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Gates Foundation annual letter
- throway88989898 8y agoFrom point #3 https://www.gatesnotes.com/-/media/Images/Articles/About-Bill-Gates/Annual-Letter/2019-Annual-Letter/2-7-19_v3_GHGE_D_TEXTOUTLINE.svg https://www.gatesnotes.com/-/media/Images/Articles/About-Bil... Seems like the main greenhouse gas emissions problem can already be tackled. For instance: Agriculture: switch to cultured (lab-grown) meat. Transportation: switch towards public transportation. Electricity Generation: go solar. But maybe I'm just naive.
- melling 8y agoMarques Brownlee interviewed Bill about his annual letter. https://youtu.be/4mxXdCUXSSs https://youtu.be/4mxXdCUXSSs Near the end you can see a younger Bill jump over a chair.
- coolreader18 8y agoThe first thing I thought of when I saw "Marques Brownlee" was "If I controlled rewind..."
- skilled 8y agoSo what you are saying is that you are 9 years old?
- whymauri 8y ago"Jokes are not allowed on HN. HN is a very serious website."
- Waterluvian 8y agoStop that. Stop that right now. We need to be serious or else we risk realising we are just another iteration of Tech Social Site that will come and go.
- gnadx 8y agoyou laugh but people have literally been banned for making a few jokes here on accounts they've had for a decade. "up itself" is how I often hear this place described.
- zorga 8y agoYea, because the moderator is an asshole with a power trip who thinks everyone should be pussies like he is and never have a human moment. Yea I know I'm shadowbanned, but some people do show dead.
- usaphp 8y agohonestly both of his big intereviews, this one and the one with Elon Musk are very poor. Questions are generic and there isn't any interesting information gathered from these interviews, I would not bother watching them
- Cookingboy 8y agoI like Marques a lot personally, but in my experience he is at his best only when it comes to gadget reviews. His high profile interviews are shockingly shallow and his new car review show "Auto Focus" (ok, that's an amazingly clever name) is also about as in-depth as you'd expect a smartphone guy's car reviews to be. But again, he's got a great personality and screen presence, I just wish he spends a bit more time on more meaningful thoughts and more in-depth research when it comes to other subjects.
- fermienrico 8y agoI would actually go ahead and say that his gadget reviews are wishy washy, too soft and lacks objectivity. I understand its not supposed to be a full technical analysis but he makes what makes it popular and wide appealing. Especially, his audio gear reviews are full of subjective claims - "It sounds roomy, with crisp highs and thumpy base but not too muddy." They are, to me, utterly and completely useless pieces of information. I'll go and read Anandtech now. I don't fully blame MKBHD. I blame the entire genre of youtube reviews. I need data. I need A-B tests. I need technical specification verification using proper metrology. That's how my brain evaluates things I want to spend money on.
- manigandham 8y agoHis channel is mostly for entertainment by viewers around his age rather than those looking for hard technical analysis. I do think he's much better suited to gadgets than interviews though.
- omegaworks 8y agoGreat read, but it should be taken with an enormous grain of salt. The economic system that maintains Gates' private wealth is dependent on positive PR. Showing all of us that he's doing Good Deeds with his massive foundation, keeps the masses from questioning how he amassed such a mountain of wealth and stymies efforts for reforming a system that allows unbridled accretion at any expense. https://medium.com/@CitationsPodcst/episode-45-the-not-so-benevolent-billionaire-bill-gates-and-western-media-b1f8e0fe092f https://medium.com/@CitationsPodcst/episode-45-the-not-so-be...
- jmpman 8y agoHow much should [bm]illionaires be allowed to leave to their children? My opinion is no more than $10m per kid, and only to the first generation (direct children). Trust fund babies only help yacht builders.
- r0fl 8y agoYacht builders employ lots of people to build large yachts, what's wrong with being a yacht builder? Why $10 million? What about in countries outside of the United States? What if a wealthy person has a single asset that is worth more than $10 million and has one kid? ex: a $50 million commercial building. Would you force a sale of the asset and then strip away $40 million away? What about lottery winners who win over $10 million? Should lotteries be capped at $10 million?
- dragonwriter 8y ago> Should lotteries be No.
- NeedMoreTea 8y ago> ex: a $50 million commercial building. Would you force a sale of the asset and then strip away $40 million away Plenty of householders or businesses have to sell an asset to settle some debt or tax bill, why not estate taxes? Of course we might have to bring back capital controls for it to be functional.
- zobzu 8y agoI'm surprised how this is more of a propaganda piece than insightful, specially given how much I've respected Bill Gates in the past for his contributions and after-Microsoft work. The facts don't appear wrong, its just the way they're presented. Lets just start with 1# Africa is the youngest continent. Sounds great right? Well its not a surprise at all. we knew this. the gates knew this. Africans (as in currently living on the continent called Africa) die young. War, food supply issues, lack of medicine, you name it. then why is it the first surprise? Exactly. Each one of them has similar weird issues... (time to get down voted to oblivion?)
- torpfactory 8y agoI mean, the whole "surprises" thing may be more rhetorical device than genuine feeling. I'd cut them a bit of slack. They're trying to knit together a pretty broad portfolio of important work into one newsletter. The Africa "surprise" was a way to pivot to: what development work should be done to support a growing African population.
- atwebb 8y agoIn the video interview, he prefaces the conversation when starting to talk by saying they framed it as surprises this year.
- LifeofPi314 8y agoWhat's the propoganda here? I fail to understand ( serious). It seems all positive. Please provide facts.
- marnett 8y agoPropaganda doesn’t have to have negative connotation. In this case “all positive” results for the foundation’s capital allocations could be indicative of propaganda.
