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Comment by gtycomb | Hacker News Reader

"... Popular Electronics. It featured a new computer called the Altair 8800, which ran on a powerful new chip. Paul looked at me and said: “This is happening without us!” That moment marked the end of my college career and the beginning of our new company, Microsoft. It happened because of Paul."

What a magical moment, those youthful fancies. I know that very spot they stood and it still is the same I guess -- all the traffic on either side of the newsstand, street singers, students running to their classes, eating places to decide upon, bookstores ... and the ideas that bloomed from there are so many.

Bye, Mr. Allen.

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One of my favorite movies growing up was Pirates of Silicon Valley (excellent movie, even today) and they portrayed that scene exactly the same as Gates recalled it.

except if my memory serves, it was Paul who was sleeping in a pile of dirty socks and Bill barged into the room saying that. Then the scene cuts to New Mexico

Bill was waking up from a hangover due to the previous night. He awakes to Paul waving the magazine saying, Bill! Bill!

Not exactly (Gates was in bed, Allen chucks him the magazine), but the feeling was portrayed fantastically.

Paul himself told that story in his autobiography, "The Idea Man" [1], in colorful details. The first half of the book is full of anecdotes of those early days, the relationship with Bill Gates, and the beginnings of Microsoft. It's a great read.

Really sad he went so soon; RIP.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Idea-Man-Memoir-Cofounder-Microsoft/d...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Square_Subway_Kiosk

>“This is happening without us!”

That's quite a statement, wow. I wonder if it's moments like this that distinguish really, really successful people from the rest.

It's certainly the same feeling I had back in 2010 when I knew I had to quit my job and start pushing Python for data analysis.

And are you really, really successful or the rest? :)

Well, judging by the account name, this is probably Peter Wang, the CTO of Anaconda, Inc. So maybe that answers your question.

Hahaha this is great. But did you win the Putnam?

For the uninitiated:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35079

Anaconda, inc. customers:

Citi, SEC, SAMSUNG, dozens of others...he certainly seems like he's in the former group.

Your work is the backbone of what we do to push financial inclusion in India.

Thank you!!

So Microsoft was founded on a lucky case of FOMO? Hey, it works sometimes.

No, I don't think so. Inspiration is perishable, I don't recall who said that but it's true. It doesn't matter if you have a good idea, they are ever so common. Execution is everything.

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