Bill Gates has been an avid reader and a prolific writer. One unusual habit that Bill Gates maintained for 20 years is his biannual 'Think Week' where he disappears into a retreat with none but a caretaker who "slips in two simple meals every day", working 18 hours a day.
During this period Gates would carry nearly 100 papers authored by his employees that talk of trends, technologies and products that would influence the future of Microsoft.
Gates also used a practice of having a technology assistant selected from the best employees who did a two-year sabbatical in a role where they would provide continuous feed of ideas for him. IIT-Delhi educated Anoop Gupta (PhD from CMU and Stanford Professor for 11 years) was Gates' technology assistant during 2001-2003.