January 25, 2008
Bill Gates
I notice that the comments posted about Bill Gates so far have all been pretty hostile. Having just met him for the first time, I have to say I’m a fan.
I have no firm views on the merits of the anti-trust cases against Microsoft. And I am not a teccie person, so I’m not joining in the debate about the merits of Microsoft products.
But Gates himself is truly impressive - both as an intellect and because of what he is doing with his vast fortune, through the Gates Foundation. You would expect a man who had achieved business success on his scale to be energetic, ruthless, very clever and very competitive. And Gates clearly is all of those things.
What I was not prepared for was the voraciousness of his intellect. He is now applying all the energy that he put into software and business to development and disease eradication. And he can (and does) hold forth at length and in detail on a wide variety of topics - from the different forms of female mosquito, to Aids vaccine trials, the reform of the New York school system and the history of the Rockefeller foundation. The enthusiasm, optimism and knowledge with which he speaks is quite reminiscent of that other Bill - Clinton. Without being in any way lachrymose, Gates is clearly really troubled by global poverty - and determined to do something about it.
I realise that the default position of this blog is never to get too enthusiastic about anything. But I was really impressed by Gates. Sorry about that. Normal service will be resumed soon.
Good morning, Gideon; Had you met John D. Rockefeller you would have been equally impressed even though his path to fortune was littered with less than stellar moments. Mr. Gates has a net worth of some US$ 60b some part of which was arguably acquired through less than stellar means as well. We remember and even celebrate Rockefeller as instrumental in establishing various important institutions and lines of research which continue to be very helpful to this day. Hopefully we shall remember Mr. Gates for his contributions to humanity more than for his monopolist business tactics as well. Time will tell. I thought my response was critical rather than hostile, you should perhaps familiarize yourself with the EU/US vs Microsoft matter. Mr. Gates for all his good works has yet to redeem himself.
Imagine if you would, that you were in the possession of a few billion US$. Your perspective would change; you can focus exclusively on your abstractions. And you would wonder what you could achieve with this massive opportunity your liquidity presents. Your innermost convictions would automatically drive your legacy; For example Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, is behind scaled composites and the eventual drive to move human beings off planet permanently. People who can command such massive undertakings will seek to immortalize themselves, either by building pyramids or by undertaking some other form of massive collective effort. They cannot be but visionary and think outside the box, nothing else will compel them anymore. That is the yardstick by which we judge and redeem them.
Normal service is where mere mortals eke out a living with all their desperate hopes and endeavours. Perhaps the most charitable action would be to wipe out 90% of humanity and put the rest on track towards a sustainable ecology. How can we expect to survive seeing all those Chinese and Indian people climb into the automobiles they so desire? The next Rockefeller won’t make a mark in health care, it’ll be in energy. If Bill Gates throws $10b of his money into fusion energy or other truly viable forms of energy generation, I shall redeem him and kiss his feet!
So, did you get to see Bono??
Warmest regards,
Posted by: felix drost, amsterdam | January 26th, 2008 at 4:23 am | Report this commentFelix.
He is remarkable man no doubt…and a generous man…and his gifts and projects in areas of education and world health cannot be discounted, but I listened very closely to his “creative capitalism” speech and it was was not all that impressive. For one thing, the concepts he outlined for corporate partnerships to address poverty have been around since the early 1990’s …several think tanks in both DC and NY have published countless white papers and reports on this sort of thing…hence some rolling of eyes and cynicism…I also listened to a panel of Muslim, Christian and Jewish religious leaders moderated by Tony Blair on: Faith and Modernity, Rick Warren was one of the panelist and I was much more impressed with his approach to addressing global poverty…because he is one of life’s doers…not just a thinker or talker …one good thing I learned, evidently Melinda Gates is also impressed with Rick Warren, so perhaps the 3 of them working togther could take this idea of “Creative Capitalism” to new heights…. finally showing both substantive change and results.
Posted by: Lisa-Helene Lawson | January 26th, 2008 at 4:24 am | Report this commentOT, Good morning P
Posted by: BMH | January 26th, 2008 at 7:55 am | Report this commentHope you are following GR snapshots on Davos and hope you find time to read this…..
A criminal idea
Attacking other countries to stop them acquiring nuclear weapons repudiates a key principle of international law
J Galbraith in Comment is free
BMH
In answer to Felix’s question, I have tried to avoid bumping into Bono - just in case he remembers the article I wrote about him a couple of months ago. Also, his only public appearance was at a breakfast (with Al Gore and Tom Friedman!), which involved a frighteningly early start. Actually I think Bono and Gates are big admirers of each other, which is slighly disquieting,
Posted by: Gideon Rachman | January 26th, 2008 at 11:00 am | Report this commentIs anyone else aware of the raging Israeli-Palestinian debate taking place on the previous thread? If only I had a nickel for every time this blog devolved into a Jewish-Arab debate. Nonetheless, it’s interesting.
Posted by: barmakid | January 26th, 2008 at 5:02 pm | Report this commentGR”Actually I think Bono and Gates are big admirers of each other, which is slighly disquieting”
They are… and I agreed with your post on Bono and that is somewhat applies to Gates…which is why it is difficult to get excited about Gates “creative capitalism” …again the speech was not breaking new ground…and lacked energy and most important passion…(Bono mistakes passion for showboating) now that could have been his speech making delivery skills but it hints to a greater problem as to why these big creative rich guys can’t get their act together to make a serious dent in the misery of so many…
Ooooh, Barmakid, Mr. Rachman scolded all of us yesterday from veering off topic and discussing GAZA…(even though I note he did reference ME issues in his post so while I agree bringing up the editorial was a bit much I think my post was totally acceptable) So you must go discuss Israel -Palestinian conflict elsewhere or wait till he writes about it…that is his rule or at least his preference…and they are very strict here!…they just end conversations or delete if people get too goofy, mean and personal or crazy…which has happened!
Posted by: Lisa-Helene Lawson | January 26th, 2008 at 6:09 pm | Report this comment