24 ms·

The side of Paul Allen I wish more people knew about

338 points by jvmiert 7y ago

org3432 7y ago
Didn’t realize Paul saved Cinerama. > “Our net worth is ultimately defined not by dollars but rather by how well we serve others.” Yep, exactly.
- rolltiide 7y ago
  When drowning save yourself first and then when you have enough oxygen you don't have to think about it and can serve others
- jdonaldson 7y ago
  Cinerama, MoPOP, Living Computer Museum. They're all love letters to geek culture. If you're in Seattle they are absolutely worth a visit. Old Microsoft guys tend not to be recognized as being "one of us"... maybe it was Microsoft's culture, and the systematic undermining of open source software and startups through the 90s, but Paul definitely was more like us than we probably care to admit.
jumbopapa 7y ago
Really thoughtful speech from Gates. What an amazing life!
dang 7y ago
Url changed from https://www.paulallen.com/bill-gates-the-side-of-paul-allen-i-wish-more-people-knew-about/ https://www.paulallen.com/bill-gates-the-side-of-paul-allen-..., which points to this.
rjtobin 7y ago
Didn’t know that Allen had a big part in funding KEXP, in addition to all the well-known stuff (Seahawks etc). Crazy the impact one person can have on a city, even if that person is insanely wealthy.
melling 7y ago
The Allen Institute is definitely doing great work: https://www.alleninstitute.org/ https://www.alleninstitute.org/
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- rococode 7y ago
  AI2 (Allen Institute for AI) is, too! Over 200 papers published at major conferences with several awards. https://allenai.org/papers/papers-all.html https://allenai.org/papers/papers-all.html
samstave 7y ago
Paul allen owned an island in the san juans - when i used to fly to my mothers on Orcas we had to land first at paul allens airport... There was a beauty and a freedom i used to feel from that experience: There was no tower, nor staff; just a landing strip and we would fly in - do our thing and then take off again. It was awesome... and i loved it, because we talk about america being the “land of the free” but we are really the “land of the regulated —special terms apply such as 1) are you rich enough to be free” But i really liked flying into that island in particular over Orcas due to how libre it felt.
- nosianu 7y ago
  As a private pilot flying in the US until the beginning of this millennium (then I moved away) - there are many, many such airports all over the country, that's nothing special. I landed at such airports even as a student pilot. Half Moon Bay airport, to be exact (student home airports were San Carlos and Palo Alto, so I was allowed to do that as a student, didn't even have to ask the instructor after getting the general approval for local solo flights). You even have "pilot-controlled lighting" to turn on runway lights if you arrive at night at some airports. Yes, such airports are a lot of fun. Some are nothing but a strip in the middle of nowhere. Each one has a frequency assigned and you announce yourself (or at least you are supposed to) when you come in to check if anybody else is there already, maybe even using the runway. For reference: "Non-Towered Airport Flight Operations" -- https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/AC_90-66B.pdf https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/... I found a number, the vast majority of airports is in this category: > There's a huge number of uncontrolled airports in the U.S. According to the FAA, there are 5,300 public-use airports. Out of that number, there are 500 that are controlled. [Mar 1, 2005 -- https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/article/uncontrolled-airports/]* https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/article/uncontrolled-airpor...
  - JudgeWapner 7y ago
    What amazed me was learning that you can fly across country and never have to talk to ATC. I'm not sure on the details, I'm sure it's VFR, no class Bravo airspace, not sure about flight plan, but the fact that you can cruise around up there without ever announcing yourself or communicating with anyone is really surprising.
ggambetta 7y ago
> Paul was driven by an incredible curiosity his whole life. Even when we were just kids, he seemed to be interested in just about everything. I can identify with this. I've founded a gamedev company, taught Computer Graphics, and worked at Google and Improbable as a SWE; but in the middle of all this I wrote a novel, I recently quit my job to become an actor/filmmaker (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10232800 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10232800), and I really enjoy making Italian goodies on my free time (mostly biscotti, tiramisu, and limoncello). I'm also thinking of learning bookbinding / restoration, and how to draw and paint. I can't tell whether I'm "doing this right" -- and by "this", I mean "life". Sometimes I feel like I'm half-assing everything, and that I'd be better off laser-focusing on a single thing. Some of my friends have, and they're further along their careers (are they happier? I don't know). Sometimes I feel life is too short to not do what I feel passionate about. I'm 38 and I'm doing OK in life, but I feel like I haven't figured out what to optimise for. I have this lingering feeling that I could, and should, be doing better (for some vague definition of "better"). Sorry to bring a personal question to HN, but the article made me think about my situation, I can't think of a better crowd to get their opinion than this one.
- wpietri 7y ago
  I suggest you read David Epstein's recent book Range: https://www.amazon.com/Range-Generalists-Triumph-Specialized-World/dp/0735214484 https://www.amazon.com/Range-Generalists-Triumph-Specialized... His basic point is that our culture highly values the Tiger-Woods-style success story, where a person just beavers away at one thing their whole life. But there are a lot of successful people who specialize later or not at all. It definitely made me feel better about my similarly diverse resume, and has given me some good ways to think about what I want to pursue next.
  - ggambetta 7y ago
    Thanks! Will read.
- calewis 7y ago
