Bill Gates Speaks: Insight from the World's Greatest Entrepreneur [Paperback]

At the end of the millennium Bill Gates must be the subject of more books than any other living individual, and so to make a splash, any book about him has to be different. This certainly is. It is one of a series by Janet Lowe (her other most recent book is called Oprah Winfrey Speaks), and is based on things Gates has said and things that have been said about him in public. The idea is to use quotations to present a portrait of the man and what makes him tick, without making any critical assessment of his character or actions.

Presentationally, the book is simply a collection of snippets--sometimes as many as four on a page--comprising background explanation and a quote from Gates or another. They have been drawn together into themed headings: "The Gatesian Management Style", "The Microsoft Business Model", "Microsoft Mistakes", "Living at the Pinnacle", and so on. Because its source material is taken from the public domain Bill Gates Speaks does not offer any new insights or revelations, but it is still an interesting read, particularly for anyone seeking their first glimpse into the Gates character. --Sandra Vogel --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Love him or hate him, Bill Gates has single–handedly shaped the technological future of the twenty–first century. Created through the independent research of bestselling author Janet Lowe, Bill Gates Speaks documents the life and ambitions of one of the world′s most unique business and cultural leaders. The only book to compile Gates′ actual words–culled from articles, newscasts, and interviews–this profile reveals what Gates has to say on everything from financing a start–up to running a conglomerate, developing technology, to raising a family.

The world listens when Bill Gates speaks

"I′m not competent to judge his technical ability, but I regard his business savvy as extraordinary. If Bill had started a hot dog stand, he would have become the hot dog king of the world."–Warren Buffett

"It is still possible to be a Vanderbilt, an Astor, a Rockefeller. You can still do that, you can be Bill Gates."–David Geffen

"Love him or hate him, but you can′t ignore him."–Fortune

Here is just a sample of what you′ll find inside:

"My parents weren′t all that excited about their son announcing he was dropping out of a fine university to start a business in something almost nobody had heard of called ′microcomputers.′"

"Our slogan from the very beginning was ′a computer on every desk and in every home.′"

(This book has not been prepared, approved, licensed, or endorsed by Bill Gates.)

Janet Lowe is the author of the bestselling Warren Buffett Speaks, Jack Welch Speaks, Benjamin Graham on Value Investing, Oprah Winfrey Speaks, and many others (all available from Wiley). Her articles have appeared in such publications as Newsweek, the Christian Science Monitor, the Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Ms. Lowe lives in Del Mar, California, with her husband, Austin Lynas.

Chapter 13: Gates On Life

On Human Intelligence

If Gates could have the answer to one mystery, he would ask how the human brain works:

"I'm in awe of the brain and its ability to learn. I'm fascinated by such things as how a child picks up languages, by mental disorders such as autism, and by the role of the limbic brain in letting aromas trigger mood changes."

"I am always fascinated by the question of whether the most talented people end up in critical positions- in politics, business, academia, or the military. It's amazing the way some people develop during their lives. "

In recent years Gates has become interested in genetics, funding a chair at the University of Washington for the Human Genome Project. One of his favorite books is The Selfish Gene, a Darwinist approach to evolution by Oxford zoologist Richard Dawkins. The entertaining little book also is a favorite of Charles Munger, Warren Buffett's longtime business partner.

Shortly after Gary Kasparov won his first bout with a chess-playing computer, Gates said:

"When the day comes that a computer is chess champion, the milestone won't really be all that meaningful. It shouldn't offend human dignity any more than the realization that a person with binoculars can see distant objects better than a person without binoculars."

At least for now, brains have a distinct advantage over computers:

"Playing chess can help teach a person how to apply strategy in other games or situations and possibly even succeed in business, but playing chess can't teach a computer anything."

The day may come, however, when that changes:

"I don't think there's anything unique about human 1 ntelligence. All the neurons in the brain that make up perceptions and emotions operate in a binary fashion."

Although human life is carbon based and computers are silicon based, Gates doesn't see a critical distinction:

"Eventually we'll be able to sequence the human genome and replicate how nature did intelligence in a carbon-based system."

"Analytically, I would say nature has done a good job making child-raising more Pleasure than pain, since that is necessary for a species to survive. But the experience goes beyond the analytic description. Evolution is many orders of magnitude ahead of mankind today i n creati ng a complex system I don't think it's irreconcilable to say we will understand the human mind some day and explain it in softwarelike terms, and also to say it is a creation that shouldn't be compared to software. Religion has come around to the view that even things that can be explained scientifically can have an underlying purpose that goes beyond science. Even though I am not religious, the amazement and wonder I have about the human mind is closer to religi ous awe than dispassionate analysis. "

Gates's Heroes

The word "hero," Gates says, may be too strong to describe the people he looked up to and even emulated as a young man. As a child he enjoyed biographies and read about everyone from Newton to Napoleon.

Gates was inspired to purchase one of Leonardo da Vinci's 21 surviving notebooks, the Codex Leister, because he has admired the sixteenth century Italian since Gates was ten years old

"Leonardo was one of the most amazing people who ever lived He was a genius in more fields than any scientist of any age, and an astonishing painter and sculptor."

The various notebooks, which were compiled in Florence and Milan from 1506 to 1510, predict the invention of helicopters, submarines, and other modern devices. Gates has read part of his notebook in translation; in it da Vinci speculates on hydraulics, cosmology, astronomy, geology, and other topics. Gates says he is sorry that by winning the notebook at an auction for a bid of $30.8 million he upset the Italian people, who hoped that the notebook would return to Italy.

"But Leonardo was more than just an Italian, and this notebook is part of the intellectual and cultural heritage of the entire world. It should be shared with the world "

Gates said he would not exploit the manuscript for commercial purposes but expects to lend it to museums everywhere, starting with a year's stint in an Italian museum...