"Gates is incredibly sharp. He's simply fantastic with numbers and things stored in his head. It's like he has the ultimate RAM in his brain. That's his inner nerd. But I was surprised by how much I liked him as a person, given how much I disliked DOS. Although he is extremely cagey - he is always playing a game with how much he says or doesn't say because he is involved in so many embryonic deals - he is also witty and accessible. He's curious about things. He likes to think big and wide - he looks globally, in long terms, and across many disciplines. It would be impossible to be bored around him."

Kevin Kelly

BILL GATES is cofounder and former CEO of Microsoft Corporation and author of The Road Ahead and Business at the Speed of Thought : Succeeding in the Digital Economy. He is the cochair and trustee of the Bill and Melida Gates Foundation.

Further reading on Edge: "The Software Developer", Ch. 10 in Digerati; "List of greatest inventions reflects a wondrous world" — Bill Gates' New York Times syndicated column

Beyond Edge:

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