  You're not doing anything “right” neither is anyone else. That’s the beauty of life. Make the most of your freedoms and privilege, which it sounds you are and do things you love. Actually, I retract my original statement, it sounds like you’re having a great time. Don't let societal norms think that you have to live in any particular way.
Qworg 7y ago
I'm moved by what Bill said about Paul - in many ways, he was still the geeky guy on the teletype, ferociously well read, and driven not only to understand the world, but also to protect it and share it with others. I miss him.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
sytelus 7y ago
One thing I don’t understand is why both of these billionaires has named virtually every philanthropically effort after themselves by themselves while they were alive. It used to be the case that philanthropy was appreciated to be anonymous, or at least not outright ego boosters. It’s not that these billionaires would be forgotten if they didn’t insisted slapping their names on everything they funded. They are as it is massively ingrained in annals of humankind. If I was a billionaire and starting institute of cancer, for example, I would name it after unsung heros of the field who did not had billion dollars and sacrificed their entire lives without making buck only to benefit people, like, Faber Institute after Sydney Faber.
- dwighttk 7y ago
  “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
  - dano 7y ago
    As we know the Rockefeller Foundation, three generations from now Allen may be similarly known. Paraphrasing Horace Mann, Allen certainly created more than a few small victories for mankind.
    - sytelus 7y ago
      Certainly we are thankful to him for cutting so many checks. However “funded” is better description than “created”. Creating something requires far more effort, time investment and expertise than giving someone sum of money.
- GiorgioG 7y ago
  Many people fear of being forgotten. Who cares what the name of the institute is if it helps people?
- theturtletalks 7y ago
  It the same with universities and their donors. Donors essentially give millions to get a building or college named after them. For example, at the University of Texas, the business school is named after McCombs, someone who didn't even finish graduating. And the med school is named after Dell, another dropout.
rjvehn 7y ago
"not really a team player, for some reason didn't want to be screwed by stock reappropriation when he was recovering from cancer."
gct 7y ago
Remember when Gates and Ballmer tried to screw Allen out of his shares because his productivity had gone down due to cancer? https://www.cnet.com/news/paul-allen-gates-ballmer-tried-to-rip-me-off/ https://www.cnet.com/news/paul-allen-gates-ballmer-tried-to-...
- calewis 7y ago
  Wow. Thanks for sharing, puts bill in a new light. Baller, to be expected.
  - mixmastamyk 7y ago
    He only worked there a couple of years, and before MS got big. Did he really deserve the same cut as the other two (who worked for 30+) did? Maybe/not, but the question is valid.
    - kaesar14 7y ago
      Yeah I feel like this is an underrated point. Does being there at the early years of a company justify a cut of an unfathomable fortune that took the other partners many, many more years to fully form? It’s not so cut and dry, especially when we’re talking about the kind of fortune being fought over.
      - jacquesm 7y ago
        For an extension of that thought: does being there in the early days of a company justify a disproportionate cut compared to the people who then work for the company for the next thirty years?
      - erikpukinskis 7y ago
        If the other partners want more value in exchange for continuing to work for the company, they should negotiate for more shares in a dilution event. If they expected 30 years of service in the first place, then they should've put a 30 year vesting term on the shares from the start. There's no right answer, it really depends on what people want and negotiate for. I may expect to put in 5 years and then retire with whatever value we end up with. That's totally reasonable. Just because my partner decides at that point to keep working doesn't mean our deal is suddenly no longer valid. That's why I say, if you want to change the deal halfway through you need to get the board to issue more shares.
abecedarius 7y ago
Allen wrote an autobiography, and it's pretty good. About up there with Woz's, and I can't think of another Homebrew-era memoir as interesting.
nickgrosvenor 7y ago
Gates has become a real class act as he’s gotten older
matchagaucho 7y ago
My Dad spoke very highly of Paul. Bill and Paul were invited to BPA to program a PDP-10 computer to manage power station operations [1]. My Dad, a DEC Technician, would come home and say "There are a couple teenagers from Seattle programming the BPA mainframes." He then built a Heathkit home computer and taught me BASIC because "Paul and Bill can do it. So can you." [1] https://www.bpa.gov/news/newsroom/Pages/Legacy-computer-system-retires-after-keeping-the-lights-on-for-38-years.aspx https://www.bpa.gov/news/newsroom/Pages/Legacy-computer-syst...
Tharkun 7y ago
Being driven by curiosity is a wonderful thing. I don't know how he managed to keep it up his whole life, and I very much envy his ability to do so. In my case, I find my ability to act on curiosity to be waning as I get older. Commitments and general fatigue have started getting in the way. Here's to hoping there are more Paul Allens out there.
yo-scot-99 7y ago
> Paul was always good at seeing the big picture. This reminds me of a day at Asymetrix - a startup founded by Mr Allen. Somehow we got a very early incarnation of Mosaic and I remember showing everyone how to bounce over to each lab with just a click and what authoring in HTML meant. Asymetrix's main product at the time was Toolbook, essentially a Hypercard clone -- but this was obviously the future. Paul's reaction was muted but I think he knew "This is happening without us!"
- flensortow 7y ago
  I interviewed at Asymetrix at one point. They had the very strange idea they were going to take on Microsoft and Borland with their own C++ development system, which seemed to make no sense to me given the other things they were doing.
twsted 7y ago
I can’t see anything (iOS Safari).
xparco 7y ago
Was hoping this would mention his pedophile side...

