Thursday, September 08, 2005

Scoble, Bill Gates, and geeks

I found myself enjoying this Robert Scoble interview with Bill Gates.

Scoble's questions struck me as somewhat half-assed, but Bill Gates talked about what he wanted to talk about and came across as deeply geeky. Bill displayed raw enthusiasm about the opportunities ahead of us in computer software.

An excerpt:
The dream of what a PC should be -- we're not there yet ... It's way too hard ... Software has not solved the tough problems ...

Machine learning, natural interface ... We're just touching the surface of it ... Software geeks are the people who get to make those breakthroughs.
Some of this was in response to a question about why, despite being a billionaire, Bill is still working. Bill is working because he loves to solve tough problems.

Some people just don't get this about geeks. We love to solve hard problems. We love the challenge. We love making things that are cool and help people. We build because we love to build.

It's a powerful motivator. It's why Vint Cerf and Louis Monier went to Google. It's why people like me do crazy startups like Findory. We geeks love to build.

After all these years and as huge as Microsoft has become, I was pleasantly surprised to see such geeky passion live on in Bill Gates.

[via Todd Bishop]

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