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Back to #401 How Bill Gates Works, with David Senra.

Why Did Bill Gates Remove His Car Radio?

David Senra says Bill Gates took the radio out of his car so the drives between home, the office, and the airport could be spent thinking about Microsoft.

For many years Gates had also refused to own a television, and he used the time to read books and magazines. Michael Moritz, interviewing him, thought someone had broken in and stolen the radio. Gates had taken it out himself. The drive from his house to the office was seven minutes. The drive from the office to the airport was about 11 minutes. Added up, that was an extra five hours a month of thinking about Microsoft instead of listening to music.

He kept a top-10 list of mistakes and reread it so the same mistakes would not be made again. Senra says he has not read Overdrive in about four years, and that one story in that book is one he has never forgotten.

Grokipedia·Bill Gates·David Senra

Transcript

#401 How Bill Gates Works ·

Founders

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  1. Why Did Larry Ellison Call Bill Gates More Dangerous Than Edison?David Senra reads Larry Ellison calling Bill Gates more dangerous as Rockefeller than he would have been as Thomas Edison.
  2. Why Did Bill Gates Treat Constraints as a Friend?David Senra says young Bill Gates treated constraints as a friend.
  3. How Did Bill Gates Learn to Code From a Dumpster?David Senra reads that Bill Gates learned by pulling other people's code out of a dumpster.
  4. Why Did Bill Gates Choose Software Over Hardware?David Senra reads Bill Gates choosing software over hardware because manufacturing computers seemed too risky, while writing software took only brain power…
  5. What Did Bill Gates Start When Software Was Free?David Senra reads Bill Gates on starting a pure software company when software was supposed to be free.
  6. How Did a Best-efforts Clause Save Microsoft?David Senra reads Bill Gates on the best-efforts clause that later got Microsoft out of an exclusive license.
  7. How Many People Worked at Microsoft After Four Years?David Senra says four years in, Microsoft had just 11 employees. He thinks the count might be 12.
  8. How Much Did 5 Percent of Microsoft Sell for?David Senra says Bill Gates sold 5 percent of Microsoft for $1 million to Technology Venture Investors, TVI.
  9. Why Did Bill Gates Stare at Philippe Kahn's Photo?David Senra reads that Bill Gates was staring at a photograph of Philippe Kahn, the rival he had spent years trying to get rid of.
  10. What Did Bill Gates Want From Seattle Computer?David Senra reads Paul Allen's account of what Bill Gates wanted from Seattle Computer Products: a sale, not a license, so Microsoft owned DOS.

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