Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media • Hacker News Board

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#451

Post by cma » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 9:23 AM UTC

harry8 wrote: post #433

mdoms wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bill Gates is a public health expert. He has been working on these problems with some of the smartest minds in the field for decades now. How long does someone need to be working on a problem before they're worthy of being a "go to source", in your opinion?

Well anyone who has extensively published novel research that has altered best practise in the field for the better and has a track record of being sensible, well-reasoned, logical, has an understanding of how humans organise not just the natural world and has wonderful command of spoken and written expression would be near the top of the wish-list. It's not how long it took that person to demonstrate this. It's that…

> but that's why he's being held up as an "authority."

Look at his prepandemic warnings of a pandemic and how it would play out. And real money and action in trying to prevent it. That's why he is being held up as an authority.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#452

Post by neskiredk » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 9:41 AM UTC

raziel2p wrote: post #445

neskiredk wrote: post #429

He's pretty much the single most scary philanthropist and possibly influence on our future, judging from these past 6 months. Based on his talks of: Worldwide chip tracking of disease. Destroying encryption worldwide.

What exactly do you mean by chip tracking?

During Bill Gates reddit AMA, he was proposing the idea, even concluding that it would be a necessity to have travel go back to normal. That we have microchips embeded, that store our "public information", such as viral infection and vaccination status.

I say that it quotations, because i do not believe it is the governments place nor right, to make public, crucial medical data about individuals. In a perfect system, without breaches of security, sure, but that is not the real world.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#453

Post by wdb » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 9:48 AM UTC

blocked_again wrote: post #450

wdb wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parents connection doesn't mean you will get the business out of personal experience it can even lead to the opposite to avoid being blamed for nepotism.

Are you saying that children with well connected parents and not well connected parents ends up getting similar opportunities in life?

No, I just wanted to say that having well connected parents doesn't mean that always will be beneficial for the child it can also work against them, like it did for me.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#454

Post by raziel2p » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 9:50 AM UTC

neskiredk wrote: post #452

raziel2p wrote: post #445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly do you mean by chip tracking?

During Bill Gates reddit AMA, he was proposing the idea, even concluding that it would be a necessity to have travel go back to normal. That we have microchips embeded, that store our "public information", such as viral infection and vaccination status. I say that it quotations, because i do not believe it is the governments place nor right, to make public, crucial medical data about individuals. In a perfect system,…

Okay? Do you have a link? Because his foundation has denied it and several organizations have done a fact check on it, finding no evidence. https://www.bbc.com/news/52847648

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#455

Post by emiliobumachar » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 10:04 AM UTC

khawkins wrote: post #385

tangjurine wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a student failed a biology class because his hyper-religious parents would beat him if he didn't, he still failed.

And it's right to publicly shame him for that?

Nature may be less considerate. The problem with failing or particular case isn't the shame, it's the death and destruction.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#456

Post by netsharc » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 10:09 AM UTC

harry8 wrote: post #433

mdoms wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bill Gates is a public health expert. He has been working on these problems with some of the smartest minds in the field for decades now. How long does someone need to be working on a problem before they're worthy of being a "go to source", in your opinion?

Well anyone who has extensively published novel research that has altered best practise in the field for the better and has a track record of being sensible, well-reasoned, logical, has an understanding of how humans organise not just the natural world and has wonderful command of spoken and written expression would be near the top of the wish-list. It's not how long it took that person to demonstrate this. It's that…

Presumably Bill Gates was a good manager and CEO, he became the richest man in the world by running a very successful software company.

And in his current field of "global health" he hopefully has as good of a grasp of the issues, the proposed solutions, and since he's a smart man he's hopefully able to separate the bullshit from the effective solutions.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#457

Post by schwartzworld » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 11:00 AM UTC

AmericanChopper wrote: post #115

mdoms wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bill Gates is a public health expert. He has been working on these problems with some of the smartest minds in the field for decades now. How long does someone need to be working on a problem before they're worthy of being a "go to source", in your opinion?

Bill Gates certainly doesn’t have the credentials of a public health expert. His work with health experts has extended to funding and choosing what problems to solve. You’d presume he’s learned a fair amount about it over the years. But I’ve learned a fair amount about accountancy through my years of working with corporate accountants. I’m definitely not an accountancy expert though. What qualifications do you imagin…

gates has one qualification: he's rich. that's enough for a lot of people to assume he's right about everything.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#458

Post by blub » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 11:14 AM UTC

jillesvangurp wrote: post #437

blub wrote: post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Managing the foundation as a business with the goal of maximizing return on investment is precisely one of the criticism leveled at Gates. Note that return on investment refers to financial return, not some abstract notion about improving the world.

I think there's nothing with focusing on ROI in a foundation that presumably does not enrich shareholders (which a foundation does not have) and instead puts any savings to good use doing more of whatever they want to do.

Focusing on ROI means that they deal with less savory companies, sometimes creating obvious conflicts of interest with their mission.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#459

Post by adaml_623 » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 11:22 AM UTC

dang wrote: post #27

detaro wrote: post #9

previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24082906

Thanks. That thread wasn't very good - perhaps because of the hacky title (which the thread duly complains about). Let's see if this run is better. Early results are...mixed.

Final result. Dumpster fire.

* Most conspiracy nuts downvoted which is a relief. * Rehash of encryption. Totalitarianism versus anarchy. Seems to be 90% of the discussion * Attacks on Bill Gates suitability for interview by people in denial about what it means to be influential in society. * A few good mini threads about covid testing

(This comment is hidden on the second page so not feeling guilty about whining about discussion)

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#460

Post by rglover » Mon, Aug 10, 2020, 11:50 AM UTC

stjohnswarts wrote: post #393

king07828 wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A critique of most modern billionaires and millionaires is that they settle for ivory tower philanthropy throwing money around so they can chat with rich experts to figure out which other rich experts to give more money to. While good does come from this, it doesn't seem to make much progress in solving the underlying problems. For instance, how long has the Gates Foundation been involved with vaccines and pharmaceut…

You are free to do what you claim Gates should be doing. What give you the right to tell him what he should be should be doing with his time and money?

To be fair they said "could" not "should." And honestly, it's a great suggestion. I'd love to see what Gates and a team he assembled came up with (plus it'd just be fun to know there's another superstar entrepreneur out there working hard).