Bill Gates' Philanthropic Impact Put in Perspective • Hacker News Board

Re: Bill Gates' Philanthropic Impact Put in Perspective

#41

Post by ekianjo » Sat, Apr 23, 2016, 6:04 AM UTC

visarga wrote: post #29

WalterBright wrote: post #11

Bill Gates was a tough competitor, to be sure, and you had to bring your A game when dealing with Microsoft. But the complaints that he was 'evil', when you drill down to see what the actual complaint is, just seem to fade away. Most of it seems to be simply envy. See "In Search of Stupidity" by Chapman. P.S. I was in the industry throughout that era, and competed directly against Microsoft in programming languages.

> Most of it seems to be simply envy. For me it was frustration with Windows, until I gave it up back, in 2004. I used to rage at it's instability and difficult reinstallation process when various device drivers were involved. I would never have imagined I will have such a positive view on Bill Gates a decade later. He's smart because, after spending half his life amassing a fortune, he is now spending the other half…

> He's smart because, after spending half his life amassing a fortune, he is now spending the other half of his life spending it

So it does not matter how the fortune was amassed in the first place? As long as you spend some of it and polish your PR image later on ?

People forget/forgive pretty fast, for me that's the only thing I retain from this story.

Re: Bill Gates' Philanthropic Impact Put in Perspective

#42

Post by philliphaydon » Sat, Apr 23, 2016, 6:22 AM UTC

prodigal_erik wrote: post #8

dharmon wrote: post #5

If you put aside the "M$ was evil and he is just atoning" arguments, Gates is a huge inspiration, at least for me. This guy finds problems that he's passionate about and attacks them with such ferocity that it is truly awe inspiring. I'm mildly embarrassed to admit it, but he was my childhood hero through the 90's. Even later when everyone thought Jobs was the bee's knees, I wanted to be as effective as Gates.

If we put aside that the money isn't his, he kneecapped better products with such ferocity that a generation later our industry is still struggling to make up for the lost progress.

The FDA, CDC, American Government, and Patent System, have all crippled progress far more than Bill Gates or Microsoft ever did.

Re: Bill Gates' Philanthropic Impact Put in Perspective

#43

Post by chongli » Sat, Apr 23, 2016, 6:29 AM UTC

atdt wrote: post #37

cbd1984 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm of the opinion that Gates hasn't really changed, just found a more socially-acceptable way to use his fundamental personality.

This qualifies as goodness in my books. No one is free of egoism and selfishness. People are good if they subordinate their egoism and selfishness to a higher principle of care for others, and seek satisfaction of their baser impulses through actions that are socially constructive and beneficial.

It's hard to guess what motivated the grandparent's comment but if I had to guess, it has something to do with the cultural aversion to public philanthropy which traces back to Matthew 6:3

    But when thou doest alms, let not thy
    left hand know what thy right hand doeth:

As an atheist who was raised Catholic, many of the teachings of Jesus still make sense to me from a moral standpoint. This one does not. Keeping your charitable efforts quiet seems like a bad thing to do if you want to get others involved so that you might actually make a difference some day.

Re: Bill Gates' Philanthropic Impact Put in Perspective

#44

Post by okasaki » Sat, Apr 23, 2016, 6:35 AM UTC

visarga wrote: post #29

WalterBright wrote: post #11

Bill Gates was a tough competitor, to be sure, and you had to bring your A game when dealing with Microsoft. But the complaints that he was 'evil', when you drill down to see what the actual complaint is, just seem to fade away. Most of it seems to be simply envy. See "In Search of Stupidity" by Chapman. P.S. I was in the industry throughout that era, and competed directly against Microsoft in programming languages.

> Most of it seems to be simply envy. For me it was frustration with Windows, until I gave it up back, in 2004. I used to rage at it's instability and difficult reinstallation process when various device drivers were involved. I would never have imagined I will have such a positive view on Bill Gates a decade later. He's smart because, after spending half his life amassing a fortune, he is now spending the other half…

His fortune went from 45B in 2008 to 75B in 2015. Hell of a way to spend money!

edit: B, not M. Thanks.

Re: Bill Gates' Philanthropic Impact Put in Perspective

#45

Post by thaumasiotes » Sat, Apr 23, 2016, 6:40 AM UTC

chongli wrote: post #43

atdt wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This qualifies as goodness in my books. No one is free of egoism and selfishness. People are good if they subordinate their egoism and selfishness to a higher principle of care for others, and seek satisfaction of their baser impulses through actions that are socially constructive and beneficial.

