jesus h christ...

can't believe it took me this long to finally read this. worth every minute.

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Excellent book

Don’t pay attention to the negative reviews. This book was open and great to listen to. I admire Mr Allen.

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Best autobiography

There is far more to Paul Allen's story then "just" co-founder of Microsoft. His multi-faceted interests span life. Told in a compelling, yet intimate voice, this is the most interesting autobiography I have ever read.

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an interesting journey

Two part book. First, an inside look at the journey of a curious kid from his days mixing household chemicals in the basement through his co-founding and eventual departure from Microsoft. Second, a primer on how not to go shopping after hitting the jackpot.
Sadly, no mention of the egregious "patent troll" behavior by Vulcan, especially on small and growing tech start-ups.

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Pretty good

This biography was a mixed bag. The parts about Allen's relationship with Bill Gates before Microsoft, and about his time working at Microsoft, were great. It really makes you realize how intergel Microsoft was at the time. They were involved with so much, listening to Allen talk about it was almost like reading Fire In The Valley. It was like hearing a complete early history of personal computers. When Allen finishes talking about Microsoft he gives his take on the computer industry, and it's pretty awesome to hear his perspective on the industry today. I really enjoyed these parts of the book. With that said, the beginning, before Allen meets Gates, and the parts about owning a basketball team and the non-tech investments he made after Microsoft were incredibly boring. I couldn't take it and ended up skipping these chapters. Finally near the end he starts talking about his tech investments. This part wasn't bad, but his involvement with his tech investments are never as interesting as his involvement with Microsoft. It really makes you wonder if he was as passionate about these investments as he was about Microsoft. Overall I'd say if you're into tech like I am then reading this is a no-brainer... you'll just end up skipping the boring parts like me. The parts I mentioned that were interesting are well worth the price tag.

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Paul Allen was a great man

Living in the northwest we’ve known of Allen for years as the Trailblazers owner. Also the cofounder of Microsoft. What I didn’t know was how he used his wealth for much good. Contrast that with our billionaire president who thinks that wealth qualifies a person to high esteem just by having wealth alone. Allen had character.

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Whole lotta of nothing

empty. weak. shallow. looking for more adjectives to describe the loss of the credit I used to buy this book

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The part about Microsoft is good

Any additional comments?

Great account of Microsoft's early years. Too bad it is only a third of the book. The rest is about Allen's other activities, which are not so interesting.

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Paul seems impressed with himself

I think what you get from this book if you read between the lines is that Paul was no different than any other engineer of the era, but was at the right place at the right time, but didn't have the true ambition that a gates or steve jobs did. But he got rich and cashed out. He fancies himself as something extraordinary from a technology standpoint but was really just a competent engineer.

But he got lucky and got rich... And is quite impressed with himself and how when you have billions of dollars you can buy friends and experiences.

great story about Paul allen

this is his auto biography. it starts in his youth ang goes thru his Microsoft years in to his later life. he talks about his investments, his music, meeting celebrities, making and losing money, traveling the world, his illness and his philanthy.
I was impresses by his mind and diversity..