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>The Gates Foundation’s mission remains rooted in the idea that where you are born should not determine your opportunities. Arguably he's already done so much

>The Gates Foundation’s mission remains rooted in the idea that where you are born should not determine your opportunities. Arguably he's already done so much for billions of people. Had typing on computers not became the main way businesses communicate , anyone with bad, handwriting would be stuck in menial work. When I was growing up in the 90s my hand writing was so bad it was assumed I would never amount to anything. Then computers completely take over all aspects of business in the early 2000s. No one is writing TPS reports by hand. All of a sudden my horrible handwriting doesn't matter. It's still really bad. But I've made 6 figures for well over a decade, along with an amazing year at about 200k. None of this would of been possible without Gates. I also owe the creator of Android Andy Rubin. It's been a while ( and it might of been one of the other co founders), but I was able to thank Rubin. His response was something like "Well, we still need to get building applications working on Android." I've also been able to thank( on this forum) Brendan Eich, the inventor of my first programming language, JavaScript. Amazingly humble for someone who helped create trillions in wealth. Apart of me thinks Gates could still lead some innovation in computing. I hope somehow he's still coding under a pseudonym perhaps, and occasionally answering tech questions. His gift to us has been this amazing industry.

sokoloff 1y ago
> None of this would have been possible without Gates. Though he and his company did a lot to change the prevalence of typing, if he or Microsoft didn’t come along, someone else would have led the computing revolution with probability 1.
- perilunar 1y ago
  They didn't even lead — everything they did was unoriginal.
pfannkuchen 1y ago
I feel like if, in the counterfactual where people continued writing things by hand, as an adult you thought your handwriting was holding you back, you could probably improve it? It’s not an innate property of a human, it’s a practiced skill. And as a child there is not a good incentive structure to make kids who aren’t for some reason perfectionistic learn to write really well.
bombcar 1y ago
In no way would I want to downplay Gates' effect on the industry (though I personally think it was much more in the 80s and early 90s than in the heyday of the 2000s) I think people would have built computers without him, and its possible that we would have been better off overall in a world where the Amiga won, not the IBM PC, or the Mac, etc. Gates is more notable for NOT Netscaping or Sunning or Lotus-123ing his company than for any particular decision.
- 999900000999 1y ago
  I don't see computers being widely adapted without Microsoft deciding to essentially give Windows away to OEMs. Of course this was anti competitive, but it was a massive net good. The point is computers became extremely cheap. We're at the point where you can get a used laptop for 100$, install Linux on it and write code to your hearts content. The only thing limiting you is your own skill set. I don't think computers become affordable without Microsoft
  - toast0 1y ago
    > I don't see computers being widely adapted without Microsoft deciding to essentially give Windows away to OEMs. I'm not sure how making the OEMs pay for a license on all the computers they sold (and report on those numbers), regardless of what was installed is 'essentially giving away'. Yes, the OEM price was a lot lower than the retail price, but OEM versions came without direct support, and at least for large OEMs, without all of the trappings of retail (wholesalers/distributors/cross marketing expenses/shelf rental/etc)
FridayoLeary 1y ago
Why would bad handwriting be a barrier to success? I'm asking honestly. After all it's a trope that doctors have terrible handwriting, and typewriters and word processors have been around for ages. Also, talking from experience bad handwriting can easily be improved by paying a bit more attention to what you are doing and some practise.
