Bill Gates gives away at the very end that this would be the first book of a trilogy. Not sure yet, if I’ll read the 2 others.

It might be because I’ve read it in German, was something lost in translation? I could not be really taken by the writing style.

Anyways, I still enjoy being brought back to that time when computing was less mainstream, more hobby like. The exploration, the excitement, I might just get old but I feel like it was more present then. Well, some might wonder if it’s still a hobby when your read from this book. They enforced a grueling schedule on themselves to make Basic work on the Altair machine, Bill Gates relates that famous time when he would basically sleep at his terminal. By the way, that is mentioned in Deep Work too as an example of focus work.

Was nice to see that Bill Gates was a keen hiker, and that during his time in nature he would think about how to improve his code. That’s how it is with software, you keep twisting your mind to reach a goal, staying within the constraints of the machine at hand. He would do that often on paper as he had not permanent access to a terminal, other times I tell you. For some reasons, I romanticise those time. I’m sure my fond memories of using MS-DOS to boot up my copy of The Settlers has something to do with that, is that nostalgia?

Mit einem blauen Kugelschreiber unterstrich ich den wichtigsten Absatz: "Die Heimcomputerbranche wirkt zunehmend wie eine Miniaturversion der Mainframeindustrie – bei beiden beherrscht ein Anbieter den Markt."

Definitely interesting, simply wished for a more engaging writing style. But that’s personal taste I believe.