back to article Is there anything left to ask Bill Gates? (Other than gissus a million?)

One of the things about being the world's richest man and also one of the most famous is that people tend to be interested in the minutiae of your life and in just about every thought you express. And so it is, with him recently hitting his 60th birthday, we are forced to ask: is there anything left to ask Bill Gates? On …

  1. wolfetone Silver badge
    Paris Hilton

    I've Got A Question For Him

    What is his opinion on making a cup of tea. Does the milk go in first, or the hot water?*

    * Hot water first, unless you like drinking crap tea.

    1. Ole Juul

      Re: I've Got A Question For Him

      One does not make tea with teabags. Period. And no milk. However, if one insists on being British, then I agree that the milk definitely goes in first.

      Yes, I'll certainly have a lot of minutiae to contribute about myself when I get to be interviewed like that about my life. Unfortunately I think I missed the boat - just realized Bill Gates is younger than I am. (And the first million is still nowhere in sight.)

      1. Dan Wilkie

        Re: I've Got A Question For Him

        Water first, milk used to have to go in first because of the poor quality porcelain we had - it would result in the cup cracking because (iirc) of the rapid temperature change. Those who were better off always had the hot water first because a) it makes a better cup of tea and b) they could afford good porcelain.

        Of course I now have to drink my tea luke warm in a plastic cup from a Mars vending machine because we're not allowed kettles anymore at work. So feel my pain.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I've Got A Question For Him

          "Of course I now have to drink my tea luke warm in a plastic cup from a Mars vending machine because we're not allowed kettles anymore at work. So feel my pain."

          Why are the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation spending money helping people in Africa when there are people right here suffering such inhuman conditions?!?

          1. Triggerfish

            Re: I've Got A Question For Him

            Milk first if one brews the tea in a pot, however for teabag and mug tea hot water first always to draw the flavour from the leaves, anyone who does otherwise is a filthy savage.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtK_vfp8po8

            1. Dan Wilkie

              Re: I've Got A Question For Him

              A fair point actually, it's been so long since I've had reason to use a tea pot that I'd forgotten about that use case!

    2. Fungus Bob
      Holmes

      Re: I've Got A Question For Him

      "What is his opinion on making a cup of tea"

      The chucked-from-the-Reg Timothy Worstall would say you should buy the tea pre-made. It's More Efficient that way.

    3. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

      Re: I've Got A Question For Him

      Does the milk go in first, or the hot water?

      This is a loaded question. The hot water goes in the teacup and the milk goes on your cereal.

  2. Wade Burchette

    My questions

    "Could you please convince the Microsoft brass to throw Windows 8 and Windows 10 in a sack, throw the sack in a safe, and hurl the safe into the sun? And could please convince Microsoft to make a Windows 11 that is exactly like Windows 7 -- complete with an Aero option, a proper backup, a working pre-boot F8 key*, and a customizable start menu organized into a hierarcy -- except with the performance enhancements of Windows 8 and nothing else? And when will Microsoft remove the 'no-right-to-sue' clause and 'Windows is licensed not owned' clause in the terms of the OS?"

    *(Who ever thought disabling a pre-boot F8 key should be smacked hard in the head every day for the rest of his life. I have seen several Win8 machines go into a pre-boot BSOD loop and would never go into automatic repair. You couldn't get into the UEFI to boot to a DVD because the key to enter was disabled unless you were in the recovery console, which you could not get into unless you successfully booted, which it would not do because of a problem. Removing the hard drive did not suddenly allow me to get into the UEFI console either.)

  3. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    I like the photo.

    1. BurnT'offering

      Re: I like the photo

      I'd like to ask him if that's the next Windows phone in the photo. If so, they've finally got the UI right and I can't wait till they use the same UI for the desktop

  4. Charles Manning

    Please....

    Dear MS

    Please leave the self driving cars to Google.

  5. Herby

    So he has an ASR33??

    It looks close to the same one in the 1973 picture. There are subtle differences, but it looks very interesting.

    p.s. Programming on an ASR33 will humble you very quickly. Everyone should do it once!

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: So he has an ASR33??

      "Programming on an ASR33 will humble you very quickly. Everyone should do it once!"

      Especially on the end of an acoustically coupled modem.

  6. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Stop

    I cannot agree with this

    "Eventually the software will understand what you should pay attention to by knowing the context and learning about your preferences."

    It is wrong to expect software to "learn our preferences" in order to manage our lives. Doing so means expecting human intelligence to abandon the concept of oversight, responsibility and planning, and just handing the decision-making to somebody's code.

    Instead, humans should learn to manage their stuff properly, to not frantically dive for the phone when they are already in face-to-face conversation with another human, and to LEAVE THE BLOODY THING ALONE when driving. That last point will, of course, be solved by self-driving cars - which means self-driving cars will become a reality given the massive amount of morons that simply cannot let go of their sexting tool.

