Page 81 - Forbes - Asia (October 2019)

Book Values
o fully appreci-
This was his high school yearbook picture. He
ate the philoso-
always loved to read, and this stack includes
phy behind Paul’s James Joyce’s Dubliners, textbooks on
Tgiving, you need philosophy and physics, and the Bible.
to know one thing about
him: Paul was driven by
an incredible curiosity his
whole life.
Even when we were just
kids, he seemed to be in-
terested in just about ev-
erything. Later in life, Paul
gave to a huge spectrum of
issues that seem unrelated
at first glance.
He wanted to prevent
Hackers’ Delight
elephant poaching, im-
prove ocean health and Our school bought this teletype, and we were obsessed with
it. It was really expensive to use—$40 an hour! The only
promote smart cities. He way for us to get computer time was exploiting a bug in the
funded new housing for system. We eventually got busted, but that led to the first
official partnership between Paul and me: We worked out
the homeless and arts edu- Microsoft’s Magic
a deal with the company to use the computer for free if we
cation in the Puget Sound would identify problems. This was taken right after the company started
region [outside Seattle]. to grow and we relocated from Albuquerque,
New Mexico to Seattle. The machines in this
In 2014 alone, he support-
photograph are the ones we actually used to
ed research into the polio program a lot of Microsoft’s early software.
virus and efforts to contain
the Ebola outbreak in West
Africa—all while setting
up an amazing new insti-
tute for studying artificial
intelligence.
If you knew him, the Tuning In
logic in Paul’s portfolio is
Paul was also cooler than I was. He played the guitar and was
easy to see. He gave to the really into Jimi Hendrix, and I remember him playing “Are
things that he was most in- You Experienced?” for me. Paul was so passionate about the
album that he wanted to share it with me. His early love for
terested in and to the places
music—and pop culture in general—would end up influencing
where he thought he could a lot of his giving later on.
have the most impact.
Mind and Money
I wish Paul had gotten
to see all of the good his When I first heard he was creating an organization, the
Allen Institute, to study brain science, I thought, “Of
generosity will do. He was course.” Paul had been obsessed with understanding
one of the most thoughtful, the human mind since we were kids.
brilliant and curious peo-
ple I’ve ever met. He de-
served so much more time
than he got—although no
one can say his wasn’t a life
well-lived. F

COURTESY BILL GATES Champs!

Paul wasn’t a big football fan when he bought the
Seahawks. But he wanted to help Seattle—so he took
a risk and became the new owner. Clearly, it paid off.

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