Bill Gates: The Playboy Interview (Singles Classic)

by Playboy Magazine

In mid-1962, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner was given a partial transcript of an interview with Miles Davis. It covered jazz, of course, but it also included Davis’s ruminations on race, politics and culture. Fascinated, Hef sent the writer—future Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Alex Haley, an unknown at the time—back to glean even more opinion and insight from Davis. The resulting exchange, published in the September 1962 issue, became the first official Playboy Interview and kicked off a remarkable run of public inquisition that continues today—and that has featured just about every cultural titan of the last half century.
To celebrate the Interview’s 50th anniversary, the editors of Playboy have culled 50 of its most (in)famous Interviews and will publish them over the course of 50 weekdays (from September 4, 2012 to November 12, 2012) via Amazon’s Kindle Direct platform. Here is the interview with the Microsoft business magnate Bill Gates from the July 1994 issue. "

35 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 10, 2012

Reviews

[Goth Gone Grey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bill Gates circa 1994

I'm pretty sure after reading a few of these that it became a running gag to just F with the interviewers. An example:

"Playboy: When did you know you had something special to offer? When did you become aware you were different?

Gates: [Big raspberry] I have something special to offer, Mom! Mom, I just figured it out: I have something special to offer! So don’t make me eat my beans.

Playboy: You know what we mean."

Granted, as people become more successful, interviews must get tiresome. I'm not sure if gems like the above get published due to running the whole interview intact or if it's genuinely the best they could get. Word counts matter.

Aside from moments like this, the interview shows the hope for the future of computers and communication - the internet, beta version. Most of the attitude seems to wonder why the internet's even happening on personal questions, with enthusiasm when it turns to tech. Quite understandable, and a nice glimpse into the man - and what he chose to reveal.