Questions appropriated from an ABC interview with Bill Gates by Peter Jennings published February 16, 2005.
Answers - circa 2011.
PETER JENNINGS: There are several stories in the newspapers this morning all about the speech you made in San Francisco about the state of security in the industry. How much of a challenge is security these days?
SARAH That’s totally a getting-into-it kind of a question to ask, Mr. Jennings. Totally en media res. I have no idea what you’re talking about, though. Security for which industry?
JENNINGS: Microsoft is nonetheless accused of not getting it right and being slow to get it right.
SARAH Oh. Computers. Windows does tend to get the viruses, doesn't it…
JENNINGS: Microsoft is the biggest target.
SARAH I wonder what those statistics are now. I was always under the impression that the only reason Windows got all the viruses was because—why bother targeting Macs, when so many businesses invest in PCs? Because PCs are simply cheaper.
JENNINGS: And if people continue to undermine Microsoft or the general technology in general, how seriously does it inhibit its future?
SARAH I’m not sure. We’re kind of in the future here now, aren’t we, Mr. Jennings? In fact—you’re quite dead, even. You died six months after this interview was published.
JENNINGS: You notice that ChoicePoint in California found that 30 some odd thousand, perhaps a hundred thousand, of their employees found that their identities got raided in their huge system. How worried does that make you?
SARAH Does that make you uncomfortable? That you’re dead? Are you trying to change the subject?
JENNINGS: I read an article coming up here on Firefox (Web browser) and its perceived ability to do this better than you. Is that fair?
SARAH I know what Firefox is. You don’t have to put that in ellipsis.
JENNINGS: Are you going to have to push your browser faster because of competition?
SARAH I’m not even sure what ‘browser’ you’re talking about. Let me Google that… Oh! Internet Explorer! I’m not sure people really use that anymore.
JENNINGS: I knew you were going to say that (laughs).
SARAH You’re good! Maybe you knew that because you’re a ghost! A friendly ghost.
JENNINGS: And you say it keeps you on your toes, you have such a huge portion of the market — in all elements of technology. Is the tendency in the shop sometimes to think that we just can't be beaten?
SARAH I bet Bill Gates thinks he can be beaten. But only when he’s in a really dark place that is easily washed away with some positive thinking, like, “Even if I am beaten, I can still just travel to tropical islands for the rest of my life with that ING savings account I have that has five million dollars in it.”
JENNINGS: Why do so many people seem to think that open sourcing is so essential?
SARAH Good lord. I don’t know. Was that a 2005 thing?
JENNINGS: Everybody I talked to seems to, particularly if they are young, seems to think that open sourcing is important and that among the reasons it is important is that it enables them to run more secure systems. Is that true from your point of view?
SARAH Open sourcing… is that like Creative Commons for software? I think it is…
JENNINGS: You sound quite sanguine about this. Is this a public position that is essential to take?
SARAH Ugh! That’s one of those words I always forget! Sanguine? It sounds negative, but it really connotes something positive—assured, right?
JENNINGS: What does it mean to be the Chief Software Architect?
SARAH I guess that would mean to be someone who architects all the software.
JENNINGS: Can you tell me two things that you have changed your mind about in the last year about, in the last year, about technology?
SARAH Ooh! That’s a good question. Well, I’ve gone back and forth about the iPad. I thought I wanted one, but then realized it’s ultimately sort of like buying a really nice piece of furniture—you’ll enjoy it, but any old chair really works in a pinch, and my laptop and iPhone are satisfying that need right now. Hmmm…. technology… I think what I really changed my mind about in the last year with technology is that I don’t want to chase it anymore. And this is fortunate, I think, because at the same time I see that it has become so embedded in our everyday life that you don’t really need to chase it. It’s right there, all the time, shouting in your face.
JENNINGS: And are there a couple of things about technology in the last couple of years that you have simply said — don't need to go there, don't want to go there or can't go there?
SARAH Ummm. 3D movies? I mean, come on. Really? Until they figure out a way that we don’t have to put glasses on, let’s just try to tell good stories, why don’t we?
