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How Bill Gates Works
ZZeta writes "What's a day like for the richest man on Earth? In this Fortune interview, Bill Gates explains what he does on his average workday. Most interesting? He is not into some of Outlook's features, such as to-do lists and email notification. Also, he works with three monitors and is looking forward to buying a digital whiteboard next year."
I was interested in how he gets his e-mail filtered. Hey Bill, if you read this, I'll totally put you on my e-mail whitelist!
Interesting.
I Guess,How stuff Works should include how such " stuff " works too .
Why does yahoo do this
"Also, he works with three monitors and is looking forward to buying a digital whiteboard next year." I can't fathom why the world's richest man would wait for any period of time before buying something, especially if it's something useful!
My sig is too lon
...err I mean Windows!
Hey Bill, change your desktop wallpaper, it is looking a bit dated. And wash your hair.
He says he only gets 100 emails a day, surely we can send him some more to billg@microsoft.com ?
And Bill, where is your XBOX 360??
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
... I read an article in which he was quoted saying that he had a small staff that personally goes through his email.
Alas, I am too lazy to link to such article.
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
Today, if there's something up there that's brilliant, I just get out my pen and my Tablet PC and recreate it.
Wow, like that's really changed? See something good and copy it!
Common sense is not so common
Interesting to see him using venetian blinds -- doesn't he like Windows?
Two things to notice:
1) His (windows) desktop uses the default XP background. Odd that the world's richest man doesn't change his background picture.
2) The (real) desktop looks as if it were made out of particle board.
Maybe Gates is more down to earth than we'd thought?
www.eissq.com/BandP.html Ball and Plate System. Amuse your friends. Crush your enemies.
I wonder what he uses...*cough*GDS*cough*
Government's idea of a balanced budget: take money from the right pocket to balance...oh who am I kidding?
Well I've now RTFA and it is, to put it mildly, "content-light". He sorts his email rather than using a to-do list, and he's saving up for a digital whiteboard. This merits an article? I've written more involved blog posts about train journeys to work (no, seriously). Such is the privilege of being the richest rogue^Wentrepreneur in the world.
His desk also looks a bit unreal though. A potted plant and three flatscreens is all that he amounts to. Are you sure that picture wasn't taken in Ikea?
the layman's guide to computer science
I use a digital whiteboard at work. It's placed on top of a multi-thousand dollar plasma screen and and the whiteboard itself cost thousands also. I think the company that makes it is called Smarttech. It's a nice thing but there are many frustration/time consuming aspects of it. If I were a billionaire, I wouldn't want to waste my time fiddling with a whiteboard that--in the end--would give me a little better control over my demos and presentations.
What I'm trying to say is that I bet he was waiting for this technology to get to a point where maybe the two units came as one and were more sleekly integrated. The maintenance/recalibration of this thing is a pain and there are times when we have customers sitting in front of us and we're trying to present to them but we have to run through some diagnostics.
Not cool.
Now imagine those customers were interested in million dollar contracts with you.
My work here is dung.
The net will not be what we demand, but what we make it. Build it well.
Saving up for a digital whiteboard. Right.
This is Bill Gates we're talking about. Obviously you mean a digital whiteboard company.
And probably why it is everyone else's default.
Nope, not anymore. Ingvar Kamprad used to be though, when the IT market flushed, making all BG's stock more or less worthless.
I have a really elegant proof for Fermat's last theorem. If this sig was only a bit longer...
Also, does he ever get viruses, the BSOD, spyware, spam, crashes, and driver conflits?
Or does he use a Mac?
When the posters fear their moderators, there is tyranny; when the moderators fears the posters, there is liberty.
"Also, he works with three monitors and is looking forward to buying a digital whiteboard next year" - why next year? is he saving up for it?
Instead of hearing about all the wonderful "Microsoft Technologies" he uses like a desktop that spans three
screens I guess the really interesting thing to hear from him is how he gets himself focused and disciplined, what's
his mental trick here. I know how to work an email client like the next guy but I'm still a miserable, disorganized,
unfocussed son of a bitch. That "part" of your workday is what is really interesting, Bill.
First of all how can the be the richest man in the world's office? Bill Lumberg's office was nicer than that! Geez, cheap basic apartment blinds, a cheesy plant, particle board desk, etc. Maybe that's an attempt to endear him as an average joe.
Second of all I wonder how much real direction Bill offers Microsoft nowadays. Or he is more of a figurehead? I would think a company with 50,000 employees and lots of entrenched middle/senior level management would be relatively self sustaining. Perhaps Bill just gives generic wish list contributions, like "It sure would be swell if people could collaborate on a project through a hosted website." And the underlings put flesh and bone to the task.
Third of all if he eats his own cooking, doesn't he get occasionally frustrated with the stability and security shortcomings of Windows? Granted XP is a lot more stable than the Windows 9x/ME branch of their product line, but security is still a concern. Even with SP2 in place. Perhaps his Internet access is going through multiple software firewalls, firewall appliances, etc. so he doesn't get hit by malware.
Forth, this really isn't a day in the life of Bill Gates, and is (as the article is entitled) how he gets his work done. I want to see him on MTV Cribs or the equivalent. Showing off all of his electronic bling. That would be cooler than this self serving advertisement.
Does he use Dance-Dance-Revolution to sort email or to just remove spam?
if you steal from one source, that is plagiarism, if you steal from many, well, that's just research.
Maybe his office is so sparse because Steve Ballmer breaks all his furniture?
Article summary:
.... how apropos!
8:30 Arrive at Microsoft
8:32 Find penny in parking lot. Pick it up.
8:37 Open my office door. Add penny to the "Digital Whiteboard Fund" jar on my desk. I've got about $100 in there now, and am hoping to
have enough to get one by next year.
8:39 Look at my 3 monitor setup and chuckle about the rest of the world running Windows(TM) on their little 15" flat panel. Peasants.
9:15 Write up advert^H^H^H^H^Hrticle about my typical day, making sure to plug as many Microsoft(TM) products as possible.
9:30 Email advert^H^H^H^H^Hrticle (DAMMIT, did it again) to Fortune Magazine. Fortune *chuckle*
9:35 Profit!
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
Aside from his three screens, his office looks REALLY unimpressive.
From what I have heard/read about Bill Gates in the past, his office is about what I would expect. Gates doesn't seem to be the type of person who would have an "Emperor Palpatine" type office, at least for everyday use. He may have a show office for meeting "important people", but somehow I doubt he even has that. It doesn't suprise me that he uses a 3 screen set up -- I use two screens at work, and wouldn't want to go back to one.
Personal feeling about how big Microsoft is and how much of a monopoly it has aside, it seems that Bill Gates is the type of person who still has fun and likes to do and build new things, all while dominating in whatever it is he does. That said, I think Microsoft is a little (okay, a lot) too big and powerful, so that is why I use Open Source software as much as possible.
Beware of Sleestak
I think you forgot every second from 0:00:00 to 23:59:59.
00:00:00 Profit !
00:00:01 PROFIT !
00:00:02 Pr0f17 !!!!
23:59:57 ProFIT !!
23:59:58 pRoFiT !!!!!
23:59:59 profit