8 ms·
I really can't think of another person that I've had to reevaluate my opinion of as drastically as Gates. In the 90s he was widely seen as the face of the evil
by commandar 13y ago
I really can't think of another person that I've had to reevaluate my opinion of as drastically as Gates.
In the 90s he was widely seen as the face of the evil empire of Microsoft by the technorati, completely cutthroat and unfairly crushing anyone that stood in his way.
But over the past decade, he's arguably been one of the single greatest contributors to good in the world. He's been a staunch and consistent advocate for the overall betterment of humanity. He's put his wealth and influence to use in beneficial, high-impact ways. He's directed his ruthlessness away from business and toward hunger, poverty, and disease. And it's making a very real difference in the lives of people around the world.
He's gone from somebody I viewed as a reviled caricature of a man to one I can't help but profoundly respect.
Yeah, people are complicated. In the Mr. Gates' case, maybe that's not such a bad thing.
- rodgerd 13y agoI loathe his business practises (albeit less evil than Apple's...), but the rest of his life seems admirable. He certainly stands well above such other tech billionaires as Jobs and Ellison.
- gohrt 13y agoSteve Jobs (a) accumulated only about 25% of Bill Gates' wealth, and (b) died. I haven't heard news about where his money went, but I haven't heard they spent it paying people to self-flagellate or rape each other or overtake a nation by force. He just worked his whole life and bought a couple of nice houses and a nice car and traveled, and then willed away his money to his wife, who spends her time doing high-society philanthropic dabblings.
- cma 13y agoI hold don't it against him, but you are mischaracterizing a bit to say he only bought some cars and a house: https://www.google.com/search?q=steve+jobs+yacht https://www.google.com/search?q=steve+jobs+yacht https://www.google.com/search?q=steve+jobs+plane https://www.google.com/search?q=steve+jobs+plane
- scholia 13y agoWhen you say "bought a house", you mean "bought a historic mansion", then left it to rot while he lived somewhere else. It rotted to the point where it was eventually torn down. http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Steve-Jobs-historic-Woodside-mansion-is-torn-down-2474921.php http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Steve-Jobs-historic-Wo...
- _mulder_ 13y agoHistoric?? It was 86 years old, hardly worth worrying about. If you want to see a real 'historic mansion', come to Europe.
- CanSpice 13y agoIt was designed by a noted architect for a copper baron. It doesn't matter how old it was, the fact that a famous architect designed it means it's got history associated with it, therefore it's historic. There's no need to get ageist with your buildings. Yes, Europe has old buildings. That doesn't detract from the fact that buildings in North America, even if they're fewer than 100 years old, can be considered "historic".
- prawn 13y agoContext matters. It doesn't need to be a pissing match and "hardly worth worrying about" is a crappy attitude.
- dredmorbius 13y agoGiven that, travelling through Palo Alto, one can still see one of the two "tall sticks" after which the town was named, that white men hadn't set eyes on the San Francisco bay until January, 1770, and much of what had been built in the area was destroyed in 1906, an 86 year old structure, particularly with ownership and design significance, can indeed be considered "historic". Though I am well aware of family residences to which I've some association on other continents approaching 500 years in age. History and longevity are also not universally revered: in Japan the tradition is to destroy and rebuild temples frequently (every 20 years in the case of the shrines at Naikū and Gekū).
- drzaiusapelord 13y agoI'm so sick of the "humble Jobs" meme. This guy bought himself a super yacht and seems to have had a anti-charity attitude, which would fit in with his otherwise Ayn Rand laden cut-throat philosophies. Remember, this is the guy who emailed the execs at other companies to keep engineer's salaries low and threatened the guy at Palm if he didn't play along: how? Via a lawsuit from his patent arsenal. Jobs was a right bastard. Ask anyone who worked with him.
