rss feedBill Gates: The man also can laugh
This video of Bill Gates on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is making the rounds, especially in the Seattle area.
My former colleagues, Todd Bishop and John Cook, have posted some entries about it on their Web site, TechFlash.
It’s good to see that one of the world’s wealthiest people and the co-founder of Microsoft and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation could laugh.
As you might have noticed, I’m interested in China, especially in recent months.
Gates demonstrated in the Stewart interview that he has the clear ability to reflect, analyze and think about big-picture issues.
I’ve always been interested in big wheels.
Given that China has emerged on the world stage with eye-popping achievements and increasing economic clout, it would be informative to see Gates reflect in an interview on that country, its leaders and Microsoft’s operations there.
But that’s just me.
On TechFlash, Todd Bishop pointed out that Gates left the set of Stewart’s show after an appearance three years ago. This time, Gates had an explanation – and a good one: Stephen Colbert was calling.
Before Chinese President Hu Jintao visited the Seattle area and Gates’ home in 2006, I wondered who in Washington state had the chops to match what he had to say.
I didn’t mean that in a zero-sum, face-gaining or face-losing sense.
I just meant it in an academic debate style, where ideas are exchanged in a constructive, witty setting full of point, counterpoint and rejoinders.
As a kid, I remembered watching public television and those old round-table discussions with people such as Michael Kinsley and William F. Buckley Jr. sparring over political philosophy and with Charles Nesson of Harvard Law School serving as moderator.
I’ve heard Washington state Gov. Chris Gregoire give talks a few times and I know she’s a gifted thinker and talented speaker. She was, after all, once the state attorney general.
Now that I think about it, it would be interesting to see the Chinese leader and Gates exchange ideas in a debate-style setting.
We know they have interesting backgrounds and have experienced much in the world.
For the sake of that evening, we could ignore their well-known titles and just look at them as two people with ideas in their heads.
You’d sit down in the auditorium, turn to the person next to you and say: This is going to be fascinating.
