Saturday, June 02, 2007

Two Pals Who Changed the World, and Particularly, My Life

1996 was the most important year in my life so far - That year I wrote my first program in Pascal and I read a book called "The Road Ahead". Before reading that book, I had no idea who Bill Gates was (He was 8000+ miles away and I was 15 anyway). I had trouble imagining what Internet was like because all I cared was downloading games from local BBS - but I was certain about one thing: I want to be working in the computer industry. Two years later, a friend of mine, Carpier, showed me a B-grade movie called "Pirates of Silicon Valley" and Wow. Now I know there's one more person in the computer industry and his name is Steve Jobs.

Yesterday, sitting in front of the computer alone at the heart of Silicon Valley, an old friend of mine sent me a link to the D5 conference and it was the happiest moment of my life in this year so far - It was amazing to see Bill Gates and Steve Jobs made another rare joint. And unlike the 1997 joint appearance, where they announced the reestablishment of partnership, this time they talk like nostalgic old pals:
The entire session was soft and to me, quite touching. Steve closed the interviewed by saying, "I just think about being able to get up every day and go in and hang around these great people and hopefully create something that other people will love as much as we do. And if we can do that, that’s great. People say you have to have a lot of passion for what you’re doing and it’s totally true. And the reason is because it’s so hard that if you don’t, any rational person would give up. It’s really hard. And you have to do it over a sustained period of time."

I am really glad that I am in the same industry as these two great people. Being a software engineer is the greatest pleasure in my life.

posted by hkisgood at 2:50 PM

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