- mcv 13y agoWhile I'm no fan of many of Apple's business practices, I don't think they're quite as bad as some of the extremely anti-competitive stuff Microsoft pulled in the '80s and '90s. In person, however, Steve Jobs was apparently a tremendous jerk (he often parked in handicapped spots, to name just one small but telling example), whereas Bill Gates seems to be a pretty decent fellow.
- snotrockets 13y agoI suspect the reason Appke's business practices weren't as bas as Microsoft's, was that they didn't have the marketshare. Had Apple had the marketshare of Microsoft, I'm sure they were just as Evil, if not more.
- sanskritabelt 13y agoI remember huge fights on mid-90s usenet about Apple's anti-open source practices, up to and including Stallman trying to prevent FSF code from being ported to System Whatever, it was so bad. (But I'm not going to go digging through 20 year old gnu.misc.discuss flamewars)
- rodgerd 13y agoShow me the bit in the 80s where Microsoft sued with a claim to have the exlusive right to develop GUIs, ever. There's a reason the FSF blacklisted Apple, but not Microsoft, for many years.
- simula67 13y agoBill Gates' inspiration was John D Rockefeller, who lived a similar life : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller
- pionar 13y agoNot to nitpick, but he has said numerous times that his inspiration for his charitable work is Warren Buffett.
- adventured 13y agoAnd Buffett's was Carnegie, Rockefeller and other titans of the industrial revolution that gave away a huge portion of their wealth, setting the standard.
- pjmorris 13y agoI can't place the reference now, but I've read that Gates studied the lives of the big industrial titans - Carnegie, Rockefeller, Alfred Sloan at GM. He clearly found advice on building empires... but he also, I believe consciously, emulated the charitable aspects of their lives. I think he's a Buffett fan because they share an admiration of the earlier generation of American titans.
- sliverstorm 13y agoWhy can't it be both?
- scholia 13y agoBill Gates' original inspiration was his mother, Mary Gates, who did an enormous amount for United Way and other charities. Mary Gates -- She's Much More Than Just The Mother Of Billionaire Bill; This Former UW Regent Has Made A Career Of Community Service http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19940109&slug=1888770 http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=199... Not saying other philanthropists had no influence, but the idea of giving back was part of Bill's (privileged) background from birth....
- tombrossman 13y agoA quick browse of his foundation's Wikipedia page [1] makes me think old habits die hard. I hope all the positive press coverage is true (and not the work of extremely well funded PR agencies) but these questions keep coming up. I don't know enough about this to decide yet but I'd like to see some more impartial examination of the foundations net benefit to society, as I think the coverage so far is lacking. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gates_Foundation#Criticism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gates_Foundation#Criticism
- mseebach 13y agoThese are extremely minor points in the grand scheme of things. Seriously, read the rest of the page, also. That's not saying that they may not be fair and relevant criticisms (but also not saying that they are - there's certainly pettiness in there). Nobody and no organisation is perfect, not by a long shot, and the inability to raise concerns at all with such a large operation would be a total failure of imagination.
- pmelendez 13y agoSome of those criticism are arguable. For instance one of them is criticizing higher paids in AIDS research arguing that it taking away professionals from the regular care. Well, yeah, that's a side effect and a challenge but it happens in any area where you gives incentives.
- njx 13y agoDoes anyone know why he is associated with Monsanto? http://www.infowars.com/bill-gates-dodges-questions-on-why-he-owns-500000-shares-of-monsanto/ http://www.infowars.com/bill-gates-dodges-questions-on-why-h...
- jordan0day 13y agoWho better to help feed the world's hungry than a giant ag company?
- canvia 13y agoHigh yield GMO rice and wheat allows developing countries to feed themselves even when they lack ideal farming conditions. Monsanto might be evil but it appears that Mr. Gates believes allowing people to die from starvation is a greater evil.
- Cthulhu_ 13y agoAnd yet, the cynic in me will go 'Yeah, everyone will turn into a good guy / philanthropist if he's so rich he doesn't have to worry about anything, ever'.
