Thursday, March 31, 2011

He's dead to me

BEHOLD the latest tell-all memoir. This time the honors go to billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

In its book review, Wired magazine writes:
"In an incendiary new book, 'Idea Man,' ... Allen accuses Gates of 'scheming to rip me off' by trying to dilute Allen’s stake in the software pioneer. 'It was mercenary opportunism, plain and simple,' Allen writes. Later, after Gates rebuffed Allen’s request to increase his stake, Allen says that, 'In that moment, something died for me.' "
Concluding, Wired noted that it was "not clear what Allen’s motivations were in writing the new book. With an estimated net worth north of $10 billion, he certainly doesn’t need the money." Not clear? Please. His is the oldest motivation known to man: spite. In Allen's mind, he has finally fed his nemesis the proverbial dish that is best served cold -- revenge. It's rather sad that Allen appears to have carried such an unhealthy grudge for nearly three decades (he left Microsoft in 1982). You'd think that someone with more money than God, thanks in part to Bill Gates, would have moved on long ago. Then again, when is comes to the human condition, English writer Nan Fairbrother is probably right: "We are perverse creatures and never satisfied."

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