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> Let's not forget, Bill Gates was handed a 0th birthday gift of $1 million from his grandfather, the keys to his private middle school computer (the same one S

> Let's not forget, Bill Gates was handed a 0th birthday gift of $1 million from his grandfather, the keys to his private middle school computer (the same one Stanford had), and a free ticket to do business with IBM because his mother already knew its chairman. The rest of your post is very insightful, but this part above strikes me as petty - I was low born myself, was given almost nothing except birth in the USA in the modern era, but I think good for people who are given things and achieve with them. The bad things stand on their own - you include the fact that he was given gifts as if it makes him worse - it doesn't - at least, not by my ethics. Other people can disagree. Let his bad deeds stand on their own, the rest of it comes across as sour grapes.

rbanffy 16y ago
I think his point is that Gates was given some very generous gifts and, with them, "he fucked anyone who got in his way", "usually to the detriment of the industry".
- mattmaroon 16y ago
  Another way to look at it is that Gates used his very generous gifts to give 100s of thousands of people jobs, make PCs affordable for small businesses and common people, then went on to give away enough to charity to become the greatest philanthropist in history. Meanwhile the people who vilify him worship Steve Jobs, who has broken plenty of laws himself (backdating is fraud), done most of the things that have inspired such loathing when Microsoft did them (and only didn't do the rest because he didn't have the necessary market share) and by all accounts hoards his money along with black mock turtlenecks. It's rather hypocritical to type about how evil Microsoft is on your Macbook Pro. You see what you want to see I suppose.
  - rbanffy 16y ago
    > give 100s of thousands of people jobs Would have jobs with or without Gates > make PCs affordable for small businesses and common people Like I said before, Jobs and Wozniak did that, Jack Tramiel did that (even better than J&W). > then went on to give away enough to charity to become the greatest philanthropist in history He is the richest man in history. > the people who vilify him worship Steve Jobs False dichotomy alert! Not the case here. Jobs is flawed too. > done most of the things that have inspired such loathing when Microsoft did them Until now Apple is not guilty of monopoly abuse. Nothing even close to what Comes vs. Microsoft shows. > how evil Microsoft is on your Macbook Pro I use a Dell running Linux. At home I use an Acer. Running Linux too.
    - gnaritas 16y ago
      > He is the richest man in history. Small nitpick, adjusted for inflation, no he isn't, not even close. Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Vanderbilt were all much richer. Also, it needs to be said that these were the richest Americans, not necessarily richest ever worldwide.
      - rbanffy 16y ago
        Nitpick accepted. Thanks.
    - mkramlich 16y ago
      > then went on to give away enough to charity to become the greatest philanthropist in history He is the richest man in history. Exactly. If you're a multi-billionaire it's very easy to be a philanthropist. Now instead be somebody making say $30k a year with a net worth of say $10k, and if that person is a philanthropist, I'm much more impressed by that person's character.
edw519 16y ago
...but this part above strikes me as petty... Sorry if it came across that way; that was not my intent. Everyone's starting point is relative. No one ever gave me the gifts that Bill Gates got. But then again, I've had gifts that 99% of everyone who ever lived couldn't imagine. With those gifts comes responsibility. Whenever I have an opportunity to use my gifts to do good things, I think of how proud those who made sacrifices for me would be. I imagine many people here on hn feel the same way. Bill Gates never used his tremendous gifts for the greater good, only for the good of Microsoft. He never cared how big the pie got, only how close Microsoft's share of that pie approached 100%. The point of the paragraph wasn't to be petty or jealous; it was just to point out how the one with perhaps the biggest gifts of all didn't choose to share them like the rest of us would. Sorry if I implied anything else.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- mattmaroon 16y ago
  From your comments its clear that you're zealously anti-capitalist and, as a result, anti-Microsoft, so you're simply not applying logic. Bill Gates did his legal duty. When you run a corporation you have a fiduciary responsibility to it. He would be doing something immoral if he didn't do what was best for Microsoft. The theory behind free market capitalism is that enough companies doing the same will average out to the best results. So the question is what do most people with the gifts Bill Gates was born into do? The answer is that they get a job in finance doing nothing of benefit to society and getting paid quite handsomely for it. Bill on the other hand founded a company that has, at current time, almost 90,000 employees. He helped bring computers to the masses. It's not petty jealousy that drives your comments, it's anti-capitalist sentiment. You also have a highly debatable view of what the universe would look like if not for Microsoft (I for one suspect you wouldn't be on this site) but that too is a side effect of zealousness rather than the result of careful reasoning.
  - rbanffy 16y ago
    > He would be doing something immoral if he didn't do what was best for Microsoft Look how loved the company is today. Was what he did really the best he could have done for Microsoft? Wouldn't a kinder, gentler Microsoft, one that helped a healthy market thrive, be better? Would the smaller slice of a larger pie be larger than Microsoft's current pie? > they get a job in finance doing nothing of benefit to society I suppose you assume VCs exist in a vacuum. No. > He helped bring computers to the masses. No. Jobs and Wozniak did. Jack Tramiel did. Gates did nothing like that.
sdurkin 16y ago
To whom much has been given, much will be expected in return, with great suit comes great responsibility, etc.
prototype56 16y ago
That was one of the Gladwell's points in his famous book outliers.
Yzupnick 16y ago
See Fransisco D'Acconia's "Money" speech in Atlas Shrugged for some of the reasoning behind this view. (It is probably in some of Ayn Rand's non fiction but I just can't remember where off the top of my head)

rbanffy 16y ago

I think his point is that Gates was given some very generous gifts and, with them, "he fucked anyone who got in his way", "usually to the detriment of the industry".

