12 ms·

Inside Bill’s Brain

110 points by ceecko 7y ago

melling 7y ago
Bill wrote about this on his blog yesterday: https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/From-the-cutting-room-floor https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/From-the-cutting... It’s unfortunate that they were ready to build the TerraPower pilot nuclear plant in China and the recent trade war prevented it. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a25728221/terrapower-china-bill-gates-trump/ https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a25728221/te...
- ben165 7y ago
  The sad thing is that the States aren't interested in this technology or why does it take so long to get it done there? It would be great to use waste material to get more energy out before burying it again. I'm from Germany, sadly thou, most of the people are to uneducated and scared to push atomic power station to the next level. Great documentation btw.
  - Dangeranger 7y ago
    The US is bifurcated between people who see no problem with current nuclear plants and those who see any nuclear plant as an abomination in need of removal. It’s hard to have a reasonable debate about this issue when the sides are so diametrically opposed due to their dogmatic beliefs.
    - JohnJamesRambo 7y ago
      The question is do we need nuclear and the risks? Can renewables like wind, hydro, and solar provide what we need cheaper and without the dangers associated with nuclear? If so, then why even mess with it?
      - soperj 7y ago
        Hydro has killed more people and ruined more land than Nuclear ever will.
        dredmorbius 7y ago
        True. Banqiao dam, 1975, about 125,000 dead. In a region that is now home to over 17 million, and in which life goes on. In notable contrast to Chernobyl and Fukushima. Most of the specific dynamics of the Banqiao disaster were organisational, managerial, and political, rather than technical, which is to say: not specific to hydropower projects, and fully shared with nuclear projects. In fact we've seen precisely the same dynamics across multiple nuclear accidents and incidents. The scale of the hydropower and nuclear industries is also worth noting. There are over 57,000 large dams worldwide, 40% in China.[1] There are 450 nuclear power plants operating worldwide.[2] Which is to say that the per-plant risk experience is 125 times greater for hydroelectric and hydraulic projects than for nuclear, and yes, there have been notable dam failures and failure modes: Johnstown, Vajont, Sempor, Panshet, Baldwin Hills, St. Francis, Teton. And several near misses: Oroville and Glen Canyon come to mind. Many of the worst disasters have happened regions, or times, in which resources were low, understanding poor, and understandings of liability and risks deficient. Which if nuclear power expands, is likely to also be the case. I've written on and submitted items on Banqiao several times at HN. It's an instructive case study, though the lessons may not be immediately apparent: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=dredmorbius%20banqiao&sort=byPopularity&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20020553 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20020553 ________________________________ Notes: 1. https://www.internationalrivers.org/questions-and-answers-about-large-dams https://www.internationalrivers.org/questions-and-answers-ab... 2. https://www.euronuclear.org/info/encyclopedia/n/nuclear-power-plant-world-wide.htm https://www.euronuclear.org/info/encyclopedia/n/nuclear-powe...
      - luckydata 7y ago
        The answer is yes, we need nuclear because there's no chance we'll get to 100% renewable energy in time to make a difference, nuclear could fill the niche we need to make wind and solar generation feasible.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - jayd16 7y ago
      This completely discounts the gas, coil and oil industry incentives to oppose nuclear power. Those are huge lobbies in the US. Much larger than Green Peace types being used as a smoke screen.
- Scoundreller 7y ago
  > It’s unfortunate that they were ready to build the TerraPower pilot nuclear plant in China and the recent trade war prevented it. In the interim, I’m hoping for cheap micro gas turbines. Burning natural gas just for heat is senseless when I could generate all my electricity with its combustion too seems like such a waste.
  - BubRoss 7y ago
    I'm now surprised I have never thought about that. What is the reason this isn't common?
    - Scoundreller 7y ago
      It's been increasingly scaled down. But not quite to the point of being done residentially. Places like hospitals have installed multi-megawatt turbines because it saves them the cost of standby backup generators, instead they can use the grid as backup for their internal generation. https://www.toromontpowersystems.com/electric-power/products/chp/powerprofiles https://www.toromontpowersystems.com/electric-power/products... Also, heating loads residentially may be bigger than electric loads, but grid-intertie system can resolve that.
