With the announcement that Bill Gates will be retiring in 2008 from his current position at Mircrosoft, PC World has posted several related articles. The one that grabbed my interest the most was one titled The Wit and Wisdom of Bill Gates. It’s a collection of Bill Gates quotes published in PC World over the years.
There was a time in the early 90s, when I was (finally) really getting in to the computer thing, that I hung on every prediction that came out of Bill’s mouth. I watched the Computer Chronicles rather religiously (Stewart Cheifet was the man!), always anxious to see the next greatest tech. Quotes from the Bill were not uncommon on the show. I took every prediction of his as fact. Of course, I eventually became disenchanted with Windows, Bill, and Microsoft in general. It was a bit shocking at first to learn the Bill wasn’t always right, but that feeling was quickly replaced with disinterest. It’s been a long while since I paid attention to anything he says.
So not only is it interesting reading these quotes to see what panned out, some of them really take me back to my early computer experiences and the wonder of what was yet to come. Considering the pace and scale of techological advance today, the wonderment of it all is long gone. I no longer ask myself, “What’s next?” Instead, I’m thinking, “When is the next thing coming?”. Amazement has been replaced by impatience. I want my VR body suit now, damn it! Our expectations have changed (not just mine, nearly everyone’s) and we expect the impossible. Anything less is unimpressive.
Going back and remembering the “Wow” factor everything had is a nice interlude. I miss it.
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