mattmaroon 16y ago
Another way to look at it is that Gates used his very generous gifts to give 100s of thousands of people jobs, make PCs affordable for small businesses and common people, then went on to give away enough to charity to become the greatest philanthropist in history. Meanwhile the people who vilify him worship Steve Jobs, who has broken plenty of laws himself (backdating is fraud), done most of the things that have inspired such loathing when Microsoft did them (and only didn't do the rest because he didn't have the necessary market share) and by all accounts hoards his money along with black mock turtlenecks. It's rather hypocritical to type about how evil Microsoft is on your Macbook Pro. You see what you want to see I suppose.
- rbanffy 16y ago
  > give 100s of thousands of people jobs Would have jobs with or without Gates > make PCs affordable for small businesses and common people Like I said before, Jobs and Wozniak did that, Jack Tramiel did that (even better than J&W). > then went on to give away enough to charity to become the greatest philanthropist in history He is the richest man in history. > the people who vilify him worship Steve Jobs False dichotomy alert! Not the case here. Jobs is flawed too. > done most of the things that have inspired such loathing when Microsoft did them Until now Apple is not guilty of monopoly abuse. Nothing even close to what Comes vs. Microsoft shows. > how evil Microsoft is on your Macbook Pro I use a Dell running Linux. At home I use an Acer. Running Linux too.
  - gnaritas 16y ago
    > He is the richest man in history. Small nitpick, adjusted for inflation, no he isn't, not even close. Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Vanderbilt were all much richer. Also, it needs to be said that these were the richest Americans, not necessarily richest ever worldwide.
    - rbanffy 16y ago
      Nitpick accepted. Thanks.
  - mkramlich 16y ago
    > then went on to give away enough to charity to become the greatest philanthropist in history He is the richest man in history. Exactly. If you're a multi-billionaire it's very easy to be a philanthropist. Now instead be somebody making say $30k a year with a net worth of say $10k, and if that person is a philanthropist, I'm much more impressed by that person's character.

edw519 16y ago

...but this part above strikes me as petty... Sorry if it came across that way; that was not my intent. Everyone's starting point is relative. No one ever gave me the gifts that Bill Gates got. But then again, I've had gifts that 99% of everyone who ever lived couldn't imagine. With those gifts comes responsibility. Whenever I have an opportunity to use my gifts to do good things, I think of how proud those who made sacrifices for me would be. I imagine many people here on hn feel the same way. Bill Gates never used his tremendous gifts for the greater good, only for the good of Microsoft. He never cared how big the pie got, only how close Microsoft's share of that pie approached 100%. The point of the paragraph wasn't to be petty or jealous; it was just to point out how the one with perhaps the biggest gifts of all didn't choose to share them like the rest of us would. Sorry if I implied anything else.

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
mattmaroon 16y ago
From your comments its clear that you're zealously anti-capitalist and, as a result, anti-Microsoft, so you're simply not applying logic. Bill Gates did his legal duty. When you run a corporation you have a fiduciary responsibility to it. He would be doing something immoral if he didn't do what was best for Microsoft. The theory behind free market capitalism is that enough companies doing the same will average out to the best results. So the question is what do most people with the gifts Bill Gates was born into do? The answer is that they get a job in finance doing nothing of benefit to society and getting paid quite handsomely for it. Bill on the other hand founded a company that has, at current time, almost 90,000 employees. He helped bring computers to the masses. It's not petty jealousy that drives your comments, it's anti-capitalist sentiment. You also have a highly debatable view of what the universe would look like if not for Microsoft (I for one suspect you wouldn't be on this site) but that too is a side effect of zealousness rather than the result of careful reasoning.
- rbanffy 16y ago
  > He would be doing something immoral if he didn't do what was best for Microsoft Look how loved the company is today. Was what he did really the best he could have done for Microsoft? Wouldn't a kinder, gentler Microsoft, one that helped a healthy market thrive, be better? Would the smaller slice of a larger pie be larger than Microsoft's current pie? > they get a job in finance doing nothing of benefit to society I suppose you assume VCs exist in a vacuum. No. > He helped bring computers to the masses. No. Jobs and Wozniak did. Jack Tramiel did. Gates did nothing like that.

sdurkin 16y ago

To whom much has been given, much will be expected in return, with great suit comes great responsibility, etc.

prototype56 16y ago

That was one of the Gladwell's points in his famous book outliers.

Yzupnick 16y ago

See Fransisco D'Acconia's "Money" speech in Atlas Shrugged for some of the reasoning behind this view. (It is probably in some of Ayn Rand's non fiction but I just can't remember where off the top of my head)