CNN / Fortune answers the Bill Gates question that no one asked

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

How I Work: Bill Gates

Not much of a paper chase for Microsoft's chairman, who uses a range of digital tools to do business.
Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect, Microsoft, U.S.A.

April 7, 2006: 5:17 PM EDT



http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/30/news/newsmakers/gates_howiwork_fortune/index.htm?cnn=yes

NEW YORK (FORTUNE) - It's pretty incredible to look back 30 years to when Microsoft (Research) was starting and realize how work has been transformed. We're finally getting close to what I call the digital workstyle. If you look at this office, there isn't much paper in it. On my desk I have three screens, synchronized to form a single desktop. I can drag items from one screen to the next. Once you have that large display area, you'll never go back, because it has a direct impact on productivity.

The screen on the left has my list of e-mails. On the center screen is usually the specific e-mail I'm reading and responding to. And my browser is on the right-hand screen. This setup gives me the ability to glance and see what new has come in while I'm working on something, and to bring up a link that's related to an e-mail and look at it while the e-mail is still in front of me.

At Microsoft, e-mail is the medium of choice, more than phone calls, documents, blogs, bulletin boards, or even meetings (voicemails and faxes are actually integrated into our e-mail in-boxes).

I get about 100 e-mails a day. We apply filtering to keep it to that level—e-mail comes straight to me from anyone I've ever corresponded with, anyone from Microsoft, Intel, HP, and all the other partner companies, and anyone I know. And I always see a write-up from my assistant of any other e-mail, from companies that aren't on my permission list or individuals I don't know. That way I know what people are praising us for, what they are complaining about, and what they are asking.

[Redstone]

1. Uh-huh. Anyone ever see any OTHER "paperless office" besides his?

Remember how were all going ot have "paperless offices?"

I've never seen one. You?

Redstone

[unblock]

3. actually, i generate very little paper.

most of the paper i have is from clients and lawyers sending us paper.
we always go back to them and as for the electronic version so we can search and so on.

the most i generate really is the occassional post-it or back of a business card for notes.

[Cooley Hurd]

4. Actually, I see them every day...

My company specializes in "paperless medical offices." They're exceedingly efficient, and the employees are happy with the automation...

[Der Blaue Engel]

6. I'm a web editor

The more work I do online, and the more e-mails I receive, the more paper I generate. I can't afford (or wring out of my employer) a large enough display to avoid eye-strain while working online, so I have to print everything out.

And everything our website offers online, some consultant insists on having in print to give to his/her clients, because it's "more professional" and "prettier."

[unblock]

2. ROFL: a ringing endorsement of microsoft windows: get 3 screens.

back in my unix days, i would easily have 4 or more windows open on the same screen.
x even had some windows managers that let you have virtual rooms, so you could have multiple screens and flip between them.

excellent and very convenient.

but there's something about the microsoft windows implementation that makes this impractical or at least less convenient as a default. i make all my screens full size and flip between them. only when i am actively working on two things at once might i shrink them so i can see two windows at once. it's very annoying given that i what i could easily do in unix 20 years ago.

it sounds like gates recognizes the problem and frankly isn't bothered by it, he just uses the same solution as i do, one window per screen. he just can afford more monitors than i can....

[Cooley Hurd]

5. Multiuser, multitasking...

...long before Gates sprouted his first pubic hair! (I'm an old Unix guy, myself... ;))