at Microsoft and their competitors, as well as magazines, articles, and anecdotes, this book remarkably contextualizes Bill Gates’ prominence from both inside and outside the software industry. I highly recommend for any computer buff curious about the unfolding of the software industry during the mini and microcomputer revolution of the 70’s/80’s.
March 17, 2018
This book is super thorough, especially about DOS. It’s obvious the authors did a lot of research to make this book so technical and I was surprised it was so technical.
I loved the tidbits about Paul Allen and I’d often find myself picturing him jamming out on his guitar. Now, I want to read more about Allen. I especially enjoyed reading about Bill’s childhood and Seattle roots.
The quirky parts about how they’d go to Burgermaster and how Bill loved driving fast in his sports cars made me smile.
A lot of the book I already knew because I’ve been to the Living Computer Museum several times but if you like Microsoft and haven’t been yet this would be a nice book to read. It made me love Paul and Microsoft even more and Bill’s drive was admirable as well.
I loved the tidbits about Paul Allen and I’d often find myself picturing him jamming out on his guitar. Now, I want to read more about Allen. I especially enjoyed reading about Bill’s childhood and Seattle roots.
The quirky parts about how they’d go to Burgermaster and how Bill loved driving fast in his sports cars made me smile.
A lot of the book I already knew because I’ve been to the Living Computer Museum several times but if you like Microsoft and haven’t been yet this would be a nice book to read. It made me love Paul and Microsoft even more and Bill’s drive was admirable as well.
July 15, 2020
The book is very informative. No doubt about that. But it can be a slog at points. I guess that's a positive in reality. The glitz and glamourized summaries we are used to tend to skip over the minutia that really matters. It is the minutia that Wallace covers excellently. I read this in today's age which has a different perception of the company. Origin stories like these are always fascinating to read about and see where the Goliath's of today were born as small toddlers.
This book isn't a daunting read. Would I say it is the best biography/informational book I have read? Not by a long shot. But it is still a very interesting read, and I think I would like to read a contemporary book on Microsoft and Gates to compare the two.
This book isn't a daunting read. Would I say it is the best biography/informational book I have read? Not by a long shot. But it is still a very interesting read, and I think I would like to read a contemporary book on Microsoft and Gates to compare the two.
August 11, 2022
Cuốn sách đi qua sự thay đổi của Bill Gates từ một chàng trai rất trẻ thiếu kinh nghiệm, chỉ biết lập trình và thực hiện các ý tưởng cá nhân trở thành một người điều hành doanh nghiệp biết lựa chọn người quản lý và giữ chân nhân viên bằng chế độ cổ phần. Mặc dù đọc xong thấy ghét Bill Gates luôn nhưng thực tế vẫn có một ưu điểm chúng ta nên học tập chính là dù luôn nằm trong top những người giàu nhất thế giới, ông vẫn sống giản dị, đi máy bay hạng phổ thông, ở khách sạn giá rẻ, không khoe giàu, cân nhắc kỹ trong chi tiêu. Một dự án mình thấy Bill Gates rất đỉnh chính là khi máy tính Apple đang nổi đình nổi đám nhưng lại chạy hệ điều hành không tương thích với các phần mềm của Microsoft, Bill đã nghĩ ra việc chế tạo các Soft disk để giúp các phần mềm chạy được trên các máy tính của Apple.
April 7, 2023
An old book published from 1993, but it still brought many detailed lessons for many technology companies in this decade and represented step by step of computing era. Bill Gates was described as Math genius from young age, which instructed basement in mindset for programming. Competitive, determinative, unconventional in characteristics, which helped Bill became youngest billionaire in the technology world. Moreover, Microsoft is protype for all technology business, which always learn, feel arrogant, and try their best to work hard. Maybe, Bill could understand the ambitious human properties and self-did himself became symbol of Microsoft's spirit. Young, Lean, competitive, machine learning and nothing is impossible.
May 14, 2023
Bill Gates' success is often simplistically attributed solely to his privileged upbringing in a wealthy and influential family. However, such a perception fails to recognize the complex factors that truly propelled him to greatness. In the biography 'Hard Drive,' the author delves deep into the early software landscape, providing valuable insights into the intelligence, unwavering focus, and relentless drive of a young Bill Gates.
In contrast to the commonly associated instant success of Apple, Microsoft's path to triumph was a gradual and arduous one. It was a journey marked by durable growth, long-term investments, and the resilience to weather numerous failures. 'Hard Drive' effectively captures the hardcore attitude that fueled Bill Gates' journey towards success.
In contrast to the commonly associated instant success of Apple, Microsoft's path to triumph was a gradual and arduous one. It was a journey marked by durable growth, long-term investments, and the resilience to weather numerous failures. 'Hard Drive' effectively captures the hardcore attitude that fueled Bill Gates' journey towards success.
June 30, 2020
A lot of the people in my generation know Bill Gates for either being the richest man or for his philanthropic activities. Not a lot of us know the genius software programmer, the cut-throat businessman, the intense CEO, and the ticket-collecting speedster he was. Microsoft today is one of the prominent tech companies, but this book was written when it was THE tech company. Reading about this Microsoft is a must for anyone who wants to know how computers became commonplace and how Windows became synonymous with PC. The book also gives great insight to the other people that made Microsoft, especially its underrated co-founder, Paul Allen.
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