Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft Hardcover - 2011
by Allen, Paul
- Used
"The entire conversation took five minutes. When it was over, Bill and I looked at each other. It was one thing to talk about writing a language for a microprocessor and another to get the job done . . . If we'd been older or known better, Bill and I might have been put off by the task in front of us. But we were young and green enough to believe that we just might pull it off."
Paul Allen, best known as the cofounder of Microsoft, has left his mark on numerous fields, from aviation and science to rock 'n' roll, professional sports, and philanthropy. His passions and curiosity have transformed the way we live. In 2007 and again in 2008, Time named him one of the hundred most influential people in the world.
It all started on a snowy day in December 1974, when he was twenty-one years old. After buying the new issue of Popular Electronics in Harvard Square, Allen ran to show it to his best friend from Seattle, Bill Gates, then a Harvard undergrad. The magazine's cover story featured the Altair 8800, the first true personal computer; Allen knew that he and Gates had the skills to code a programming language for it. When Gates agreed to collaborate on BASIC for the Altair, one of the most influential partnerships of the digital era was up and running.
While much has been written about Microsoft's early years, Allen has never before told the story from his point of view. Nor has he previously talked about the details of his complex relationship with Gates or his behind-closed-doors perspective on how a struggling startup became the most powerful technology company in the world. Idea Man is the candid and long-awaited memoir of an intensely private person, a tale of triumphant highs and terrifying lows.
After becoming seriously ill with Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1982, Allen began scaling back his involvement with Microsoft. He recovered and started using his fortune-and his ideas-for a life of adventure and discovery, from the first privately funded spacecraft (SpaceShipOne) to a landmark breakthrough in neuroscience (the Allen Brain Atlas). His eclectic ventures all start with the same simple question: What should exist? As Allen has written:
To me, that's the most exciting question imaginable. . . . From technology to science to music to art, I'm inspired by those who've blurred the boundaries, who've looked at the possibilities, and said, "What if...?" In my own work, I've tried to anticipate what's coming over the horizon, to hasten its arrival, and to apply it to people's lives in a meaningful way. . . . The varied possibilities of the universe have dazzled me since I was a child, and they continue to drive my work, my investments, and my philanthropy.
Idea Man is an astonishing true story of ideas made real.
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Details
- Title Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft
- Author Allen, Paul
- Binding Hardcover
- Edition UNABRIDGED VERSI
- Condition Used - Good
- Pages 368
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Portfolio, New York
- Date 2011-04-19
- Illustrated Yes
- Bookseller's Inventory # G12I-00674
- ISBN 9781591843825 / 1591843820
- Weight 1.32 lbs (0.60 kg)
- Dimensions 9.22 x 6.39 x 1.26 in (23.42 x 16.23 x 3.20 cm)
- Ages 18 to UP years
- Grade levels 13 - UP
- Library of Congress subjects Businesspeople - United States, Microsoft Corporation - History
- Library of Congress Catalog Number 2010043588
- Dewey Decimal Code B
Summary
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.
