Bill Gates - Before He Was Famous
Written by Historian   
Article Index
Bill Gates - Before He Was Famous
Implementing Basic
Bill Gates - Programmer

Bill Gates, Programmer

Time and time again you can see the evidence of fancy foot work and the closer you look the fancier it gets! It all has the mark of a programmer's mind set to the complex task of managing a business.

If you read about Bill Gates's character you will most often find him described as intelligent, arrogant and prone to temper tantrums. Coming from a well-to-do background he fits the mould of the spoilt, over-privileged child who never quite managed to grow up. He certainly looked the part of the awkward teenager, a fact that many top company executives have commented on and initially found difficult to deal with.

A common problem seems to have been misidentifying Gates as the office junior rather than the boss! They also comment in many cases that Gates then went on to impress them with his confidence and grasp of the business in hand.

A strange mixture.

 

billblackboard

 

The most important feature of Bill Gates has to be his powerful intelligence coupled with his overwhelming desire to win.

There is no question that he is very intelligent - his early school success, the quality of the programs with which he has been associated and the number of times Microsoft managed to win irrespective of chance factors are all a testimony to this. He also values people with whom he can have "high band width" communication and this is perhaps one the main reasons that Microsoft worked as if it were a single unit more than any other company.

His addiction to winning is proved by his appetite for playing games - poker, go - and fast cars. Even catching a plane for a business appointment was turned into a competitive game - how late could you leave the Microsoft offices and still catch the plane!

While it is tempting to compare Gates with Steve Jobs of Apple - they were born in the same year and were both founders of major competing companies - the comparison quickly turns into a contrast.

About the only similarities seem to be their tendency to have temper tantrums, although Bill Gates seems even to have managed these to good effect! The key difference is that Gates is a techie, an analytical thinker, whereas Jobs worked more by impressions and hunches than anything else.

Bill Gates is a programmer and it shows.

paulallenbillgates81

Related Articles

Paul Allen, Co-Founder of Microsoft, Dies

Paul Allen on Bill Gates 

Microsoft 40 Years Today

Bill Gates - How Software Can Save The World

Altair - The First PC              

Happy 50th Birthday Basic - Try QuickVB To Celebrate       

30 years ago - Microsoft signs contract with IBM to create MS-DOS

Kemeny & Kurtz - The Invention Of BASIC

It's Not Too Late - Your Own Altair 8800 

Microsoft signs contract with IBM to create MS-DOS

MS-DOS Source Code on GitHub

       

To be informed about new articles on I Programmer, sign up for our weekly newsletter, subscribe to the RSS feed and follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin.

espbook

 

Comments




or email your comment to: comments@i-programmer.info

Banner


Manchester Computers of the 1950s

In the period after WW II, Manchester in the UK was one of foremost centers of computing expertise. In 1948 Tom Kilburn and Freddie Williams designed, “Baby" or Small Scale Experimental Ma [ ... ]



Steve Jobs and the Early Apple Years

Steve Jobs - the name needs no further explanation. Many think he was, and remains, the most important figure in technology's history and today, over a decade after his untimely death, he has  be [ ... ]


Other Articles

 <ASIN:0471293539>

<ASIN:0471568864>

<ASIN: 0670859133>

<ASIN:0140283129>

 

Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems


Last Updated ( Sunday, 27 October 2024 )