Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates, Davis Guggenheim Netflix documentary reviewed

From Academy Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth, He Named Me Malala) comes Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates, a new three-part documentary that explores the mind and motivations of celebrated tech visionary, business leader, and philanthropist Bill Gates. After stepping down as CEO of Microsoft, Gates began what is undeniably one of the greatest professional second acts in modern history when he shifted his time and considerable intellect toward solving some of the world’s most persistent problems.

The series, in-depth and unfiltered in its depiction of a man’s life journey, both his triumphs and setbacks, offers unprecedented access to Gates as he pursues unique solutions to some of the world’s most complex problems with the same level of optimism, curiosity, and fervor that inspired his original vision for Microsoft.

Interweaving these endeavors with personal moments, Inside Bill’s Brain draws on interviews with Bill and Melinda Gates in addition to their friends, family, and partners in philanthropy and business, creating an innovative and revealing portrait of a man who, after changing the world, might just change the way others see it.

Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates, reviewed

This is an interesting and timely 3 parter launched on Netflix September 20th, 2019. This time span, nearly three hours long, enables the award winning director Davis Guggenheim to get his teeth into this fascinating subject. Naturally it covers the early years and the rise of the Microsoft empire. Right from the beginning though it is intercut with footage of what he is currently working on, including water sanitation, better waste treatment, and, ideally, self powering toilets and sewage systems.

Gates is a willing and engaging participant in the process, and Guggenheim aims to ask difficult and probing questions, with the willingness to follow up if he feels Gates has not completely answered the question. There are some interesting insights, such as the death of his earliest coding partner while still at high school, which then led to his partnership with the slightly older Paul Allen instead. Either way Gates’ drive seemed predestined to lead him onwards to the technology he wanted to build.

There is a frank and open discussion about Microsoft’s overreaching when it came to how they dealt with their competitor Netscape. Gates naturally still feels he was right, but is willing to acknowledge that they still approached it with a degree of naivety and arrogance. You may feel all of this is par for the course in terms of any evaluation of Bill Gates and Microsoft. What is more inspiring and impressive is what Gates has decided to do in his post Microsoft career.

Throughout all of the three episodes there is a large amount of time dedicated to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and its work. The Foundation has done a lot, armed with a serious amount of money, reinforced by additional contributions from Warren Buffet among others. It has made a real difference to polio, deaths from diarrhea and many other, less than glamorous diseases, but with the potential to massively improve many people’s quality of life around the globe.

Renewable energy is also discussed, and even his interesting and surprising conversion to reimagining nuclear power. We were certainly skeptical when this was raised, but his approach to it was insightful and informative. It remains an open question whether they will succeed in this area, but it is certainly a useful case study into the attitude of being open to questioning all of your beliefs. With the current massive issues around climate change this is a timely, informative and even inspirational documentary to watch.

See more reviews here.

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