March 28, 2005

Bill Gates' Reading Week

In Secret Hideaway, Bill Gates Ponders Microsoft's Future

I've heard about Bill Gates' "reading week" for years, but what I'd heard was that he saved up books and anything else he wanted to read, and went to town on those. Made me a bit jealous: first, that he could take a week twice a year to do nothing but read, and second, that he had the fortitude to hold off reading but for two weeks a year, and third, that he had the stamina to read everything he wanted to read in just two weeks a year.

Thank god for this article before I tried it myself. (Can you just imagine this? A guy, sprawled on his back over a coffee table, eyes blurry from all the eyeball strain, drooling from the glut of information, with books piled over him, around him, below him -- and one hand stretching outward weakly towards a TV Guide lying unopened on the ground?... OK, so you can't. Never mind.)

Gates takes a week to read papers from Microserfs twice a year. Now, that's still a pretty big effort -- around 100 in a week, which, given that they can be as long as 120 pages, is still pretty good -- but it's nice to read the actuality of a net rumor, rather than let my imagination run wild.

Posted by Ted Stevko at March 28, 2005 01:42 PM | TrackBack