Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (L) and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs (R).
Credit: Reuters File Photo
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs' interactions, for the most part, have been well documented, but what perhaps flew under the radar was the duo's conversations around psychotropic drugs.
In an interview with The Independent, Gates recently opened up about his interactions with the Apple co-founder, saying, "Steve Jobs once said that he wished I’d take acid because then maybe I would have had more taste in my design of my products."
Gates' revelation came in relation to a discussion about the design of Microsoft products, which Jobs reportedly disliked.
Considered a visionary in product design, Jobs revolutionised the tech industry through the launch of products like the iPhone, the iPod, the iPad, and the Mac.
While Jobs was busy taking over the consumer technology market through his innovative designs, Microsoft was busy developing cloud computing software and office applications such as Word and Excel.
Despite the utility of Microsoft's products, Jobs wasn't particularly impressed by how they were presented to customers.
Commenting on the same, Gates explained, "Look, I got the wrong batch. I got the coding batch, and this guy got the marketing-design batch, so good for him. Because his talents and mine—other than being kind of an energetic leader, and pushing the limits—they didn’t overlap much."
"[Jobs] wouldn’t know what a line of code meant, and his ability to think about design and marketing and things like that … I envy those skills. I’m not in his league," the Microsoft co-founder said.
Notably, Gates' recollection of his conversation with Jobs isn't the only mention of the duo's conversations with regard to drugs.
"[Gates would] be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger," the Apple co-founder had told biography author Walter Isaacson in 2011.
Despite Jobs' disappointment with Gates not having tried hard, psychotropic substances, the Microsoft co-founder admitted to having used recreational drugs in his youth.
Gates confirmed to The Independent that his experiments with marijuana in high school was "not because it did anything interesting".
"I thought maybe I would look cool and some girl would think that was interesting. It didn’t succeed, so I gave it up," the Microsoft co-founder said.
"I’m willing to take risks, I tried a lot of things," he added, saying that he, being an optimist, was willing to take risks.
Gates, however, clarified that he had stopped taking drugs when started working on Microsoft alongside Paul Allen.
"Another thing about my personality is that I like my mind to work and be very logical. So I stopped … because it made my mind sloppy, either during or the day afterwards," the Microsoft co-founder said.