beigeoak 7y ago
Carmack just tweeted this about Gates: I only met Bill Gates once, but I was very impressed — I was going on about problems in the windows graphics stack, and despite it not being his expertise, I thought he “got it” faster than his domain experts in the room. The replies are filled with similar anecdotes. tweet: https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/1175405258975141893 https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/1175405258975141893
droopyEyelids 7y ago
It's sad that there is an extremely interesting documentary that could be done about Bill Gates, but all we get is his propaganda. Gates is turning into a Soros like figure, and there are all sorts of interesting and controversial wrinkles in the story of the man. Even just looking at the story of Gates's influence at Vox would be interesting, without even trying to make hay of his relationship with Stephen Pinker. Anyway, Citations Needed did a couple episodes (45 & 46) on Gates that are a good introduction. https://soundcloud.com/citationsneeded/episode-45-the-not-so-benevolent-billionaire-bill-gates-and-western-media https://soundcloud.com/citationsneeded/episode-45-the-not-so...
- curiousDog 7y ago
  Will you guys please stop with the Soros bashing? There's literally no basis for all the BS being spewed about a self-made man like that.
  - jnordwick 7y ago
    Soros is probably about the Koch of the left. I generally think he's a other worse, but that might be my economic biased - I think the Koch brothers are more libertarian than Soros is leftist. So if you have a problem with the Koches because of oversized political power from their wealth, you should also have a problem with Soros for the same reason (independent of their politics).
  - plemer 7y ago
    Calling for a more nuanced rendering of someone’s character isn’t “bashing”, nor does being a “self-made” man disqualify one from criticism.
    - turbinerneiter 7y ago
      The whole Soros story is an anti-Semitic smear made up by Orbans team to win elections in Hungary. Nobody would give two shits about Soros if it wasn't for that. No matter how true it might be that he earned some of his money to the detriment of others, the only reason why it's being discussed is is so that Orbans has a virtual enemy to win against.
traverseda 7y ago
Maybe this is unfair, but I hope they at least touch on the halloween documents and the antitrust suite. Anything that touches on microsoft's history should at least mention the anti-competitive practices they used to cripple competition.
- htk 7y ago
  From my understanding, the documentary is about what Bill Gates is doing, and what inspired him. IMHO his cutthroat tactics leading Microsoft are already well documented and have nothing to do with the great work he’s doing now.
  - synt4x1k0 7y ago
    "Of course, no amount of charity in spending such fortunes in any way compensates for misconduct in making them." https://www.infoplease.com/history-and-government/famous-presidential-speeches/theodore-roosevelts-man-muck-rake-speech https://www.infoplease.com/history-and-government/famous-pre...
  - rhizome31 7y ago
    Without entering the debate regarding whether Gates foundation does more good than damage, it seems a bit of a stretch to say that this is unrelated to his earlier business practices. It's fair to imagine that those practices have contributed to put him in a situation where he can do what he does now.
    - clarkevans 7y ago
      Conversely, those same practices prevented others from being in a position where they could have likewise been generous. The iron fist of concentrated power, even when wrapped in a velvet glove of generosity, is simply bad for society.
      - BubRoss 7y ago
        Interestingly, one of the things short sellers noticed from investigating corrupt and dishonest companies is that they frequently use charitable deeds to compensate for the damage they do as a company.
danmaz74 7y ago
I binged this yesterday. I didn't particularly enjoy the way they mixed Gate's early story with his current endeavours with the foundation, but all in all it's still interesting enough.
- rantwasp 7y ago
  to me it made sense. it was a parallel between his early years and what he was doing now - basically applying the same way of thinking/working just for a different class of problems.
shadypupper 7y ago
I tried to watch it, but it just felt like a 'Bill Gates' public profile PR piece. Basically just espousing how great Bill and his family are and were at all points in history.
- joezydeco 7y ago
  I regularly get downvoted for pointing out that Saint Bill the Philanthropist refuses to acknowledge all the shitty behavior and the damage he left behind to earn him that fortune in the first place.
