Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates with Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett. REUTERS/Rick Wilking Bill Gates, the cofounder of Microsoft, told BBC Radio 4's "Desert Island Discs" programme that he used to memorise the license plates of early employees' cars to track their comings and goings.

"I had to be a little careful not to try and apply my standards to how hard they worked," he said, according to The Telegraph. "You know, I knew everyone's license plates so I could look out in the parking lot and see when did people come in, when were they leaving. Eventually I had to loosen up, as the company got to a reasonable size."

"Desert Island Discs" is a weekly British radio programme that gets celebrities, politicians, and other famous people to choose the songs they would take onto a desert island.

Gates chose an eclectic mix of tracks — including ones by David Bowie, Ed Sheeran, U2, and The Beatles — and talked about Steve Jobs, his philanthropic work, and Microsoft in the early days. The host, Kirsty Young, introduced Gates as the richest man in the world.

According to Gates, he was "a little more intense than most people" when he set up Microsoft but "no more intense than Steve Jobs," who cofounded Apple in 1976. He then praised Jobs as an "incredible genius."

Microsoft, under Gates, bailed out Apple in the late 1990s when Apple was low on cash and needed a buffer to create the iPod. At a (now infamous) Apple keynote, Gates appeared on the big screen behind Jobs.

Gates has now focused his work on philanthropic causes, such as ending poverty, but he spends about a third of his time at Microsoft as an adviser to CEO Satya Nadella.