

Bill Gates's Playboy Interview (1994) - omaranto
http://www.playboy.com/articles/bill-gates-playboy-interview/index.html

======
Jun8
This interview is gold in so many different ways. Of course, there's the
predictions that are laughable now:

>We are involved in a new generation of fax machines that we think will be
better and easier to use. And a generation of screen phones [a standard phone
with a minicomputer] in which the typically cryptic buttons are replaced with
a graphics interface. And in the home environment, something you can carry in
your pocket called the Wallet PC.

>PLAYBOY: In your pocket?

>GATES: It's a futuristic device unlike today's personal digital assistants.

But it also shows the human side of Gates (his family nickname is Trey) and
how really intelligent and quick he is. A lot of clueless people think he's
just a corporate raider, incomparable to Jobs, they're quite wrong. I've heard
many stories from my friends at Microsoft about him interacting directly with
engineers, asking very sport on questions. Believe me, this kind of thing is
rare in some other tech companies, where MBA types rule. Not many people could
have handles an interview like this one.

I also remembered once again how good the articles and fiction on Playboy used
to be. Yea, yea, "I read it for the articles" is a common joke, but do you
realize that many top writers, including Oates, Updike, Nabokov, and (this
seemed incredible) Borges have published stories there?

~~~
vecter
I can't tell if you're being sarcastic about his prediction, but I'll give you
the benefit of the doubt and assume you are :)

As for Bill Gates being a "smart guy", he's actually a brilliant guy, in the
math sense: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1420612>

~~~
apu
It's not just in the math sense. Everyone I know who's met him (including some
of the very smartest people I know) have been very impressed by his ability to
quickly grasp the fundamentals and even the minor consequences of a particular
idea or action.

------
bmalicoat
> Say you want to watch a movie. To choose, you'll want to know what movies
> others liked and, based on what you thought of other movies you've seen, if
> this is a movie you'd like. You'll be able to browse that information. Then
> you select and get video on demand. Afterward, you can even share what you
> thought of the movie.

One of the founders of Netflix definitely had a subscription to Playboy.

~~~
patrickaljord
Or Lastfm.

------
alanh
> PLAYBOY: What's your problem with [the Apple Newton]?

> GATES: It was supposed to do handwriting recognition. But based on the
> initial product, people are skeptical about whether handwriting recognition
> really works. They did some nice technical work on the product.
> Unfortunately, it's not a useful device as far as I'm concerned, so it'll
> probably set the category back.

Gates, in the article, also described wallet-size pocket computers that, he
hoped, would serve also as keyless entry systems, ticket stub replacements,
etc. It’s up to the reader to wonder if his reaction to the Newton was
partially disappointment to its lack of physical-world interactions/value,
partially the competitive mindset, and/or really due to distaste for its
handwriting recognition.

Of course, the Win CE / PocketPC line is susceptible to a lot of the same
criticisms.

* * *

I find it interesting how much Gates talks about people ascribing certain
motives and goals to him, Microsoft, Disney, and other companies. He says
really, they are responding to competition and customers. Pretty much the
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_attribution_error>

This is part of why corporations can be so dangerous: not that they are evil,
but that they aren’t guided by morality as much as simply responding to
environments in potentially harmful ways.

* * *

(Aside: Boy is it weird reading articles on Playboy.com. Here's something for
the intellect, dear reader; may we up-sell you on some pornography? Thank
goodness for the Readability bookmarklet. At least in the magazine — I
understand — the articles get pages to themselves!)

~~~
gaius
Hence the visceral hatred of corporations from some quarters - a corporation
is a mirror of society. People may say they want mom'n'pop stores, but they
shop at Walmart, for example. How people choose to spend their own money
reveals the truth about what they believe. Some don't like that being held up
for the world to see.

------
sprout
>GATES: The idea of how you run software development properly is not something
you can capture in a few sentences. It's how you hire people, organize people,
how you plan the spec, how you let it change, how you do the testing, how you
get feedback from customers. IBM's only real software success had been with
mainframes, where they were the only choice. Consequently IBM didn't develop
those processes very well.

>PLAYBOY: Could that be happening to Microsoft now? In terms of corporate
power, your company has been called the new IBM.

>GATES: I've thought about that, but I don't think so.

I'd like to hear his answer to that from 2000, 2005, and today. I feel like
most people would agree Microsoft has fallen victim to a similar lack of
bureaucratic vision.

------
samg
Interesting that in 1994 6.1 billion made you the second richest man in the
country. And that Microsoft's $25 billion market cap is compared with Kodak.

------
alexitosrv
That's one of the best interviews made to Mr. Gates I had ever read. The
interviewer was knowledgeable enough to ask right questions and the style was
great. Nice to see that in perspective.

~~~
Kluny
I couldn't find a byline on the article, but I have a feeling the Playboy
interviewer was this guy: [http://www.amazon.com/Art-Interview-Lessons-Master-
Craft/dp/...](http://www.amazon.com/Art-Interview-Lessons-Master-
Craft/dp/1400050715/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277663063&sr=1-3-spell) .

That book is an excellent read. It kind of startled me to discover that one of
the best interviewers I've ever read worked for Playboy. I guess it really is
worth reading "for the articles"?

~~~
Anon84

        We sent Contributing Editor David Rensin to Redmond to 
        speak with Gates. Rensin, who wrote our Bill Gates 
        profile in 1991, reports:"

------
dylanz
OT: I'm on 8th street in Bellevue today, and I swear Bill pulls up right next
to me at the stop light. I shout, "Whoa! Bill Gates!"... and my 5 year old
says. "I don't know Bill Gates". A chip off the ol' block :)

~~~
zandorg
I once read (in maybe 2003) that Bill Gates stopped his limo downtown in some
slum and was boasting to some rough 'homeys' about being the richest man in
the world. His PA told him to get back in the car as he was in danger.

I just wish I could find the original story but it's gone offline now.

~~~
pgbovine
uhhhh that seems incredibly unlikely to me, given his public persona, at
least. i can't imagine how a man who started the Gates Foundation would ever
do such a thing.

~~~
zandorg
I read it a while back from a gossipy book review, so it must be true (don't
shoot the messenger). I think it was some time in 1990, a long long time ago.
As I said, it was a story from a book about Bill Gates.

------
10ren
Interesting point: _What was the first microcomputer software company?
Microsoft._

But both these were third-generation copies: _And who were we imitating when
we did Microsoft Word? When we did Excel?_

------
d_c
I'm not a native speaker, so here it goes:

What's up with the raspberries?

~~~
jdale27
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowing_a_raspberry>

