From time to time, Bill Gates appears on the news hierarchy site, Reddit, where users submit and vote on the best articles as community editors. Reddit also has an interview section. The interviewee, called the iAMA ("ask me anything") fields questions from online posters. Responses are usually short, semi-informal, and to the point as the interview is more or less a live, internet exchange.

Gates fielded questions on a variety of topics, from the slightly absurd ("Have you made any plans to artificially prolong your life?") to the helpful ("What's one of your goals for the next year... and how can we help?").

This being a college news site, Gates' answer to a question on higher education is worthy of note. In it, he clarifies that he actually had the requisite number of courses necessary to graduate, but still dropped out (to start Microsoft). Most interesting about his answer was how he stays involved with college, by "watching" them.

"I love college courses," Gates wrote. "I still watch a lot of them. I read a lot about people who had been successful. College was fun for me. So the part of the higher education system I got to experience was amazing - unfortunately most people don't get to go to Harvard or the equivalent.

It is strange to call me a college drop out in all but the most literal sense. I went for 3 years and took enough courses to graduate. So I am kind of a failure as a drop out and I don't have a degree...."

As an interested follower of Bitcoin, Gates' response to that question was also interesting in how he related it back to his foundation. Nothing may be more telling of his dedication to philanthropy than how reflexively he answered questions in the framework of his foundation.

"The foundation is involved in digital money but unlike Bitcoin it would not be anonymous digital money. In Kenya M-pesa is being used for almost half of all transactions. Digital money has low transaction costs which is great for the poor because they need to do financial transactions with small amounts of money. Over the next 5 years I think digital money will catch on in India and parts of Africa and help the poorest a lot."