A framework to value social time

I recently heard a story about Bill Gates meeting Warren Buffett for the first time. His mom was looking to introduce them both at a dinner in 1991. Warren was going to be there, and Bill's mom told him to come and meet him.

Gates thought that Buffett "just buys and sells pieces of paper" and that his work didn't add real value. He felt they wouldn't have much in common.

He said something like "I don't have any interesting questions to ask him. I won't go." Since he was very busy working as Microsoft CEO, he didn't want to waste any time. At that moment, Microsoft's cap value was $10 billion.

Gates finally agreed to attend, but only for a short time (no more than two hours), as he assumed the meeting wouldn't have much depth.

I love how Gates judges the quality of his social time by the quality of the questions that he can ask somebody.

They ended up talking for hours about business strategy and started a decade-long relationship.

A few things to take away from this:

- Gates judged whether people were "interesting" or whether he could learn from them before agreeing to meet.

- He assumed that being extremely successful (like Buffett) didn't necessarily mean there was something relevant for him to learn — especially if their domains seemed very different (technology vs investing).

- But that meeting shifted Gates's view: he realized the value of cross-domain thinking. Even when you assume you know what someone does, their questions and their approach can open up new perspectives.