Bill gates the Post Miicrosoft years.

When he was running Microsoft I often wondered what really drove Gates, just a need to make more money, beat his rivals or just to be be the best tech firm. But even before he left in 2006 I was starting to warm to him as I read more and more about his charity work and donations.

In this TED talk Bill and Melinda talk a bit about there foundation and there plan to give away 90%+ of there fortune. Ok that still leaves them very rich by every day standards, but its not simple giving it away thats impressive, but the amount of work they put in to make sure it is used in a way to help as many people as possible, and improve things for the long term.

Bill and Melinda Gates: Why giving away our wealth has been the most satisfying thing we've done | Video on TED.com

I wonder what will the biggest success in Gates life.. the way he made billions? or the way he spent them? After watching this video somehow I am not quite so upset about having purchased so many Microsoft products over the years, at least some of that money has good to people who need it.

Although have to say looking at the chemistry between him and his wife, its clear who wears the trousers in that house.

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Comments

tpatt100

I don't think the general public was really aware of how Bill ran Microsoft in the past or if they were it was just a passing news story especially the anti-trust stuff. So Gates can leave a pretty positive legacy behind him. I need to read up more because I didn't verify stories as much as I do now a days so I am not sure how much of the past actions of Microsoft were actually true.

Cert Poor

Good interview and video. Thanks for the link DevilWAH.

I'll take Gates leadership over Jobs leadership any day of the week (read: Jobs was known to be abusive). It's also refreshing to see that Gates abandoned Harvard to pursue his dreams, yet he still has intellectual curiosity to pursue learning. And we know that the best learning is pursued independently out of passion and curiosity, not something a teacher shoves down our throat like a chore. In another interview, I saw Bill's private collection and he had a TON of videos from The Great Courses (I have a few of them), and he's also a supporter of Khan Academy, which is another model of free and open sharing of knowledge.

I love it.

I also admire their Foundation and emphasis on eliminating diseases that are already eliminated in 1st world countries -- things like diarrheal dz like cholera and other mostly obsolete dzs like polio through addressing the cold supply chain (keeping vaccines cold end-to-end) in the final stages of drug delivery.

It's also kind of funny how they seem to emphasize toilet inventions, but sanitation of both drinking water and human waste are things we take for granted that the developing world simply doesn't have.

I'm not so sure I agree with the Foundation's emphasis on the Common Core Curriculum however. It seems like a major train wreck of an educational curriculum here in the USA.