Bill Gates shares his appreciation for HBO’s ‘Silicon Valley’

Image: Robert Burroughs/Liaison

Apropos of nothing, Microsoft founder Bill Gates has decided to share his thoughts on the HBO comedy Silicon Valley.

On Monday, Gates published a new post on his blog — known as GatesNotes (seriously) — about the tech industry satire, which is currently in between seasons. Gates sees Silicon Valley as a rare example of pop culture getting life in the tech world “right.” 

“If you really want to understand how Silicon Valley works today, you should watch the HBO series Silicon Valley,” Gates wrote.

The dad-jeans loving billionaire also apparently identifies with one character: the scrappy, anxious, but sometimes endearing protagonist, Richard Hendricks (Thomas Middleditch). 

“Personally, I identify most with Richard, the founder of Pied Piper, who is a great programmer but has to learn some hard lessons about managing people,” Gates wrote.

That’s right: despite the fact that Gates is one of the world’s most successful people, he apparently still sees himself as an awkward, earnest do-gooder.

He even tweeted a photo that appears to be an edited picture of himself as a young upstart … except with Richard’s face, and the Pied Piper logo instead of the old logo for Microsoft. 

Gates, have you been playing around in MS Paint?

Image: Deborah Feingold/Getty Images

Gates also thinks the personality archetypes are spot on. The infighting and competition, the snarky but socially clueless programmers, the entrepreneurial largess and sometimes arbitrary nature of success and failure, all reflect the Valley that he knows deeply, he said. 

And he thinks his peers who are opposed to the show need to lighten up: “they don’t make any more fun of us than we deserve.”

Gates does have one note. He thinks that Silicon Valley mayyy be a bit harsh on big companies (you know, like Microsoft):

I do have one minor complaint. Silicon Valley gives you the impression that small companies like Pied Piper are mostly capable while big companies like Hooli are mostly inept. Although I’m obviously biased, my experience is that small companies can be just as inept, and the big ones have the resources to invest in deep research and take a long-term point of view that smaller ones can’t afford. But I also understand why the show focuses so much on Pied Piper and makes Hooli look so goofy. It’s more fun to root for the underdog.

It’s pretty fun to imagine Bill Gates watching the antics of the Pied Piper crew and LOLing, maybe even thinking back on his time in the garage with Paul Allen. 

Gates said he is currently making his way through Season 5, which ended in May. He’s holding out hope that it returns for a sixth season, though production on new episodes is reportedly delayed and may not air until 2020.

We’re just going to have to keep our eyes peeled for more GatesNotes fandom until then.