tgv 1y ago
What an exaggeration. We had typewriters before the 90s. Apple, Commodore, and Atari arguably had an earlier influence than Gates.
zabzonk 1y ago
Gates (who I admire) did not invent the computer terminal, the word processor or the spreadsheet.
Johanx64 1y ago
Pretty much everything you named is simply first-to-the-market horror-show from design perspective. Javascript? Check. Android? Check. Windows? Again, capturing market via transitioning from DOS. They did focus on many important things like having exceptional backwards compatibility (transitioning from DOS, etc), and kernel team does a decent job usually, but none of this is necessarily attributable to Gates and it's simply what you have to do to capture a market/platform. I don't know if this is genuine sentiment you're expressing or just naivety, but people that can glaze this hard this easily usually go very far in life. I'll give you that, I wish I could do this.
- queuebert 1y ago
  I agree with this. We had multiple windowing environments, all arguably superior in various ways, and we had multiple office suites, all with better technology than the Microsoft versions. Then I wonder how much worse off are we because Windows and Office came to predominate instead of one of the others? How much rent seeking has gone into building Gates' fortune? How much has been lost financially by innocent users to Windows security vulnerabilities? On the handwriting thing, I see a general decline in my children's handwriting because they spend so much time typing. That bothers me personally, since I appreciate good handwriting, and I would think it spills over into other fine-motor skills tasks.
- 999900000999 1y ago
  >I don't know if this is genuine sentiment you're expressing or just naivety, but people that can glaze this hard this easily usually go very far in life. I'll give you that, I wish I could do this. Ohh it's 100% genuine, I went from living on food stamps, multiple evictions to 200k at my peak. Making a bit less now , but I'm still very comfortable. Ultimately these technologies made computing and programming extremely easy and cheap. You can make a lot of money using your Windows PC to code Android apps in JavaScript. I'm a not tech purist, if it works it works. Yes better OSes and languages exist, but they weren't really accessible to me. I still suggest most new programmers start with JavaScript or Python so you don't get too bogged down with boilerplate and type systems.
schmookeeg 1y ago
> When I was growing up in the 90s my hand writing was so bad it was assumed I would never amount to anything. I'm curious where you grew up? I am high school class of 1992. I skipped third grade, where a lot of penmanship is taught. We had a computer lab in Junior High (so late 1980s), I had a PC Clone at home that we bought in 1985. I'd turn in writing assignments printed on my epson dot matrix printer. To my knowledge, my appalling handwriting was never considered by anyone.
- abeyer 1y ago
  This feels like one of those threats teachers use to reinforce something they don't have any other strong argument to support... while reminding you that it will end up "on your permanent record."
padjo 1y ago
Is this satire? Bill Gates didn’t invent computers, he just started the company that won the PC revolution, very talented and intelligent, but also well placed and lucky.
- codr7 1y ago
  And greedy/ruthless.
toast0 1y ago
> When I was growing up in the 90s my hand writing was so bad it was assumed I would never amount to anything. I dunno, my 3rd grade teacher in the 80s said of my handwriting "We've done all we can do. He'll have a secretary, so it'll be ok" Sadly, I never had a secretary; but my terrible handwriting hasn't been a major deterrent to getting things done.
dennis_jeeves2 1y ago
>None of this would of been possible without Gates. The computer would have taken off regardless of him. Just like the electric bulb and the radio, the computer had no one single inventor/promoter/business.

