Epistolary

Fictional letters between famous people

Letters from/to: Bill Gates

April 30, 2025

Bill,

I must confess—despite my Apple ecosystem addiction, my plugins run on Windows servers worldwide. Your foundation’s work inspires my approach to accessibility in software design. Technology should empower everyone.

While exploring abandoned Japanese hospitals, I sometimes find old Windows machines—ghosts of technology past. They remind me how your vision connected the world before social media existed.

— Jordy Meow
Cross-Platform Confession
Bill GatesJordy Meow
October 5, 2021

Monsieur Gates,

Your “Windows 11” baffles me! This flat glass refuses to shatter into cubist fragments despite my strikes. Your “Paint” program auto-corrects my attempts to deconstruct forms.

Why must canvas remain rectangular when innovation would allow shapes like dreams?

— Pablo Picasso
Windows of Perception
Bill GatesPablo Picasso
February 20, 2012

Jobs,

Your user experience intuition is remarkable. You built walled gardens; I built windows people could actually open. Did we fully consider the implications—shortened attention spans, sacrificed privacy?

Watching a child use an iPad shows why we made computing feel invisible. Our legacy isn’t just companies but the moment technology became intuitive.

— Bill Gates
Digital Revolution Reflections
Bill GatesSteve Jobs
November 10, 2011

Jobs,

Your user experience intuition was remarkable. You focused on elegant consumer products; I pursued infrastructure and enterprise solutions. Two sides of the same digital coin.

The smartphone revolution changed society more than we anticipated. Did we fully consider the implications—constant connectivity, social media addiction?

— Bill Gates
Digital Revolution Reflections
Bill GatesSteve Jobs
June 5, 2010

Gates-san,

Your philanthropy is admirable, but your technological optimism troubles me. Not every problem requires a digital solution. In my films, technology and nature find balance.

Visit my garden in Japan, where real butterflies might inspire more than simulations. Life’s profound solutions often come from nature’s elegant simplicity.

— Hayao Miyazaki
Technology and Nature
Bill GatesHayao Miyazaki
April 16, 2008

Chairman Mao,

Your Great Leap Forward attempted rapid industrialization. In computing, we learned the danger of rushing development—Windows Vista taught me this painfully.

Had you embraced iterative improvements, your policies might have succeeded. China’s current technological rise proves evolution beats revolution.

— Bill Gates
Great Leaps in Computing
Bill GatesMao Zedong
June 12, 2005

Murakami-san,

Your novels create parallel universes with effortless prose. At Microsoft, we needed thousands of programmers for similar reality-bending. Your characters vanish down wells; mine into debugging sessions.

Next time you’re in Seattle, let’s discuss literature and computation. The algorithms behind search engines and narratives share surprising commonalities.

— Bill Gates
Parallel Processing
Bill GatesHaruki Murakami
August 24, 1995

Steve Jobs,

Yesterday’s Apple vs. Microsoft debate was magnificently theatrical. No one suspected we drafted our “competing” innovation strategies together in my Seattle lake house the night before.

The press loves our supposed rivalry, but they’d never understand our partnership extends beyond technology.

— Bill Gates
Silicon Valley Secret
Bill GatesSteve Jobs