Inside Bill’s Brain • Hacker News Board

Re: Inside Bill’s Brain

#71

Post by _lbaq » Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 6:35 PM UTC

pfortuny wrote: post #65

jasoneckert wrote: post #40

I'm not a fan of documentaries, but I liked this one (all three parts). It's Bill essentially saying "You know - this is what matters, the Microsoft stuff is secondary." And I respect that. The Steve Jobs documentaries were more like "Hey, this guy was a douche, but people worship the cult he made from peddling computer stuff, and that is good, right?" Definitely a difference in approach.

Surprisingly, the MS stuff (the way he got as rich as he is now) is mostly illegal in the way he took advantage of his business... He does not seem to acknowledge this anywhere...

"mostly illegal" - you have to elaborate that, you make it sound like Microsoft as a whole was illegal, which is obviously ridiculous.

Re: Inside Bill’s Brain

#72

Post by riazrizvi » Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 6:39 PM UTC

shadypupper wrote: post #17

I tried to watch it, but it just felt like a 'Bill Gates' public profile PR piece. Basically just espousing how great Bill and his family are and were at all points in history.

Though he has pledged to give away his fortune. So far he has given out $35billion. On things like curing malaria, as opposed to buying self-portraits and NFL memorabilia. I’d say his behavior is the text book definition of great.

Re: Inside Bill’s Brain

#73

Post by cgranier » Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 6:48 PM UTC

ScottFree wrote: post #29

joezydeco wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I regularly get downvoted for pointing out that Saint Bill the Philanthropist refuses to acknowledge all the shitty behavior and the damage he left behind to earn him that fortune in the first place.

Not to mention his philanthropy work frequently causes considerable damage itself, like the malaria nets[0] that poisoned the local food supply, the failed public school overhaul[1] and common core[2][3]. [0]: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/25/world/africa/mosquito-net... [1]: https://nancyebailey.com/2018/07/04/gatess-blunders-destroy-... [2]: https://www.philanthropydaily.com/gates-philanthropy-failure... [3]: htt…

How is the use of malaria nets for fishing (or chicken coops, or crop covers) somehow Gates’ fault?

Re: Inside Bill’s Brain

#74

Post by jacobolus » Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 6:55 PM UTC

hogFeast wrote: post #67

tempsy wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m commenting on OP’s respect for someone using his money and influence to release a documentary where he writes off that one time he broke the law to crush his competitors as “secondary” to his charitable work. It’s especially interesting since we’re becoming acutely aware of how the rich regularly wash their reputations through charitable work e.g. Epstein and the Sacklers. Only the wealthy get to influence the pu…

Many of the things that he is doing also have huge political implications. From the U.S. that isn't obvious. Some wealthy guy can dole out cash but the system is stable, so that is fine. Outside of the U.S. the opposite is true. Wealthy guy comes in and starts handing out cash, and that occurs within a political context (which is often the issue: these places often don't lack money or tech, what they lack is stable p…

There are big implications inside the US too. Gates favors large-scale privatization of American public schools and de-professionalization of schoolteachers, and his “philanthropy” is actively harmful to US students.

Public policy should be decided by the public, not by the whims of unaccountable billionaires, however pure their intentions might be.

Re: Inside Bill’s Brain

#75

Post by TheOtherHobbes » Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 6:56 PM UTC

rhizome31 wrote: post #16

htk wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my understanding, the documentary is about what Bill Gates is doing, and what inspired him. IMHO his cutthroat tactics leading Microsoft are already well documented and have nothing to do with the great work he’s doing now.

Without entering the debate regarding whether Gates foundation does more good than damage, it seems a bit of a stretch to say that this is unrelated to his earlier business practices. It's fair to imagine that those practices have contributed to put him in a situation where he can do what he does now.

Based on his history, it's absolutely fair to question his competence and his judgement.

The Microsoft years proved that he was good at making money using dominate-a-market monopolist techniques.

That's exactly the wrong personality profile for someone trying to do effective philanthropy, which requires unusual empathy and cultural sensitivity, as well as tactical cleverness.

Gates - arguably - demonstrated the latter, albeit only in a very specific and (IMO) self-serving way. He also made plenty of spectacular strategic errors at Microsoft which harmed MS customers, MS competitors, and computer users in general.

So his record of strategic foresight is patchy at best. And there is no evidence at all that he has any unusual talent for empathy or cultural awareness.

Re: Inside Bill’s Brain

#76

Post by Uhuhreally » Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 7:01 PM UTC

mav3rick wrote: post #49

Uhuhreally wrote: post #48

now let me ask this: is Gates smarter and harder working in proportion to his wealth than Knuth ?

How does it matter ? You may be both but unlucky or not market your skills.

because he has been awarded by the putative meritocratic competition a vast sum of money for his mediocre operating system

Re: Inside Bill’s Brain

#77

Post by dredmorbius » Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 7:05 PM UTC

soperj wrote: post #24

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The question is do we need nuclear and the risks? Can renewables like wind, hydro, and solar provide what we need cheaper and without the dangers associated with nuclear? If so, then why even mess with it?

