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I’m Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. AMA

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Re: I’m Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. AMA

#41

Post by orourkek »

perry5000 wrote: post #31
larrywright wrote: post #16

Post-Microsoft Bill Gates is a much more interesting person. I'm not a Microsoft fan, but I have a huge amount of respect for how he's choosing to spend the money he made. Interesting contrast to Larry Ellison, for example.

Larry Ellison has put virtually all of his assets into a trust with the intent of giving away 95% of his money to charitable causes when he dies.

I wasn't sure of this, so I looked it up:

http://cms.givingpledge.org/#larry_ellison

The full letter is an interesting read

Re: I’m Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. AMA

#42

Post by andrewguenther »

kmfrk wrote: post #33
grimlck wrote: post #12

I really wish reddit had a better interface to see the questions and Bill's answers all at once without scrolling through random comments. Why hasn't reddit's AMA been surpassed by a dedicated AMA site with a user interface designed for AMA?

Remember http://formspring.me ? I think there just aren't enough interesting people doing Q&As for a business model based on this to make much sense. Reddit's AMA format is pretty bad, especially if it's a woman/girl answering questions, though.

I'm curious what someone's sex has to do with their ability to conduct an AMA...

Re: I’m Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. AMA

#43

Post by smackfu »

perry5000 wrote: post #31
larrywright wrote: post #16

Post-Microsoft Bill Gates is a much more interesting person. I'm not a Microsoft fan, but I have a huge amount of respect for how he's choosing to spend the money he made. Interesting contrast to Larry Ellison, for example.

Larry Ellison has put virtually all of his assets into a trust with the intent of giving away 95% of his money to charitable causes when he dies.

What's he using to buy all his boy's toys, like yachts and plans and sports cars? Or is that just a meaningless percentage of his wealth?

Re: I’m Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. AMA

#44

Post by dmhdlr »

perry5000 wrote: post #31
larrywright wrote: post #16

Post-Microsoft Bill Gates is a much more interesting person. I'm not a Microsoft fan, but I have a huge amount of respect for how he's choosing to spend the money he made. Interesting contrast to Larry Ellison, for example.

Larry Ellison has put virtually all of his assets into a trust with the intent of giving away 95% of his money to charitable causes when he dies.

And without pretending that he can fix the world. Which is fatuous and provides a cover for business to continue as usual. Ellison is satisfied with being destructive in one domain of affairs. Gates isn't happy with just screwing up computing. He has to poop other people's parties, too.

Give me Ellison over Gates any day.

Re: I’m Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. AMA

#45

Post by georgemcbay »

grimlck wrote: post #12

I really wish reddit had a better interface to see the questions and Bill's answers all at once without scrolling through random comments. Why hasn't reddit's AMA been surpassed by a dedicated AMA site with a user interface designed for AMA?

The same reason craigslist classified haven't been surpassed by a more modern system -- it is much easier for everyone to live with the shortcomings (which really aren't that bad) than it would be to recreate an equivalently large, diverse and vibrant community on another site.

Especially since any focused site that came up to do this would almost certainly put way more barriers to entry into the community than reddit (which still allows you to create a new account virtually instantly, with no email verification) has.

Re: I’m Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. AMA

#47

Post by StuieK »

andrewguenther wrote: post #42
kmfrk wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember http://formspring.me ? I think there just aren't enough interesting people doing Q&As for a business model based on this to make much sense. Reddit's AMA format is pretty bad, especially if it's a woman/girl answering questions, though.

I'm curious what someone's sex has to do with their ability to conduct an AMA...

Haha steady now. He means peoples responses to their AMA.

Re: I’m Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. AMA

#48

Post by [deleted] »

andrewguenther wrote: post #42
kmfrk wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember http://formspring.me ? I think there just aren't enough interesting people doing Q&As for a business model based on this to make much sense. Reddit's AMA format is pretty bad, especially if it's a woman/girl answering questions, though.

I'm curious what someone's sex has to do with their ability to conduct an AMA...

[deleted]

Re: I’m Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. AMA

#49

Post by weisser »

kmfrk wrote: post #33
grimlck wrote: post #12

I really wish reddit had a better interface to see the questions and Bill's answers all at once without scrolling through random comments. Why hasn't reddit's AMA been surpassed by a dedicated AMA site with a user interface designed for AMA?

Remember http://formspring.me ? I think there just aren't enough interesting people doing Q&As for a business model based on this to make much sense. Reddit's AMA format is pretty bad, especially if it's a woman/girl answering questions, though.

voomly is building a business model around Q&A...

voomly.com

Fred Wilson wrote about them here: http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2013/01/voomly.html

Re: I’m Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. AMA

#50

Post by georgemcbay »

andrewguenther wrote: post #42
kmfrk wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember http://formspring.me ? I think there just aren't enough interesting people doing Q&As for a business model based on this to make much sense. Reddit's AMA format is pretty bad, especially if it's a woman/girl answering questions, though.

I'm curious what someone's sex has to do with their ability to conduct an AMA...

I think what he meant is that if a girl is giving an AMA she gets a lot of off topic "wow you're hot" type posts from the peanut gallery, something that wouldn't happen if the system were more moderated. OTOH, the lack of moderation is part of the charm of AMAs IMO even though it does result in the trolls being trolls.

(The "Woody Harrelson"/Rampart AMAs would be the norm if not for the chaotic nature of reddit).

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