  - blueside 7y ago
    Couldn't agree more. How he got there is always overlooked. Bill is certainly very intelligent and competent. But could Bill start a company from scratch and be competitive today? One that is remotely close to MS and from competing fairly? I'm doubtful.
    - rantwasp 7y ago
      oh wow. just wow. i think it's really easy to be an armchair philosopher vs actually doing things. I for one, even though I am not a big fan of MS or Gates, have no doubt that he could find a niche and grow a successful business today. There is a lot of luck involved when starting from scratch so it's anyone's guess if it would grow as large as MS - but it would definitely take off the ground. Competing fairly is IMHO nice, but I don't believe that's your number one concern when you're trying to get things off the ground and survive. We look at all the successful companies and nitpick on questionable things they did in they early days (or current days for that matter). We overlook that no successful company got where it is without actually aggressively pursuing their goals. Nobody hears about the companies that compete "fairly".
      - delusional 7y ago
        Yeah, fuck fairness. If you want to win you have to break the rules. Fuck society, this is about getting what's mine!
GimbalLock 7y ago
I found it pretty surprising how much they romanticized his years of working instead of sleeping. That’s a dangerous thing to promote.
- immichaelwang 7y ago
  It's supposed to be an honest raw look at his life. And frankly, it makes a lot of sense that he had poor work life balance. It's to be expected that extraordinary effort is required to build extraordinary things.
  - Uhuhreally 7y ago
    "extraordinary things" DOS was shit and so was Windows. Microsoft has always somehow made money in spite of the poor quality of their products. The only exception I can think of is their mouse.
  - GimbalLock 7y ago
    They could’ve told it honestly without making it seem like sleep deprivation is noble. Great things can be achieved with proper sleep and not falling asleep at your keyboard just to wake up and keep coding “right where you left off” as they claim.
    - mav3rick 7y ago
      Thats rarely true. No extraordinary thing was made with a 9 to 5 and then zone out.
- paggle 7y ago
  I don’t know, even if Gates wrecked his or his family’s happiness to work all the time, it’s worth it for the millions of people who are beneficiaries of his foundation today. What’s better, that he just became a family man, working a 9-5, and never made his fortune which he’s now giving away?
jasoneckert 7y ago
I'm not a fan of documentaries, but I liked this one (all three parts). It's Bill essentially saying "You know - this is what matters, the Microsoft stuff is secondary." And I respect that. The Steve Jobs documentaries were more like "Hey, this guy was a douche, but people worship the cult he made from peddling computer stuff, and that is good, right?" Definitely a difference in approach.
- Scoundreller 7y ago
  Agreed, he’s spent a lot to ensure his image doesn’t turn into that image for decades/centuries to come.
- tempsy 7y ago
  I don't understand your logic here. He is using his money, influence, and platform to rewrite history. That is called propaganda in certain contexts.
  - Reedx 7y ago
    What is being rewritten exactly? I don't see where they are claiming Microsoft didn't happen.
    - tempsy 7y ago
      I’m commenting on OP’s respect for someone using his money and influence to release a documentary where he writes off that one time he broke the law to crush his competitors as “secondary” to his charitable work. It’s especially interesting since we’re becoming acutely aware of how the rich regularly wash their reputations through charitable work e.g. Epstein and the Sacklers. Only the wealthy get to influence the public perception of their legacy. I don’t understand what is so admirable about that.
      - CriticalCathed 7y ago
        Most people don't have a public perception to need to influence at all, so I don't think it's a fair comparison or criticism. I'm sure if you were a public figure you'd spend a minimum of effort to make sure you were perceived as you thought you should be.
Uhuhreally 7y ago
now let me ask this: is Gates smarter and harder working in proportion to his wealth than Knuth ?
- mav3rick 7y ago
  How does it matter ? You may be both but unlucky or not market your skills.
  - Uhuhreally 7y ago
    because he has been awarded by the putative meritocratic competition a vast sum of money for his mediocre operating system
    - mav3rick 7y ago
      Wohoo Year of the Linux Desktop. Best Desktop OS ever.
- kamyarg 7y ago