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y agoOr it could be indicative of them doing a good job?
- User23 8y agoI was sitting in a bar in Seattle a few years back, and two people who worked at the Gates Foundation were bragging about how they were making $300k a year to "do nothing." I hope that is the exception rather than the rule, but I have a great distrust of foundations. The George Eastman method of directly endowing organizations strikes me as far superior.
- maxxxxx 8y agoAt least in DC a lot of foundations/non-profits are a way to brush up the resumes of children of well-connected people with "leadership" and other qualifications while they make very good money. I am also very skeptical since I learned about this.
- Angostura 8y agoI am skeptical about where you learned this. Concrete examples?
- marnett 8y agoMentioning foundations are tax havens for private wealth it is not too surprising to hear they have hereditary qualities (jobs, dinners, receptions, business expenses, travel, conferences). There is an oddly positive connotation typically gifted towards nonprofits when in reality they are stateless sovereign wealth funds.
- lotsofpulp 8y agoWhich is what makes it so funny when poor people support tax deductions for charity and would rather prefer a system of low taxes and high charity than higher taxes. It’s really funny when they send your kid home selling candy to raise money for school or publicly humiliate the kids who don’t donate by giving stickers or allowing the others to wear something different.
- marnett 8y agoThe effects can be monitored in a lot of different ways - that is definitely one I had not thought since I was a schoolchild. Very effective propaganda went into this standard American framing of nonprofit orgs.
- os7borne 8y agoI have a fundamental issue with the way in which the Gates foundation gets its work done. Sure, there may actually be impact achieved in some of its investments, but in most others, the team does not even know the name of the founders they have invested in. I've interacted with Associates from the Foundation based in London who know the broad strokes of investments they've made in India, for example, but the actual companies, they have no idea. Their process has been to spray and pray. No active involvement, no process optimisation, no impact metric monitoring etc. Further, the manner in which the foundation functions in India is what makes me cringe when I hear their name. They have unrestricted access to members of parliament in India, they promote Indian government programs e.g. Ayushman Bharat (Health insurance for 500 mn Indians), Aadhaar (digital unique number for all Indians) and they ensure policy changes to suit their funding programs. Their close linkage with the Indian government to further their propoganda is what makes me cringe. Sure enough, do implement some programs its commonplace to liase with Governments, but where's the ethics in that? Where do you draw the line to limit promotions for government projects that fake numbers and are not really having any impact on the ground? This Annual Letter is just another propaganda piece, as stated by others here.
- dman 8y agoDo you have any pointers to organizations which have a higher hit rate than Gates foundation? What are you basing the following on? -> "Their process has been to spray and pray. No active involvement, no process optimisation, no impact metric monitoring etc."
- os7borne 8y ago"Do you have any pointers to organizations which have a higher hit rate than Gates foundation?" - It's true they have the capital that spreads far and wide compared to most others. No doubt. "What are you basing the following on? -> "Their process has been to spray and pray. No active involvement, no process optimisation, no impact metric monitoring etc."" - Conversations with individuals that work at the foundation.
- semi-extrinsic 8y ago
- sumitsrivastava 8y agoThis newsletter was interesting, and probably aimed at a wider range of audience. Interesting to note some valuable comments here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19149479 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19149479
- kristianp 8y agoWorth a read, I enjoyed the discussions about: - still a high birth rate in sub-saharan Africa. Lowering birth rates are correlated with more education and income. - how little we know about the causes of premature births - the lack of detailed economic data about women in poverty - 5 top sectors of greenhouse gas emissions. How are we going to reduce emissions from steel and concrete production without cratering the economy? Definitely important causes for the Gates' to put money and effort towards.
- Pristina 8y ago> Lowering birth rates are correlated with more education and income. https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2018/09/22/africas-high-birth-rate-is-keeping-the-continent-poor https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2018/09/22/... the effect is much less for Africans. also how can people consider high birth rate to be bad while not being an anti-natalist. Why the cognitive dissonance?
- lotsofpulp 8y agoWhy assume cognitive dissonance? It’s possible that there exists a birth rate at which population increases too much or too quickly for the environment to handle (peacefully at least). It’s possible to want your own tribe to expand, but not others’.
- shaki-dora 8y agoTo stay with your example, they are simply trying to reframe this narrative. People think Africa is a famined shithole that never gets better, and therefore does not warrant investment or even charity. Think toddlers with those big, pathological, bellies. Yet that view is mostly wrong. Many, possibly most, Africans now live in busy metropolises. Yes, they are polluted and have a garbage problem and corruption may be rampant. But it’s a lot closer to similar cities in SE Asia than to the 50 year old stereotype that people have of Africa. Saying „Africa is young“, and obviously the details that follow, tries to shift this to a narrative of possibilities. You can call that propaganda, or marketing, or just clever copywriting. I think it depends on the agenda, but I can’t find fault with their intentions.
- PaulHoule 8y agoThird World Problems don't matter much to First World readers. Oddly enough, Africa needs markets, and the U.S. needs charity.
- Amygaz 8y agoI missed the Gates Foundation of its early days. The Grand Challenges were all there was. I do not doubt the Gates aspirational letter, but their foundation Is more like a VC firm, with bad partners and managers who are terrible at doing their due diligence? They found plenty of stuff that have no bearing what so ever to any of the grand challenges. There is no oversight, when it is clear that a technology they invested in is never going to work or never going to serve the purpose they were sold (because people do lie to get money), they should pull out and re-invest somewhere. But no. The culture within the foundation must be pretty bad, and not aspirational at all. So much resources, so much waste... It makes me sad, really.