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Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft Relié – 19 avril 2011
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In 2007 and 2008, Time named Paul Allen, the cofounder of Microsoft, one of the hundred most influential people in the world. Since he made his fortune, his impact has been felt in science, technology, business, medicine, sports, music, and philanthropy. His passion, curiosity, and intellectual rigor-combined with the resources to launch and support new initiatives-have literally changed the world.
In 2009 Allen discovered that he had lymphoma, lending urgency to his desire to share his story for the first time. In this long-awaited memoir, Allen explains how he has solved problems, what he's learned from his many endeavors-both the triumphs and the failures-and his compelling vision for the future. He reflects candidly on an extraordinary life.
The book also features previously untold stories about everything from the true origins of Microsoft to Allen's role in the dawn of private space travel (with SpaceShipOne) and in discoveries at the frontiers of brain science. With honesty, humor, and insight, Allen tells the story of a life of ideas made real.
- Nombre de pages de l'édition imprimée368 pages
- LangueAnglais
- ÉditeurPortfolio Hardcover
- Date de publication19 avril 2011
- Âge de lectureDès 18 ans
- Dimensions16.51 x 3.18 x 25.4 cm
- ISBN-109781591843825
- ISBN-13978-1591843825
Détails sur le produit
- ASIN : 1591843820
- Éditeur : Portfolio Hardcover (19 avril 2011)
- Langue : Anglais
- Relié : 368 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9781591843825
- ISBN-13 : 978-1591843825
- Âge de lecture : Dès 18 ans
- Poids de l'article : 590 g
- Dimensions : 16.51 x 3.18 x 25.4 cm
- Classement des meilleures ventes d'Amazon : 2,829 en Création d'entreprise
- 2,859 en Entrepreneuriat
- 27,474 en Management (Livres)
- Commentaires client :
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I always approach autobiographies with trepidation - many are either boring, shallow attempts at whitewashing, or obnoxious rants. Fortunately, this autobiography is not among those.
As an Amiga fan turned Linux fan, I have some serious issues with Microsoft and its behavior. However, as I know a little bit about Allen and had been considerably impressed by a brief news clip of him playing Hendrix riffs, I was willing to suspend my prejudice and see what he had to say about himself. (Anyone who loves Hendrix that much deserves a serious hearing, IMHO.)
The book begins with some facts and stories about Allen's childhood and his meeting Bill Gates at a private school in the Seattle area. Intermixed with stories of his personal introduction to technology and computer programming, Allen also treats us to some history of the personal computer revolution and the march of technology in the last four decades. Being roughly the same age as Allen, his stories about the development of technology and music resonate very strongly with me, and lend that much more of an air of honesty to the book, at least for me.
He takes us through the ups and downs of his friendship and partnership with Gates, the ups and downs of Microsoft and his post-Microsoft business ventures, and his very personal battles with cancer and the loss of his father. He is not excessively detailed, nor overly shallow in his narrative, but manages a good balance between the two. Since this is an autobiography, to delve more deeply into social, political or technological issues would not be appropriate. Again, the book found me putting aside my own history and issues in those areas and simply relating to the author as a person. The book is well crafted to allow the reader to do just that.
While the sports related sections did not appeal to me (not interested in team sports - although when working in the cable TV industry, I did have occasion to manually insert commercials in many Trailblazer home games on the local cable system - thereby watching quite a few of them), the sections on programming and the "original" hacker mentality again resonated deeply with me, as did the section on the Spaceship One adventure. I remember most of the things he delineates in the history of personal computers and the electronic explosion of the 70s and 80s. (I still have my original subscription copy of the magazine where the Altair kit computer was introduced, for example.) His take on most of that closely matches my own memories and sense of what was really happening.
Contrary to the "spin" on his statements about Gates in the book which I heard in the recent 60 Minutes interview, I found Allen's attitude about Gates as expressed in the book to be mostly positive, with a few remarks simply noting here and there where Gates' behavior as a friend was overwhelmed by his manic, overly aggressive, overly competitive business style. Again, this is a biography, not a business book, so analysis of this behavior in detail simply isn't warranted. He simply does not paint Gates as a greedy backstabber, regardless of the spin some people might attempt to put on his quite clear description of Gates' "management style." This is no "bitter billionaire" tell-all smear book. Sorry if you were hoping for that. (Of course, a little controversy always helps book sales....)
Despite an overall sense of honesty in the book (Allen is fairly blunt about his blunders and plain bad luck in business), I still get a feeling of something missing "between the lines." While no one ever "tells all," neither does this feel like an attempt to whitewash an evil life. It does, however, leave me with a feeling a sense of a more shallow look at Allen's feelings and deep internal life than I would have hoped for. This may just be a failing of my own, and digesting what I read over a longer period (I am writing this right after finishing the book in two sittings) may provide more insight than I have now.