    1. Kepler
      Go

      I cannot agree strongly enough!

      With Pascal Monett, that is.

      (And Wade Burchette as well, further above, for that matter.)

      Since about 1994, with the introduction of the ill-fated Microsoft Bob, and then with Windows 95 and every subsequent version of Office, the hallmark of Microsoft products has been this ill-conceived aim to produce software that "ANTICIPATES users' wishes". (Emphasis added. I believe I am quoting Gates himself, exactly or nearly exactly, from an interview he gave to promote Bob.) Why not just produce software that OBEYS users' wishes, and makes it as easy as possible for users to CONVEY their wishes to the goddam software?

      Unfortunately, the two goals appear to be at odds. I don't know whether this is intrinsic, but in EVERY implementation to date by Microsoft, at least, the software's efforts to divine our wishes before we are aware of them ourselves invariably get in the way, taking us farther away from what we want (at least temporarily), and interfering with our efforts to TELL the software what we want.

      (Even something as seemingly small as the software's insistence on responding to the mouse's POSITION — instead of waiting for a damn CLICK — gets in the way of accurate and efficient communication from user to program.)

      For all his undeniable genius, Bill has blind spots. He's still enamored of cartoon search dogs and talking paper clips as the wave of the future.

      Evidently the thought that "I can write a program for that!" has persistently blinded him to the question of whether or not "that" — whatever it is — is a thing worth having software do in the first place. His and his company's efforts to make computers easier for people who have NO idea AT ALL what they are doing have consistently made computers HARDER to use for people who DO know what they are doing.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    When will he stop his genocidal and other dark practices...?

    There's plenty to ask this wolf in sheep's clothing

    https://vactruth.com/2014/10/05/bill-gates-vaccine-crimes/

    Also is he working against humanity - see his investments in Monsanto - the most despised company on the planet

    http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2010/sep/29/gates-foundation-gm-monsanto

    1. BurnT'offering

      Re: When will he stop his genocidal and other dark practices...?

      Ahah - a vaccine nutter. Have you been vaccinated against science?

      Also - "the most despised company on the planet" I think you'll find that's Apple around these parts

      1. Triggerfish

        Re: When will he stop his genocidal and other dark practices...?

        I think you need to go to the site where they think all your magic thought bubbles appear on the ghost screen magically to be shared with everyone, if you think that opnion is correct.

        Cos y'know science & tech happens here.

      2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: When will he stop his genocidal and other dark practices...?

        " I think you'll find that's Apple around these parts"

        Not at present.

    2. Scott 53

      Re: When will he stop his genocidal and other dark practices...?

      The causal relationship between vaccines and autism is well established. People on the autistic spectrum are over-represented in areas such as scientific research, which leads to the conclusion that autism causes vaccines.

      1. Quinch
        Devil

        Re: When will he stop his genocidal and other dark practices...?

        Upvoted for SMBC reference.

  8. Schlimnitz

    Rich guy putting his money into atomic power research, when several states are bailing out.

    That alone makes me respect him.

  9. ukgnome

    Didn't any one ask him what he thought about Donald J Fart and his plan to get Bill to close of the internets?

  10. Blake St. Claire

    Does anyone really think he knows something we don't?

    Like when Microsoft stock might outperform a money market account (that barely pays 1%).

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Does anyone really think he knows something we don't?

      I dare you to do better.

      1. Blake St. Claire

        Re: Does anyone really think he knows something we don't?

        There are plenty of stocks doing better than MSFT. And better than a money market.

  11. Diodelogic

    A Story

    When I worked for Microsoft years ago, I had several occasions to meet Bill Gates at after-presentation lunches, and such. At one lunch, I saw him standing in the middle of a circle of middle-management-to-peon (like me) people, answering questions, all of which were tech or tech industry related. I walked through the circle--no one was closer than about six feet to him--shook hands with Bill, and asked him how he was doing. We chatted for a moment, then I asked how his wife was doing (pregnant with his first), if they knew the sex of the baby, and that sort of thing. I could see him switch gears, and he smiled as he answered my admittedly-personal questions.

    When I left him, I was inwardly pleased by the looks I got from the other people. Perhaps, like many others, they didn't really believe that Bill was human, with human feelings. Of course, they hadn't made much effort to find out...

  12. Kepler
    Boffin

    A Question about Economics and Taxation

    I have a question I would love to ask Bill G. Unfortunately, it is unlikely to be of interest to many others here besides myself. (At least unless Tim Worstall happens to browse the comment section of this article!)

    My question in a nutshell:

    Why does someone so good at and knowledgeable regarding economics and maths say such silly things about taxation? It's as if he knows nothing about the economics of taxation, or about general-equilibrium theory!

