Diary

SUN MAY 4 '86

[8:00] Meg calls, wants to buy car.

[8:30] Back to bed

9:00 Get up, shower, dress, eat

10:00 Mom calls. Vacation in June.

10:30 Put away Silicon Valley Guide and some other books I probably won't read. Reorganize living room books in conjuction w/ den books.

*** Major idea is that I'm less interested in business now that I have some money. This includes

management

negotiation

investing

selling out

what HBS didn't teach me

guides to entrpreneuring

guides to consulting

games, esp. chess

And I'm more interested in fundamental philosophy + math, and technology:

Braun

Fourth Gen Languages

[Prolag]

Alan Turing

CD-ROM

But I'm still going to read "The Class" + "Breed + Glose on W.St." just for fun, not to apply it.

Go through old magazines, catalogs, and reorganize + discard a lot.

11:30 Read rest of Turing, Chap. 6 *

3:15 Go to gym.

Pat Yearby is there. Such a cuddle bear (friendly[?])

5:45 Go home. [Tla]. Make + eat dinner. Bob calls Go help him settle accrounts. Bring computer home + [fael] it so it prints out report for April I, ie. before it moves ahead to May.

9:00 Go to see "Room with a view" with Maggie Smith. Go home.

12:15 To bed

MON MAY 5 '86

8:00 Get up. Shower, dress, eat Call Bob. Unpack [cou'd] casserole. Back up his disks. Take our monthly disk to bank. Bring home January Archive + erase Stop at grocery for office food. Write up yesterday afternoon - [New]. Quickly read WSJ

11:00 Go to work via Bob's office: pick up mgt books.

7:15 Come home. Make + eat dinner. [Scribbled out] Talk w/ Mom + Dad ~ Meg's loan. Watch part of 16 candles.

9:00 Read Infoworld. 10:00 Read "Counterpoint". Yawn. 10:30 Go to bed.

WED APRIL 9 '86

8:30 Two main thoughts to write up:

1) The work at Microsoft is interesting to me. I find that peoples perception + interaction with a product is what interests me most. In work's spreadsheet, all of the underlying code is being done by others, so I don't have to worry about math, functions, structure, manipulation, etc. MY JOB IS COMMUNICATING WITH THE USER.

One reason I left languages was that my work isn't visible except to programmers. Works is used by financial people + what the see is my work.

I'M INTERESTED IN PERCEPTION.

2) As long as Microsoft is willing to pay me to do something interesting and challenging but not too tough, why should *I spend time on non-paying things, even if they are interesting too, like negotiating, infinity, etc.?* And I definitely have a lack of retention in some reading, so it certainly is a waste of time to watch or read, and not remember, and have no achievement from it.

KEY: THE ANSWER TO THIS LAST QUESTION IS THAT I HAVE LIMITED TIME IN THIS LIFE, AND I WANT TO USE IT WELL, CHOOSE ACCORDINGLY. * Negotiating seems much less important than infinity, or Turing's biography.

CONCLUSION: TAKING 1+2 TOGETHER

I feel I should concentrate on human interface issues and develop further ideas learned from working on visuals. I started in languages, and then I designed the sort language (refined it anyway), and designed a good accounting interface, and now I'm learning about a good sheet interface.

BUT OTHER THINGS I WANT TO DO:

Read books on languages

- Forth Gen - ISP, Prolog, ADA, etc.

Finish Infinity

Finish Turing

Read ~ Brain with PERCEPTION in mind and interfaces

9:00 Go to chiropractors, but he's running late, so just read WSJ

9:30 Go to work

10:00 Schedule meeting

11:00 Work on Draw Cells proc.

1:00 Lunch at Bellevue Seafood.

2:00 Shop for swimsuits

3:00 Work on Draw Cells more

6:15 Go home. Make + eat dinner

7:30 Tan + listen to Strausfest

8:15 Go Home.

Wash sheets + one load of clothes.

Do mail. Pay some bills.

9:30 Last half of Dynasty.

Preparation for review of mid May '86 (4/18/86)

Pink is personal stuff [p]

Because this review may no just slide by like ones I've had in the past, I decided to write up a page on each of the following periods.

Aug 17 '85 - Dec 31 '85

JAN

FEB

MAR 1-16

MAR 17-31

April has been a stable working month now that Microsoft has moved + I've finished getting settled. Microsoft has gone public. I've resolved AMT + filed taxes. I've nixed buying a boat.

What have I learned since Nov 16 '85? (5 months ago)

Features of Mac Excel + Mouse works

Testing strategy

Flow of control between Windows + WIMP

SYMDEB

123 features, "123 Simplified"

"Excel is business" throught Chop 8

Importance of spreadsheet to my affairs.

[p] Rent vs buying, for house/boat/car [p]

Studied Excel Display draw row code; Quickdraw vs Windows

Pcode environment: very stack oriented

Networking + SLM; esp. after moving

8086 adressing instructions, memory mgt., huge pointers

QB2 (char-based windows) vs Windows (esp. for WP)

Works BASIC App.

Works Marker Research + Design

Study Plan 2.00 display code, mapping it. What is pcode, what is native

Study PC char mode, colors (via a PC pers. acct.) CGA with greenscreen

Start to code - learn how to fit my stuff into Basic App.

Memory Mgt in plan 1.00, 1.2, 2.00 and Mac Excel