Bill Gates recreates high school photo for his AMA identity verification | Hacker News Reader

Bill Gates recreates high school photo for his AMA identity verification

i.imgur.com

119 pointsChrisArchitect24 comments

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The two are eerily similar. It's a very artistic effect he achieved. The whimsy seems uncharacteristic for him.

Somewhat uncharacteristic for him.

But probably perfectly characteristic of the design firm he hired to do it for him.

Probably Intentional Futures in Seattle.

Being in charge of special projects like this for BG would be a fun job.

Really? This is a guy who jumped over a chair during an interview when challenged.

My impression is that leaving Microsoft and running the B&MG foundation has improved his temperament considerably.

I can see how the ratio of time spent around Melinda Gates to time spent around Steve Ballmer might serve as a good predictor of anyone's mood.

If I could, I would give you gold. But I can't.

He's done some whimsical, vaguely similar things before. For the ice bucket challenge he built a whole rig to do the dumping. And my favorite, released a bunch of mosquitos into the crowd during his Ted talk on malaria.

So not really out of character, at least for post-Microsoft Gates.

Check out the videos he posted after a couple of his previous AMAs for more examples of Gates whimsy:

He posted this thank you video after his second AMA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynQ5ZhxYAss

This was after his third AMA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p4bm-RAlLA

And then there was that time he caught a pie with his face. Funny guy, really.

The second video you linked is quite sweet. I guess both are broad humor, while the linked photo has a subtlety. But you have a point, Gates has got the self-effacing whimsy for sure.

Even the shoes are similar!!!

It must have taken a fortune and many hours of searching to collect all those items which (almost) look exactly like the originals from 1973.

Well, good thing he's rich.

They probably just put an intern on it.

It was funny that he got gilded. Someone actually bought Reddit gold for Bill Gates.

Yeah, but how many people can say "I bought x for BillG?"

Bill Gates hired a very good production designer to recreate this photo.

I wonder how he found a replacement for that exact same phone fax thing? It looks like an antique piece.