    Long-winded explanatory background:

    It is well and widely known that Gates is very good at maths, knows a lot of maths, and so on.

    Somewhat less widely known is that he also has an interest in economics. He occasionally reads books on the subject to this day, and — together with his friend Steve Ballmer — took a graduate econ class at Harvard. (I've forgotten whether Gates was in his Freshman or Sophomore year at the time, and whether it was the introductory graduate Micro course or the Mathematical Economics course for grad students.) He and Ballmer were the only undergraduates in the course, skipped nearly all the classes, crammed together for the final exam, and ended up getting the two highest grades in the class! (Gates was numero uno, and Ballmer numero two-o.)

    So why is he such a moron every time he holds forth publicly on the subject of taxation?

    It's not just that he says things I happen to disagree with. He's perfectly entitled to do that. The problem that causes so much cognitive dissonance for me is that the reasons why the things he says are all nonsense all follow directly from the study of taxes in a general- rather than a partial-equilibrium framework — something he, of all people, should be eminently equipped to understand, and ought to be at least passingly familiar with.

    Partial-equilibrium analysis is the study of equilibrium conditions in an individual market in isolation. General-equilibrium analysis is the study of equilibrium conditions for all markets simultaneously. It's much more complex, and therefore difficult, than partial-equilibrium analysis, but sometimes it's necessary, because interdependence effects across markets are too significant to be ignored.

    Thus, for example, if you are studying tariffs or excise taxes, and you want to know the effect of raising or lowering the rate of tax applied to one particular good (e.g., wheat), you just have to know what rate of tax is being applied to substitute goods that compete with the good in question (e.g., rice). If those other goods are untaxed, then even a tiny increase in the rate of tax applied to the given good will drive consumers to the substitute, and the tax won't raise diddly-squat in revenue. But if all goods are taxed at the same rate, then the market's behavioral response will be very different.

    Which is why general-equilibrium analysis is pretty-much universally employed by economists in the area of taxation, and has been ever since the seminal writings of Arnold Harberger starting approximately half a century ago.

    Now, the employment of a general-equilibrium approach to the economics of taxation has lots of important implications, and I'm not going to punish anyone who's still reading by trying to go into them all here. But one obvious example is that estate taxes and income taxes cannot be looked at in isolation. Not only are they connected, but the estate tax is in fact simply a special form of income tax!

    In modeling people's behavior over their lifetimes, it is common to treat them as having two motives to work, save and invest: They do it to obtain income they want to consume within their own lifetimes, or else they do it in order to accumulate wealth which they will then leave to their descendants (or whomever). The "bequest motive" is a common part of any analysis of people's responses to taxes over the course of their entire lifetimes. Two vital points come out of this:

    (1) A tax on bequests reduces the incentive to earn income in the first place! If people know in advance they can't leave it to their kids anyway, why bust your ass to earn it in the first place? Work just hard enough to make what you plan to consume before you kick off, and then stop.

    (2) A tax on bequests is a tax on income that has already been taxed! As such it is redundant, and therefore additive, and it typically tends to cause the cumulative rate of tax that ultimately is applied to income that is passed on to be far above revenue-maximizing levels. It's both unfair and an almost certain loser from a revenue-raising standpoint. Eliminate the estate tax and collections from all other taxes will go up over time, by more than the amount that is lost by no longer taxing inheritance.

    With his background in maths and in general-equilibrium theory — one of the main topics in any course on mathematical economics — Bill Gates ought to understand all this. And yet he obviously doesn't!

    His father has lobbied vigorously to have the federal estate tax in the United States not only preserved — in the face of efforts to abolish it — but increased sharply, and Bill has endorsed his father's efforts. Moreover, his close friend Warren Buffett also is opposed to leaving too much money to one's children, and he has influenced Gates as well. So on this topic, he is swayed by the non-economic views of his father and his current best friend, and all the economics he knows just goes out the window! What's up with that?

    Perhaps perversely, and certainly idiosyncratically, that is what I would want to ask Bill Gates if I were to have the chance to meet him!

    (Though I might strategically choose to discuss other topics of mutual interest first, in order to lay a foundation and establish a relationship before launching into my pet peeve.)

    1. Kepler
      Coat

      Re: A Question about Economics and Taxation

      I'd also probably avoid calling him a "moron", and try to be at least mildly diplomatic in my choice of words. Salesmanship, after all!

      (And I honestly believe he would be reachable, and happy to discuss the technical issues — including the many I had to gloss over in the interest of time and space.)

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Gates needs to know

    When Gates was CEO and used his control of Windows to destroy competing companies there were injuries and deaths.

    Does he care? Does he worry about justice?

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