Idea Man: A Memoir by the co-founder of Microsoft
Paul Allen
(Portfolio-Penguin, Rs. 499)
Paul Allen is one of the wealthiest people in the world. A well-known philanthropist, he co-owns professional sport teams (a soccer team included), chairs a Brain Institute, owns oversized yachts, and is exploring the arena of commercial space flight. He is listed among the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine. He plays music with friends — U2's Bono, The Band's Robbie Robertson and Dave Stewart — and produces movies with Martin Scorsese.
And how did Allen make his billions needed to indulge in all the adventure and philanthropy? Simply by co-founding Microsoft with Bill Gates. Though he walked out of the arrangement owing to ill health, Allen continues to have a strong connect with Gates and Microsoft.
In this book, which many feel ‘was long overdue,' Allen sets the record straight about his past. He alternately praises Gates, saying he's “everything you'd want from a friend, caring and concerned,” and lambasts him for his “mercenary opportunism.”
Dave Stewart writes: “Paul is a true adventurer… and his ideas have helped shape the world we live in”, while Peter Gabriel says, “ …Whether it's a … personal computer, exploring sea and space or the human brain, Paul's natural curiosity will always guide him into uncharted waters.” Those words, in a way, hint at what one can look for between the covers of Allen's recall.
Twitchhiker
Paul Smith
(Jaico Books, Rs. 295)
What makes this book interesting is that Paul Smith, a journalist, travelled all the way to New Zealand from his home in Newcastle without buying a single ticket along the way. Twitchhiker, as Paul is known, made the 11,000-mile trip using donations from people who use the social networking site Twitter.
He gave himself 30 days to complete the journey, without spending a single penny on so much as a taxi. And in the process, he also managed to raise money for a charity.
This book is a mile-by-mile recount of that challenging and fascinating trek which, in Paul's words, “showed that kindness is universal and that… the social media may begin online but it will converge with the real world whenever and wherever you let it.”
Bad Ideas? An Arresting History of Our Inventions
Robert Winston
(Bantam Books, Rs. 425)
Robert Winston, professor of Science and Society at Imperial College, provides a list of examples to suggest that “for every act of creation and innovation there exists the potential for our undoing.” So, farming may feed the millions but has led to new diseases; antibiotics can both kill and cure; and literacy and zealotry are two sides of the same coin.
Matter of fact and rational, Winston provides useful tips for anyone who may have abandoned scientific study when young and grew up wondering why they knew hardly anything about what makes the world go round. ‘Bad Ideas?' assesses the past and the opportunities of the future, and, in the process, celebrates man's extraordinary capacity to achieve greatness.
(COMPILED BY SAVITHA GAUTAM)
