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Re Gates; he and his staff identify Subject Matter Experts (SME) for the topics he’s interested in. As you can imagine he has a good network. SMEs are always lo

by joewee 9y ago

Re Gates; he and his staff identify Subject Matter Experts (SME) for the topics he’s interested in. As you can imagine he has a good network. SMEs are always looking for funding, so he’ll use one of his funding vehicles to invite the SME to apply for funding or meet with the organization. By the time you meet with Bill Gates he would have read your most recent papers and competing theories and will be prepared to challenge you on your approach. Pass his final intellectual test and you are added to his collection of SMEs. <source: me, I’ve seen the process> Edit: When I had the pleasure of watching Bill Gates do this, it was one of the most impactful moments in my life. When he would question a SME on a topic he came across as knowledgeable as the SME who has dedicated years to the topic. Bill Gates literally will have read all around the topic and his mind operates like a poker player or chess player who is thinking on multiple levels. His questions are probes to see how many levels you are thinking on, and I think it also informs him of other angles. He’s a brilliant guy.

skybrian 9y ago
SME seems be "subject matter expert".
- pouetpouet 9y ago
  I think it's "small and medium-sized entreprises" aka SMB
woah 9y ago
Did you watch him question someone who was an expert in a subject that you were also an expert in?
- joewee 9y ago
  I did, but based on my limited experience he only goes deep into questioning when he’s vetting someone or when he sees or hears something that doesn’t seem right. He’s a stickler for details. With an engineers mind for logic and reasoning. You can’t bs him because he is investing in things he is actively studying from multiple sources. You need to know the details and logic behind your approach. The people I saw stumble on the subjects I knew about tended to get flustered when put on the spot and couldn’t provide a logical explanation that made sense or showed attention to detail. Example, I’m making this up, but it’s a similar type of question I saw, someone is explaining how their application stores data, he will ask, “are you encrypting it?” Response: yes “how?” Response: using XYZ “why not ZYX?” Response: well, we haven’t thought a lot about that yet Response: “well what’s the impact on the processor when encrypting?” Response: not sure... The engineer thought he was building a app to do X but Bill Gates is operating at a different level, perhaps he has a theory on the future of hardware, or how he wants to deploy this in developing countries. Or he read a recent paper where researchers highlighted the impact of encryption for this specific type of application that he thinks you missed. If he respects you, he will point you into a certain direction and it’s a peer to peer discussion and sharing of ideas, if he doesn’t...it’s painful to watch.
  - paulajohnson 9y ago
    The way it was explained to Joel Spolsky in the article linked earlier is that Gates just pokes away at increasingly fine details until he finds some question you can't answer, and uses that to make you look dumb. Its actually just a form of intellectual bullying, like a jock who challenges you to an arm wrestling contest before he'll let you out of the changing room. Thats not to say that Gates isn't extremely intelligent and hardworking, just that his approach isn't necessarily the best. Also, Spolsky's anecdote is from a few decades ago. Gates will have matured a bit since then.
jlampa 9y ago
Here's an account of what being grilled by Bill Gates looks like: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-review/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-rev...
gech 9y ago
I've heard the same regarding Jeff Bezos. A designer I think met with him and described him just like that.
shostack 9y ago
Fascinating. Any suggestions for how us "average Joe's" might get closer to his level of insight about anything when tackling new topics for self-driven education? I feel like I could improve how I approach learning things in fields that are completely new to me, or where I'm far from an expert. From everything you have said and that I've read elsewhere, Gates and others at his level seem to have really honed their approach to learning and becoming able to have an informed conversation with an SME.

by joewee 9y ago

skybrian 9y ago

SME seems be "subject matter expert".

pouetpouet 9y ago
I think it's "small and medium-sized entreprises" aka SMB

woah 9y ago

Did you watch him question someone who was an expert in a subject that you were also an expert in?

joewee 9y ago
I did, but based on my limited experience he only goes deep into questioning when he’s vetting someone or when he sees or hears something that doesn’t seem right. He’s a stickler for details. With an engineers mind for logic and reasoning. You can’t bs him because he is investing in things he is actively studying from multiple sources. You need to know the details and logic behind your approach. The people I saw stumble on the subjects I knew about tended to get flustered when put on the spot and couldn’t provide a logical explanation that made sense or showed attention to detail. Example, I’m making this up, but it’s a similar type of question I saw, someone is explaining how their application stores data, he will ask, “are you encrypting it?” Response: yes “how?” Response: using XYZ “why not ZYX?” Response: well, we haven’t thought a lot about that yet Response: “well what’s the impact on the processor when encrypting?” Response: not sure... The engineer thought he was building a app to do X but Bill Gates is operating at a different level, perhaps he has a theory on the future of hardware, or how he wants to deploy this in developing countries. Or he read a recent paper where researchers highlighted the impact of encryption for this specific type of application that he thinks you missed. If he respects you, he will point you into a certain direction and it’s a peer to peer discussion and sharing of ideas, if he doesn’t...it’s painful to watch.
- paulajohnson 9y ago
  The way it was explained to Joel Spolsky in the article linked earlier is that Gates just pokes away at increasingly fine details until he finds some question you can't answer, and uses that to make you look dumb. Its actually just a form of intellectual bullying, like a jock who challenges you to an arm wrestling contest before he'll let you out of the changing room. Thats not to say that Gates isn't extremely intelligent and hardworking, just that his approach isn't necessarily the best. Also, Spolsky's anecdote is from a few decades ago. Gates will have matured a bit since then.

jlampa 9y ago

Here's an account of what being grilled by Bill Gates looks like: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-review/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-rev...

gech 9y ago

I've heard the same regarding Jeff Bezos. A designer I think met with him and described him just like that.

shostack 9y ago

Fascinating. Any suggestions for how us "average Joe's" might get closer to his level of insight about anything when tackling new topics for self-driven education? I feel like I could improve how I approach learning things in fields that are completely new to me, or where I'm far from an expert. From everything you have said and that I've read elsewhere, Gates and others at his level seem to have really honed their approach to learning and becoming able to have an informed conversation with an SME.