Does anyone really believe Warren Buffett and Bill Gates are psychopaths and would tell them that to their face if they had the chance.
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Well I don't know enough about Buffett to say one way or the other but professional circumstances have forced me to study Gates' behavior -- at least as manifested via his corporation -- in detail.
Psycopath seems excessive or, perhaps more to the point, inaccurate -- not a good description of the pathology on display. I think though there's strong evidence some things within Gates' mind are out-of-balance in a way the ancient Greeks seemed to have understood and had concepts for (hubris, moira, etc).
It's common for IT folks who aren't pro-MS partisans to describe Microsoft as an empire, or as a rapacious monster gobbling up everything in its path. Some of this is hype and alarmism but the foundation, built upon the real actions of the firm, is quite sound.
Microsoft's endless quest to insert itself in every IT related revenue stream (which now includes digitized entertainment product) at the dominant position, a reflection of Gates' goals and preoccupations, may not be psychopathological in the strictest sense but it is something other than healthy. Add to this Microsoft's efforts to not merely beat but discredit, absorb or destroy competition and a true passion play of mental unhealthiness unfolds before you.
Of course, this isn't unique to Microsoft and Gates, he and his kingdom simply provide one of the most aggressive recent examples of a general tendency of capitalism -- an unwillingness or inability to recognize limits and reach a point of satisfaction -- a vortex of dissatisfaction.
As I said at the top, the men and women who power this vortex may not be psychopaths, in fact, I'm sure they're not (mostly) but this doesn't mean their state-of-mind cannot be described as pathological using more precisely descriptive language.
DRM