JENNINGS: Do you struggle sometimes between being a hugely successful businessman and being a software architect?
SARAH Woman. I’m a woman, not a businessman. And no. I don’t really struggle with that because I’m neither.
JENNINGS: You have so many opportunities available to you on a daily basis, more than most people in their lives, when you got up this morning and headed for work, what did your day look like? What's on the agenda today which is utterly fascinating?
SARAH Oh, wow! Well, this is true. Today I got up and got ready for a presentation that I was to give during my history of photography seminar at UCR. It went pretty well. I didn’t sleep well last night, though. I get so wound up when I’m doing research, by the time I get in bed my mind is in a million incredibly interesting places. Being in school I do feel like I have so many opportunities. The real pressure is settling on just one.
JENNINGS: What about off the job?
SARAH If by “off the job” you mean not at school, then—well, spring break is coming up at the end of next week. I plan to focus on figuring out what my thesis topic is, and doing things like these appropriated interviews.
JENNINGS: You are famous for your determination that people acquire knowledge and learn more and yet you like everyone else make these extraordinary games now (Gates chuckles). Is gaming both enhancing now and undermining society?
SARAH (Is “Gates” listening to us?) That’s funny that you bring that up, because I just read this review in Bookforum (which is Artforum’s really great literary supplement) about a woman who wrote a book saying that all life should be conformed to a gaming structure. You could say she is a game-structuralist, I suppose. The moral to the story is that, no, gaming is neither enhancing nor undermining society. We should just keep games what they are: games.
JENNINGS: Are you nonetheless happiest when you are alone with a book and so you recommend it to other people?
SARAH I am happy when I am with a good book. That is true. Probably not happiest, though. Certainly stupendously happy, sometimes. And sometimes I’m just damn happy being alone. But I can think of other when I am happiest.
JENNINGS: And Fresca I am told you always take on vacation. Is that true?
SARAH No. Totally not. I don’t think I’ve ever had a Fresca.
JENNINGS: You have been a big advocate of travel. And you have on occasion said that Americans who spent more time traveling in Africa, for one, would learn something. What would we learn?
SARAH I do like travel. But I don’t think I’ve ever pinpointed Africa in terms of telling others to get out there to learn something. There are some people who could learn something by traveling outside their normal shopping route. Or by not shopping at all for that matter.
JENNINGS: But you are a very specific example in this case and I will come to that, how do you think the average American would change if he or she traveled more?
SARAH Am I? I suppose. Yes, if people were just exposed to more cultures and peoples on a daily basis, face to face, they would have a hard time feeling alienated from those “others.” It depends on how they travel, however. Setting up in the local 5-star hotel or, on the budget side, the Holiday Inn-equivalent, in some foreign city and scanning the menu for familiar foods will not help things much. People like to be comfortable, and hotels all over the world become these sorts of heterotopias for all kinds of peoples.
JENNINGS: Is there any part of the world that intimidates you?
SARAH I try not to walk around outside at my place in Riverside after dark. If I do I call someone and keep them on the phone until I get home.
JENNINGS: Should we be worried that China will best the United States before long?
SARAH You were asking this in 2005? I guess that makes sense.
JENNINGS: Is the U.S. as competitive as it needs to be?
SARAH Oh, please. Yawn.
JENNINGS: How do we do that?
SARAH You just open your mouth and (Sarah yawns).
JENNINGS: You are constantly giving money to different causes. I wonder if your money creates a sense of urgency that you would like it to create in terms of other people's interest and commitment.
SARAH Really? I wouldn’t say constantly. I gave just over $800 to different causes last year. A pretty eclectic group—from public radio stations to the International Medical Corps to the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur. Since I don’t talk about it much I doubt it’s creating any sense of urgency.
JENNINGS: Are you saying that private enterprise, private money, is more efficient than government money?
SARAH Are you calling me a Republican?
JENNINGS: Is the converse true? Do you sometimes give so much money that people are inclined to say, "Let Gates do it."
SARAH That doesn’t even make sense. I just told you I only gave about $800. If “Gates” is giving, that’s great.
