3 ms·

A lot of the comments on this page seem dismissive of Gates. While I'm sure he's not the the smartest guy in the room on every subject, I suspect his knowledge

by vages 6y ago

A lot of the comments on this page seem dismissive of Gates. While I'm sure he's not the the smartest guy in the room on every subject, I suspect his knowledge about energy, farming and medicine to be superior to almost anyone outside academia. The source of this seems mainly to be the enormous amount of books he reads, which you can get an impression of from his blog https://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Energy-and-Civilization https://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Energy-and-Civilization I'd rather see arguments against his arguments than against him. They probably require a lot more time to research, but that's sort of the point.

peteretep 6y ago
> While I'm sure he's not the the smartest guy in the room on every subject I'd agree, although I'd also note that he's _often_ the smartest guy in the room about most subjects he's voicing opinions on.
throwawaysea 6y ago
> I'd rather see arguments against his arguments than against him. Attacking people, affixing labels to them, and othering them into adversarial tribes is unfortunately the most dominant form of discourse in modern society. I feel like social media made it worse but it’s always been an issue to some extent. I wish it weren’t so.
sien 6y ago
It's also the people he talks to. From the Acknowledgements of his latest book : "Jabe Blumenthal and Karen Fries are the two former Microsoft colleagues who organized my first learning session on climate change in 2006. In that session, they introduced me to two climate scientists, Ken Caldeira—then at the Carnegie Institution for Science—and David Keith of the Harvard University Center for the Environment. Since then, I’ve had countless conversations with Ken and David that have shaped my thinking. Ken and a team of his postdoctoral fellows—Candise Henry, Rebecca Peer, and Tyler Ruggles—pored over the manuscript line by line to check for factual mistakes. I’m thankful for their meticulous work. Any remaining errors are my responsibility. The late David MacKay of Cambridge University inspired me with his wit and insights. I recommend his phenomenal book Sustainable Energy—Without the Hot Air to anyone who wants to dig deeper into the subject of energy and climate change. Jabe Blumenthal and Karen Fries are the two former Microsoft colleagues who organized my first learning session on climate change in 2006. In that session, they introduced me to two climate scientists, Ken Caldeira—then at the Carnegie Institution for Science—and David Keith of the Harvard University Center for the Environment. Since then, I’ve had countless conversations with Ken and David that have shaped my thinking. Ken and a team of his postdoctoral fellows—Candise Henry, Rebecca Peer, and Tyler Ruggles—pored over the manuscript line by line to check for factual mistakes. I’m thankful for their meticulous work. Any remaining errors are my responsibility. The late David MacKay of Cambridge University inspired me with his wit and insights. I recommend his phenomenal book Sustainable Energy—Without the Hot Air to anyone who wants to dig deeper into the subject of energy and climate change."
melomal 6y ago
It's the public that needs convincing more so than the government. Billy Gates is probably the best person, apart from Elon, to try and convince people that it's not that bad. It's a good way to build positive PR for something that is considered a hideous, disastrous, dangerous monster of an idea.
stkdump 6y ago
> I suspect his knowledge about energy, farming and medicine to be superior to almost anyone outside academia. So what about academia? Because I don't see it in particular agreement with him on nuclear fission, either.

by vages 6y ago

peteretep 6y ago

> While I'm sure he's not the the smartest guy in the room on every subject I'd agree, although I'd also note that he's _often_ the smartest guy in the room about most subjects he's voicing opinions on.

throwawaysea 6y ago

> I'd rather see arguments against his arguments than against him. Attacking people, affixing labels to them, and othering them into adversarial tribes is unfortunately the most dominant form of discourse in modern society. I feel like social media made it worse but it’s always been an issue to some extent. I wish it weren’t so.

sien 6y ago

It's also the people he talks to. From the Acknowledgements of his latest book : "Jabe Blumenthal and Karen Fries are the two former Microsoft colleagues who organized my first learning session on climate change in 2006. In that session, they introduced me to two climate scientists, Ken Caldeira—then at the Carnegie Institution for Science—and David Keith of the Harvard University Center for the Environment. Since then, I’ve had countless conversations with Ken and David that have shaped my thinking. Ken and a team of his postdoctoral fellows—Candise Henry, Rebecca Peer, and Tyler Ruggles—pored over the manuscript line by line to check for factual mistakes. I’m thankful for their meticulous work. Any remaining errors are my responsibility. The late David MacKay of Cambridge University inspired me with his wit and insights. I recommend his phenomenal book Sustainable Energy—Without the Hot Air to anyone who wants to dig deeper into the subject of energy and climate change. Jabe Blumenthal and Karen Fries are the two former Microsoft colleagues who organized my first learning session on climate change in 2006. In that session, they introduced me to two climate scientists, Ken Caldeira—then at the Carnegie Institution for Science—and David Keith of the Harvard University Center for the Environment. Since then, I’ve had countless conversations with Ken and David that have shaped my thinking. Ken and a team of his postdoctoral fellows—Candise Henry, Rebecca Peer, and Tyler Ruggles—pored over the manuscript line by line to check for factual mistakes. I’m thankful for their meticulous work. Any remaining errors are my responsibility. The late David MacKay of Cambridge University inspired me with his wit and insights. I recommend his phenomenal book Sustainable Energy—Without the Hot Air to anyone who wants to dig deeper into the subject of energy and climate change."

melomal 6y ago

It's the public that needs convincing more so than the government. Billy Gates is probably the best person, apart from Elon, to try and convince people that it's not that bad. It's a good way to build positive PR for something that is considered a hideous, disastrous, dangerous monster of an idea.

stkdump 6y ago

> I suspect his knowledge about energy, farming and medicine to be superior to almost anyone outside academia. So what about academia? Because I don't see it in particular agreement with him on nuclear fission, either.