  In various points in the documentary he points out how lucky he was for: - having a good family - having good environment that mostly ignored his stubbornness and let him grow - how lucky he was to be good in math and engineering - coming from a well off family - having a mother to push him to outside of his comfort zone(She was also in various boards so could teach the politics of leading people) - having friends that helped him get better at understanding the computers. Being smart is only one parameter in his success, he wouldn't have been so good if they hadn't given him the chance to program at private school he went to for solving the school scheduling problem for example. IMO Comparing Knuth to Gates is the case of apples and oranges, most important reason being Knuth was born in 1938 and Bill Gates was born in 1955, Gates was in his prime years when the personal computer revolution was beginning.
Holden83z 7y ago
My problem with the documentary series is that they gave Bill Gates credit for inventing DOS. This starts at 34:00 in episode two. There was no mention at all that Microsoft bought it. https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-bought-ms-dos-os-early-ibm-pcs-july-27-1981 https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-bought-ms-dos-os-ea... This happens frequently in business and tech. CEOs look like geniuses when they can take credit for the work of others.
- samspenc 7y ago
  Yeah, that surprised me too. I thought they would at least throw in a reference to CP/M at that point, but that was missing. The other interesting story that I thought went missing was when they talked about Bill and Paul working on the class scheduling software for the school after the all-boys school merged with another school to allow girls in. I think they missed the story about how Bill set up his schedule so that he could be in an all-girls class. Overall, it was a pretty good documentary. I do want to note that it focuses more on Bill's philantrophic efforts, especially in Episode 1, but then Episodes 2 and 3 do a good job of covering his history and Microsoft (though still more focused on his recent philantrophic work.) So this is just a PSA for anyone more interested in his Microsoft story: you may find that more in Episodes 2 and 3.
- pedalpete 7y ago
  I normally agree with this, but it can be distracting to an audience which may not be completely familiar with the ins-and-outs of the details. It's the same as when people say that Elon Musk is the founder of Tesla, and most people have never heard of Martin Eberhardt (who I think had another partner who's name I can't remember!).
aaron695 7y ago
I would have liked more on his current ventures and the logistics behind them but it would not make for a Netflix Documentary I guess. Still entertaining. For the logistics and the problems with toilets, "World's Toilet Crisis" by Vanguard is good, they don't shy away from the issue at hand, talking about open defecation and solutions. Things like children who open defecate on water often do it at night, for the privacy, and can drown, although diarrhoea is the not talked about real killer but it gets less clicks https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/feb/15/safe-toilets-help-flush-out-disease-in-cambodia-floating-communities-tonle-sap-lake https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/feb/15/s... You'd notice the toilets deployed and talked about in the doco aren't very good, The Gates foundation did do some good work not shown but I guess it's not for a Netflix doco, it's more about the flashy stuff.
thunderbong 7y ago
I just binge watched this. It was a really nice documentary. Some of the things I didn't know about Bill Gates - 1. He loves diet coke! At one time he opens a refrigerator and it's only stacked with diet coke cans. 2. He reads a crazy amount of books. And he reads them, takes notes and is able to retain all that information. I found that remarkable. 3. He works hard. Really hard. And he takes on problems which seem insurmountable. Whether it's polio eradication, clean water, or nuclear reactors. And he approaches the problems from a technical point of view. Some of the lines which I liked - Director: I looked into the most prevalent criticisms of you, and this one actually seems the most relevant. "He's a technophile that thinks that technology will solve everything." Bill: Yeah, I'm basically guilty of that. Any problem... I will look at how technical innovation can help solve that problem. It's the one thing I know and the one thing I'm good at. And so, you know, that's my hammer. And so lots of problems look like nails because I've got a hammer. Director: Is there a part where you say, "This is way too hard, I took on too much, I quit". Bill: Sometimes, you really do have to say, "Let's give up". And sometimes, you have to just say, "I need to work harder" Mary Gates (Bill's mother): "Each one of us has to start out with developing his or her own definition of success. And when we have these specific expectations of ourselves, we're more like to live up to them. Ultimately, it's not what you get or even what you give. It's what you become."