JENNINGS: You are paid a great compliment once, when someone said, "You feel a death in Africa as if it were a death in the world." A, is that true? And B are the rest of us missing something?
SARAH I think your transcriber is slacking. “You are”? Do you mean “You were”? And the A and B parts of that sentence were really confusing. I thought it was a typo.
JENNINGS: What have you learned about the value of private money?
SARAH I’m not very public with my money. Private money seems to sustain things for me.
JENNINGS: You are so well known that I think people expect you to be good at almost everything. Are you good at almost everything?
SARAH Well, actually, I’m not really well known at all. And in terms of being good at almost everything, if that includes grammar and gardening, then—no, definitely not.
JENNINGS: Is there anything you're notoriously bad at?
SARAH Those two things, certainly.
JENNINGS: Can you play an instrument?
SARAH Yes! Like a drunk jazz ingénue! I like playing pianos and violins.
JENNINGS: Can you write?
SARAH That’s a pretty silly question to ask Bill Gates, since I know this interview was really intended for him and not me. I bet Bill Gates knows how to put a few words together. Let’s talk about you. I know several people who are very sad that you passed away and regretted that they replaced you with Charlie Gibson and Elizabeth Vargas. I wonder what happened to them. Are they still on the air?
JENNINGS: Did you ever envision, and is it difficult to live life in the stratosphere as you do at such an early age?
SARAH What’s it like being it the dead stratosphere? That’s much more interesting!
JENNINGS: And are you very, very aware that your children are terribly privileged? I shouldn't say terribly privileged, very privileged and that you have to fight that with them for the future?
SARAH I don’t have any children. But did you know that you and I have the same birthday? July 29, right?
JENNINGS: When I talk to people about you, everybody was fascinated that I was coming to see you. I'm sure that's not a surprise to you. They very quickly, often, particularly if they're young, put you over on the side of being a businessman. And they put other people over here as creators. Do you think that your image has suffered because you've been so successful at business?
SARAH I think this interview is going on too long. I think I’ll cut if off now. See you later, Peter Jennings! It’s been nice chatting with you in the netherworld! We miss you!
(the rest of this interview has been deleted)
Answers - circa 2011.
PETER JENNINGS: There are several stories in the newspapers this morning all about the speech you made in San Francisco about the state of security in the industry. How much of a challenge is security these days?
SARAH That’s totally a getting-into-it kind of a question to ask, Mr. Jennings. Totally en media res. I have no idea what you’re talking about, though. Security for which industry?
JENNINGS: Microsoft is nonetheless accused of not getting it right and being slow to get it right.
SARAH Oh. Computers. Windows does tend to get the viruses, doesn't it…
JENNINGS: Microsoft is the biggest target.
SARAH I wonder what those statistics are now. I was always under the impression that the only reason Windows got all the viruses was because—why bother targeting Macs, when so many businesses invest in PCs? Because PCs are simply cheaper.
JENNINGS: And if people continue to undermine Microsoft or the general technology in general, how seriously does it inhibit its future?
SARAH I’m not sure. We’re kind of in the future here now, aren’t we, Mr. Jennings? In fact—you’re quite dead, even. You died six months after this interview was published.
JENNINGS: You notice that ChoicePoint in California found that 30 some odd thousand, perhaps a hundred thousand, of their employees found that their identities got raided in their huge system. How worried does that make you?
SARAH Does that make you uncomfortable? That you’re dead? Are you trying to change the subject?
JENNINGS: I read an article coming up here on Firefox (Web browser) and its perceived ability to do this better than you. Is that fair?
SARAH I know what Firefox is. You don’t have to put that in ellipsis.
JENNINGS: Are you going to have to push your browser faster because of competition?
SARAH I’m not even sure what ‘browser’ you’re talking about. Let me Google that… Oh! Internet Explorer! I’m not sure people really use that anymore.
JENNINGS: I knew you were going to say that (laughs).
SARAH You’re good! Maybe you knew that because you’re a ghost! A friendly ghost.
JENNINGS: And you say it keeps you on your toes, you have such a huge portion of the market — in all elements of technology. Is the tendency in the shop sometimes to think that we just can't be beaten?
