Richard Reeves Brodie (born November 10, 1959) is an American computer programmer and author. He is an original creator of

Microsoft Word Microsoft Word is a word processor, word processing software developed by Microsoft. It was first released on October 25, 1983, under the name ''Multi-Tool Word'' for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other pla ...

. After leaving Microsoft, he became a motivational speaker and authored two bestselling books.

Biography

Early life

Brodie was born in

Newton, Massachusetts Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is approximately west of downtown Boston. Newton resembles a patchwork of thirteen villages, without a city center. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the population of Ne ...

, the elder son of Mary Ann Brodie and Richard Brodie, a child psychologist. He graduated from

Newton South High School Newton South High School is one of two public high schools in the city of Newton, Massachusetts, United States, the other being Newton North. History and student life By the late 1950s, Newton's sole public high school, Newton High, grew to 3,00 ...

and entered

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

in the fall of 1977, concentrating in applied mathematics with an emphasis on computer science. He left Harvard after his sophomore year and moved to

Palo Alto, CA Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was estab ...

to work for Xerox Corporation's Advanced Systems Division (ASD), where he met

Charles Simonyi Charles Simonyi (; hu, Simonyi Károly, ; born September 10, 1948) is a Hungarian-American software architect. He started and led Microsoft's applications group, where he built the first versions of Microsoft Office. He co-founded and led Int ...

and helped develop the Bravo X word processor for the Alto computer. Simonyi became a mentor to Brodie at Xerox and took him along when he moved to

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...

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

in less than seven months. In addition to primary authorship of Microsoft Word, he wrote Microsoft's first C compiler, the original version of

Notepad A notebook (also known as a notepad, writing pad, drawing pad, or legal pad) is a book or stack of paper pages that are often ruled and used for purposes such as note-taking, journaling or other writing, drawing, or scrapbooking. History ...

, and Word for the IBM PC Jr. Brodie's success as a programmer brought him to the attention of

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...

, who made Brodie his technical assistant in 1983. Brodie's primary accomplishment as Gates's assistant was the management of the Cashmere project, which was 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 was released as

Microsoft Access Microsoft Access is a database management system (DBMS) from Microsoft that combines the relational Access Database Engine (ACE) with a graphical user interface and software-development tools (not to be confused with the old Microsoft Access ...

in 1992. He left Microsoft again in 1994.

After leaving Microsoft

Between his stints at Microsoft, Brodie embarked on a self-improvement quest, taking numerous courses and participating in retreats, seeking an answer to "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. It became a regional bestseller and was republished by

Warner Books Grand Central Publishing is a book publishing imprint of Hachette Book Group, originally established in 1970 as Warner Books when Warner Communications acquired the Paperback Library. When Time Warner sold their book publishing business to Hachet ...

. He followed it with ''Virus of the Mind'' (1995), which explored the new field of memetics from a practical point of view.

Hay House Hay House is a publisher founded in 1984 by author Louise Hay, who is known for her books on New Thought. Hay House has its headquarters in Carlsbad, California, and is (as of 2018) run by Reid Tracy. Hay House descr ...

bought the rights to both books and currently publishes them in many languages worldwide. Brodie spoke about his books on ''

The Oprah Winfrey Show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', often referred to as ''The Oprah Show'' or simply ''Oprah'', is an American daytime syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicago, Illinois. Produced ...

'' and ''

Phil Donahue Phillip John Donahue (born December 21, 1935) is an American media personality, writer, film producer and the creator and host of ''The Phil Donahue Show''. The television program, later known simply as ''Donahue'', was the first talk show forma ...

''.

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 The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Paradise, Nevada and, since 2004, sponsored by Caesars Entertainment. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best-known poker p ...

events and six World Poker Tours. Until Black Friday, he played as a

Full Tilt Poker Full Tilt Poker is an Irish online poker card room and online casino that opened in June 2004. Formerly privately owned by Tiltware, LLC and later by the Rational Entertainment Group, the site was acquired by The Stars Group (then known as Amaya ...

pro under the screen name Quiet Lion. He appeared on NBC's game show ''

Identity Identity may refer to: * Identity document * Identity (philosophy) * Identity (social science) * Identity (mathematics) Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Identity'' (1987 film), an Iranian film * ''Identity'' (2003 film), ...

'' and played himself in the movie '' The Grand''. Brodie currently resides in Kirkland, Washington.

Writings

* ''Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme'', Hay House, 2004. * ''Getting Past OK: The Self-Help Book for People Who Don't Need Help'', Hay House, 2009.

References

External links

Meme Central Richard Brodie's website

Lion Tales - Richard Brodie's blog

Richard Brodie's poker biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brodie, Richard American bloggers American computer programmers American motivational speakers American motivational writers American poker players Microsoft employees Living people Writers from Kirkland, Washington 1959 births 21st-century American non-fiction writers People from Newton, Massachusetts Harvard College alumni Newton South High School alumni