Customer Reviews

Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book details Paul Allen's story on the beginning of Microsoft and his relationship with Bill Gates. The 2nd half of the book deals with his sport teams (TrailBlazers and Seahawks), space planes, investments, life as a wealthy mogul, and recent events.

Contrary to the press reports, this book draws a neutral portrait of Bill Gates. He is both highly praised and criticized. The book truly delivers an unvarnished view of Bill Gates and the beginnings of Microsoft. If you are into tech-history, this book should not be missed.

I think the title "Idea Man" is spot-on. Paul is the founding Visionary of Microsoft. He had the world-changing ideas and inspirations. But it was mostly Bill Gates who sorted them out and drove Paul Allen and rest of Microsoft's employees to execute those ideas into a reality. It is important to note that game changing ideas at Microsoft were somewhat lacking after Paul Allen left Microsoft. Instead, Microsoft became more like Bill Gates, an entity that is ruthless, sucessful, and technically brilliant. Yet, Microsoft lacked a vision and played mostly catchup to other visionary companies and ideas (Netscape, Apple, smartPhones, tablets, game consoles etc). I am convinced that Microsoft may have been a different and a more visionary company if Paul Allen had stayed.

I have also read the two books written by Bill Gates. In both books, Bill Gates gives strong endorsement and credit to Paul Allen for the co-founding of Microsoft. The two men have known each other for over 40 years and grew up together. The bond between the two seems very deep.

Pros:
1)This book is written in an extremely fluid style. I am not sure if Paul hired a ghostwriter, but if the book was mostly first-hand written, then I am impressed.
2)Paul Allen provides details on his days with Bill Gates at Lakeside school, Harvard, and Microsoft. When Paul Allen asked Bill Gates how large their software company could be, Bill replied "about 35 employees" and Paul Allen thought that was little ambitious.
3)The story of the founding and the early days of Microsoft was very engaging. It kept me up until 4am reading this book.

Cons:
1)Where is the sage advice? What would have Paul Allen done differently? He takes a passive retroactive account of his past, and does not delve too much into the lessons he has learned from them.
2)Where is the analysis of the past, the current, and the future state of technology? I am especially interested on Paul Allen's take on technology's future 10-20 years down the road.
3)This book is missing huge parts of Paul Allen's life. Paul Allen writes mostly about his relationship with his parents and Bill Gates. I don't think one could categorize this book as a complete autobiography.


Overall, I highly recommend this book. This book is not written as a completely autobiography. Yet, it provides rich details on many things people would find interesting and engaging.

I recommend the first 30% of this book for anyone in the tech field who wants an insider's view of the guts of starting a software business in the early days. There is some candid insight into Gates' and Allen's personalities and in my perspective, sheds some light on why some things about Silicon Valley culture are the way they are--some of the traditions, norms, mores, and such were clearly birthed at Microsoft (and to a lesser degree Xerox Parc and HP) and seeded to all those companies that followed. Beyond that, with some exceptions (the discussion on winning the X Prize, for example), I felt the book devolved into a cross between "I'm a billionaire and still don't feel fulfilled" and "then, I played guitar with Mick Jagger." I stopped about 80% of the way through and have no desire to finish.

Paul Allen is a strange renaissance-man type nerd, and he has a mostly interesting tale to tell. Here were the ups and downs of his tale to me:

- The first half of the book is more engaging than the second
The book is really about three different phases of his life. The first two phases cover the first half of the book. In the first phase is his childhood, discovery of his passion for computers and forming a friendship with Gates through a common love of computer programming. The second phase is the creation of Microsoft and subsequent struggles with Bill as the company grows.

Paul left MS before it went public, and in a few short years his stock options turned him into a multi-billionaire. Adrift without a purpose and lots of money, the second half of the book covers his investments into mostly unprofitable ventures as he explores whatever strikes his fancy. He likes basketball, so he buys a basketball team. He still wants to make a mark as a solo visionary in technology, so he starts a technology think tank. He's fascinated by space so he funds the first commercial space flight. He likes movies so he gets involved in the creation of DreamWorks... and well, a whole lot of other things, as well. Some of these are more interesting than others. Some of them venture into total nerdy detail which one will only find fascinating if they're equally obsessed with the topic.

2. Paul's a good logical writer and doesn't hold back from sharing his (or others) flaws, but his logical approach tends to keep real feeling out of his story.
The most engaging parts are about his relationship with Bill. It is pretty much the only area where some much less analytical insights are provided. Even when he discusses the life-threatening illnesses he faced - it seems almost impossible for him to really express his feelings in a meaningful way. That said, he's also a surprising dreamer and dedicated visioniary, who lives in his own head and is easily taken advantage of - which makes for some fascinating insights into his role at MS and how he's handled his wealth.

3. Even for the non-computer geek, there's bound to be something in his tale that will capture your imagination.
Overall, the book offers a compelling look at how timing, luck, opportunity, obsession and personalities came together to create a global company. For those interested in the fate of MS today he offers interesting insight and opinions. For those more interested in technology and computers than business - the description of the trip from before there were PC's to the connected world we live in today is fascinating. If you're an NBA, NFL or sci-fan, well there's some interesting insights there, as well. Still, there's also some occasionally odd ventures off into descriptions of strange things that seem only placed in them because they interested him. (a description of his safari to Africa comes to mind)

BOTTOM LINE: 3.5 stars - Paul has an interesting life and insights on the creation of Microsoft, technology, wealth, and business, and ultimately he paints a pretty clear picture of who that "other man" that created Microsoft is, and why he deserves a little more credit for it than he's generally received.

