Nickname(s) Quiet Lion Title(s) None Bracelet(s) None Name Richard Brodie | Money finish(es) 5 Role Computer programmer | |
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Books Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme, Getting past OK, The Anagrammed Bible Similar People Charles Simonyi, Brian Behlendorf, Bill Gates, Alan Cooper, Zak Penn | ||
Highest ITMMain Event finish None | ||
Richard Reeves Brodie (born November 10, 1959) is an American computer programmer and author. He was the original creator of Microsoft Word. After leaving Microsoft, Brodie became a motivational speaker and authored two bestselling books.
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Early life
Brodie was born in Newton, Massachusetts, the older son of Mary Ann Brodie and Richard Brodie, a child psychologist. He graduated from Newton South High School and entered Harvard College in the fall of 1977 concentrating in applied mathematics with an emphasis on computer science. Brodie left Harvard after his sophomore year and moved to Palo Alto, CA to work for Xerox Corporation's Advanced Systems Division (ASD), where he met Charles Simonyi and helped develop the Bravo X word processor for the Alto computer. Simonyi became a mentor to Brodie while at Xerox and took Brodie with him when he moved to Microsoft in 1981.
Microsoft
Simonyi hired Brodie in 1981 as Microsoft's 77th employee, and a founding member of the Microsoft Application Division.
Brodie distinguished himself at Microsoft by creating the first version of Microsoft Word in less than seven months. In addition to primary authorship of Microsoft Word, Brodie wrote Microsoft's first C compiler, the original version of Notepad, and Word for the IBM PC Jr.
Brodie's success as a programmer brought him to the attention of Bill Gates, who made Brodie his technical assistant in 1983. Brodie's primary accomplishment as Gates's assistant was the management of the Cashmere project, which would be released as Word for Windows. Brodie left Microsoft after the company went public in 1986, but returned in 1991 as Chief Software Designer and Lead Developer of the Omega project, which would be released as Microsoft Access in 1992. He left Microsoft again in 1994.
After leaving Microsoft
Between his stints at Microsoft, Brodie embarked upon a personal self-improvement quest. He took numerous courses and participated in retreats, looking for an answer to the question of "why money and success didn’t make me happy." He wrote about his experience in his first book, Getting Past OK: The Self-Help Book for People Who Don’t Need Help, first published in 1993. The book became a regional bestseller and was republished by Warner Books. Brodie followed Getting Past OK with Virus of the Mind in 1995. Virus of the Mind explored the new field of memetics, but from a practical point of view. Hay House bought the rights to both books and currently publishes them. Both books are in print in many languages worldwide.
Brodie's books and the subsequent book tours landed him interviews on both The Oprah Winfrey Show and Phil Donahue.
Poker player
Apart from his careers as a programmer and author, Brodie has found creative ways to integrate his love of sports and games into his professional life. In 2003 he joined the professional poker circuit. He has finished in the money in five World Series of Poker events and six World Poker Tours. Until Black Friday, he played as a Full Tilt Poker pro under the screen name Quiet Lion. He appeared on NBC's game show Identity and played himself in the movie The Grand.
Brodie currently resides in Kirkland, Washington.