-What's your worst fear?-I don't want my brain to stop working.
Quotes:
「A key advantage I had was being fanatical, that is taking all my capabilities day and night and just focusing on, 『OK, how do I write good software? I didn’t believe in weekends. I didn’t believe in vacation.」 — Bill Gates
「I』ve been with him on vacation and he』ll read 14 books. That’s a gift, to read 150 pages an hour. I’m gonna say it’s 90 percent retention. Kind of extraordinary.」 — Bernie Noe, a friend.
「He is on time to the minute, every single meeting without fail. Time is the one commodity that he can’t buy more of. It’s a limited resource. It’s finite. He’s got the same 24 hours in a day that the rest of us have.」 — Lauren Jiloty, Gates Ventures.
「I』ve never heard him complain about [Melinda]. He’s the only person on this earth who I』ve never heard complain about his wife.」 — Mike Slade, one-time Microsoft marketing chief.
Each one of us has to start out with developing his or her own definition of success, and when we have these specific expectations of ourselves, we're more likely to live up to them. Ultimately, it's not what you get or even what you give. It's what you become. — Mary Maxwell Gates, Bill's motherhttps://www.geekwire.com/2019/review-netflix-documentary-bill-gates-reveals-chaos-determination-love-inside-bills-brain/
The series gets a dash of action by having Guggenheim interview Gates during hikes around rugged places such as a desert near Palm Springs, California, and Gates' property at Hood Canal in Washington. The two men are often filmed from behind, walking shoulder-to-shoulder as Gates talks. "I feel like people are more open when there's no camera in their face. And I also feel like people listen better," said Guggenheim.
Each episode focuses on one of the foundation’s major initiatives: improving sewage conditions in developing countries, eradicating polio, and developing a cleaner, safer form of nuclear power. Each of the three parts shifts rapidly between interviews, biographical material, and fly-on-the-wall footage of the Gates team’s philanthropic missions. ... If you only have time to watch one episode, you should pick the second, which comes closest to doing some 「decoding.」 ... There’s a moment in the series where Guggenheim and Gates talk about the latter’s periodic 「think weeks」 where he goes off the grid with a stack of books and tries to open himself up to new ideas, largely unrelated to his daily work.
At the end, we get a highly questionable reading of American literature. When Bill and Melinda were first dating, she had a green light in her office that she』d put on when he could come by. It was a reference to The Great Gatsby, the light at the end of Daisy Buchanan’s dock. And Bill, in voice-over, as the two paddle a kayak on a lovely lake, quotes reverently from the book they both loved, words that now adorn his library: 「He』d come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it.」
These 5 things about Bill Gates are hard to believe, but actually make total sense-
1. When he was a student, he tried to intentionally fail a test.
2. He travels everywhere with 10-15 books.
3. He takes a week every year just to think.
4. He once wrote a letter to major research universities about a project... and they didn't even bother to respond.
5. Researchers told him it would cost $200 million to eradicate polio, so he gave them twice that much.