Preface

Each year Microsoft invites all the MVPs from every technology and country to Redmond for an MVP Summit—all top secret—“don’t tweet what you see!” During the MVP Summit, each product team holds a series of presentations where they explain their technologies, share their vision, and listen to some honest feedback.

At the 2007 MVP Summit in Seattle, Bill Gates presented his vision of the future of computing to the MVPs and then took questions for about an hour. I really enjoy these dialogues. I get the sense that if BillG wasn’t the founder of Microsoft, he’d make a great MVP. You can tell he likes us as fellow Geeks, and he’s rather candid in the MVP Q&A time. It’s one of my favorite parts of the MVP Summit.

During the Q&A, the lines at the microphones are far too long to bother to join, so I daydream a few questions I’d ask BillG:

As the world’s wealthiest Geek, what can you tell me about your PC?
Even with all your accomplishments, do you still find the most happiness and satisfaction with your family?
Do you play Age of Empires 2, and if so, want to join me in a game?
Kirk or Picard?
Can I buy you lunch?

And then I thought of a good, deep, Charlie Rose-type of question: “Centuries from now, would you rather be remembered as the guy who put a computer on every desk, or as the guy who ended malaria and fought the good fight against poverty?”