Paul Gardner Allen / 1953–2018 / Washington, USA / Computer Programmer, Businessman, Investor, Entrepreneur, Co-Founder of Microsoft Corporation
Allen on Allen
I’m trying to transmit the visions of creativity and build institutions that are incredibly catalytic to their fields.
Reported by Quentin Hardy in “Paul Allen’s Philanthropy Mirrors His Passions and Business Approach,” nytimes.com, November 2, 2015.
I simply wanted to advance the field of artificial intelligence so that computers could do what they do best (organize and analyze information) to help people do what they do best, those inspired leaps of intuition that fuel original ideas and breakthroughs.
Reported in “Thought process: Building an artificial brain,” washingtonpost.com, September 30, 2015.
[Q: Why Allen is so interested in the brain.]
A: We’re just starting to understand the outlines of how things work. . . . It’s so completely different than the way a computer works, and as someone who programs computers, that fascinates me. The brain was designed by evolution, so each part of it is optimized for what it does, and it’s incredibly, incredibly complex. . . . Then there’s trying to understand, at a chemical level, at a biological level, how the different parts of the brain work, and if you understood that, and those aspects of the brain, then you could possibly bring forward treatments to neurodegenerative diseases.
Interview with Clare McGrane, “Hear Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen reflect on his life and legacy in rare public interview,” geekwire.com, October 15, 2018.
I’m always interested in finding ways to innovate. . . . It’s a blend; it’s not a point focus.
Reported by Kristi Heim in “Passion for arts and science drives Paul Allen’s eclectic approach,” seattletimes.com, July 29, 2007.
Others might have found us eccentric, but I didn’t care. I had discovered my calling. I was a programmer.
Paul Allen, Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft (2011).
My style was to absorb all the data I could to make the best-informed decision possible, sometimes to the point of over-analysis.
Paul Allen, Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft (2011).
I’ve also seen what can happen when the right team isn’t in place, how the best ideas can founder. . . . I often failed to find the right people to help me execute my vision. My own history probably swayed me to take a flier on some with slim track records and to entrust them with too much too soon. Since then I have learned to be more careful.
Paul Allen, Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft (2011).
. . . any crusade requires optimism and the ambition to aim high. For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to find my own challenges, see them through to fruition, and—if everything breaks right—change the world for the better.
Paul Allen, Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft (2011).
[Q: Why Allen wrote his book, Idea Man, the way he did.]
A: You are faced with a decision when you do something like this. Are you going to make it unvarnished, warts and all? Are you going to tell things as best as you could recollect them. And that was the decision that I made, but it was an easy one, based on who I am and how I’ve been brought up. That’s just what you do. I wanted something of substance, something that was accurate, something that was honest, and I believe we achieved something like that.
Interview with Clare McGrane, “Hear Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen reflect on his life and legacy in rare public interview,” geekwire.com, October 15, 2018.
[Q: How Allen’s second bout with cancer made him both more and less patient.]
A: Whenever you go through one of these treatment regimens there are many things that are completely out of your control. You just have to be patient and hope things work out for the best, and be optimistic. Take a positive attitude. On the other hand, [you] realize that if there isn’t a positive outcome, your time may be limited so it makes you that much more focused on realizing your dreams and hopes, because all of our times on this planet are limited.
Interview with Clare McGrane, “Hear Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen reflect on his life and legacy in rare public interview,” geekwire.com, October 15, 2018.
[Q: On Allen’s contribution to the funding of the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence.]
A: It’s a very, very long shot, and if they do hear something, they’re supposed to call me. But my Blackberry, nothing. It’s not even vibrating. No, imagine how all of our lives would be stimulated and changed if there were other societies out there beyond our solar system. It’s a very, very long shot. But I thought it was worth it.
Interview with Clare McGrane, “Hear Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen reflect on his life and legacy in rare public interview,” geekwire.com, October 15, 2018.
Business Philosophy
There’s going to be reversals. You have to be ready, to be philosophical about that.
Reported by Sally Deneen in “Paul Allen is No Second Act,” success.com, January 29, 2009.
Few things worth doing can be done alone. To get past the conceptual stage, ideas need to become crusades; you’ve got to convince people to join you.
Paul Allen, Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft (2011).
It’s very challenging to carve back market share,
Reported by Nick Wingfield in “40 Busy Years Later, Paul Allen, a Microsoft Founder, Considers His Creation,” nytimes.com, May 3, 2015.
In my experience, each failure contains the seeds of your next success—if you are willing to learn from it.
Paul Allen, Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft (2011).
Talent is indeed essential, but seasoning and maturity are not to be underestimated. Above all, I’ve learned the pitfalls of getting so locked in to looking ahead that you miss the pothole that makes you stumble, or the iceberg that sinks you.
Paul Allen, Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft (2011).
[Q: On the rise of Facebook.]
A: It’s amazing, if you think about it, why wasn’t something like Facebook done years earlier? It could have been. There was nothing stopping that from occurring. It’s just you have to have the idea. So there’s always things that come down the pike, that you don’t expect that suddenly affect all of our lives in a great way, and I think that’s one of the wonderful aspects of technology.
Interview with Clare McGrane, “Hear Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen reflect on his life and legacy in rare public interview,” geekwire.com, October 15, 2018.
Future of Information Technology
Here’s what the death knell for the personal computer will sound like: Mainly I use my phone/pad, but I still use my PC to write long e-mails and documents. Most people aren’t there yet, but that’s where we’re headed.
Paul Allen, Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft (2011).
History shows that you ignore emerging platforms at your peril, because one of them might make you irrelevant.
Paul Allen, Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft (2011).
Gates, Bill
I was lucky right off the bat to find Bill Gates, whose passion for business matched mine for tracking technology.
Paul Allen, Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft (2011).
[Q: Whether Allen’s book. Idea Man, had jeopardized his friendship with Bill Gates.]
A: I don’t think so, but I’m sure there are things in the book that Bill wants to discuss, and he’ll have a different slant about them. Bill and I have had many intense discussions over the years. We haven’t had a chance to talk about the book since it was published. I gave him a copy months ahead of publication. So he had a head start on it. That discussion will be very, very intense, and he’ll be very direct, as will I.
Interview with Clare McGrane, “Hear Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen reflect on his life and legacy in rare public interview,” geekwire.com, October 15, 2018.
Bill and I would actually dive in the dumpsters (at a local computer lab) to try to find listings of the secret inner code of the operating system, and try to figure out how it worked. That’s how passionate we were.
Interview with Lesley Stahl, “Paul Allen and the birth of the PC, Microsoft,” 60 Minutes, cbsnews.com, October 15, 2018.
You had to fight back intensely to stand your ground and make your position and your convictions expressed, but [Gates] didn’t like to back down, so these fights would go on. They could go on for hours. You’re just screaming at each other for hours. And that’s exhausting. It’s exhausting. But that was Bill’s style.
Interview with Lesley Stahl, “Paul Allen and the birth of the PC, Microsoft,” 60 Minutes, cbsnews.com, October 15, 2018.
Microsoft
What we did was unprecedented, but what is less well understood is that we had no choice.
Paul Allen, Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft (2011).
Our great string of successes had married my vision to [Bill Gates’s] unmatched aptitude for business.
Paul Allen, Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft (2011).
For the most part, the best opportunities now lie where your competitors have yet to establish themselves, not where they’re already entrenched. Microsoft is struggling to adapt to that new reality.
Paul Allen, Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft (2011).
In a company where tech decisions were still ultracentralized, the repercussions of a distracted CEO had to be damaging.
Paul Allen, Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft (2011).