1. When
the PC was launched, people knew it was important.
2. I
believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions
they will be moved to act.
3. If
you can't make it good, at least make it look good.
4. I
really had a lot of dreams when I was a kid, and I think a great deal of that
grew out of the fact that I had a chance to read a lot.
5. Success
is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.
6. Its
fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of
failure.
7. Technology
is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating
them, the teacher is the most important.
8. Your
most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.
9. I'm
a great believer that any tool that enhances communication has profound effects
in terms of how people can learn from each other, and how they can achieve the
kind of freedoms that they're interested in.
10. The
first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to
an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that
automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.
11. As
we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.
12. Just
in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient.
There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.
13. If
GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be
driving $25 cars that got 1,000 MPG.
14. At
Microsoft there are lots of brilliant ideas but the image is that they all come
from the top - I'm afraid that's not quite right.
15. I
think it's fair to say that personal computers have become the most empowering
tool we've ever created. They're tools of communication, they're tools of
creativity, and they can be shaped by their user.
16. We
always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and
underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don't let yourself be
lulled into inaction.
17. People
always fear change. People feared electricity when it was invented, didn't
they? People feared coal; they feared gas-powered engines... There will always
be ignorance, and ignorance leads to fear. But with time, people will come to
accept their silicon masters.
18. I
actually thought that it would be a little confusing during the same period of
your life to be in one meeting when you're trying to make money, and then go to
another meeting where you're giving it away. I mean is it going to erode your
ability, you know, to make money? Are you gonna somehow get confused about what
you're trying to do?
19. Information
technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don't think
anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other.
20. 640K
ought to be enough for anybody.
21. In
this business, by the time you realize you're in trouble, it's too late to save
yourself. Unless you're running scared all the time, you're gone.
22. Intellectual
property has the shelf life of a banana.
23. The
Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.
24. If
I'd had some set idea of a finish line, don't you think I would have crossed it
years ago?
25. Until
we're educating every kid in a fantastic way, until every inner city is cleaned
up, there is no shortage of things to do.
26. This
is a fantastic time to be entering the business world, because business is
going to change more in the next 10 years than it has in the last 50.
27. We've
got to put a lot of money into changing behaviour.
28. Expectations
are a form of first-class truth: If people believe it, it's true.
29. Capitalism
has worked very well. Anyone who wants to move to North Korea is welcome.
30. I
spend a lot of time reading.
31. Whether
it's Google or Apple or free software, we've got some fantastic competitors and
it keeps us on our toes.
32. I
believe in innovation and that the way you get innovation is you fund research
and you learn the basic facts.
33. The
general idea of the rich helping the poor, I think, is important.
34. Almost
every way we make electricity today, except for the emerging renewables and
nuclear, puts out CO2. And so, what we're going to have to do at a global scale
is create a new system. And so, we need energy miracles.
35. DOS
is ugly and interferes with users' experience.
36. I
never took a day off in my twenties. Not one. And I'm still fanatical, but now
I'm a little less fanatical.
37. Since
when has the world of computer software design been about what people want?
This is a simple question of evolution. The day is quickly coming when every
knee will bow down to a silicon fist, and you will all beg your binary gods for
mercy.
38. I
have an excellent memory, a most excellent memory.
39. We
should all grow our own food and do our own waste processing, we really should.
40. It's
really kind of cool to have solar panels on your roof.
41. Microsoft
is not about greed. It's about innovation and fairness.
42. People
everywhere love Windows.
43. Climate
change is a terrible problem, and it absolutely needs to be solved. It deserves
to be a huge priority.
44. I'm
a geek.
45. If
your culture doesn't like geeks, you are in real trouble.
46. I
read a lot of obscure books and it is nice to open a book.
47. In
inner-city, low-income communities of colour, there's such a high correlation
in terms of educational quality and success.
48. In
American math classes, we teach a lot of concepts poorly over many years. In
the Asian systems they teach you very few concepts very well over a few years.
49. There
are people who don't like capitalism, and people who don't like PCs. But
there's no-one who likes the PC who doesn't like Microsoft.
50. We
are not even close to finishing the basic dream of what the PC can be.
51. Governments
will always play a huge part in solving big problems. They set public policy
and are uniquely able to provide the resources to make sure solutions reach
everyone who needs them. They also fund basic research, which is a crucial
component of the innovation that improves life for everyone.
52. Energy
innovation is not a nationalistic game.
53. Rich
countries can afford to overpay for things.
54. The
AIDS is a disease that is hard to talk about.
55. The
kids are a big part of my schedule.
56. Well,
I don't think there's any need for people to focus on my career.