338 points by jvmiert 7y ago

Didn’t realize Paul saved Cinerama. > “Our net worth is ultimately defined not by dollars but rather by how well we serve others.” Yep, exactly.

rolltiide 7y ago
When drowning save yourself first and then when you have enough oxygen you don't have to think about it and can serve others
jdonaldson 7y ago
Cinerama, MoPOP, Living Computer Museum. They're all love letters to geek culture. If you're in Seattle they are absolutely worth a visit. Old Microsoft guys tend not to be recognized as being "one of us"... maybe it was Microsoft's culture, and the systematic undermining of open source software and startups through the 90s, but Paul definitely was more like us than we probably care to admit.

jumbopapa 7y ago

Really thoughtful speech from Gates. What an amazing life!

dang 7y ago

Url changed from https://www.paulallen.com/bill-gates-the-side-of-paul-allen-i-wish-more-people-knew-about/ https://www.paulallen.com/bill-gates-the-side-of-paul-allen-..., which points to this.

rjtobin 7y ago

Didn’t know that Allen had a big part in funding KEXP, in addition to all the well-known stuff (Seahawks etc). Crazy the impact one person can have on a city, even if that person is insanely wealthy.

melling 7y ago

The Allen Institute is definitely doing great work: https://www.alleninstitute.org/ https://www.alleninstitute.org/

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
rococode 7y ago
AI2 (Allen Institute for AI) is, too! Over 200 papers published at major conferences with several awards. https://allenai.org/papers/papers-all.html https://allenai.org/papers/papers-all.html

samstave 7y ago

Paul allen owned an island in the san juans - when i used to fly to my mothers on Orcas we had to land first at paul allens airport... There was a beauty and a freedom i used to feel from that experience: There was no tower, nor staff; just a landing strip and we would fly in - do our thing and then take off again. It was awesome... and i loved it, because we talk about america being the “land of the free” but we are really the “land of the regulated —special terms apply such as 1) are you rich enough to be free” But i really liked flying into that island in particular over Orcas due to how libre it felt.