110 points by ceecko 7y ago

Bill wrote about this on his blog yesterday: https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/From-the-cutting-room-floor https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/From-the-cutting... It’s unfortunate that they were ready to build the TerraPower pilot nuclear plant in China and the recent trade war prevented it. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a25728221/terrapower-china-bill-gates-trump/ https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a25728221/te...

ben165 7y ago
The sad thing is that the States aren't interested in this technology or why does it take so long to get it done there? It would be great to use waste material to get more energy out before burying it again. I'm from Germany, sadly thou, most of the people are to uneducated and scared to push atomic power station to the next level. Great documentation btw.
- Dangeranger 7y ago
  The US is bifurcated between people who see no problem with current nuclear plants and those who see any nuclear plant as an abomination in need of removal. It’s hard to have a reasonable debate about this issue when the sides are so diametrically opposed due to their dogmatic beliefs.
  - JohnJamesRambo 7y ago
    The question is do we need nuclear and the risks? Can renewables like wind, hydro, and solar provide what we need cheaper and without the dangers associated with nuclear? If so, then why even mess with it?
    - soperj 7y ago
      Hydro has killed more people and ruined more land than Nuclear ever will.
      - dredmorbius 7y ago
        True. Banqiao dam, 1975, about 125,000 dead. In a region that is now home to over 17 million, and in which life goes on. In notable contrast to Chernobyl and Fukushima. Most of the specific dynamics of the Banqiao disaster were organisational, managerial, and political, rather than technical, which is to say: not specific to hydropower projects, and fully shared with nuclear projects. In fact we've seen precisely the same dynamics across multiple nuclear accidents and incidents. The scale of the hydropower and nuclear industries is also worth noting. There are over 57,000 large dams worldwide, 40% in China.[1] There are 450 nuclear power plants operating worldwide.[2] Which is to say that the per-plant risk experience is 125 times greater for hydroelectric and hydraulic projects than for nuclear, and yes, there have been notable dam failures and failure modes: Johnstown, Vajont, Sempor, Panshet, Baldwin Hills, St. Francis, Teton. And several near misses: Oroville and Glen Canyon come to mind. Many of the worst disasters have happened regions, or times, in which resources were low, understanding poor, and understandings of liability and risks deficient. Which if nuclear power expands, is likely to also be the case. I've written on and submitted items on Banqiao several times at HN. It's an instructive case study, though the lessons may not be immediately apparent: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=dredmorbius%20banqiao&sort=byPopularity&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20020553 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20020553 ________________________________ Notes: 1. https://www.internationalrivers.org/questions-and-answers-about-large-dams https://www.internationalrivers.org/questions-and-answers-ab... 2. https://www.euronuclear.org/info/encyclopedia/n/nuclear-power-plant-world-wide.htm https://www.euronuclear.org/info/encyclopedia/n/nuclear-powe...
    - luckydata 7y ago
      The answer is yes, we need nuclear because there's no chance we'll get to 100% renewable energy in time to make a difference, nuclear could fill the niche we need to make wind and solar generation feasible.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - jayd16 7y ago
    This completely discounts the gas, coil and oil industry incentives to oppose nuclear power. Those are huge lobbies in the US. Much larger than Green Peace types being used as a smoke screen.
Scoundreller 7y ago
> It’s unfortunate that they were ready to build the TerraPower pilot nuclear plant in China and the recent trade war prevented it. In the interim, I’m hoping for cheap micro gas turbines. Burning natural gas just for heat is senseless when I could generate all my electricity with its combustion too seems like such a waste.
- BubRoss 7y ago
  I'm now surprised I have never thought about that. What is the reason this isn't common?
  - Scoundreller 7y ago
    It's been increasingly scaled down. But not quite to the point of being done residentially. Places like hospitals have installed multi-megawatt turbines because it saves them the cost of standby backup generators, instead they can use the grid as backup for their internal generation. https://www.toromontpowersystems.com/electric-power/products/chp/powerprofiles https://www.toromontpowersystems.com/electric-power/products... Also, heating loads residentially may be bigger than electric loads, but grid-intertie system can resolve that.