SARAH I bet Bill Gates thinks he can be beaten. But only when he’s in a really dark place that is easily washed away with some positive thinking, like, “Even if I am beaten, I can still just travel to tropical islands for the rest of my life with that ING savings account I have that has five million dollars in it.”
JENNINGS: Why do so many people seem to think that open sourcing is so essential?
SARAH Good lord. I don’t know. Was that a 2005 thing?
JENNINGS: Everybody I talked to seems to, particularly if they are young, seems to think that open sourcing is important and that among the reasons it is important is that it enables them to run more secure systems. Is that true from your point of view?
SARAH Open sourcing… is that like Creative Commons for software? I think it is…
JENNINGS: You sound quite sanguine about this. Is this a public position that is essential to take?
SARAH Ugh! That’s one of those words I always forget! Sanguine? It sounds negative, but it really connotes something positive—assured, right?
JENNINGS: What does it mean to be the Chief Software Architect?
SARAH I guess that would mean to be someone who architects all the software.
JENNINGS: Can you tell me two things that you have changed your mind about in the last year about, in the last year, about technology?
SARAH Ooh! That’s a good question. Well, I’ve gone back and forth about the iPad. I thought I wanted one, but then realized it’s ultimately sort of like buying a really nice piece of furniture—you’ll enjoy it, but any old chair really works in a pinch, and my laptop and iPhone are satisfying that need right now. Hmmm…. technology… I think what I really changed my mind about in the last year with technology is that I don’t want to chase it anymore. And this is fortunate, I think, because at the same time I see that it has become so embedded in our everyday life that you don’t really need to chase it. It’s right there, all the time, shouting in your face.
JENNINGS: And are there a couple of things about technology in the last couple of years that you have simply said — don't need to go there, don't want to go there or can't go there?
SARAH Ummm. 3D movies? I mean, come on. Really? Until they figure out a way that we don’t have to put glasses on, let’s just try to tell good stories, why don’t we?
JENNINGS: Do you struggle sometimes between being a hugely successful businessman and being a software architect?
SARAH Woman. I’m a woman, not a businessman. And no. I don’t really struggle with that because I’m neither.
JENNINGS: You have so many opportunities available to you on a daily basis, more than most people in their lives, when you got up this morning and headed for work, what did your day look like? What's on the agenda today which is utterly fascinating?
SARAH Oh, wow! Well, this is true. Today I got up and got ready for a presentation that I was to give during my history of photography seminar at UCR. It went pretty well. I didn’t sleep well last night, though. I get so wound up when I’m doing research, by the time I get in bed my mind is in a million incredibly interesting places. Being in school I do feel like I have so many opportunities. The real pressure is settling on just one.
JENNINGS: What about off the job?
SARAH If by “off the job” you mean not at school, then—well, spring break is coming up at the end of next week. I plan to focus on figuring out what my thesis topic is, and doing things like these appropriated interviews.
JENNINGS: You are famous for your determination that people acquire knowledge and learn more and yet you like everyone else make these extraordinary games now (Gates chuckles). Is gaming both enhancing now and undermining society?
SARAH (Is “Gates” listening to us?) That’s funny that you bring that up, because I just read this review in Bookforum (which is Artforum’s really great literary supplement) about a woman who wrote a book saying that all life should be conformed to a gaming structure. You could say she is a game-structuralist, I suppose. The moral to the story is that, no, gaming is neither enhancing nor undermining society. We should just keep games what they are: games.
JENNINGS: Are you nonetheless happiest when you are alone with a book and so you recommend it to other people?
SARAH I am happy when I am with a good book. That is true. Probably not happiest, though. Certainly stupendously happy, sometimes. And sometimes I’m just damn happy being alone. But I can think of other when I am happiest.
JENNINGS: And Fresca I am told you always take on vacation. Is that true?
SARAH No. Totally not. I don’t think I’ve ever had a Fresca.
JENNINGS: You have been a big advocate of travel. And you have on occasion said that Americans who spent more time traveling in Africa, for one, would learn something. What would we learn?
