Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates (2019)

This vulgarly titled mini-series is an alien's look at a man who thinks, a species that is on the brink of extinction in public life but is probably still familiar first-hand to most viewers. The species also reads. And then reflects on what it has read. Which is supposed to be a shocker, as is Gates's admission that he does not seek to inspire but rather to be effective, to optimise. Nor is the failure to eradicate every single case of polio or to solve the world's energy problem is Gates's personal failure---or indeed a failure at all. There are guiding problems in mathematics, in science, and in each individual's life, which are not meant to be solved but rather to inspire and direct smaller victories.

The series is worth watching if only to observe Gates's fast, incisive mind and his superior interior designs. Gates is intelligent and erudite enough to salvage any conversation. His offices are cosy, conducive to work, and rivalled only by the views of Washington. The ever-in-the-frame troop of Coca-Cola cans is a reminder of Gates's proletarian allegiances. He optimises all that which is both a necessity and a luxury for each of us: a toilet, a drink, an operating system, electricity.