It's hard to guess what motivated the grandparent's comment but if I had to guess, it has something to do with the cultural aversion to public philanthropy which traces back to Matthew 6:3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: As an atheist who was raised Catholic, many of the teachings of Jesus still make sense to me from a moral standpoint. This one does not. Keeping your c…

Well, the point of the teaching is to allow other people, not the person doing alms, to know that money for philanthropy is coming out of the rich guy's "charity" budget rather than his "public relations" budget.

This is misguided, but it's not hard to understand where the idea came from.

Re: Bill Gates' Philanthropic Impact Put in Perspective

#46

Post by TheLogothete » Sat, Apr 23, 2016, 6:41 AM UTC

muntac wrote: post #20

The size of the Gates Foundation is only impressive if you believe public policy should be disproportionately influenced by the whims of a few rich individuals. Philanthropists may not be motivated by profit like lobbyists, but that doesn't mean they understand the needs of the people any better. For issues related to relatively concrete sciences like medicine this matters less. But in areas such as education for exa…

Only people who do nothing and just watch don't make mistakes.

Re: Bill Gates' Philanthropic Impact Put in Perspective

#47

Post by WalterBright » Sat, Apr 23, 2016, 6:42 AM UTC

ploxiln wrote: post #40

WalterBright wrote: post #11

Bill Gates was a tough competitor, to be sure, and you had to bring your A game when dealing with Microsoft. But the complaints that he was 'evil', when you drill down to see what the actual complaint is, just seem to fade away. Most of it seems to be simply envy. See "In Search of Stupidity" by Chapman. P.S. I was in the industry throughout that era, and competed directly against Microsoft in programming languages.

Sure, it was just smart business plays in the tech industry, not really "evil" like physically harming people or stealing stuff from them. But as an engineer (well, at that time, a tinkerer in high school), it was very frustrating how they had their own flawed formats and protocols. They made it as difficult as possible to interoperate in order to entrench their dominant position. I guess it's what all the biggest te…

I switched from Netscape to Explorer because the latter crashed about half as often. It was as simple as that.

And back in the early 80's, MS-DOS sold for $40. Digital Research's CPM/86 sold for $186. They were on the shelf at Egghead next to each other. There's no surprise that people bought MS-DOS. Wouldn't you? I did. Kildall thought people would pay a large premium for CPM/86. He made a huge mistake (especially since nobody at the time could explain to me why CPM/86 was better, and after later trying it out, I couldn't see anything better about it, either).

As for incompatible file formats, just about every last software company tried that. Read about the legendary battles over the zip file format. WordStar didn't use a standard file format. Neither did Wordperfect. Every printer had a different, proprietary command language. Every graphics card had a different interface. I once was paid to spend a lovely 3 weeks in Japan getting some graphics software to work with the various Japanese graphics cards. I could go on for hours :-)

Re: Bill Gates' Philanthropic Impact Put in Perspective

#48

Post by TheLogothete » Sat, Apr 23, 2016, 6:42 AM UTC

k_lander wrote: post #39

i'm curious as to whether it is more effective for an individual to hold a contribute-as-you go style to philantrophy vs a make-money-first-then-donate strategy like gates did. Given that most people aren't going to be billionaires, I would guess the former but maybe someone who has looked at the data can provide some insight.

Donating money if you are not (filthy) rich is foolish. Those money would be MUCH better spent on you. If you want to help, do it with personal efforts.

Re: Bill Gates' Philanthropic Impact Put in Perspective

#49

Post by thaumasiotes » Sat, Apr 23, 2016, 6:43 AM UTC

okasaki wrote: post #44

visarga wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most of it seems to be simply envy. For me it was frustration with Windows, until I gave it up back, in 2004. I used to rage at it's instability and difficult reinstallation process when various device drivers were involved. I would never have imagined I will have such a positive view on Bill Gates a decade later. He's smart because, after spending half his life amassing a fortune, he is now spending the other half…

His fortune went from 45B in 2008 to 75B in 2015. Hell of a way to spend money! edit: B, not M. Thanks.

> His fortune went from 45M in 2008 to 75M in 2015.

That would be a pretty shocking spending spree. A 70% increase just can't make up for a 99.9% decrease beforehand.

You meant billion, not million.

Re: Bill Gates' Philanthropic Impact Put in Perspective

#50

Post by peteretep » Sat, Apr 23, 2016, 6:44 AM UTC

bcook wrote: post #14

dharmon wrote: post #5

If you put aside the "M$ was evil and he is just atoning" arguments, Gates is a huge inspiration, at least for me. This guy finds problems that he's passionate about and attacks them with such ferocity that it is truly awe inspiring. I'm mildly embarrassed to admit it, but he was my childhood hero through the 90's. Even later when everyone thought Jobs was the bee's knees, I wanted to be as effective as Gates.

Even if Microsoft was evil, Gates is still an inspiration to me.

Because Microsoft was evil, Gates is an inspiration to me.