“Our hiring was always focused on people right out of school. We had a few key hires like Charles Simonyi who came in with experience. But most of our developers, we decided that we wanted them to come with clear minds, not polluted by some other approach, to learn the way that we liked to develop software, and to put the kind of energy into it that we thought was key.”
Bill Gates
Smithsonian Interview: Bill Gates (Primary source)
Bill Gates reflects on the early personal computing revolution, Microsoft’s role, and how software shaped the industry in this Smithsonian oral history interview from the Computer History Collection.
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“Few skills are more important than knowing how to distinguish what’s true from what’s false.”
— Bill Gates Primary source“People often overestimate what will happen in the next two years and underestimate what will happen in ten.”
— Bill Gates Primary source“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.”
— Bill Gates Primary source“The axiom that you learn more from your failures than your successes is trite but absolutely true.”
— Bill Gates Primary source“Silk and satins and scarlets and velvets put out the kitchen fire.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source“Sloth (like rust) consumes faster than labor wears. The used key is always bright.”
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— Ernest Hemingway Primary source