beigeoak 7y ago

Carmack just tweeted this about Gates: I only met Bill Gates once, but I was very impressed — I was going on about problems in the windows graphics stack, and despite it not being his expertise, I thought he “got it” faster than his domain experts in the room. The replies are filled with similar anecdotes. tweet: https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/1175405258975141893 https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/1175405258975141893

droopyEyelids 7y ago

It's sad that there is an extremely interesting documentary that could be done about Bill Gates, but all we get is his propaganda. Gates is turning into a Soros like figure, and there are all sorts of interesting and controversial wrinkles in the story of the man. Even just looking at the story of Gates's influence at Vox would be interesting, without even trying to make hay of his relationship with Stephen Pinker. Anyway, Citations Needed did a couple episodes (45 & 46) on Gates that are a good introduction. https://soundcloud.com/citationsneeded/episode-45-the-not-so-benevolent-billionaire-bill-gates-and-western-media https://soundcloud.com/citationsneeded/episode-45-the-not-so...

curiousDog 7y ago
Will you guys please stop with the Soros bashing? There's literally no basis for all the BS being spewed about a self-made man like that.
- jnordwick 7y ago
  Soros is probably about the Koch of the left. I generally think he's a other worse, but that might be my economic biased - I think the Koch brothers are more libertarian than Soros is leftist. So if you have a problem with the Koches because of oversized political power from their wealth, you should also have a problem with Soros for the same reason (independent of their politics).
- plemer 7y ago
  Calling for a more nuanced rendering of someone’s character isn’t “bashing”, nor does being a “self-made” man disqualify one from criticism.
  - turbinerneiter 7y ago
    The whole Soros story is an anti-Semitic smear made up by Orbans team to win elections in Hungary. Nobody would give two shits about Soros if it wasn't for that. No matter how true it might be that he earned some of his money to the detriment of others, the only reason why it's being discussed is is so that Orbans has a virtual enemy to win against.

traverseda 7y ago

Maybe this is unfair, but I hope they at least touch on the halloween documents and the antitrust suite. Anything that touches on microsoft's history should at least mention the anti-competitive practices they used to cripple competition.

htk 7y ago
From my understanding, the documentary is about what Bill Gates is doing, and what inspired him. IMHO his cutthroat tactics leading Microsoft are already well documented and have nothing to do with the great work he’s doing now.
- synt4x1k0 7y ago
  "Of course, no amount of charity in spending such fortunes in any way compensates for misconduct in making them." https://www.infoplease.com/history-and-government/famous-presidential-speeches/theodore-roosevelts-man-muck-rake-speech https://www.infoplease.com/history-and-government/famous-pre...
- rhizome31 7y ago
  Without entering the debate regarding whether Gates foundation does more good than damage, it seems a bit of a stretch to say that this is unrelated to his earlier business practices. It's fair to imagine that those practices have contributed to put him in a situation where he can do what he does now.
  - clarkevans 7y ago
    Conversely, those same practices prevented others from being in a position where they could have likewise been generous. The iron fist of concentrated power, even when wrapped in a velvet glove of generosity, is simply bad for society.
    - BubRoss 7y ago
      Interestingly, one of the things short sellers noticed from investigating corrupt and dishonest companies is that they frequently use charitable deeds to compensate for the damage they do as a company.

danmaz74 7y ago

I binged this yesterday. I didn't particularly enjoy the way they mixed Gate's early story with his current endeavours with the foundation, but all in all it's still interesting enough.

rantwasp 7y ago
to me it made sense. it was a parallel between his early years and what he was doing now - basically applying the same way of thinking/working just for a different class of problems.

shadypupper 7y ago

I tried to watch it, but it just felt like a 'Bill Gates' public profile PR piece. Basically just espousing how great Bill and his family are and were at all points in history.

