I tried to watch it, but it just felt like a 'Bill Gates' public profile PR piece. Basically just espousing how great Bill and his family are and were at all points in history.
I regularly get downvoted for pointing out that Saint Bill the Philanthropist refuses to acknowledge all the shitty behavior and the damage he left behind to earn him that fortune in the first place.
Not to mention his philanthropy work frequently causes considerable damage itself, like the malaria nets[0] that poisoned the local food supply, the failed public school overhaul[1] and common core[2][3].
The links you provide for common core are not evidence of "considerable damage". The first is an opinion piece and the second is much worse - a blog post following up on an article whose argument against common core is based primarily on believing the claims in a satire article
A better view of the things they've learned while trying to help the world is Melinda Gate's interview with Dave Letterman on his Netflix show.
Melinda talked about how they were told by the women in small African villages not to bring condoms, that the women wanted birth control in the form for Depro-Prevara shots. Condoms have the stigma of AIDS prevention and so a wife that wants her mate to use a condom is seen as suggesting that he has been unfaithful and is infected.
Couldn't agree more. How he got there is always overlooked. Bill is certainly very intelligent and competent. But could Bill start a company from scratch and be competitive today? One that is remotely close to MS and from competing fairly? I'm doubtful.
oh wow. just wow. i think it's really easy to be an armchair philosopher vs actually doing things. I for one, even though I am not a big fan of MS or Gates, have no doubt that he could find a niche and grow a successful business today. There is a lot of luck involved when starting from scratch so it's anyone's guess if it would grow as large as MS - but it would definitely take off the ground.
Competing fairly is IMHO nice, but I don't believe that's your number one concern when you're trying to get things off the ground and survive. We look at all the successful companies and nitpick on questionable things they did in they early days (or current days for that matter). We overlook that no successful company got where it is without actually aggressively pursuing their goals. Nobody hears about the companies that compete "fairly".
Life 101: Life is not fair. Do you really think that someone that was born in a "1st world country", has access to clean water, food, education is on an equal position with someone that has to walk 10 miles every day to drink clean water? Should people in a privileged position accept their privilege? If the 10miles guy decides to "fuck fairness" and actually does something you consider unethical do you get to decide that what he did is wrong? now, we're on a slippery slope to getting on our high horses.
Agree but it's more than that. I would point out to any young people reading and watching things like this to keep this in mind. If Bill Gates wasn't a very visible Billionaire and one in particular who had a history in the computer business you wouldn't really care much what he thought. Let alone listen to him. The 'very visible' definitely matters, sure. But also the fact that he is 'rich' like any and all utterances by rich or successful people (even in things they aren't skilled at) what they say appears way more valuable than it actually is and when compared to someone who has not had luck play into their success.
There is no way to 'grab the brass ring' by reading or watching this type of documentary. Understand it for what it is. It's entertainment pure and simple.
To your point 'shitty behavior' absolutely true. The amount of anxiety and aggravation that OS and some of those business practices caused is rarely talked about. In this case making money was tied to having a bad product in part not a good product that people loved. The entire eco system was dependent on convincing users they didn't know enough and needed help to get it to actually continue functioning.
Though he has pledged to give away his fortune. So far he has given out $35billion. On things like curing malaria, as opposed to buying self-portraits and NFL memorabilia. I’d say his behavior is the text book definition of great.
