Bill Gates was actually a pretty decent programmer. His technical insights peter out somewhere in the 1980s or early 90s at most, but he's had some interesting things to say about those eras. (Interesting in the sense that it's someone speaking about the eras that was there in a big way, not necessarily because he's got surprising insights into software engineering or something.)
Do you have any links to his insights? They sound pretty interesting but I'm not sure what to search for to find them.
He didn’t meddle in software if he trusted the people who
were working on it, but you couldn’t bullshit him for a
minute because he was a programmer. A real, actual,
programmer.
Re:Uncle Bob and Silver Bullets
by marcosdumay on Friday October 06, 2017 @09:47AM
(#15416720)
They are worth listening when talking about the kind of thing they used to make their products a success.
I agree with your examples, Linus Torvalds in particular. However, I would not consider Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs or Bill Gates worth listening to on a technical level just because their products are a success.