joezydeco 7y ago
I regularly get downvoted for pointing out that Saint Bill the Philanthropist refuses to acknowledge all the shitty behavior and the damage he left behind to earn him that fortune in the first place.
- blueside 7y ago
  Couldn't agree more. How he got there is always overlooked. Bill is certainly very intelligent and competent. But could Bill start a company from scratch and be competitive today? One that is remotely close to MS and from competing fairly? I'm doubtful.
  - rantwasp 7y ago
    oh wow. just wow. i think it's really easy to be an armchair philosopher vs actually doing things. I for one, even though I am not a big fan of MS or Gates, have no doubt that he could find a niche and grow a successful business today. There is a lot of luck involved when starting from scratch so it's anyone's guess if it would grow as large as MS - but it would definitely take off the ground. Competing fairly is IMHO nice, but I don't believe that's your number one concern when you're trying to get things off the ground and survive. We look at all the successful companies and nitpick on questionable things they did in they early days (or current days for that matter). We overlook that no successful company got where it is without actually aggressively pursuing their goals. Nobody hears about the companies that compete "fairly".
    - delusional 7y ago
      Yeah, fuck fairness. If you want to win you have to break the rules. Fuck society, this is about getting what's mine!

GimbalLock 7y ago

I found it pretty surprising how much they romanticized his years of working instead of sleeping. That’s a dangerous thing to promote.

immichaelwang 7y ago
It's supposed to be an honest raw look at his life. And frankly, it makes a lot of sense that he had poor work life balance. It's to be expected that extraordinary effort is required to build extraordinary things.
- Uhuhreally 7y ago
  "extraordinary things" DOS was shit and so was Windows. Microsoft has always somehow made money in spite of the poor quality of their products. The only exception I can think of is their mouse.
- GimbalLock 7y ago
  They could’ve told it honestly without making it seem like sleep deprivation is noble. Great things can be achieved with proper sleep and not falling asleep at your keyboard just to wake up and keep coding “right where you left off” as they claim.
  - mav3rick 7y ago
    Thats rarely true. No extraordinary thing was made with a 9 to 5 and then zone out.
paggle 7y ago
I don’t know, even if Gates wrecked his or his family’s happiness to work all the time, it’s worth it for the millions of people who are beneficiaries of his foundation today. What’s better, that he just became a family man, working a 9-5, and never made his fortune which he’s now giving away?

jasoneckert 7y ago

I'm not a fan of documentaries, but I liked this one (all three parts). It's Bill essentially saying "You know - this is what matters, the Microsoft stuff is secondary." And I respect that. The Steve Jobs documentaries were more like "Hey, this guy was a douche, but people worship the cult he made from peddling computer stuff, and that is good, right?" Definitely a difference in approach.

Scoundreller 7y ago
Agreed, he’s spent a lot to ensure his image doesn’t turn into that image for decades/centuries to come.
tempsy 7y ago
I don't understand your logic here. He is using his money, influence, and platform to rewrite history. That is called propaganda in certain contexts.
- Reedx 7y ago
  What is being rewritten exactly? I don't see where they are claiming Microsoft didn't happen.
  - tempsy 7y ago
    I’m commenting on OP’s respect for someone using his money and influence to release a documentary where he writes off that one time he broke the law to crush his competitors as “secondary” to his charitable work. It’s especially interesting since we’re becoming acutely aware of how the rich regularly wash their reputations through charitable work e.g. Epstein and the Sacklers. Only the wealthy get to influence the public perception of their legacy. I don’t understand what is so admirable about that.
    - CriticalCathed 7y ago
      Most people don't have a public perception to need to influence at all, so I don't think it's a fair comparison or criticism. I'm sure if you were a public figure you'd spend a minimum of effort to make sure you were perceived as you thought you should be.

