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

Post by cellis » Fri, Oct 28, 2011, 3:14 PM UTC

bluedanieru wrote: post #68

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. The Rothschild family is thought to have a net worth of a few trillion or thereabouts, so yeah. Of course, they do things with it.

Post by heelhook » Fri, Oct 28, 2011, 4:21 PM UTC

cobrausn wrote: post #109

heelhook wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is simply that we can't all be rich. We can all be billionaires, but we can't all be rich. The intrinsic limit comes from the fact that wealth itself is relative. Using your example, Microsoft's creation of value to such a large consumer base couldn't have happened if there had been thousands of Microsofts equally successful (e.g. not thousands of companies can have a 90% market share in the same market a…

When quality of life is taken into consideration, especially against most of human history and large portions of the world today, then I'd say most of the first world is already 'rich', we just aren't billionaires.

Post by kami8845 » Fri, Oct 28, 2011, 5:17 PM UTC

alexro wrote: post #101

forensic wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forbes only knows about public wealth. The Rothschilds in the mid 19th century owned half the wealth of the world, and the contemporary argument is that they have not lost money since then, rather it has grown steadily, and is hidden off the books in countless family controlled foundations as well as secret reserves stashed away before there was the type of public accounting we have today. Heads of state and CEOs hav…

And the other half was owned by Russians (Czar) ?

Post by thomaslangston » Fri, Oct 28, 2011, 6:32 PM UTC

kreek wrote: post #99

"Student question. Computer science in education, starting even in elementary school. Good idea? Gates. Hmm. I think computer is a great tool, but if by computer science we mean understanding queing theory and hashing and database indexes, not sure. But knowing how to write a program, prime numbers by algorithm is very interesting test of whether I know prime numbers. What’s really necessary? Geometry? No, probably n…

Post by rythie » Fri, Oct 28, 2011, 8:12 PM UTC

scottkduncan wrote: post #108

rythie wrote: post #105

Do people really try to become billionaires? they start companies intending to become (multi-)millionaires and they do better than expected and become billionaires.

I think some people do set out with the goal in mind of becoming a billionaire and I don't think these people succeed. Like you said, I think people who do become billionaires are fixated on a more proximate goal (like starting a company that serves an important need) and end up exceeding their initial expectations.