Paul Allen is a cofounder of Microsoft. He is decidedly less known than the other cofounder: world’s riches man Bill Gates. This relative anonymity is primarily due to Allen’s unfortunate early retirement from Microsoft that was due to a serious illness. Nonetheless, he managed to continue a very active lifestyle over the past few decades, owning professional sports clubs, traveling the world in one of the largest private yachts ever built, contributing generously to various philanthropic organizations, and trying to influence the technology industry.

For me the most interesting part of this book were the early chapters, in particular the ones that dealt with his immersion into the nescient computer technology and the eventual founding of Microsoft. The geek in my gets really excited when reading about the early days of commercial computing. The limitations that the early enthusiasts had to work with seem mind-numbingly constricting. And yet, it’s exactly because of those limitations that the individual ingenuity and talent were able to shine and force programmers to come with very compact and efficient code.

Allen and Gates had met in high school, and from the outset they clicked and complimented each other. Their friendship, however, was also marked with a healthy dose of youthful rivalry and competitiveness. Eventually, their differences would drive them apart, both professionally and personally, but in those early days they spurred their creativity and enthusiasm. In Allen’s eyes, he was the “Idea Man” of this duo, while Gates was more in charge of the implementation. I am not sure what Bill’s take on that characterization would be, but I would guess that he wouldn’t quite concur with it.

The second part of the book deals primarily with Allen’s post-Microsoft adventures and interests. Allen became the owner of two professional sports teams – Portland Trailblazers and Seattle Seahawks. During the 1990s I was following NBA very closely, and Allen’s stories of Trailblazers success in those days brought back some fond memories. Allen is definitely enthusiastic about sports and the teams that he owns, and all of this comes through in his writing. However, this part of the book feels a bit self-indulgent. Allen is all too eager to name-drop and show off all of his great possessions and toys. This can get a bit overbearing at times.

Allen is not the world’s greatest writer. Many parts of this book feel raw and unpolished. However, in my opinion this just adds to the authenticity and charm of this book. It is refreshing to come across a public figure that does most of his memoir writing. Overall, this is a very interesting book with lots of insights and morsels of information. Even if you are not the biggest technology enthusiast you’ll be able to enjoy it.