Bill Gatesone of the world’s richest men, had a curious addiction while at the helm of Microsoft.
It is a rather simple game: Minesweeperas told in the book of the same name “Minesweeper” by Kyle Orland.
In the book, Bruce Ryan, once director of entertainment at Microsofttells the story of how the game marked the life of Bill Gates.
Bill Gates became obsessed with the game, particularly its Beginner level. Despite having uninstalled minesweeper from his computer to “detox”, he later Gates boasted in an email how he managed to lower his personal record from 8 seconds to 5 seconds on the computer of Mike Hallman, a senior executive at Microsoft.
Computers vs. Bill Gates
Bruce Ryan decided to cheat in order to discourage Bill Gatessharing “impossible” scores.
Ryan used an automation program that could initiate millions of games and look to win with a single click.
Four hours later, he succeeded: he achieved one second as the new record, which he bragged about with Bill Gatesto whom he said he was going to be “permanently overshadowed”.
Gates reflected in a work email after announcing that “his critical skills were displaced by a computer:” “When machines can do things faster than people: can we retain our human dignity?”
Apparently, he still would not give up. He warned, “I guess I’ll have to try the game at Intermediate level now.”