The coincidence I mentioned earlier was the sudden and odd interest I experienced a few weeks ago after stumbling across Allen's yacht, Octopus, in a search on a totally unrelated topic. For some unexplainable reason, I became entranced by the boat, searching for all the pictures and information I could find about it on the net. While I have seen a few mega-yachts on various TV shows about them, I am hardly an aficionado of that arena. And yet, I find the boat beautiful and extremely well-designed, in both an aesthetic and functional sense, at least within the limitations of the pictures I have found. This was before I saw the 60 Minutes spot and became aware of the book.
While I draw no conclusions from this and the many other (too numerous to mention here) coincidental resonances between our lives (we did grow up in the Northwest with similar interests, in the same time frame, after all), I always try to pay attention to such things. Otherwise, I would probably not have been attracted to the book.
There is also a section of photos from various periods of Allen's life, which always make an autobiography more interesting.
The book will appeal to anyone with an interest in the history of personal computers, technology, and related fields, or anyone interested in people of great influence in society. It will also appeal to those who simply want Allen's side of the story. Among other great contributions Allen has made, musicians and Jimi Hendrix fans everywhere owe him a debt of gratitude for his work with Jimi's family and the Experience Music Project.
Recommended.
The more I thought about it, the more I realize my friend was right. The whole world knows Bill Gates, but Gates needed Paul Allen to get the job done, just as Steve Jobs needed Stephen Wozniak, and Michael Eisner at Disney needed Frank Wells. Nobody ever really does it alone, and whether you get it done is to some extent a matter of pure luck. After reading this book, I found I loved it. It was refreshingly honest. Allen needed to get this book out of him, out of his soul.
There were some things that he found needed to be said, and he sure said them. He goes after Gates in the book. He lets the reader know that Gates hurt him personally. Allen found Gates talking behind his back with Steve Ballmer current CEO of Microsoft about cutting back on the percentage of the company that Paul Allen owned. Gates and Ballmer were not aware that Allen could hear them discussing it.
Allen would survive Microsoft which had made him wealthy beyond all reason only to deal with life threatening illnesses which probably brought him wisdom that one could not find any other way. It is the first half of the book that I found absolutely compelling. This was the creation of the extraordinary software company that he and Gates co-founded. The risks they took were described in detail. Gates walking out of Harvard College to pursue the dream which Allen created, while Gates narrowed the dream down to something both manageable, and achievable. You could read the first half of this book in one seating because it is fast moving, compelling, and really interesting, especially if you are into technology.
It is also clear that there are things that Allen simply does not want to talk about or explore. He is a deft writer and for a first book, surprisingly well written. You will not be disappointed with the style. Perhaps he is so intellectual that the core of the man does not shine through this book, or perhaps Mr. Allen simply does not want to open himself up, which is okay, because in the end, it is his narrative.
I liked the second half of the book as well. I simply did not like it as much as the first half. Others may differ, and should. You are looking at 22 chapters spread over 331 pages. My favorite chapters were:
3) Lakeside
8) Partners
11) Borrowed Time
20) Searching
CONCLUSION:
Paul Allen's autobiography allows us to witness the inception and creation of one of the world's truly important companies from idea to billion dollar colossus. Yes you can change the world if you want to, and if your idea is big enough to do it. The evolution of this idea man who is still growing is a fascinating journey for any one of us to spend a few hours exploring, and I hope that you will take the time to do it, and thank you for reading this review.
Richard Stoyeck
I think you'll have to be a bit of a geek to be really gripped by the first half of this book as Allen and Gates struggle to code Microsoft to the top. The key watersheds in the history of the company are written about slightly dispassionately and you are given a flavour of the necessary ruthlessness that permeated the computer industry and obviously still does. Stuck for a good idea? Then go and steal one of your competitors'. (The current patent wars in technology are an indicator that copying is not a form of flattery.) Allen writes almost reluctantly, I felt, about his partner in crime, Bill Gates, and the picture painted isn't one that adds much warmth to one of the world's richest men. Allen, being the nice guy he seems to be, holds back about how he felt Gates stiffed him, dissed him and finally ignored him as Microsoft steamed towards world domination. The final assessment of Microsoft losing out to Apple, Google and the rest seem tinged with an element of glee. But it was Allen's baby too, so the affection is still there.
