4 ms·

Most startups fail, and we often talk about how that's a good thing. Absent capital constraints, why is that different for charitable initiatives? Gates is dev

Most startups fail, and we often talk about how that's a good thing. Absent capital constraints, why is that different for charitable initiatives? Gates is devoting resources towards nuclear (Terrapower) and nuclear has a terrible track record in effeciency (LCOE) and generation as a total percent of fleet capacity. Should he stop trying there? I would argue it isn't. I would argue the same for trying to improve education.

temp8964 6y ago
Not the same. Try failed engineering wouldn't harm anybody (except wasting money). Try bad social policy, could harm people you experimented on. It also has broad impact on the society. Quote: "..., there is nothing inherently wrong with trying a reform and having it fail. The key is learning from failure so that we avoid repeating the same mistakes. It is pretty clear that the Gates effective teaching reform effort failed pretty badly. It cost a fortune. It produced significant political turmoil and distracted from other, more promising efforts. And it appears to have generally done more harm than good with respect to student achievement and attainment outcomes." https://www.educationnext.org/gates-effective-teaching-initiative-fails-improve-student-outcomes/ https://www.educationnext.org/gates-effective-teaching-initi...
- fossuser 6y ago
  Therac-25? There are so many other examples, this comment is just wildly wrong. Trying things has some inherent risk of failure, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth working on hard problems. It just means you do the best you can to account for that risk (and learning from it to not make the same mistakes again). Edit: You added the quote which I don’t disagree with in sentiment (I don’t know specifics of the policy in question).
  - temp8964 6y ago
    If you care about education reform, I guess you must have heard of the Common Core. In the field of education reform, almost nobody thinks a national standard is critical / essential to the education reform in the country. It created huge huge political turmoil for many years. Both left and right were against it, but it got pushed through. Now it is gone, nobody cares. Imagine the resource wasted on this meaningless effort which could have been used for something else.
gnu8 6y ago
Bill Gates made all of that money by destroying Netscape, Be, and countless other companies. His dog shit software like Windows 2000 and Internet Explorer set internet security back by about ten years. As far as I'm concerned he is a force for evil in the world and he should shove his resources up his ass. He doesn't deserve to be a part of the solution to the world's problems with energy, education or anything else. He isn't allowed to "buy" being a good person. He isn't one.
- macintux 6y ago
  I think the world was a worse place when Bill Gates was heading Microsoft. I think it's a better place now that he's heading a massive charitable foundation. Life is complicated. People are complicated.

temp8964 6y ago

Not the same. Try failed engineering wouldn't harm anybody (except wasting money). Try bad social policy, could harm people you experimented on. It also has broad impact on the society. Quote: "..., there is nothing inherently wrong with trying a reform and having it fail. The key is learning from failure so that we avoid repeating the same mistakes. It is pretty clear that the Gates effective teaching reform effort failed pretty badly. It cost a fortune. It produced significant political turmoil and distracted from other, more promising efforts. And it appears to have generally done more harm than good with respect to student achievement and attainment outcomes." https://www.educationnext.org/gates-effective-teaching-initiative-fails-improve-student-outcomes/ https://www.educationnext.org/gates-effective-teaching-initi...

fossuser 6y ago
Therac-25? There are so many other examples, this comment is just wildly wrong. Trying things has some inherent risk of failure, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth working on hard problems. It just means you do the best you can to account for that risk (and learning from it to not make the same mistakes again). Edit: You added the quote which I don’t disagree with in sentiment (I don’t know specifics of the policy in question).
- temp8964 6y ago
  If you care about education reform, I guess you must have heard of the Common Core. In the field of education reform, almost nobody thinks a national standard is critical / essential to the education reform in the country. It created huge huge political turmoil for many years. Both left and right were against it, but it got pushed through. Now it is gone, nobody cares. Imagine the resource wasted on this meaningless effort which could have been used for something else.

gnu8 6y ago

Bill Gates made all of that money by destroying Netscape, Be, and countless other companies. His dog shit software like Windows 2000 and Internet Explorer set internet security back by about ten years. As far as I'm concerned he is a force for evil in the world and he should shove his resources up his ass. He doesn't deserve to be a part of the solution to the world's problems with energy, education or anything else. He isn't allowed to "buy" being a good person. He isn't one.

macintux 6y ago
I think the world was a worse place when Bill Gates was heading Microsoft. I think it's a better place now that he's heading a massive charitable foundation. Life is complicated. People are complicated.