Bill Gates Says His Coding Skills Are Now "Rusty"

Ever wondered if Bill Gates could still write the code that made him a billionaire? As the co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates is considered to be one of the pioneers of today's home computing, but he admits that his programming skills are now a little "rusty".

Bill Gates, 65, took part in a Reddit 'Ask Me Anything' or AMA session following the publication of his new book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.

During the AMA session, he answered a number of queries from curious fans and touched upon a number of topics, including the importance of synthetic meat and electric cars in combating climate change.

But when one Reddit user asked Mr Gates if he still coded on his computer, the billionaire said his coding skills were now rusty, although he still loves trying new tools.

"My code no longer goes into shipping products so I am rusty," wrote Bill Gates. "I do like to try the new tools to understand how they help. I just did a review of the low-code tools where there is a lot of great innovation."

I'm Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and author of “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.” Ask Me Anything. from r/IAmA

Bill Gates has been fixated on programming since he was 13. "I was 13 years old when I fell in love with programming," he wrote on his blog, Gates Notes, in 2018. "My friends and I would spend hours creating new programs and plugging away in BASIC," he said, adding that the introduction to computer science changed the course of his life.

Mr Gates shared his views on the importance of niche technologies during his AMA session. "We need a lot of technologies - synthetic meat, energy storage, new ways of making building materials...
We want to be open to ideas that seem wild. Fusion might come along but we can't count on it," he said. 

An avid reader, he also recommended a few books to Reddit users tuning in. Obama's autobiography he dubbed "good", while Overstory by Richard Powers also got a mention as "great fiction".