51–60 of 127 posts
If this is Bill Gates blog, I do wonder the following: On first visit, it pops up a modal subscribe email dialog. On a second visit, a distracting large survey thing slid in from the bottom. Why would Bill Gates need spammy patterns that detract from reading the text on his personal blog?
> [...] we are also going to be focusing more on improving the quality of life. I think this will be the thrust of many big breakthroughs of the future. For example, software will be able to notice when you’re feeling down, connect you with your friends, give you personalized tips for sleeping and eating better, and help you use your time more efficiently. Seems like a retrofitted use case that is more of an answer t…
I preface my statement below with a disclaimer that I live in a "developed" or "1st-world" country but have previously lived and experienced other less developed economies. Anyway, it feels to me Gates is fixing a real problem but with very 1st world solutions? > For example, software will be able to notice when you’re feeling down, connect you with your friends, give you personalized tips for sleeping and eating bet…
I feel like we've lost connection and patience for each other from lack of practicing empathy. More technology is not the answer to that. I hope we find an equilibrium where we move past such an infatuation with tech that we let it be the right amount of a participant in our lives and place more of an emphasis on the human experience and condition and value our humanity first.
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I preface my statement below with a disclaimer that I live in a "developed" or "1st-world" country but have previously lived and experienced other less developed economies. Anyway, it feels to me Gates is fixing a real problem but with very 1st world solutions? > For example, software will be able to notice when you’re feeling down, connect you with your friends, give you personalized tips for sleeping and eating bet…
I am sad to agree with you. We in tech love to believe - with our inflated egos due to recent successes improving the world - that every problem is solved through more tech. I think we need to watch tech fail to solve some problems and experience that failure first hand to really believe that some problems are rooted in culture and social norms, not in a lack of guidance or convenience from some app. I feel like we'v…
Book 4 of the Pendragon series (The Reality Bug) comes to mind. That was a formative book in my young adulthood.
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People become obese because of emotional issues.
I don't think that's true. Ultimately the reason is eating unhealthy food that throws the nature's built-in weight control system off balance and allows the accumulation of fat (which is actually not a problem per se, it's symptom of the underlying cause which is far more troublesome, i.e. metabolic syndrome). People however like to blame other things and external factors. I'm X because of Y. It's time to take the pi…
If this is Bill Gates blog, I do wonder the following: On first visit, it pops up a modal subscribe email dialog. On a second visit, a distracting large survey thing slid in from the bottom. Why would Bill Gates need spammy patterns that detract from reading the text on his personal blog?
He's still a brand that needs to be marketed
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Mere sentences later he says that they would like to do a pilot in the US but regulatory constraints make it impossible.
The whole section is kind of strange. First he says that he believes only technology breakthroughs can solve the climate crisis, despite the expert consensus that the technology is mostly there if the political will can be found to disruptively deploy it. So, presumably, he thinks that mustering the political will is intractable. Then, a few paragraphs later, he admits that his preferred fix of nuclear energy is also…
Political changes to put the cost of pollution on the consumer would help but is only part of the solution
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Has Bill ever been good at predictions? No mention of smartphones or social media in The Road Ahead. Blindsided by how quickly the Internet developed, underestimated "bazaar" economies that enabled millions of people building both software and content. All the smart home stuff he was in love with has gone hardly anywhere. I think he's very smart and great at setting huge goals then hitting them, but I'm not sure he's…
> No mention of smartphones or social media in The Road Ahead The road ahead is from 1995 and is about the Internet ("Information Superhighway") which Microsoft almost missed, but got right just in time. The Smartphone he saw coming earlier than almost anyone else, and Microsoft desperately tried to conquer that market. They initially failed because existing mobile phone companies (Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson) feared M…
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Has Bill ever been good at predictions? No mention of smartphones or social media in The Road Ahead. Blindsided by how quickly the Internet developed, underestimated "bazaar" economies that enabled millions of people building both software and content. All the smart home stuff he was in love with has gone hardly anywhere. I think he's very smart and great at setting huge goals then hitting them, but I'm not sure he's…
His most famous prediction was one he helped make true. Microsoft's original mission statement was "A computer on every desk and in every home"
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Has Bill ever been good at predictions? No mention of smartphones or social media in The Road Ahead. Blindsided by how quickly the Internet developed, underestimated "bazaar" economies that enabled millions of people building both software and content. All the smart home stuff he was in love with has gone hardly anywhere. I think he's very smart and great at setting huge goals then hitting them, but I'm not sure he's…
There is this panel discussion with Jobs and Gates, circa mid 2000s, where Gates describes the future of computing in now-obvious iPad form, and Jobs is obviously taking mental notes
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I don't think that's true. Ultimately the reason is eating unhealthy food that throws the nature's built-in weight control system off balance and allows the accumulation of fat (which is actually not a problem per se, it's symptom of the underlying cause which is far more troublesome, i.e. metabolic syndrome). People however like to blame other things and external factors. I'm X because of Y. It's time to take the pi…
I or others shouldn't have to pay more for sugar because of others inability to limit themselves. There's already several other "taxes" we have to pay. No one wants to add another thing on that list.