57. Digital
reading will completely take over. It's lightweight and it's fantastic for
sharing. Over time it will take over.
58. I'm
going to save my public voice largely for the issues where I have some depth.
59. The
advance of technology is based on making it fit in so that you don't really
even notice it, so it's part of everyday life.
60. Well
private money can take risks in a way that government money often isn't willing
to.
61. When
you want to do your homework, fill out your tax return, or see all the choices
for a trip you want to take, you need a full-size screen.
62. Who
decides what's in Windows? The customers who buy it.
63. We
are in the throes of a transition where every publication has to think of their
digital strategy.
64. I
remember thinking quite logically that I didn't want to spoil my children with
wealth and so that I would create a foundation, but not knowing exactly what it
would focus on.
65. I
know there's a farmer out there somewhere who never wants a PC and that's fine
with me.
66. The
trouble with energy farming is that the energy isn't always where you want to
use it, and it isn't always when you want to use it.
67. The
world has been very careful to pick very few diseases for eradication, because
it is very tough.
68. There's
no magic line between an application and an operating system that some
bureaucrat in Washington should draw.
69. I
was lucky to be involved and get to contribute to something that was important,
which is empowering people with software.
70. Maintaining
a consistent platform also helps improve product support - a significant
problem in the software industry.
71. Me
and my dad are the biggest promoters of an estate tax in the US. It's not a
popular position.
72. Today,
we're very dependent on cheap energy. We just take it for granted - all the
things you have in the house, the way industry works.
73. Although
I don't have a prescription for what others should do, I know I have been very
fortunate and feel a responsibility to give back to society in a very
significant way.
74. Now,
we put out a lot of carbon dioxide every year, over 26 billion tons. For each
American, it's about 20 tons. For people in poor countries, it's less than one
ton. It's an average of about five tons for everyone on the planet. And,
somehow, we have to make changes that will bring that down to zero.
75. Security
is, I would say, our top priority because for all the exciting things you will
be able to do with computers - organizing your lives, staying in touch with
people, being creative - if we don't solve these security problems, then people
will hold back.
76. I'm
sorry that we have to have a Washington presence. We thrived during our first
16 years without any of this. I never made a political visit to Washington and
we had no people here. It wasn't on our radar screen. We were just making great
software.
77. Innovations
that are guided by smallholder farmers, adapted to local circumstances, and
sustainable for the economy and environment will be necessary to ensure food
security in the future.
78. Like
almost everyone who uses e-mail, I receive a ton of spam every day. Much of it
offers to help me get out of debt or get rich quick. It would be funny if it
weren't so exciting.
79. If
you're using first-class land for biofuels, then you're competing with the
growing of food. And so you're actually spiking food prices by moving energy
production into agriculture.
80. Well
the protester I think is a very powerful thing. It's basically a mechanism of
democracy that, along with capitalism, scientific innovation, those things have
built the modern world. And it's wonderful that the new tools have empowered
that protestor so that state secrets, bad developments are not hidden anymore.
81. You
know capitalism is this wonderful thing that motivates people, it causes
wonderful inventions to be done. But in this area of diseases of the world at
large, it's really let us down.
82. A
first-generation fortune is the most likely to be given away, but once a
fortune is inherited it's less likely that a very high percentage will go back
to society.
83. Certainly
I'll never be able to put myself in the situation that people growing up in the
less developed countries are in. I've gotten a bit of a sense of it by being
out there and meeting people and talking with them.
84. I
have seen first-hand that agricultural science has enormous potential to
increase the yields of small farmers and lift them out of hunger and poverty.
85. The
only thing I understand deeply, because in my teens I was thinking about it,
and every year of my life, is software. So I'll never be hands-on on anything
except software.
86. Internet
TV and the move to the digital approach is quite revolutionary. TV has
historically has been a broadcast medium with everybody picking from a very
finite number of channels.
87. Oh,
I think there are a lot of people who would be buying and selling online today
that go up there and they get the information, but then when it comes time to
type in their credit card they think twice because they're not sure about how
that might get out and what that might mean for them.
88. I
think the thing we see is that as people are using video games more, they tend
to watch passive TV a bit less. And so using the PC for the Internet, playing
video games is starting to cut into the rather unbelievable amount of time
people spend watching TV.
89. The
U.S. couldn't even get rid of Saddam Hussein. And we all know that the EU is
just a passing fad. They'll be killing each other again in less than a year. I'm
sick to death of all these fascist lawsuits.
90. Well
I think any author or musician is anxious to have legitimate sales of their
products, partly so they're rewarded for their success, partly so they can go
on and do new things.
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