Why Bill Gates is the richest man on the planet

[HereBeADragon]

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

I just really liked the points made here if there is anything the kids of today need to learn its these 11 things. JMHO

[Joseph David]

Brian,

That's brilliant, I just had my 10yo read this and saw a little bulb go off in her head. I'm going to save this one!

[wadem]

Well stated. Kids need to learn the hard way a lot more often than they are expected to these dyas. My opinion is we're breeding and creating soft, overly sensitive kids (mentally and physically). Our grandparents generation could teach all of us a lot about reality.

[wadem]

Well stated. Kids need to learn the hard way a lot more often than they are expected to these days. They have to experience disappointment and learn to deal with it. My opinion is we're breeding and creating soft, overly sensitive kids (mentally and physically). Our grandparents generation could teach all of us a lot about reality.

[SteveB]

I absolutely couldn't agree with Gates more. Fantastic post!

[mushtaq]

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.


As with many Urban Legends, this one has been circulating around the net for some time. (check out http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_bill_gates_speech.htm)

There are a few interesting things about such lists.

The first is that every generation seems to think that the one that follows them has "no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world", yet we still seem to manage as a species.

The second is that any given person's reaction to such lists (and there are a bunch of them floating around) has more to do with their internal preconceptions and their feelings about who the list is attributed to than any "intrinsic" meaning that the list may carry.

The third is that lists like this one are worded in such a way that it is easy to project ones belief system onto the words. When you do this you don't get much information from the list. (sort of like reading a story you wrote).

If you want to try something interesting read the list and pretend that it was written by George W Bush, then read it again and pretend it was written by Bill Clinton. most people will have very different visceral reactions to the authors, even though the "objective" content is the same.

And whoever wrote the list forgot rule number 12 "It's all done with mirrors"

[KD Jones]

The third is that lists like this one are worded in such a way that it is easy to project ones belief system onto the words. When you do this you don't get much information from the list. (sort of like reading a story you wrote).

If you want to try something interesting read the list and pretend that it was written by George W Bush, then read it again and pretend it was written by Bill Clinton. most people will have very different visceral reactions to the authors, even though the "objective" content is the same.

Thanks for the dose, Mushtaq. I live in the "Bill Gates area," and my wife works for his company, as do a number of my friends. Now, this makes none of us an authority since he's usually kinda busy with other stuff, and virtually no-one at our level gets close to him (except that I've driven alongside him on the freeway twice, during one of which he nearly hit my car, quite by accident). However, even knowing a little about his driving habits, on reading this I thought, "Wow. That doesn't sound anything like Bill Gates.

And also, thanks for the thought experiment there. I'll be using it on a lot of other material. I do in fact have a different feeling about it when I pretend it was written by W.

And I agree with the idea that "every generation seems to think that the one that follows them" lacks something, but only up to a point. I know humans are still as reslient as they ever were. I know humans are as natively intelligent as they ever were. However, when I see the frequency of very youthful obesity, and the percentage of close-to-teenage young men who are genuinely spooky in their disengagement (which, however objective I attempt to make my view, seems to be a greater percentage than when I was a punk)... and lastly, one on which I have less of a grasp; the degree to which young women appear to be viewed as meat... I'm left to think that something is at least a little off kilter.

Then again, as you say, it could be a problem of perspective. It would be good to know something about at least some factor in this trend - if such it is - if only because issues of any kind often approach their tipping points very slowly and almost imperceptibly.

Oh... and I also like this one, from the original by Charles J. Sykes:
""
Rule No. 13: You are not immortal. (See Rule No. 12.) If you are under the impression that living fast, dying young and leaving a beautiful corpse is romantic, you obviously haven't seen one of your peers at room temperature lately.
""

Blessings.

[David Nicol]

Interesting thought process Mustaq. If I may, rule 13 - its one of my favourite quotes by lance armstrong "Winning only measures how hard you've worked and how physically talented you are - losing defines who you are ". I remember chatting to Dave Owens about this at Iota - it resonates strongly with me. Its an excellent observation by Lance on human character - many people measure life only on the highs, but the lows are equally as important.

Hope this makes some people think and helps them as much as it has me :)

Warmly,
Dave

[David Nicol]

Interesting thought process Mustaq. If I may, rule 13 - its one of my favourite quotes by lance armstrong "Winning only measures how hard you've worked and how physically talented you are - losing defines who you are ". I remember chatting to Dave Owens about this at Iota - it resonates strongly with me. Its an excellent observation by Lance on human character - many people measure life only on the highs, but the lows are equally as important.

Hope this makes some people think and helps them as much as it has me :)

Warmly,
Dave

[Doc]

Well, regardless of who may have originally wrote this....my wife is a high school teacher and those rules really resonated with her! They would hit pretty close to home with many of the students that she has!

[HereBeADragon]

Thank you Doc my thoughts exactly. I didnt really believe Bill Gates wrote these for a speach but it does not really matter who did. Wisdom can come from anyone and anything. I think these things and much more need to be said to the current generation of children and young adults. Sure there are bright and hardworking kids out there but there are a LOT less of them than there used to be. Kids today do not have a healthy reality of what is expected of them. There sent into the real world with no idea how to function in it. They are not prepared for the world their turned loose on, or thats turned loose on them. All individuality, competitiveness, creativity and curiosity are drained out of them and any that they cannot beat down they medicate. On top of that these kids are treated like they are made of glass. Most contact sports are quickly disappearing from the public school system and it seems like any form of phsyical contact is stripped from them along with social interaction. Its not at all surprising that children and young adults are more likely to be talking to each other online but be sitting in the same room together! Want a scarry number? The average american vocabulary has decrease 25,000 words since our grandparents generation. Want a few more?
68% of american fourth-graders perform below math-proficiency levels for their grade.
21 Rank of American 15-year-olds in math, out of 30 industrialized countries.
19 rank of American 15-year-olds in science performance, out of 29 industrialized countries.
42% of American public middle-school science teachers lacking certification in their field.
32% of undergraduate degrees awarded in science, technology and engineering field in the US.
64% of undergraduate degrees awarded in science, technology and engineering fields in Japan.

Am I the only one worried about these kinds of statistics?

[ACHolliday]

I would like to see Gates practice what he preaches. Flipping burgers is an oppurtunity? Living on minimum wage is a lot harder then Bill Gates thinks. Bosses are harder than teachers? Not always true, A lot of bosses are more realistic and helpful then teachers. I know what Gates is saying makes sense, but I think it is very easy for him to make these observations from the outside looking in rather then actually living in the "real world." The first step towards greatness is a step towards humility.

[Doc]

I would like to see Gates practice what he preaches. Flipping burgers is an oppurtunity? Living on minimum wage is a lot harder then Bill Gates thinks. Bosses are harder than teachers? Not always true, A lot of bosses are more realistic and helpful then teachers. I know what Gates is saying makes sense, but I think it is very easy for him to make these observations from the outside looking in rather then actually living in the "real world." The first step towards greatness is a step towards humility.

With all due respect Andrew....I think you missed the point.

[tellner]

Well, that and

27 Have a rich, politically connected family that can get you huge government contracts

... which is basically how he got his great opportunity