[Note: see video here.]
Bill Gates: It’s an inspiration that one person [Leonardo da Vinci] off on their own, with no positive feedback, nobody ever told him, you know, it was right or wrong. That he kept pushing himself. You know, found knowledge in itself to be a beautiful thing.
Gates scoffs at any comparison to the great Leonardo, but a look around his private office reveals a man equally obsessed with understanding his world.
Charlie Rose: Can I look at these? [Referring to a shelf full of The Great Courses DVDs and CDs]
Bill Gates: Sure. This is the weather one, “Meteorology.” My very first course that I watched was this geology course.
Charlie Rose: This is a whole series on the joy of science? “Mathematics.” “Philosophy in the Real World.”
Gates’ collection of DVDs contains hundreds of hours of college lectures that this famous Harvard drop-out has watched.
Bill Gates: The more you learn, the more you have a framework that the knowledge fits into.
When he’s on the road, Gates – who’s a speed-reader — lugs around what he calls his “reading bag.” When he finishes a book, he posts his thoughts on his website, “Gates Notes.”
Bill Gates: What I’ll do is, I’m reading these books.
Charlie Rose: Oh, look at that.
Bill Gates: I’ll take notes.
Charlie Rose: Oh these are your notes already?
Bill Gates: Right.
Charlie Rose: Look at this.
Bill Gates: I love to take notes on books. So I just haven’t written it up yet.
Charlie Rose: How long will it take to read all of this?
Bill Gates: Oh, a long time. Thank goodness for vacations. I read a lot.