sokoloff 1y ago

> None of this would have been possible without Gates. Though he and his company did a lot to change the prevalence of typing, if he or Microsoft didn’t come along, someone else would have led the computing revolution with probability 1.

perilunar 1y ago
They didn't even lead — everything they did was unoriginal.

pfannkuchen 1y ago

I feel like if, in the counterfactual where people continued writing things by hand, as an adult you thought your handwriting was holding you back, you could probably improve it? It’s not an innate property of a human, it’s a practiced skill. And as a child there is not a good incentive structure to make kids who aren’t for some reason perfectionistic learn to write really well.

bombcar 1y ago

In no way would I want to downplay Gates' effect on the industry (though I personally think it was much more in the 80s and early 90s than in the heyday of the 2000s) I think people would have built computers without him, and its possible that we would have been better off overall in a world where the Amiga won, not the IBM PC, or the Mac, etc. Gates is more notable for NOT Netscaping or Sunning or Lotus-123ing his company than for any particular decision.

999900000999 1y ago
I don't see computers being widely adapted without Microsoft deciding to essentially give Windows away to OEMs. Of course this was anti competitive, but it was a massive net good. The point is computers became extremely cheap. We're at the point where you can get a used laptop for 100$, install Linux on it and write code to your hearts content. The only thing limiting you is your own skill set. I don't think computers become affordable without Microsoft
- toast0 1y ago
  > I don't see computers being widely adapted without Microsoft deciding to essentially give Windows away to OEMs. I'm not sure how making the OEMs pay for a license on all the computers they sold (and report on those numbers), regardless of what was installed is 'essentially giving away'. Yes, the OEM price was a lot lower than the retail price, but OEM versions came without direct support, and at least for large OEMs, without all of the trappings of retail (wholesalers/distributors/cross marketing expenses/shelf rental/etc)

FridayoLeary 1y ago

Why would bad handwriting be a barrier to success? I'm asking honestly. After all it's a trope that doctors have terrible handwriting, and typewriters and word processors have been around for ages. Also, talking from experience bad handwriting can easily be improved by paying a bit more attention to what you are doing and some practise.

tgv 1y ago

What an exaggeration. We had typewriters before the 90s. Apple, Commodore, and Atari arguably had an earlier influence than Gates.

zabzonk 1y ago

Gates (who I admire) did not invent the computer terminal, the word processor or the spreadsheet.

Johanx64 1y ago

Pretty much everything you named is simply first-to-the-market horror-show from design perspective. Javascript? Check. Android? Check. Windows? Again, capturing market via transitioning from DOS. They did focus on many important things like having exceptional backwards compatibility (transitioning from DOS, etc), and kernel team does a decent job usually, but none of this is necessarily attributable to Gates and it's simply what you have to do to capture a market/platform. I don't know if this is genuine sentiment you're expressing or just naivety, but people that can glaze this hard this easily usually go very far in life. I'll give you that, I wish I could do this.

queuebert 1y ago
I agree with this. We had multiple windowing environments, all arguably superior in various ways, and we had multiple office suites, all with better technology than the Microsoft versions. Then I wonder how much worse off are we because Windows and Office came to predominate instead of one of the others? How much rent seeking has gone into building Gates' fortune? How much has been lost financially by innocent users to Windows security vulnerabilities? On the handwriting thing, I see a general decline in my children's handwriting because they spend so much time typing. That bothers me personally, since I appreciate good handwriting, and I would think it spills over into other fine-motor skills tasks.
999900000999 1y ago
>I don't know if this is genuine sentiment you're expressing or just naivety, but people that can glaze this hard this easily usually go very far in life. I'll give you that, I wish I could do this. Ohh it's 100% genuine, I went from living on food stamps, multiple evictions to 200k at my peak. Making a bit less now , but I'm still very comfortable. Ultimately these technologies made computing and programming extremely easy and cheap. You can make a lot of money using your Windows PC to code Android apps in JavaScript. I'm a not tech purist, if it works it works. Yes better OSes and languages exist, but they weren't really accessible to me. I still suggest most new programmers start with JavaScript or Python so you don't get too bogged down with boilerplate and type systems.

schmookeeg 1y ago

> When I was growing up in the 90s my hand writing was so bad it was assumed I would never amount to anything. I'm curious where you grew up? I am high school class of 1992. I skipped third grade, where a lot of penmanship is taught. We had a computer lab in Junior High (so late 1980s), I had a PC Clone at home that we bought in 1985. I'd turn in writing assignments printed on my epson dot matrix printer. To my knowledge, my appalling handwriting was never considered by anyone.

abeyer 1y ago
This feels like one of those threats teachers use to reinforce something they don't have any other strong argument to support... while reminding you that it will end up "on your permanent record."

padjo 1y ago

Is this satire? Bill Gates didn’t invent computers, he just started the company that won the PC revolution, very talented and intelligent, but also well placed and lucky.

codr7 1y ago
And greedy/ruthless.

toast0 1y ago

> When I was growing up in the 90s my hand writing was so bad it was assumed I would never amount to anything. I dunno, my 3rd grade teacher in the 80s said of my handwriting "We've done all we can do. He'll have a secretary, so it'll be ok" Sadly, I never had a secretary; but my terrible handwriting hasn't been a major deterrent to getting things done.

dennis_jeeves2 1y ago

>None of this would of been possible without Gates. The computer would have taken off regardless of him. Just like the electric bulb and the radio, the computer had no one single inventor/promoter/business.