SARAH I do like travel. But I don’t think I’ve ever pinpointed Africa in terms of telling others to get out there to learn something. There are some people who could learn something by traveling outside their normal shopping route. Or by not shopping at all for that matter.
JENNINGS: But you are a very specific example in this case and I will come to that, how do you think the average American would change if he or she traveled more?
SARAH Am I? I suppose. Yes, if people were just exposed to more cultures and peoples on a daily basis, face to face, they would have a hard time feeling alienated from those “others.” It depends on how they travel, however. Setting up in the local 5-star hotel or, on the budget side, the Holiday Inn-equivalent, in some foreign city and scanning the menu for familiar foods will not help things much. People like to be comfortable, and hotels all over the world become these sorts of heterotopias for all kinds of peoples.
JENNINGS: Is there any part of the world that intimidates you?
SARAH I try not to walk around outside at my place in Riverside after dark. If I do I call someone and keep them on the phone until I get home.
JENNINGS: Should we be worried that China will best the United States before long?
SARAH You were asking this in 2005? I guess that makes sense.
JENNINGS: Is the U.S. as competitive as it needs to be?
SARAH Oh, please. Yawn.
JENNINGS: How do we do that?
SARAH You just open your mouth and (Sarah yawns).
JENNINGS: You are constantly giving money to different causes. I wonder if your money creates a sense of urgency that you would like it to create in terms of other people's interest and commitment.
SARAH Really? I wouldn’t say constantly. I gave just over $800 to different causes last year. A pretty eclectic group—from public radio stations to the International Medical Corps to the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur. Since I don’t talk about it much I doubt it’s creating any sense of urgency.
JENNINGS: Are you saying that private enterprise, private money, is more efficient than government money?
SARAH Are you calling me a Republican?
JENNINGS: Is the converse true? Do you sometimes give so much money that people are inclined to say, "Let Gates do it."
SARAH That doesn’t even make sense. I just told you I only gave about $800. If “Gates” is giving, that’s great.
JENNINGS: You are paid a great compliment once, when someone said, "You feel a death in Africa as if it were a death in the world." A, is that true? And B are the rest of us missing something?
SARAH I think your transcriber is slacking. “You are”? Do you mean “You were”? And the A and B parts of that sentence were really confusing. I thought it was a typo.
JENNINGS: What have you learned about the value of private money?
SARAH I’m not very public with my money. Private money seems to sustain things for me.
JENNINGS: You are so well known that I think people expect you to be good at almost everything. Are you good at almost everything?
SARAH Well, actually, I’m not really well known at all. And in terms of being good at almost everything, if that includes grammar and gardening, then—no, definitely not.
JENNINGS: Is there anything you're notoriously bad at?
SARAH Those two things, certainly.
JENNINGS: Can you play an instrument?
SARAH Yes! Like a drunk jazz ingénue! I like playing pianos and violins.
JENNINGS: Can you write?
SARAH That’s a pretty silly question to ask Bill Gates, since I know this interview was really intended for him and not me. I bet Bill Gates knows how to put a few words together. Let’s talk about you. I know several people who are very sad that you passed away and regretted that they replaced you with Charlie Gibson and Elizabeth Vargas. I wonder what happened to them. Are they still on the air?
JENNINGS: Did you ever envision, and is it difficult to live life in the stratosphere as you do at such an early age?
SARAH What’s it like being it the dead stratosphere? That’s much more interesting!
JENNINGS: And are you very, very aware that your children are terribly privileged? I shouldn't say terribly privileged, very privileged and that you have to fight that with them for the future?
SARAH I don’t have any children. But did you know that you and I have the same birthday? July 29, right?
JENNINGS: When I talk to people about you, everybody was fascinated that I was coming to see you. I'm sure that's not a surprise to you. They very quickly, often, particularly if they're young, put you over on the side of being a businessman. And they put other people over here as creators. Do you think that your image has suffered because you've been so successful at business?
SARAH I think this interview is going on too long. I think I’ll cut if off now. See you later, Peter Jennings! It’s been nice chatting with you in the netherworld! We miss you!
(the rest of this interview has been deleted)
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