I liked this book from beginning to end. I thought what he wrote about Gates was fair and nothing as bad as what some of the press on the book made it out to be. Sounded like a friend, co-worker relationship to me. What I found really interesting was he tells what he does with his money in life. I found it more fascinating to read that and to see how much more rounded he is than anyone would think. I always wonder what do the truly wealthy do and he tells how he lost and how he has made his money. I think the most interesting thing he is into is the medical research. Seems like he would be a great guy to work for. Couldnt put the book down.

It has been a real pleasure to read Paul Allen's "Idea Man" - a pleasure both intellectual and humane. In his life, Allen has indeed enjoyed a rare combination of circumstances that made possible an early journey in the world of PC software and personal computing. But his illness path has confronted him with the sense and the values of a superior human existence, no matter the opportunities in place.
The way he describes the glorious days pre-Microsoft (as well as the early years at new-founded company) is quite vivid: anyone can feel and imagine how he and Gates have lived those times.
On the other hand, I was touched by his effort to provide a fair and objective description of his old pal Bill, who has given him a good deal of friendship, camaraderie and complicity but also made him suffer a lot with his competitive attitude, his selfishness and his confrontational way regarding everyone else.
Thus Paul Allen gives us a rich set of glimpses about his splendid life without hiding his most felt sufferings, letting us share in a way those heroic times of his.

A strange coincidence set the stage for my interest in this book, but more about that later.

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.

I am 8 years younger than Paul Allen and have been in IT since high school. So, I am old enough to remember a lot of the events in the book and to have seen the industry evolve. So, I enjoyed the insight on the early days of Microsoft. However, the post-Microsoft phase was equally fascinating. He took the money he made at Microsoft and asked "what if" and then spent the money to see "what if". I know he has been criticized for some poor business decisions in the past and there is a bit of an undertone of defending some of his investments. He needn't have bothered. Whether or not building a spaceship was a good investment, it was definitely a cool one. The work he funded on brain studies will long outlive any companies he funded and, with a net worth still in excess of $13B, money isn't going to be a problem any time soon.

Fascinating fast read. Ignore the bad publicity that the media accused him of being a bitter billionaire. Here an intimate--albeit bleak but welcoming-- tale of a man with ideas and vision who happened to meet a man with execution abilities (Bill Gates) which yielded Microsoft. It is true that his post-Microsoft IPO wealth funded a lot of his subsequent business; it is inspiring to see how he managed to put his wealth into constructive purposes that would benefit humanity in great ways. Look for interesting foresights into the future of technology, medicine, music, space exploration. Thought his prose run smoothest when he talks about software and computer technology, his coverage of professional sports, medicine, music and space exploration make this an omnivorous resource: there is something for everyone to read.

I finished the book! For a technical person who rarely gets to fully read a "real" book anymore and for a non-native speaker for whom it takes longer to read a book than your average American, this book was an exciting, terrific read that I could not let down. I am in my mid fourties and have been heavily involved with computers ever since programming for the TRS-80 in school and for the Apple-II at home at the start of the 80's - this book was full of references to past milestones in hardware and software history and helped clarify the evolution of the industry even to someone who has been in it all along. It is a great computer history book, but a lot more: a memoir with some serious reflections, a glimpse into the secrets and failures of the computer business - a lot to learn from.

I would have normally guessed that Paul Allen hired a ghostwriter to write this book, but after reading it, I am convinced he wrote the book - it is just too personal, the voice and the humor are consistent and fit the self-description in the book.

Here are the things I liked about the book:
1) I loved remembering all those 'blasts from the past' of computer history, but from a total insider's point of view.

2) Perhaps the best thing about this read was the constant, wry, sense of humor - on many occasions I found myself laughing out loud reading it.

3) It was very inspiring: As a software developer and an engineer for more than twenty years, I found myself identifying with so many things in the book: from non-geekness and the emphasis on having multiple interests in life, to the constant desire to see the big picture of where we're going and what is worth or exciting to focus on next.

4) it is extremely candid and honest: (a) honest about the role of luck - in the sense of lack of foresight as to how big the business would grow; (b) honest about about business failures, (c) honest about his feelings (only in a couple of spots, but some crucial ones).

I was really excited to hear Paul Allen had written a memoir as I was looking forward to getting some greater insights into what made Microsoft so successful and also more about his relationship with Bill Gates, like a biography of his partner.

Frankly I was disappointed.

Yes, we get I believe an honest account of how MS started but no real experience from his heart or his feelings about those heady days in the late 70s/early 80s. Not taking anything away from these 2 great inventors but the way Allen describes it, MS's early success was kinda about being in the right place at the right time, ie, when IBM decided to get into PCs. Yes, they worked very hard as pretty much all business people do and had a vision for the future, but it's also a story that proves that luck generally plays a hand in any great success.

The book doesn't give any great insight into Bill Gates which is a pity when they spent so much time together. We hear very little about Jody, Allen's sister, who is so pivotal in his business and life.

The MS story kept me interested as that was why I bought it, but the second half really is just a detailed explanation of each of Allen's other pursuits, funded by his MS success.

However, I did find his passion for understanding the brain interesting and it's great that both Paul Allen & Bill Gates are so passionate about giving back to society and helping solve diseases which I think is wonderful.

Those readers who enjoy technical things will enjoy this - Paul Allen comes across as a geek who has lots of great ideas, many of them ahead of their time, but we don't get inside his heart and mind which is sad. His battle with cancer, the death of his much-loved father, and other interesting sidelines, were given such scant attention, but it's these moments where we get to see into someone's heart and so make it a story, rather than a catalogue of pursuits.

I believe this would have been better if Allen had collaborated with a writer (he's big on collaboration) or even a ghost writer who could have brought out the "story" of his life.