“The Internet is the most important single development to come along since the IBM PC was introduced in 1981.”
Bill Gates
The Internet Tidal Wave (Primary source)
The Internet Tidal Wave memo, sent to Microsoft’s executive staff and direct reports on May 26, 1995, is one of the most consequential internal documents in the company’s history—less a visionary essay than a detailed competitive war plan written under a sense of strategic urgency.
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“Now I assign the Internet the highest level of importance. In this memo I want to make clear that our focus on the Internet is crucial to every part of our business. The Internet is the most important single development to come along since the IBM PC was introduced in 1981. It is even more important than the arrival of graphical user interface (GUI).”
Bill Gates
“Few skills are more important than knowing how to distinguish what’s true from what’s false.”
— 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“People often overestimate what will happen in the next two years and underestimate what will happen in ten.”
— Bill Gates Primary source“If you always tell people why, they’ll understand it better, they’ll consider it more important, and they’ll be more likely to comply. Even if they don’t understand your reason, they’ll be more likely to comply.”
— Charlie Munger Primary source“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”
— Marie Curie Disputed“If anything, I now believe even more strongly that reliability is essential for progress in life and while quantum mechanics is unlearnable for a vast majority, reliability can be learned to great advantage by almost anyone.”
— Charlie Munger Primary source“There’s hardly anything more important than being rational or objective.”
— Charlie Munger Primary source