nosianu 7y ago
As a private pilot flying in the US until the beginning of this millennium (then I moved away) - there are many, many such airports all over the country, that's nothing special. I landed at such airports even as a student pilot. Half Moon Bay airport, to be exact (student home airports were San Carlos and Palo Alto, so I was allowed to do that as a student, didn't even have to ask the instructor after getting the general approval for local solo flights). You even have "pilot-controlled lighting" to turn on runway lights if you arrive at night at some airports. Yes, such airports are a lot of fun. Some are nothing but a strip in the middle of nowhere. Each one has a frequency assigned and you announce yourself (or at least you are supposed to) when you come in to check if anybody else is there already, maybe even using the runway. For reference: "Non-Towered Airport Flight Operations" -- https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/AC_90-66B.pdf https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/... I found a number, the vast majority of airports is in this category: > There's a huge number of uncontrolled airports in the U.S. According to the FAA, there are 5,300 public-use airports. Out of that number, there are 500 that are controlled. [Mar 1, 2005 -- https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/article/uncontrolled-airports/]* https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/article/uncontrolled-airpor...
- JudgeWapner 7y ago
  What amazed me was learning that you can fly across country and never have to talk to ATC. I'm not sure on the details, I'm sure it's VFR, no class Bravo airspace, not sure about flight plan, but the fact that you can cruise around up there without ever announcing yourself or communicating with anyone is really surprising.

ggambetta 7y ago

> Paul was driven by an incredible curiosity his whole life. Even when we were just kids, he seemed to be interested in just about everything. I can identify with this. I've founded a gamedev company, taught Computer Graphics, and worked at Google and Improbable as a SWE; but in the middle of all this I wrote a novel, I recently quit my job to become an actor/filmmaker (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10232800 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10232800), and I really enjoy making Italian goodies on my free time (mostly biscotti, tiramisu, and limoncello). I'm also thinking of learning bookbinding / restoration, and how to draw and paint. I can't tell whether I'm "doing this right" -- and by "this", I mean "life". Sometimes I feel like I'm half-assing everything, and that I'd be better off laser-focusing on a single thing. Some of my friends have, and they're further along their careers (are they happier? I don't know). Sometimes I feel life is too short to not do what I feel passionate about. I'm 38 and I'm doing OK in life, but I feel like I haven't figured out what to optimise for. I have this lingering feeling that I could, and should, be doing better (for some vague definition of "better"). Sorry to bring a personal question to HN, but the article made me think about my situation, I can't think of a better crowd to get their opinion than this one.

wpietri 7y ago
I suggest you read David Epstein's recent book Range: https://www.amazon.com/Range-Generalists-Triumph-Specialized-World/dp/0735214484 https://www.amazon.com/Range-Generalists-Triumph-Specialized... His basic point is that our culture highly values the Tiger-Woods-style success story, where a person just beavers away at one thing their whole life. But there are a lot of successful people who specialize later or not at all. It definitely made me feel better about my similarly diverse resume, and has given me some good ways to think about what I want to pursue next.
- ggambetta 7y ago
  Thanks! Will read.
calewis 7y ago
You're not doing anything “right” neither is anyone else. That’s the beauty of life. Make the most of your freedoms and privilege, which it sounds you are and do things you love. Actually, I retract my original statement, it sounds like you’re having a great time. Don't let societal norms think that you have to live in any particular way.

Qworg 7y ago

I'm moved by what Bill said about Paul - in many ways, he was still the geeky guy on the teletype, ferociously well read, and driven not only to understand the world, but also to protect it and share it with others. I miss him.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

sytelus 7y ago

One thing I don’t understand is why both of these billionaires has named virtually every philanthropically effort after themselves by themselves while they were alive. It used to be the case that philanthropy was appreciated to be anonymous, or at least not outright ego boosters. It’s not that these billionaires would be forgotten if they didn’t insisted slapping their names on everything they funded. They are as it is massively ingrained in annals of humankind. If I was a billionaire and starting institute of cancer, for example, I would name it after unsung heros of the field who did not had billion dollars and sacrificed their entire lives without making buck only to benefit people, like, Faber Institute after Sydney Faber.

