4 ms·

I don't think it's satire, I think it's a hack job. A lot of people were born into a similar situation as Gates. Very few achieved what he did. This was writ

I don't think it's satire, I think it's a hack job. A lot of people were born into a similar situation as Gates. Very few achieved what he did. This was written in the time of Microsoft invincibility, where everyone was afraid that Microsoft would enter their market with a free offering. Now it's the opposite - Mircosoft's stock has been flat since then, and they're the ones more concerned about cheaper competitors. It takes a little of the hating edge off of Gates.

hackerboos 13y ago
>A lot of people were born into a similar situation as Gates. Very few achieved what he did. The question is: Could Gates have achieved what he did had he not been born into a similar situation?
- hingisundhorsa 13y ago
  Yes, a person with drive might achieve that. That said, it'd probably be massively less likely. Out of the 100 million kids in India born into poverty, probably 1 in a 100 would make it to a blue collar job, 1 in 10k to a white collar job, 1 in 100k to a professional, 1 in 1M to be a millionaire, and 1 in 100M to be a billionaire. I'm fudging the data but would I be massively wrong?
- marcamillion 13y ago
  He wouldn't be Gates if he was born into another situation. So the person born in the current Gates' situation would prolly have achieved what Gates did - given that Gates is who he is because he won the ovarian lottery.
  - bsullivan01 13y ago
    So the person born in the current Gates' situation would prolly have achieved what Gates did - given that Gates is who he is because he won the ovarian lottery. If he had a twin brother he's be, say Larry Ellison or Warren Buffet? No doubt knowing that daddy is there for you if you fail and that Harvard will take you back is a huge relief and fall back strategy but Gates did make some amazingly good decisions. Some forty years later his company is worth close to $300 Billion and makes over $20 Billion in profit, year after year.
- bluedino 13y ago
  I'd imagine poor people had basically 0 access to computers in the 1970's.
- e40 13y ago
  It was one of the many preconditions for MS to become what it did.
- jrs99 13y ago
  Bill Gates was a genius with an entrepreneurial mind. Do you think his parents taught him to program the machine that he had access to? He is a self-taught programmer and a high-school entrepreneur and as a kid he read encyclopedias front to back. I know another child entrepreneur, self-taught programmer who read encyclopedias front to back as a kid... elon musk.
  - hackerboos 13y ago
    >Do you think his parents taught him to program the machine that he had access to? No. But we're talking about having access to that machine in the first place.
    - jrs99 13y ago
      My point is that if you can teach yourself to program, and program THAT WELL, at that time, then you are going to teach yourself a lot of other things.
- danielweber 13y ago
  I believe Gates would only have a few percent of his current wealth if he was just born a few years later or a few years sooner. Note that, with this belief, he's still amazingly rich. I don't begrudge him his wealth even though a bulk of ti comes down to luck. Someone had to end up with the desktop OS monopoly.
- vinceguidry 13y ago
  Why is it this question and not the other?
- mathattack 13y ago
  If you believe Gladwell, no. It's a combination of crazy work ethic and being born in the right place and time. Now whether or not we should believe Gladwell is being debated elsewhere... :-)
judk 13y ago
MS stock being flat means BG is still as rich as he was then. Contrast to Enron today.

hackerboos 13y ago

>A lot of people were born into a similar situation as Gates. Very few achieved what he did. The question is: Could Gates have achieved what he did had he not been born into a similar situation?

hingisundhorsa 13y ago
Yes, a person with drive might achieve that. That said, it'd probably be massively less likely. Out of the 100 million kids in India born into poverty, probably 1 in a 100 would make it to a blue collar job, 1 in 10k to a white collar job, 1 in 100k to a professional, 1 in 1M to be a millionaire, and 1 in 100M to be a billionaire. I'm fudging the data but would I be massively wrong?
marcamillion 13y ago
He wouldn't be Gates if he was born into another situation. So the person born in the current Gates' situation would prolly have achieved what Gates did - given that Gates is who he is because he won the ovarian lottery.
- bsullivan01 13y ago
  So the person born in the current Gates' situation would prolly have achieved what Gates did - given that Gates is who he is because he won the ovarian lottery. If he had a twin brother he's be, say Larry Ellison or Warren Buffet? No doubt knowing that daddy is there for you if you fail and that Harvard will take you back is a huge relief and fall back strategy but Gates did make some amazingly good decisions. Some forty years later his company is worth close to $300 Billion and makes over $20 Billion in profit, year after year.
bluedino 13y ago
I'd imagine poor people had basically 0 access to computers in the 1970's.
e40 13y ago
It was one of the many preconditions for MS to become what it did.
jrs99 13y ago
Bill Gates was a genius with an entrepreneurial mind. Do you think his parents taught him to program the machine that he had access to? He is a self-taught programmer and a high-school entrepreneur and as a kid he read encyclopedias front to back. I know another child entrepreneur, self-taught programmer who read encyclopedias front to back as a kid... elon musk.
- hackerboos 13y ago
  >Do you think his parents taught him to program the machine that he had access to? No. But we're talking about having access to that machine in the first place.
  - jrs99 13y ago
    My point is that if you can teach yourself to program, and program THAT WELL, at that time, then you are going to teach yourself a lot of other things.
danielweber 13y ago
I believe Gates would only have a few percent of his current wealth if he was just born a few years later or a few years sooner. Note that, with this belief, he's still amazingly rich. I don't begrudge him his wealth even though a bulk of ti comes down to luck. Someone had to end up with the desktop OS monopoly.
vinceguidry 13y ago
Why is it this question and not the other?
mathattack 13y ago
If you believe Gladwell, no. It's a combination of crazy work ethic and being born in the right place and time. Now whether or not we should believe Gladwell is being debated elsewhere... :-)

judk 13y ago

MS stock being flat means BG is still as rich as he was then. Contrast to Enron today.