61–70 of 145 posts
Remember when Gates and Ballmer tried to screw Allen out of his shares because his productivity had gone down due to cancer? https://www.cnet.com/news/paul-allen-gates-ballmer-tried-to-...
Feel the cliche "Its business, nothing personal" sums up this entire scenario nicely.
But people cannot be ultimately separated from it. Stupid capitalism flying in the face of humanism.
My Dad, a DEC Technician, would come home and say "There are a couple teenagers from Seattle programming the BPA mainframes."
He then built a Heathkit home computer and taught me BASIC because "Paul and Bill can do it. So can you."
[1] https://www.bpa.gov/news/newsroom/Pages/Legacy-computer-syst...
Here's to hoping there are more Paul Allens out there.
> Paul was driven by an incredible curiosity his whole life. Even when we were just kids, he seemed to be interested in just about everything. I can identify with this. I've founded a gamedev company, taught Computer Graphics, and worked at Google and Improbable as a SWE; but in the middle of all this I wrote a novel, I recently quit my job to become an actor/filmmaker ( https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10232800 ), and I…
> Sorry to bring a personal question... On an article about the selflessness of another, in four paragraphs of text, you mentioned yourself ~24 times. One might suggest reading the article again.
> One might suggest
I see what you did there ;)
Remember when Gates and Ballmer tried to screw Allen out of his shares because his productivity had gone down due to cancer? https://www.cnet.com/news/paul-allen-gates-ballmer-tried-to-...
He screwed countless people and entire companies. You don’t get to repair that karma with some donated vaccinations and mushy blog articles.
Paul allen owned an island in the san juans - when i used to fly to my mothers on Orcas we had to land first at paul allens airport... There was a beauty and a freedom i used to feel from that experience: There was no tower, nor staff; just a landing strip and we would fly in - do our thing and then take off again. It was awesome... and i loved it, because we talk about america being the “land of the free” but we are…
As a private pilot flying in the US until the beginning of this millennium (then I moved away) - there are many, many such airports all over the country, that's nothing special. I landed at such airports even as a student pilot. Half Moon Bay airport, to be exact (student home airports were San Carlos and Palo Alto, so I was allowed to do that as a student, didn't even have to ask the instructor after getting the gen…
Remember when Gates and Ballmer tried to screw Allen out of his shares because his productivity had gone down due to cancer? https://www.cnet.com/news/paul-allen-gates-ballmer-tried-to-...
I’m not falling for this post-retirement New Bill Gates either. He screwed countless people and entire companies. You don’t get to repair that karma with some donated vaccinations and mushy blog articles.
I'm sorry, but why don't you? He's literally saving millions of lives through his foundation, and through getting other billionaires to give to charity through the giving pledge.
He was the richest man in the world. He could have done anything he wanted to with his life, and he chose to do good things. He deserves some praise for that.
While he was a tough business person and sometimes may have done things that were borderline unethical, he never murdered anybody. He's certainly redeemable. And I think he has more than redeemed himself the past two decades for any of his past transgressions.
> Paul was driven by an incredible curiosity his whole life. Even when we were just kids, he seemed to be interested in just about everything. I can identify with this. I've founded a gamedev company, taught Computer Graphics, and worked at Google and Improbable as a SWE; but in the middle of all this I wrote a novel, I recently quit my job to become an actor/filmmaker ( https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10232800 ), and I…
I'm continuing as a software engineer to pay the bills, but I pursue music, games, and at one point in my career was a graphic designer and illustrator (though perhaps not very successfully; I'll get back to it at some point).
I'm about to start learn electronics as I'm interested in building robots and making custom guitar pedals. I don't think I could ever be laser-focussed (95% sure I'm ADHD; used to think I was bipolar but not sure about that diagnosis anymore). Embrace your neurology.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow. Thanks for sharing, puts bill in a new light. Baller, to be expected.
He only worked there a couple of years, and before MS got big. Did he really deserve the same cut as the other two (who worked for 30+) did? Maybe/not, but the question is valid.
> Paul was driven by an incredible curiosity his whole life. Even when we were just kids, he seemed to be interested in just about everything. I can identify with this. I've founded a gamedev company, taught Computer Graphics, and worked at Google and Improbable as a SWE; but in the middle of all this I wrote a novel, I recently quit my job to become an actor/filmmaker ( https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10232800 ), and I…
> Sorry to bring a personal question... On an article about the selflessness of another, in four paragraphs of text, you mentioned yourself ~24 times. One might suggest reading the article again.
If an article about persons varied interests and selflessness inspires someone to ask how to apply that to their own life, it seems quite on topic to me. Or do you consider the only relevant discussion to be that on Paul Allen’s life specifically, not on how it might inspire yours?