dwighttk 7y ago
“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
- dano 7y ago
  As we know the Rockefeller Foundation, three generations from now Allen may be similarly known. Paraphrasing Horace Mann, Allen certainly created more than a few small victories for mankind.
  - sytelus 7y ago
    Certainly we are thankful to him for cutting so many checks. However “funded” is better description than “created”. Creating something requires far more effort, time investment and expertise than giving someone sum of money.
GiorgioG 7y ago
Many people fear of being forgotten. Who cares what the name of the institute is if it helps people?
theturtletalks 7y ago
It the same with universities and their donors. Donors essentially give millions to get a building or college named after them. For example, at the University of Texas, the business school is named after McCombs, someone who didn't even finish graduating. And the med school is named after Dell, another dropout.

rjvehn 7y ago

"not really a team player, for some reason didn't want to be screwed by stock reappropriation when he was recovering from cancer."

gct 7y ago

Remember when Gates and Ballmer tried to screw Allen out of his shares because his productivity had gone down due to cancer? https://www.cnet.com/news/paul-allen-gates-ballmer-tried-to-rip-me-off/ https://www.cnet.com/news/paul-allen-gates-ballmer-tried-to-...

calewis 7y ago
Wow. Thanks for sharing, puts bill in a new light. Baller, to be expected.
- mixmastamyk 7y ago
  He only worked there a couple of years, and before MS got big. Did he really deserve the same cut as the other two (who worked for 30+) did? Maybe/not, but the question is valid.
  - kaesar14 7y ago
    Yeah I feel like this is an underrated point. Does being there at the early years of a company justify a cut of an unfathomable fortune that took the other partners many, many more years to fully form? It’s not so cut and dry, especially when we’re talking about the kind of fortune being fought over.
    - jacquesm 7y ago
      For an extension of that thought: does being there in the early days of a company justify a disproportionate cut compared to the people who then work for the company for the next thirty years?
    - erikpukinskis 7y ago
      If the other partners want more value in exchange for continuing to work for the company, they should negotiate for more shares in a dilution event. If they expected 30 years of service in the first place, then they should've put a 30 year vesting term on the shares from the start. There's no right answer, it really depends on what people want and negotiate for. I may expect to put in 5 years and then retire with whatever value we end up with. That's totally reasonable. Just because my partner decides at that point to keep working doesn't mean our deal is suddenly no longer valid. That's why I say, if you want to change the deal halfway through you need to get the board to issue more shares.

abecedarius 7y ago

Allen wrote an autobiography, and it's pretty good. About up there with Woz's, and I can't think of another Homebrew-era memoir as interesting.

nickgrosvenor 7y ago

Gates has become a real class act as he’s gotten older

matchagaucho 7y ago

My Dad spoke very highly of Paul. Bill and Paul were invited to BPA to program a PDP-10 computer to manage power station operations [1]. My Dad, a DEC Technician, would come home and say "There are a couple teenagers from Seattle programming the BPA mainframes." He then built a Heathkit home computer and taught me BASIC because "Paul and Bill can do it. So can you." [1] https://www.bpa.gov/news/newsroom/Pages/Legacy-computer-system-retires-after-keeping-the-lights-on-for-38-years.aspx https://www.bpa.gov/news/newsroom/Pages/Legacy-computer-syst...

Tharkun 7y ago

Being driven by curiosity is a wonderful thing. I don't know how he managed to keep it up his whole life, and I very much envy his ability to do so. In my case, I find my ability to act on curiosity to be waning as I get older. Commitments and general fatigue have started getting in the way. Here's to hoping there are more Paul Allens out there.

yo-scot-99 7y ago

> Paul was always good at seeing the big picture. This reminds me of a day at Asymetrix - a startup founded by Mr Allen. Somehow we got a very early incarnation of Mosaic and I remember showing everyone how to bounce over to each lab with just a click and what authoring in HTML meant. Asymetrix's main product at the time was Toolbook, essentially a Hypercard clone -- but this was obviously the future. Paul's reaction was muted but I think he knew "This is happening without us!"

flensortow 7y ago
I interviewed at Asymetrix at one point. They had the very strange idea they were going to take on Microsoft and Borland with their own C++ development system, which seemed to make no sense to me given the other things they were doing.

twsted 7y ago

I can’t see anything (iOS Safari).

xparco 7y ago

Was hoping this would mention his pedophile side...