Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Brilliant Billionaires, No. 79: Bill Gates's Tweets to Grads

1. Looking back on when I left college, there are some things I wish I had known.
Is that a profound observation, or what? I mean it's like not so abnormal or anything to leave college without knowing absolutely everything there is to be known.
2. (Among the things I wish I had known on leaving college) is that intelligence takes many different forms. It is not one-dimensional. And not as important as I used to think.
Is that a fact? Amazing, I assumed that someone capable of creating a software monopoly would be able to compose better symphonies than Beethoven, write better plays than Shakespeare and much better advice to graduates than these tweets by Bill Gates.
3. I also have one big regret: When I left school, I knew little about the world’s worst inequities.
Yes it's unfortunate for the rest of the world that you didn't go into social work. Then we might have had a decent PC operating system years ago.
4. AI, energy, and biosciences are promising fields where you can make a huge impact.
Um yeah! Just start an IT company like Microsoft, an energy company like Exxon, or a bioscience company like Monsanto and you'll be nearly as rich and self-important as Bill Gates. See, that's the kind of advice you'll only get from the richest man in the world.
5. You know more than I did when I was your age. You can start fighting inequity, whether down the street or around the world, sooner.
Ahah! Here's the real payload. We gotta share the wealth. Your wealth, anyhow. As the richest man in the world, I naturally, will keep mine, and hope to get more as globalization spreads the wealth of the West to the teaming masses of the Rest, to whom I extend an invitation by way of an H1b visa to come to the West and take a job from overpaid American-trained software engineer.
6. Meanwhile, surround yourself with people who challenge you, teach you, and push you to be your best self. As @MelindaGates does for me.
 If these tweets are anything to go by, Melinda needs to up her game.
7. Like @WarrenBuffett I measure my happiness by whether people close to me are happy and love me, & by the difference I make for others.
Amazing. Most people just know if they're happy or not. But Bill, apparently doesn't now how happy he is except by measuring how much ice cream there is on his plate, or whatever it is that he measures his happiness by. Very strange, indeed.

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