Physically Wang is a blend of his father and mother. He refuses to
consider which parent he was closer to. "They're so united that we never
thought of them as [two separate people] -- it's always sort of one."
After finishing the eighth grade at Incarnations, Wang went to Brooklyn
Technical High School. Like Sturvesant and the Bronx High School of Science,
Brooklyn Tech admits top students from public and private schools through
an entrance examination. Though he was a member of the math club at
Brooklyn Tech, Wang denies any aptitude or fondness for math and science.
"I don't know if you have aptitudes or if you get encouraged to do well and so
you do well. It's like a chicken and egg type of thing." His favorite subject
was art. His high school career was undistinguished. He was an average
student who graduated with a B-average. Nor was he active outside of
classes. "We played intramurals and things like that but I wasn't a member
of any of the teams."
By contrast, older brother Tony, who attended a private military school,
graduated number 2 in his class.
From an early age Wang's energies seem to have been focused on the
practical. He worked Thursday and Friday nights and all day Saturdays as a
stock clerk at the grocery store. Though he is reluctant to take credit in other
areas of his life, Wang offers no false modesty when it comes to his gifts as a
worker. His self-image is that of a hard-headed worker rather than a
brilliant scholar.
"I was the best store clerk, I was the best cashier," he says with real pride. "I
had to be the best. I worked harder. I worked faster. I put in a little more
effort. For example, I used to work Thursday night and Friday night. What
we did then was pack out the store. We put the new things on the shelf
getting ready for the weekend. In those days they didn't have the bar codes;
we had to stamp every can. You can do like everybody else -- look them up
in the big book [that has] the prices, or you get a little smarter and you said,
'There are some popular
items that sell all the time and they're the things we
pack out the most on Thursday and Friday night. Campbell's Cream of
Tomato Soup. That's two for 29.' I memorized those prices so I wouldn't
have to look [them] up. So I saved myself from da da da da. Little things,
you just gotta say, 'How can I make it better?' That's what makes the
difference.
"They used to say in the grocery store when I was a cashier, if you rang up
$1,500 in one line on a Saturday, you're pretty fast." Wang talks faster and
faster as he gets into his story. "So where did they spend most of the time?
One, looking for the prices, turning those cans up and down, and two, bagging
it. What if I took all the ice cream bags and opened [them] up first so I don't
have to [blow on them] trying to open them? If I opened up all of them once
[in advance] and then stacked them back up? If I opened up all of them once
[in advance] and then stacked them back up? If I just doubled all the bags
when I got in and stacked them all up, I don't have to stop and double each
bag. And since I pack out on Thursday and Friday nights, I know all the
p[rices of the popular items by heart. I did three laughs proudly at the
memory of that accomplishment. "It was fun. It was really a lot of fun."
[CONTINUED BELOW]
He gets the same kind of kick out of telling about how he used his head to
turn the drudgery of sorting mail at the post office into another exercise in
efficient systemization. "Maybe if I just rearranged these boxes. That route
one, which is really the most popular route, shouldn't be up in the upper left
hand corner just because it's numbered one. It should be right in the middle
because ten percent of all the mail for the 30 boxes go there anyway." With a
little tape he labeled all the boxes and rearranged them to his convenience.
Those early pieces of systems-engineering might be seen to contain the seeds
of Wang's later successes in developing computer software that squeezes the
most use out of existing computer hardware. Wang refuses to make any such
connection. He also poo-poohs the notion that his early work experiences
show a knack for systemization. "Maybe the outlook would be, whatever job
it is, however boring, if I can make it better or more interesting I would do a
better job at it. Okay?"
"Just care about it," he adds. "That's all. If you make it just sort of a robotic
job, you won't care and you'll screw it up anyway."
Wang worked more out of a desire for independence than necessity. By the
time he started at Queens College, a city college with a nominal tuition, the
family had moved out of the apartment and into a house. Throughout
college Wang continued to live at home. He majored in math and physics
but had little interest in his studies. As in high school he was too busy
working virtually full-time at the post office, the grocery store and Emery
Air Freight to get anything more than barely passing grades. "I wanted to
be more independent, I guess," he explains. "I also saved up for a car and
things like that. I just wanted to do it my way." Mainly, he was impatient
with the entire academic experience and was eager to make his way in the
real world. His background in math and physics proved to be "not at all"
helpful in his career, he claims. By contrast, Tony continued to be a
first-rate student, entering Yale, then Cornell Law School.
After four years of marking time Wang graduated in 1967. "I barely
graduated," he says with a show of utter indifference. "I didn't like school. I
thought it was a waste of time. I wanted to get out and get out fast." He
contained his impatience just long enough to get the degree that he looked
upon as the key to the door of opportunity. To this day he gives little
weight to one's grades in school. "That's not one of the important things in
life, it really isn't. I think it's been said that A students always teach. It's
the C students who really do something that matters in this world in the
sense of enterprise or a business."
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