- seabee 13y agoExcept there are dozens of counterexamples to that, of extremely wealthy people who do nothing or (at worst) the opposite of philanthropy. This might be a interesting read to soothe your cynical side: http://www.slate.com/blogs/quora/2013/12/12/working_for_extremely_weathly_people_what_are_the_positive_and_negatives.html http://www.slate.com/blogs/quora/2013/12/12/working_for_extr...
- dobbsbob 13y agoA lot of them don't trust charities due to management scamming so Gates has built one of the first orgs other billionaire's feel comfortable donating to like Warren Buffet who signed over basically his entire fortune to Gates.
- girvo 13y agocough Larry Ellison, counterexample cough
- jrockway 13y agoLike Steve Jobs?
- jaynos 13y agoThere are thoughts that Jobs donated, just did so anonymously. http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/the-mystery-of-steve-jobss-public-giving/?_r=0 http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/the-mystery-of-steve-...
- mburns 13y agoHe made billions, essentially conquered his industry. Why bother being greedy into old age when he can buy a legacy and still live a billionaire's lifestyle. Best of both worlds.
- avn2109 13y agoDoes he live a billionaire's lifestyle? In the pure sense of Mikhail Prokhorov models-and-bottles, jet-boat-race-to-Monte Carlo.
- hyperbovine 13y agoLess flashy perhaps, but he owns the obligatory private island, Porsche collection, and a couple hundred million worth of art and artifacts.
- mistermann 13y agoIf you or one of your children were one of the <who knows how many> lives he's affected in a very positive way you'd have a more mature perspective of the world instead of making flippant criticisms from the comfort of your living room. You're probably living in the top 10% at least of humanity, what have you done for the world lately?
- mburns 13y agoAnd if you or one of your parents were one of the <who knows how many> lives he affected in a negative way... you'd still be allowed to make informed decisions and not be painted by a single circumstance because people are more complex than that. >you'd have a more mature perspective of the world instead of making flippant criticisms from the comfort of your living room. So instead of disagreeing with the merit of my opinion presented, you just throw insults at how I couldn't possibly know what I'm talking about. You have much to show me about maturity.
- mistermann 13y agoI'm trying to, but I can't understand what you're saying in the first part of your comment, the "informed decisions" part. And point taken, I was indeed unnecessarily rude.
- menubar 13y agoI'm a really nice person especially around xmas time, but nobody hardly notices. I donate much more than 0.01% of my earnings to charities and nobody calls me a hero. Who the heck does this Bill Gates guy think he is?
- commandar 13y agoYou do realize that Gates (like Warren Buffet) is giving most of his wealth away to charities, right?
- tcgv 13y agoThat's not very hard to do when you're worth billions of dollars, because even if you give away 99% of your wealth to charity, you'd still be worth tens of millions of dollars at the end of the day. Regular folks can't afford to do that without putting their financial stability at risk. Nevertheless, I do respect Bill for his actions, and I believe all modern tycoons should feel responsible for making the world a better place through charity.
- alecsmart1 13y agoBill Gates earned his wealth in his own lifetime. He's self made and still wishes to give away most of his wealth. I don't understand how you can criticize someone like that. At the end of the day, he is parting from his hard earned money.
- dannypgh 13y agoBy what definition is Bill Gates "self made?" He had a million-dollar trust fund going into life, which let him take risks and exploit opportunities that others could not have. http://philip.greenspun.com/bg/ http://philip.greenspun.com/bg/ I think you do justice no favors by disregarding the microsoft employees (and acquisitions) that did the overwhelming majority of work to earn that wealth, not Bill Gates. Sometimes in violation of law, and sometimes via questionably legal business practices that forced many people who don't use their products to pay for them. But I guess in capitalism, owner-takes-all and might-makes-right, huh?
- rdl 13y agoDidn't Andrew Carnegie do basically the same thing? Alfred Nobel's good works were mainly posthumous IIRC, and Rockefeller was mainly his son, but Carnegie did good things late in his own life.