'Gates': A book that takes you into many worlds

'Gates': A book that takes you into many worlds

Gates; Stephen Manes and Paul Andrews; Published by Simon & Schuster Inc., 1994; 541 pages (Incl. Index)

JAKARTA (JP): What could be easier than being envious of this nerd named William Henry Gates III? Not much. He was already the richest man in America at the age of 37, and his wealth continues to accumulate. Not only that, he is the most powerful man not only in the computer industry -- both in hardware and software -- but also in other areas as well. His obsession for "Microsoft Everywhere" is not just a threat, it's something pretty close to a reality. Industry insiders as well as outsiders are always curious about what he has to say. As of late, newspapers across the globe pay for and print his bi-weekly articles, through which he responds to virtual tons of E-mail.

A good number of entrepreneurs and computer geniuses got rich overnight as the computer industry grew. We're familiar with names like Steve Jobs, Philippe Kahn and many others. We're also familiar with companies that once made history, such as Ashton- Tate, the maker of dBASE. Most of them either didn't stay very long or -- if they stayed at all -- remained in the background. Only Bill Gates and his Microsoft kept in the foreground and continually devours competitors one after the other.

I should admit that I used to consciously avoid reading about Bill Gates or finding out what he had said, lest I should suffer from an inferiority complex. After all, he's two years younger than I am but more than a million times wealthier.

But my perception of this man changed dramatically -- although not to the magnitude of a paradigm shift -- when I read the first part of this book. There the authors clearly reveal how Gates, unlike most of Indonesia's rich and famous, earned his fortune through all work and no sleep -- many a time for weeks at a stretch. It was the winning combination of hard work and high intelligence that earned him his fortune. Years later, he is still a workaholic. As he confessed in an interview in February 1992, he sometimes puts in more than ninety hours per week (p, 443). Boy, wasn't I told there were only seven days in a week?

Well, maybe the inspiration from this book comes too late to get me working as hard as he did (it says that even Gates seems to have slowed down a bit). But this book is packed with inspirational treasures, lively stories of how Gates tackled one stumbling block after another. No, it's not all heroism and chastity in this persona, and it's not all praise in the book either. Gates' darker side is revealed as well.

The book is a journey in many different worlds at the same time, yet the reader never feels tossed about. That's the main beauty of this book. At one moment you're reading about source code, editor, compiler and debugger; at another the birth of software piracy of which Gates has been a victim longer than anyone else. Horse trading comes at you quickly and, before you know it, lawsuits and the FTC's probes have been discussed. Yet you have no difficulty moving from one page to the next. The rhythm is fast, and unless you have difficulty reading, as I do, you won't want a break until you finish.

It's amazing how two journalists and computer experts can put so much information about developments in computer technology, about Bill Gates, about the way he strikes deals, about the meteoric growth of Microsoft Corp., and about the astronomical growth of the entire industry all in a single package.

A theme that immediately jumps to mind are the umpteen legal tangles that have been publicized by the media, the latest of which was in the March 20 issue of Fortune. The book covers most of these lawsuits. Among them was the lawsuit filed by Z-Nix

The tiny mouse-maker revealed how Microsoft revised its proposal to its own advantages despite the small company's willingness to cooperate at each iteration (p. 401). First, Z-Nix was told to pay a US$ 27.50 royalty for each copy of Windows sold bundled with its mouse. The price was later jacked up to $ 55.00. Then, when Windows 3.1 came out, Z-Nix was supposed to renegotiate as the software giant had decided the deal was no longer in effect. In the meantime, Microsoft wanted to be able to use Z-Nix patented technologies without allowing Z-Nix to sue it for patent infringements. Like in most publicly announced lawsuits against Microsoft, the case was settled outside the court.

Microsoft tends to set prices on individual basis. It never hesitates to meet a competitor's price in order to prevent potential customers from buying the competitor's product -- no matter what it takes. So it agreed to allow Atari to pay only $ 6.00 per copy of MS DOS at the time when Atari was able to get the same excellent deal from Digital Research, while other companies with similar size of purchases had to pay much more (p. 404).

Stephen Manes, one of the book's two writers, is a columnist and contributing editor to a couple of leading computer magazines, and Paul Andrews, the other writer, is a seasoned writer and reporter at the Seattle Times. That's probably the reason the language is so informal, so captivating and so American.

One lesson they teach is one Indonesians already know but all too often forget. It is that high intelligence alone never guarantees success. Gates at one time, still in his adolescent years, slept an hour and spent the other 23 programming. Not many of us have ever done so, and that's perhaps the reason not many of us are as successful.

Another lesson is your friends count. Gates is very lucky to have as a buddy a classmate named Kent Evans. A born entrepreneur, Kent influenced the way Gates saw life: Fearlessly, with "the inability to see limits" (p. 40).

Describing this book as a gem is an understatement, but I have truly run out of adjectives to describe it. The first five pages are packed with excerpts taken from reviews in various publications, and they have exhausted all the inventory of superlatives that I know of. I only wish that Manes and Andrews had written every date complete with its year instead of just, for instance, "on March 20" and a full-stop. Dates like this force me to go back to the beginning to find out what year is being talked about.

If you want to know more about computer technology, are intrigued by the mouse, or like inspiring accounts of how people struggle to reach the top and remain there, here's a book for you.

This book will stay among the favorites on my bookshelf, and I think you will enjoy reading it too.

-- Zatni Arbi