Mitchell and I had stumbled upon a plain truth: personal computers are deskbound, like typewriters, and are unsuitable for people who spend their time away from a desk or work face to face with others.

Sometimes I wasn’t sure what motivated John. It certainly wasn’t money. To most investors, the prospect of a quick sellout to IBM would be irresistible. But for John, investing in high technology was a calling, and monetary reward was the byproduct of a successful mission. The higher goal was to create something enduring, a growing enterprise that

I got my best ideas in my sleep.

our company, everyone is responsible for understanding our goals and how their work contributes to it.

Once your city is established, owning the API is like being the king of the city. The king gets to make the rules: collecting tolls for entering the city, setting the taxes that the programmers and users have to pay, and taking first dibs on any prime locations (by keeping some APIs confidential for personal use). This is the great secret of the

A principle widely held by physicists states that there is no such thing as a truly independent observer, that every act of perception, no matter how trivial, affects whatever is observed. Information theorists recognize a similar principle: every message, no matter how perfunctory, is carried by a medium that colors its meaning for the recipient.

Bill could suffer just about any indignity with grace, except when someone had abused his trust.

Robert was renowned for giving good demos. This stemmed from an unusual skill: he could deliver a relaxed and articulate exposition while he surreptitiously carried out a complex sequence of operations with his hands. He held your attention with his words as he deftly recovered from problems that would normally require total concentration. If it

Jay Hoag of Chancellor Capital, who by now was a friend of mine, offered comforting words. “Sure I’d rather make money. But bear in mind that this happens all the time. It’s a numbers game. Everybody understands that your first responsibility is to take care of your people. Let me know if there’s anything I can do.”