<p>Seattle Times, Nov. 16 2007:</p>
<p>Gates sees engineer shortage looming</p>
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<p>[Business</a> & Technology | Gates sees engineer shortage looming | Seattle Times Newspaper](<a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2004019192_gates17.html]Business”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2004019192_gates17.html)</p>
<p>There are many opportunities in engineering fields. The world needs people who can build an create. Gates point? That more AAs are wanted/welcome in this field? Great! Recognizing and welcoming talent, creativity, and skill is a good thing, right?</p>
<p>Computer science is a field that requires a good deal of math. I don’t have any studies at hand, but I follow the ed field a bit, and I have seen numerous stories about the dearth of African American students in higher level math classes in high school. While that is not an insurmountable obstacle when they arrive at college, it does put them behind students who arrive at college with a good foundation in math and quantitative skills in general. It is all well and good to talk about recognizing creativity and talent, but if these kids cannot pass calculus, they certainly cannot move on to the math classes that are necessary for computer science–hence, they will never have an opportunity to display their creativity and natural talent.</p>
<p>So many of these problems are not addressable at the college level. Gates, to his credit, realizes this and is putting a good deal of money and talk-time into studying ways to fix these problems at the source–in particular, the K-12 curriculum followed by many low-income students.</p>
<p>Absolutely right. Gates is putting his money where his mouth is & funding efforts to increase success among low income students. I really respect him. He doesn’t just talk about what is needed … he is devoting his life & his money to making things happen.</p>
<p>I have a lot of respect for the guy. He is trying to pick things up where our government is failing, both in our education system and in promoting global health.</p>
<p>^only after he made his billions. Its great he sees the light, but hearing him admonish students at last June’s commencement to go serve humanity, having spent most of his own adult life pursing his primary goal of growing his business, was mind-boggling.</p>
<p>^ Gates also created thousands of high-paying jobs and affordable full-featured software for the masses.</p>
<p>drb, if a man is brilliant, successful, innovative in his work, he deserves monetary reward. We wouldn’t all be typing away so merrily. He has a fine marriage and I recall no tabloid stories about him being nasty or rude. He could spend his next decades on a yacht but instead chooses to get involved, as a teammate with his wife, in a very challenging realm: improving the odds for low income children. What more do you want from a man? If every CEO were that charitable in his thoughts at his age, we’d be living in a different country, probably a more equitable one. He is also not pulling on tax dollars to accomplish his charitable goals.</p>
<p>I do not begrudge him his fortune, and I do truly applaud both his business acumen (ruthless as it was - e.g. knee-capping Netscape by making the browser free) and his new-found generosity and vision. I emphasize, however, the new-found part. Gate’s own history is not the one he exhorts students to pursue - and I found that inconsistency glaring.</p>
<p>I think the main reason Gates saw the light is his wife Melinda. And I guess once he saw the light, he and his wife wanted to shout the message from the mountain top! Good for them!!</p>
<p>“I do not begrudge him his fortune, and I do truly applaud both his business acumen (ruthless as it was - e.g. knee-capping Netscape by making the browser free) and his new-found generosity and vision. I emphasize, however, the new-found part. Gate’s own history is not the one he exhorts students to pursue - and I found that inconsistency glaring.”</p>
<p>What, would you have rather he’d hadn’t changed? He can’t do anything about mistakes he may have made in the past. But, he can work to become a better human being, and make a difference with much of that accumulated wealth. Seems like that’s just what he’s doing. I say, good for him. It’s easy to criticize. But who among us is without flaws?</p>
<p>*I agree, too, that Melinda has a lot to do with his humanitarian awakening—the love of a good woman and all that…</p>
<p>No, I would simply ask that he not exhort others to “Do as I say, not as I did”. My preference is that he lead by example. What he said at commencement was completely at odds with his own history - and he is now wealthy enough to make whatever choices he wants.</p>
<p>Look, there is no question what he has done in his business and will do in his philanthropic career is huge. And I don’t think he considers what he has done in the past as “mistakes”, nor should he. Finally (I hope), I assume he is smart enough and not ego-blinded that he recognizes the inconsistency in what he says and what he did - and, as such, I’m surprised he said it. That is my only point.</p>
<p>That’s fair, drb. Perhaps Gates should add to his inspirational message to college graduates that he wished he’d come to the realization much earlier to be generous throughout his career, and not wait until so late. </p>
<p>When people come around to these young graduates for their United Way contribution, even though they’re at the bottom rung of a company, they’ll not be surprised or offended. I had an employer that made a pledge on behalf of her school to the United Way, then pressed every teacher to contribute. Some were surprised to be strong-armed, others not. She emphasized she wanted to see l00 percent participation of staff from her school. For the new teachers, it came as a surprise to be “expected” to contribute. If someone’s working at a corporation, they should be not only un-surprised but ready to help organize a charitable campaign in their workplace. They do all kinds of corporate weekend charitable events, too, where hands-on help could be beneficial.</p>
<p>Nelson Mandela gave a similar message to Amherst '05 graduates. Give back, give back to the community and those less fortunate…you have the education, don’t be selfish. I suppose his life story entitled him to speak with greater credibility than Gates, but the message was identical.</p>
<p>Umm, the Gates family has been well-known for their philanthropy in the Seattle area since well before Gates started Microsoft. Bill said from the beginning that once MSFT was well-established, he would start giving his money away. People forget that in 1994, Windows was not the world-dominant OS it is now. The Gates Foundation was in the planning stages by 1998.</p>
<p>I heard a talk by Melinda recently, and she said that when she and Bill first got married (I’m not sure when that was), they talked about giving their money away when Bill turned 60 (or something like that). Then they went on a safari to Africa with some of their friends, fell in love with the beauty of Africa but were deeply affected by the conditions the locals lived under, and realized they had to start giving their money away NOW, not in 20 years.</p>
<p>Also, Melinda went to a HS where the motto is “Serviam,” and she has been involved in philanthropic causes (hands-on as well as monetarily) all her life.</p>
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Umm, Gates has been #1 on the Forbes list of the world’s richest people since 1995.</p>
<p>I nearly [literally] bumped into the Gateses on the sidewalk in Manhattan a few years ago. At first I thought that ‘it couldn’t be him,’ because of their austere appearance (sneakers and jeans) and because they were not surrounded by an entourage. I have some concern about MS monopolistic tendencies and reputation, but Gates neverthelsess has my respect for what he and the Mrs. have done with their wealth.</p>
<p>drb: you might want to take a look at stock chart of MSFT stock for 1995. A quick check shows that MSFT stock tripled from the beginning of 1994 to mod-1995. If you look at 1994-2000, the stock went up from $2.50 (roughly) to $60 (roughly).</p>
<p>Gates was the richest person in the whole world in 1995. In 1994 he was “only” 1/3 as wealthy - and your point is?</p>
<p>BTW, Gates has been the richest American since 1993.</p>
<p>A little googling reveals Forbe’s estimate of Gate’s net worth in 1994 to be $9.3 billion and $14.8 billion in 1995.</p>