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Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated

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Re: Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated

#51

Post by bfe »

heelhook wrote: post #49
bfe wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine though if we had a thousand Bill Gateses who each had a hundred billion dollars, and the brains and determination that got them that money, to throw at one or more of the projects mentioned above. Can there be such thing as too much resources being deployed for the advancement of the human race?

If that were the case, thousands of people with bill gates's wealth, either you would have an accumulation of capital at the top that would be unsustainable, or more likely such a devaluation of the currency that having a hundred billion dollars wouldn't make you rich, think Zimbabwe.

That just assumes that accumulation of wealth is necessarily due to extracting it from the general economy rather than by generating wealth for the economy at large. Without debating the relative merits of Microsoft's contributions in particular, and assuming you accept the capitalist premise that someone can deserve to become wealthy by generating more wealth for society than they take home for their own benefit, why should there some intrinsic limit to how many people that can be true of or of how much value they can collectively create?

Re: Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated

#53

Post by ramblerman »

ehsanu1 wrote: post #34
hugh3 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But Gates's own example shows how wonderfully useful and fulfilling it can be to have tens of billions of dollars to mobilize in a really heroic cause, like working to eradicate various infectious diseases from the human experience. Maybe. But it doesn't particularly make me want to be a billionaire. If the main satisfaction you get out of having $100 billion dollars is giving it all away again, I'd rather let someon…

The point of making the billion dollars yourself is having a say in where it gets spent, not in "giving it all away" indiscriminately. Indeed, someone else might choose to just keep their billions in the family, for the sake of obnoxious levels of luxury. I'm sure there are some billionaires exactly like that. Anyways, the whole problem with trying to become a billionaire is that it's really a lottery. Sure, someone…

> I'm sure there are some billionaires exactly like that.

Steve jobs?

Re: Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated

#54

Post by mattm »

alexhaefner wrote: post #11
breckinloggins wrote: post #3

This was an important thing for me to read. For the past several years I have been trying hard to deprogram myself of the "richer is better" mindset. Part of my problem has been the assumption that richer people believe themselves to be better than those less rich, to the point that someone like Bill Gates would think less of someone who "only" had a couple million dollars. I'm slowly weaning myself off of this damag…

I find it increasingly bizarre, day by day, that people are so fixated on money and not value, or meaningfulness. There's something about the way that money is discussed on HN that I find odd, but I haven't quite put my finger on it yet. Maybe it's that there can sometimes feel like a larger emphasis on politics or money than the things people have actually created... maybe. I'm not sure. I'm still working on figurin…

> I find it increasingly bizarre, day by day, that people are so fixated on money and not value, or meaningfulness.

...or happiness.

I recently read "Stumbling on Happiness" which had an interesting discussion on the fact that there are several studies that show that pay raises up to around $45k per year result in an increase in happiness. But after that, an increases in salary brings only a marginal increase in happiness, if that.

So the question he raised is that if one doesn't receive additional happiness from earning more than $45k, what is the reason for doing so? Most other human actions are geared towards happiness. It really got me thinking about the subject.

Re: Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated

#56

Post by cynest »

nickpinkston wrote: post #26
alexhaefner wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it increasingly bizarre, day by day, that people are so fixated on money and not value, or meaningfulness. There's something about the way that money is discussed on HN that I find odd, but I haven't quite put my finger on it yet. Maybe it's that there can sometimes feel like a larger emphasis on politics or money than the things people have actually created... maybe. I'm not sure. I'm still working on figurin…

Totally - the startup scene now seems to be trending more Hollywood than real meaning. There's so much awesome talent going to optimizing coupons, and not to improving the human condition.

But would they even be in the startup scene if it weren't for the profits? The chance at being the next x or y and making enough money to retire in luxury before the age of 30 is a nontrivial motivator when considering creating a startup. Looking at certain startups it's patently obvious that helping humanity was not a primary concern.

Re: Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated

#57

Post by Technophilis »

ramblerman wrote: post #53
ehsanu1 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point of making the billion dollars yourself is having a say in where it gets spent, not in "giving it all away" indiscriminately. Indeed, someone else might choose to just keep their billions in the family, for the sake of obnoxious levels of luxury. I'm sure there are some billionaires exactly like that. Anyways, the whole problem with trying to become a billionaire is that it's really a lottery. Sure, someone…

> I'm sure there are some billionaires exactly like that. Steve jobs?

or Yuri Milner http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/31/yuri-milner-house-r...

Re: Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated

#58

Post by mattm »

davidjohnstone wrote: post #13
breckinloggins wrote: post #3

This was an important thing for me to read. For the past several years I have been trying hard to deprogram myself of the "richer is better" mindset. Part of my problem has been the assumption that richer people believe themselves to be better than those less rich, to the point that someone like Bill Gates would think less of someone who "only" had a couple million dollars. I'm slowly weaning myself off of this damag…

I found it interesting that Steve Jobs was worth "only" about $6B when he died, and more of that wealth came from Pixar than Apple. But, the driving force behind wealthy and successful people is very rarely money.

I don't quite believe that. Look at periods of history where high taxes on wealth have led to a drastic decrease in entrepreneurship activity. I think the dream of becoming wealthy is what does drive people initially, however, (not through experience but from what I've learned from others) once wealthy the pursuit of earning more money does not become the motivation - although I did work for someone who had sold a previous company for a lot of money who went against this.

It seems you do need that initial dream to be about wealth in order to get some people to reach for success.

Re: Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated

#59

Post by Eyght »

dbbo wrote: post #22

I thought those "notes" were really poorly transcribed. Did the author really not have time to turn them into sentences? "Personally like to thank you for saving me winter algebra last year through Khan Academy investment." "Africa, 800m today will be bigger than China or India, 20M in 2040. In terms of stability, education." "Politics and role of web?" "Student question on negative impact of technology." I understan…

"If you’re motivated to learn physics, read Fineman’s book." Made me shudder.
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