Hydro has killed more people and ruined more land than Nuclear ever will.

True. Banqiao dam, 1975, about 125,000 dead.

In a region that is now home to over 17 million, and in which life goes on. In notable contrast to Chernobyl and Fukushima.

Most of the specific dynamics of the Banqiao disaster were organisational, managerial, and political, rather than technical, which is to say: not specific to hydropower projects, and fully shared with nuclear projects. In fact we've seen precisely the same dynamics across multiple nuclear accidents and incidents.

The scale of the hydropower and nuclear industries is also worth noting. There are over 57,000 large dams worldwide, 40% in China.[1] There are 450 nuclear power plants operating worldwide.[2] Which is to say that the per-plant risk experience is 125 times greater for hydroelectric and hydraulic projects than for nuclear, and yes, there have been notable dam failures and failure modes: Johnstown, Vajont, Sempor, Panshet, Baldwin Hills, St. Francis, Teton. And several near misses: Oroville and Glen Canyon come to mind.

Many of the worst disasters have happened regions, or times, in which resources were low, understanding poor, and understandings of liability and risks deficient. Which if nuclear power expands, is likely to also be the case.

I've written on and submitted items on Banqiao several times at HN. It's an instructive case study, though the lessons may not be immediately apparent:

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20020553

________________________________

Notes:

1. https://www.internationalrivers.org/questions-and-answers-ab...

2. https://www.euronuclear.org/info/encyclopedia/n/nuclear-powe...

Re: Inside Bill’s Brain

#78

Post by cromwellian » Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 7:07 PM UTC

hogFeast wrote: post #67

tempsy wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m commenting on OP’s respect for someone using his money and influence to release a documentary where he writes off that one time he broke the law to crush his competitors as “secondary” to his charitable work. It’s especially interesting since we’re becoming acutely aware of how the rich regularly wash their reputations through charitable work e.g. Epstein and the Sacklers. Only the wealthy get to influence the pu…

Many of the things that he is doing also have huge political implications. From the U.S. that isn't obvious. Some wealthy guy can dole out cash but the system is stable, so that is fine. Outside of the U.S. the opposite is true. Wealthy guy comes in and starts handing out cash, and that occurs within a political context (which is often the issue: these places often don't lack money or tech, what they lack is stable p…

Rather than make abstract accusations that are theoretical, perhaps you could be specific. Gates has donated a lot to basic health, vaccination, malaria, clean water.

Saying that some of it might be siphoned away by corrupt locals doesn’t remove any good done. The same is true of internationally run NGOs, the WHO, UN, USAID, etc the locals get some power and capital siphoned from the system.

But there is no system that can be free of fraud or corruption, so unless you can point out how Gates donations have been MORE corrupt than others, this just seems like a needlessly harsh attempt to nitpick someone who has given up more of his wealth than most people in history.

Do we really want people to believe no personal good deed goes unpunished?

If Gates were a Koch Bros like figure, it be one thing, but he is mostly following in the footsteps of people like Jimmy Carter at this point.

Re: Inside Bill’s Brain

#79

Post by hackeer » Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 7:19 PM UTC

riazrizvi wrote: post #72

shadypupper wrote: post #17

I tried to watch it, but it just felt like a 'Bill Gates' public profile PR piece. Basically just espousing how great Bill and his family are and were at all points in history.

Though he has pledged to give away his fortune. So far he has given out $35billion. On things like curing malaria, as opposed to buying self-portraits and NFL memorabilia. I’d say his behavior is the text book definition of great.

"given away" to his charity, which He controls. It's just a different form of ownership.

Re: Inside Bill’s Brain

#80

Post by turbinerneiter » Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 7:25 PM UTC

deogeo wrote: post #41

turbinerneiter wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole Soros story is an anti-Semitic smear made up by Orbans team to win elections in Hungary. Nobody would give two shits about Soros if it wasn't for that. No matter how true it might be that he earned some of his money to the detriment of others, the only reason why it's being discussed is is so that Orbans has a virtual enemy to win against.

Which parts of CEU was founded in 1991 by hedge fund manager, political activist, and philanthropist George Soros [..] A central tenet of the university's philosophy is the promotion of open societies. [1] major donations from some of the nation’s wealthiest liberal foundations, including [..] the Open Society Foundations of the financier George Soros [..]. Over the past decade those donors have invested more than $3…

It's not about disagreeing with his goals, it's about stylizing him as a Boogeyman using anti-Semitic tropes for political gains.

The people who call Soros their enemy are literally fighting against liberal democracy. Orban himself states as his goal a illiberal democracy.

You can disagree with Soros views on immigration, but there is no way in hell you can defend what has been done to him. What Soros advocates is a viable political position, what Orban advocates is the death of democracy.