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I'm curious what kind of privileged insight could Gates have when he's just a billionaire with no expertise and special clearance in this domain? Or is this suc

by ajvs 5y ago

I'm curious what kind of privileged insight could Gates have when he's just a billionaire with no expertise and special clearance in this domain? Or is this such a high likelihood scenario that it's the first thing any billionaire would come up with?

mizzack 5y ago
Who knows? But it'd be naive to think that donating billions to global health orgs over the years doesn't buy some sort of access.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- beerandt 5y ago
  Which shouldn't be mistaken for expertise.
mulmen 5y ago
Well he isn't "just a billionaire with no expertise or special clearance in this domain". He has spent more time working on vaccine distribution and disease eradication than he spent as CEO of Microsoft. He founded and leads an organization that operates in this domain. He's literally one of the leading global experts in this domain.
- spiderice 5y ago
  I don't understand why more people don't realize this. I feel like a lot of people would consider a biology major who hasn't been in school for 20 years more of an expert on this sort of thing than Bill Gates, all because the student has a piece of paper saying they took like 12 classes loosely related to the subject. It's like the people who argue that "Elon Musk is a rocket engineer in title only" because he went to school in physics rather than engineering. Like, you don't think being the CEO and lead engineer of SpaceX for almost 20 years is a better education than a 4 - 8 year degree?
retrac 5y ago
You don't have to go far to find a book written pre-2019 that outlines the pandemic that just occurred down to a T. This is something a lot of smart people hypothesized and it's something a lot of people took seriously. Indeed the catchphrase for it was probably "when, not if". I sure didn't think Gates sounded apocalyptic or unrealistic when he did his TED Talk about the future pandemic. It was all stuff I already knew! I just didn't expect it quite so soon.

by ajvs 5y ago

mizzack 5y ago

Who knows? But it'd be naive to think that donating billions to global health orgs over the years doesn't buy some sort of access.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
beerandt 5y ago
Which shouldn't be mistaken for expertise.

mulmen 5y ago

Well he isn't "just a billionaire with no expertise or special clearance in this domain". He has spent more time working on vaccine distribution and disease eradication than he spent as CEO of Microsoft. He founded and leads an organization that operates in this domain. He's literally one of the leading global experts in this domain.

spiderice 5y ago
I don't understand why more people don't realize this. I feel like a lot of people would consider a biology major who hasn't been in school for 20 years more of an expert on this sort of thing than Bill Gates, all because the student has a piece of paper saying they took like 12 classes loosely related to the subject. It's like the people who argue that "Elon Musk is a rocket engineer in title only" because he went to school in physics rather than engineering. Like, you don't think being the CEO and lead engineer of SpaceX for almost 20 years is a better education than a 4 - 8 year degree?

retrac 5y ago

You don't have to go far to find a book written pre-2019 that outlines the pandemic that just occurred down to a T. This is something a lot of smart people hypothesized and it's something a lot of people took seriously. Indeed the catchphrase for it was probably "when, not if". I sure didn't think Gates sounded apocalyptic or unrealistic when he did his TED Talk about the future pandemic. It was all stuff I already knew! I just didn't expect it quite so soon.