Halfway through the book and Allen is through with Microsoft, which somewhat surprised me. Was that it? Now as rich as Croesus, what should Allen do with his burgeoning cash pile? He likes basketball, so why not buy a team? And a football team. Build them a half billion dollar stadium on top, to play in. He could have become the ultimate sports mogul, but he's involved in every other project and distraction that comes his way. While Donald Trump wrote The Art of the Deal, Allen works hard on what seems to be the Fart of the Deal, and gamely recounts some of the exceedingly smelly and disastrous investments he made during the Internet years. One bad deal alone cost him $8 billion, while he admits in print that selling too quickly out of AOL cost him $40 billion. It must have been hard writing that sentence.
Allen lives in a different financial stratosphere to everyone except about a handful of individuals on the planet. He splurges cash everywhere. He sees his childhood cinema going to the dogs, so he just buys it and does it up. He liked Hendrix as a youth, so he basically buys everything from guitars to underpants that the man owned and then builds a museum to house them in. He builds a rocket to the moon. After a while, you really begin to think that Gates' philanthropy is an infinitely better deal. Eventually, and maybe inevitably, we get to his charitable work, but he skims over it really, in the same way he does with his battles with his health. The book leaves you with the feeling that Allen knows the clock is ticking and that he has so much to do. His wealth affords him boundless opportunities but, if you haven't got your health....
This was a very readable autobiography, a book of two halves maybe, but it always kept my interest.
There is something in this book for everybody. For the social historian he beautifully evokes the mood of the late sixties seventies and early eighties both in and out of the computer terminal room when everyone was excited about computers and eventually realized that the world was making a major technological shift. (Of course he realized it sooner than others) For the business person he analyzes the future of computer tech and where it broke down both at Microsoft and his other businesses. For the organizational theorist he discusses what happens when creative projects become bureaucracies. For the futurist he discusses where he believes the world is going both in space travel and in neuro research. For the sociologist he discusses the importance of sports (he is full or part owner of three pro sports teams)and local philanthropy in uniting communities. For the musicologist he discusses the importance of music to psychological well being and insists that rock music be taken seriously as an important part of American cultural history. For the anthropologist he talks about his work in maintaining traditional African herding societies through animal disease research. For those interested in education and the arts he discusses the importance of educational and indie fiction films. And-- for the most part he does not discuss these issues in a theoretical way but simply on how these areas impacted his life and by extension how he was moved to make an impact in these areas.
Although most of his priorities in philanthropy would not be my priorities I'm delighted that this gentle and caring, yet incredibly intellectually and communally engaged man beat the cancer rap. I hope he lives another 100 years. I urge everyone to read the book (It is also a fast read peppered by humorous anecdotes.).
For those who say that he does not talk enough about his emotions or personal life the purpose of the book, in my opinion, in addition to setting the record straight was to inspire others to dream of human progress. Gossip about girlfriends etc would get in the way and also violate his and especially the privacy of others who are probably not public figures. However he did say in the book that the song lyrics to the Grown Men CD expressed his true feelings and at least three of them refer to relationships with women (at least that's how I interpret them). I remember a film, "Alive and Kicking" about a man a dying of AIDS where the dancer protagonist said to a psychologist whom he did not want to talk to "If you want my soul you can see it on the stage". The lyrics can be found on the Grown Men website and while they are not the best poetry I've read they're pretty moving.
Fast forward to the mid-70s and early 80s, where Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft. Mr. Gates has always been considered the "genius" behind Microsoft, but Mr. Allen argues logically that he had quite a bit to do with Microsoft's success as well. Mr. Gates might have been a good businessman, but Mr. Allen was probably more of a technical guru when it came to technology. But maybe more important: Mr. Allen shows himself to be a more sympathetic character than Mr. Gates. Rightly or wrongly, it seems that Mr. Gates makes decisions only based upon the bottom line. Mr. Allen seems to make decisions based upon other factors as well: what direction is the technology going in the future? Will the product be good? Is it maybe even ethical?
A lot of people seemed to like the first half of the book more than the second half, but I somewhat disagree. I found it interesting that Mr. Allen decided to return to his roots, to not be one dimensional and see if he could have some impact on many things. The Internet. Medicine. Private space flight. Sports. Etc. I found quite a bit of this entertaining and enlightening; these are the parts of his life that we probably didn't really know.
I really liked the chapter where he (softly) takes Ray Kurzweil to task. Mr. Kurzweil seems to believe that computers will soon be more intelligent than humans. Forget about it. Computers can do some things better than humans, e.g. - play chess. But that is quite easy given enough memory and a fast enough computer. IBM's Watson was far more impressive, beating the best players at Jeopardy. But this only simulated intelligence really. I believe that Mr. Allen is correct when he says something like: "It will take centuries at least for computers to surpass humans," and I agree, for technical reasons. It actually may never happen, unless we can come up with a better computational model, at the very least.
Nice work by Mr. Allen, and best of luck to him and his health in the future.