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Bringing Up Bill
theodp writes "Over at the WSJ, Bill Gates Sr. describes what it took to turn an unruly 12-year-old into Microsoft's founder and the world's richest man. This included throwing a glass of cold water in the boy's face when he was having a particularly heated argument with his mother at the dinner table. 'He was nasty,' says Libby Armintrout, Bill's younger sister. 'I'm at war with my parents over who is in control,' Bill Gates recalls telling a therapist, who told his parents that their son would ultimately win the battle for independence, and their best course of action was to ease up on him. The rest, as they say, is history. The accompanying Gates Family Album is also worth a look."
His life achievements notwithstanding, obviously Bill never outgrew this mentality, from his "open letter to hobbyists" on the antics of Microsoft, especially from the 90s onward...
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He grew up in a family with a moderately oppressive mother and a caring yet distant father, who valued intelligence. He talked like a lawyer (he was one), and while he cared about his son, if you wanted his respect you needed to be able to verbalize a coherent and logical argument. These combined to be a powerful motivation for Mr Bill to try to learn everything about the world, since that's what it took to get respect.
He was a smart guy. He scored a near perfect on his SAT, and went into Harvard.
Qxe4
Really? How is this not 'news for nerds'? Love him or hate him, he's been one of the most important 'nerds' in the world for the last couple of decades. While I've have only gone over the summary; I believe that it's fairly clear that it's an frank account of his childhood. Also, most of the time when people think of 'nerds' the seem to believe that we're mild, or focused; when in reality we struggle with our 'gifts', perhaps more than most.
The force that blew the Big Bang continues to accelerate.
Because it's a chance to look at Bill Gates (our 'enemy') from a side we've never seen him. A lot of us can probably even relate to him. If you read the article, you'll find out at least five things you didn't know about him, and if you are perceptive you will gain a new view of the man. It's an interesting article (though apparently not to you), that's why it's on slashdot.
Qxe4
Believe it or not, there's an awful lot of nerds that honestly have no idea how Gates got his start. I'm old, but many people around here aren't.
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I'm not sure whether to mod you insightful or funny, so I'll just post... I really think this is quite a valid opinion.
I'm probably the first to despise Bill for his tactics with regards to computers, but I can only imagine what it'd be like if he was a politician. Makes me kind of thankful that he stayed with stealing other people's software...
I think it's pretty clear that organizations, even big ones, tend to reflect the personalities of their leaders - especially when those leaders have strong personalities. This is very visible with Microsoft, Apple and Google. They're very different companies and I think that's largely down to the way Jobs, Gates and L&S are as people.
Microsoft and Apple are both pretty darn important, and I think Jobs and Gates have pretty darn similar personalities. They both seem to be hyper-aggressive, very controlling A-types who don't think twice about intimidating their "minions". I think that also sums up Microsoft and Apple as companies. So studying Gates can tell us more about the Microsoft of the 90s, which is an interesting topic for anyone in the tech industry.