Uhuhreally 7y ago

now let me ask this: is Gates smarter and harder working in proportion to his wealth than Knuth ?

mav3rick 7y ago
How does it matter ? You may be both but unlucky or not market your skills.
- Uhuhreally 7y ago
  because he has been awarded by the putative meritocratic competition a vast sum of money for his mediocre operating system
  - mav3rick 7y ago
    Wohoo Year of the Linux Desktop. Best Desktop OS ever.
kamyarg 7y ago
In various points in the documentary he points out how lucky he was for: - having a good family - having good environment that mostly ignored his stubbornness and let him grow - how lucky he was to be good in math and engineering - coming from a well off family - having a mother to push him to outside of his comfort zone(She was also in various boards so could teach the politics of leading people) - having friends that helped him get better at understanding the computers. Being smart is only one parameter in his success, he wouldn't have been so good if they hadn't given him the chance to program at private school he went to for solving the school scheduling problem for example. IMO Comparing Knuth to Gates is the case of apples and oranges, most important reason being Knuth was born in 1938 and Bill Gates was born in 1955, Gates was in his prime years when the personal computer revolution was beginning.

Holden83z 7y ago

My problem with the documentary series is that they gave Bill Gates credit for inventing DOS. This starts at 34:00 in episode two. There was no mention at all that Microsoft bought it. https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-bought-ms-dos-os-early-ibm-pcs-july-27-1981 https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-bought-ms-dos-os-ea... This happens frequently in business and tech. CEOs look like geniuses when they can take credit for the work of others.

samspenc 7y ago
Yeah, that surprised me too. I thought they would at least throw in a reference to CP/M at that point, but that was missing. The other interesting story that I thought went missing was when they talked about Bill and Paul working on the class scheduling software for the school after the all-boys school merged with another school to allow girls in. I think they missed the story about how Bill set up his schedule so that he could be in an all-girls class. Overall, it was a pretty good documentary. I do want to note that it focuses more on Bill's philantrophic efforts, especially in Episode 1, but then Episodes 2 and 3 do a good job of covering his history and Microsoft (though still more focused on his recent philantrophic work.) So this is just a PSA for anyone more interested in his Microsoft story: you may find that more in Episodes 2 and 3.
pedalpete 7y ago
I normally agree with this, but it can be distracting to an audience which may not be completely familiar with the ins-and-outs of the details. It's the same as when people say that Elon Musk is the founder of Tesla, and most people have never heard of Martin Eberhardt (who I think had another partner who's name I can't remember!).

aaron695 7y ago

I would have liked more on his current ventures and the logistics behind them but it would not make for a Netflix Documentary I guess. Still entertaining. For the logistics and the problems with toilets, "World's Toilet Crisis" by Vanguard is good, they don't shy away from the issue at hand, talking about open defecation and solutions. Things like children who open defecate on water often do it at night, for the privacy, and can drown, although diarrhoea is the not talked about real killer but it gets less clicks https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/feb/15/safe-toilets-help-flush-out-disease-in-cambodia-floating-communities-tonle-sap-lake https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/feb/15/s... You'd notice the toilets deployed and talked about in the doco aren't very good, The Gates foundation did do some good work not shown but I guess it's not for a Netflix doco, it's more about the flashy stuff.

thunderbong 7y ago

I just binge watched this. It was a really nice documentary. Some of the things I didn't know about Bill Gates - 1. He loves diet coke! At one time he opens a refrigerator and it's only stacked with diet coke cans. 2. He reads a crazy amount of books. And he reads them, takes notes and is able to retain all that information. I found that remarkable. 3. He works hard. Really hard. And he takes on problems which seem insurmountable. Whether it's polio eradication, clean water, or nuclear reactors. And he approaches the problems from a technical point of view. Some of the lines which I liked - Director: I looked into the most prevalent criticisms of you, and this one actually seems the most relevant. "He's a technophile that thinks that technology will solve everything." Bill: Yeah, I'm basically guilty of that. Any problem... I will look at how technical innovation can help solve that problem. It's the one thing I know and the one thing I'm good at. And so, you know, that's my hammer. And so lots of problems look like nails because I've got a hammer. Director: Is there a part where you say, "This is way too hard, I took on too much, I quit". Bill: Sometimes, you really do have to say, "Let's give up". And sometimes, you have to just say, "I need to work harder" Mary Gates (Bill's mother): "Each one of us has to start out with developing his or her own definition of success. And when we have these specific expectations of ourselves, we're more like to live up to them. Ultimately, it's not what you get or even what you give. It's what you become."