[kyle_t]

I am curious what Bill Gates (or anyone who doesn't necessarily have an immediate profit making venture to promote i.e an actor) hopes to achieve with an AMA?

I can't imagine they are very much fun after the first dozen questions. Promoting philanthropy to a wider audience? Bringing the spotlight on a specific cause?

Its awesome that someone as busy and important as Bill Gates is willing to take the time to do this whatever his reasons, I'm just wondering the reason why?

[jedberg]

I always enjoyed doing it to share my thoughts with the community, since they seemed interested. It's kinda like, why do you talk to people at parties when you have no immediate profit making venture to push? Because it's fun.

It's also a great way to stay connected with your base, even for someone like Bill, who is still trying to accomplish things that are easier with broad support.

[a1a]

His foundation makes a big "profit" by getting rid of these [1] myths. By "profit" I mean lives saved and/or enhanced. What better way of getting rid of myths than publicity?

[1] http://annualletter.gatesfoundation.org/

[michaelt]

Did you hope to achieve much personal gain from making this post here on HN?

[rbanffy]

If Reddit existed in the early 20th century, Andrew Carnegie would have done an AMA.

Gates has, among some geeks, a really nasty reputation. It's, in fact, so bad I am not sure we can even trust the philanthropist. For me, it's just too easy to imagine him as being a supervillain. ;-)

Everyone has a dark side. His darkest side got fed and exposed while at Microsoft and he has been paying for it ever since.

[adamnemecek]

On the other hand, don't you feel like it's basically advertising if they do have something to promote?

[benbou09]

On the other hand, he also does his own dishes

[lmm]

Seriously? That seems incredibly wasteful, not to mention boring. No way I'd be doing that if I had a fraction of his wealth.

[davidwihl]

I'm a CEO who does his family's dishes as night. It keeps you grounded. It's a good message for your kids that in spite of their wealth they should clean up after themselves. It makes a connection to the millions of hard working people out there. Finally, if your wife cooks dinner (as mine does), it shows appreciation for her work and effort. I use a dishwasher (as does BillG most likely) but there is still plenty of work like pots & pans.

[maxerickson]

I can understand not wanting dishes lying around all the time and also not wanting staff around all the time.

I sort of see his job (what he chooses to make it anyway) as helping other people do good works by expanding their resources. I'm not sure that benefits from a 110% time commitment.