Reddit’s AMA sessions (Ask Me Anything) always prove popular, and this is certainly true when there is a big name involved. Yesterday’s AMA included a very big name indeed: none other than Bill Gates. There were a huge number of questions put to the Microsoft founder, and he did his best to answer as many as possible. You can read through the thread in its entirety on Reddit but here are some of the highlights.
It shouldn’t really come as a surprise that Windows is cited as being Bill’s favorite Microsoft project, but concedes that “Office was also great.” There was understandably great interest in what his role at Microsoft is going to involve in the future. “I make sure we pick ambitious scenarios and that we have a strong architecture to deliver on them. I encourage good work (hopefully).”
He is also very excited about the cloud is going to become increasingly important in the coming years — this is something Microsoft has already shown itself to be keen to embrace with the likes of OneDrive and Office 365. Gates spoke about how the future will see greater sharing of data between devices: “I am excited about how the cloud and new devices can help us communicate and collaborate in new ways. The OS won’t just be on one device and the information won’t just be files – it will be your history including being able to review memories of things like kids growing up.”
Education is very important to Gates and his advice to everyone is to “invest in your education.” Education is something the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has invested in over the years and going forward he predicts the two thirds of his time will be dedicated to the foundation and on third to Microsoft.
During the AMA, Gates managed to steer away from especially controversial topics, but he did comment on NSA activity:
“This is a complex issue. Privacy will be increasingly important as cameras and GPS sensors are gathering information to try and be helpful. We need to have trust in the way information is protected and gathered. There is a role for the government to try and stop crime and terrorism but it will have to be more open. I do think terrorism with biological or nuclear weapons is something we want to minimize the chance of.”
Other interesting little snippets include the revelation that Gates is currently using a Surface 2 Pro (“which works well for me”) and that his guilty pleasure is owning a plane.
Did you take part in the AMA? Did you manage to get a question answered?
Further reading: Bill Gates, Microsoft
