“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.”
Bill Gates
The Road Ahead (Primary source)
The Road Ahead offers a sweeping forecast of how computing would reshape business, communication, and everyday life. Written as the web was just breaking into public consciousness, the book is best understood as a snapshot of how one of the era’s most powerful technologist saw the future; and, in places, didn’t see it.
“Few skills are more important than knowing how to distinguish what’s true from what’s false.”
— 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“People often overestimate what will happen in the next two years and underestimate what will happen in ten.”
— Bill Gates Primary source“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”
— Bill Gates Primary source“Nothing augments a battalion like success.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte Disputed“You can ignore reality, but you can’t ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.”
— Ayn Rand Disputed“Because people are very careful with the secrets of their own business doesn’t mean that they’ll be careful with the secrets of yours.”
— Ian Fleming Primary source“Love, cough, and a smoke, can’t well be hid.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source