It might be necessary for making your philosophical thoughts visible. I dare say Bill Gates has given some thought to philosophical questions. For all I know, he may have had exceptionally clear and original thoughts about them. But I've read books about philosophy by Nagel and Foot and not by Gates because Nagel and Foot have had philosophy books published. Bill Gates probably hasn't had time to write a philosophy book, and would have more difficulty than Nagel and Foot in getting one published by the sort of publisher readers take seriously.

... Actually, maybe Gates is famous enough that he could find a good publisher for anything he wants; I don't know. So maybe choose someone a few notches down in fame and influence, but still exceptionally smart. Random examples: Bill Atkinson (software guy; wrote a lot of the graphics code in the original Apple Macintosh), Thomas Ades (composer; any serious classical music aficionado will know who he is, but scarcely anyone else), Vaughan Jones (Fields-medal-winning mathematician). If any of those had done first-rate philosophical thinking, I bet no one would know.