
Gates Foundation annual letter - jchallis
https://www.gatesnotes.com/2019-Annual-Letter
======
os7borne
I have a fundamental issue with the way in which the Gates foundation gets its
work done. Sure, there may actually be impact achieved in some of its
investments, but in most others, the team does not even know the name of the
founders they have invested in. I've interacted with Associates from the
Foundation based in London who know the broad strokes of investments they've
made in India, for example, but the actual companies, they have no idea. Their
process has been to spray and pray. No active involvement, no process
optimisation, no impact metric monitoring etc.

Further, the manner in which the foundation functions in India is what makes
me cringe when I hear their name. They have unrestricted access to members of
parliament in India, they promote Indian government programs e.g. Ayushman
Bharat (Health insurance for 500 mn Indians), Aadhaar (digital unique number
for all Indians) and they ensure policy changes to suit their funding
programs. Their close linkage with the Indian government to further their
propoganda is what makes me cringe. Sure enough, do implement some programs
its commonplace to liase with Governments, but where's the ethics in that?
Where do you draw the line to limit promotions for government projects that
fake numbers and are not really having any impact on the ground?

This Annual Letter is just another propaganda piece, as stated by others here.

~~~
dman
Do you have any pointers to organizations which have a higher hit rate than
Gates foundation?

What are you basing the following on? -> "Their process has been to spray and
pray. No active involvement, no process optimisation, no impact metric
monitoring etc."

~~~
semi-extrinsic
> Do you have any pointers to organizations which have a higher hit rate than
> Gates foundation?

I think there are a couple that are significantly better, e.g. Doctors Without
Borders, who run an extremely targeted operation with low overhead (you can
find spending breakdown in their annual reports). They also explicitly limit
the amount of funding they accept from governments/etc. such that they remain
politically neutral. I'm sure there are others in the same category.

------
melling
Marques Brownlee interviewed Bill about his annual letter.

[https://youtu.be/4mxXdCUXSSs](https://youtu.be/4mxXdCUXSSs)

Near the end you can see a younger Bill jump over a chair.

~~~
usaphp
honestly both of his big intereviews, this one and the one with Elon Musk are
very poor. Questions are generic and there isn't any interesting information
gathered from these interviews, I would not bother watching them

~~~
Cookingboy
I like Marques a lot personally, but in my experience he is at his best only
when it comes to gadget reviews.

His high profile interviews are shockingly shallow and his new car review show
"Auto Focus" (ok, that's an amazingly clever name) is also about as in-depth
as you'd expect a smartphone guy's car reviews to be.

But again, he's got a great personality and screen presence, I just wish he
spends a bit more time on more meaningful thoughts and more in-depth research
when it comes to other subjects.

~~~
fermienrico
I would actually go ahead and say that his gadget reviews are wishy washy, too
soft and lacks objectivity. I understand its not supposed to be a full
technical analysis but he makes what makes it popular and wide appealing.
Especially, his audio gear reviews are full of subjective claims - "It sounds
roomy, with crisp highs and thumpy base but not too muddy." They are, to me,
utterly and completely useless pieces of information.

I'll go and read Anandtech now. I don't fully blame MKBHD. I blame the entire
genre of youtube reviews. I need data. I need A-B tests. I need technical
specification verification using proper metrology. That's how my brain
evaluates things I want to spend money on.

~~~
manigandham
His channel is mostly for entertainment by viewers around his age rather than
those looking for hard technical analysis. I do think he's much better suited
to gadgets than interviews though.

------
kristianp
Worth a read, I enjoyed the discussions about:

\- still a high birth rate in sub-saharan Africa. Lowering birth rates are
correlated with more education and income.

\- how little we know about the causes of premature births

\- the lack of detailed economic data about women in poverty

\- 5 top sectors of greenhouse gas emissions. How are we going to reduce
emissions from steel and concrete production without cratering the economy?

Definitely important causes for the Gates' to put money and effort towards.

~~~
Pristina
> Lowering birth rates are correlated with more education and income.

[https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-
africa/2018/09/22/...](https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-
africa/2018/09/22/africas-high-birth-rate-is-keeping-the-continent-poor)

the effect is much less for Africans.

also how can people consider high birth rate to be bad while not being an
anti-natalist. Why the cognitive dissonance?

~~~
lotsofpulp
Why assume cognitive dissonance?

It’s possible that there exists a birth rate at which population increases too
much or too quickly for the environment to handle (peacefully at least).

It’s possible to want your own tribe to expand, but not others’.

------
zobzu
I'm surprised how this is more of a propaganda piece than insightful,
specially given how much I've respected Bill Gates in the past for his
contributions and after-Microsoft work. The facts don't appear wrong, its just
the way they're presented.

Lets just start with 1# Africa is the youngest continent. Sounds great right?

Well its not a surprise at all. we knew this. the gates knew this. Africans
(as in currently living on the continent called Africa) die young. War, food
supply issues, lack of medicine, you name it. then why is it the first
surprise? Exactly.

Each one of them has similar weird issues...

(time to get down voted to oblivion?)

~~~
LifeofPi314
What's the propoganda here? I fail to understand ( serious). It seems all
positive. Please provide facts.

~~~
marnett
Propaganda doesn’t have to have negative connotation. In this case “all
positive” results for the foundation’s capital allocations could be indicative
of propaganda.

~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
Or it could be indicative of them doing a good job?

~~~
marnett
Yes of course. I am not choosing sides. We are both equally correct.
Institutional propaganda slanders enemies and praises the self.

------
throway88989898
From point #3

[https://www.gatesnotes.com/-/media/Images/Articles/About-
Bil...](https://www.gatesnotes.com/-/media/Images/Articles/About-Bill-
Gates/Annual-Letter/2019-Annual-Letter/2-7-19_v3_GHGE_D_TEXTOUTLINE.svg)

Seems like the main greenhouse gas emissions problem can already be tackled.
For instance:

Agriculture: switch to cultured (lab-grown) meat.

Transportation: switch towards public transportation.

Electricity Generation: go solar.

But maybe I'm just naive.

------
User23
I was sitting in a bar in Seattle a few years back, and two people who worked
at the Gates Foundation were bragging about how they were making $300k a year
to "do nothing." I hope that is the exception rather than the rule, but I have
a great distrust of foundations. The George Eastman method of directly
endowing organizations strikes me as far superior.

~~~
maxxxxx
At least in DC a lot of foundations/non-profits are a way to brush up the
resumes of children of well-connected people with "leadership" and other
qualifications while they make very good money. I am also very skeptical since
I learned about this.

~~~
marnett
Mentioning foundations are tax havens for private wealth it is not too
surprising to hear they have hereditary qualities (jobs, dinners, receptions,
business expenses, travel, conferences). There is an oddly positive
connotation typically gifted towards nonprofits when in reality they are
stateless sovereign wealth funds.

~~~
lotsofpulp
Which is what makes it so funny when poor people support tax deductions for
charity and would rather prefer a system of low taxes and high charity than
higher taxes.

It’s really funny when they send your kid home selling candy to raise money
for school or publicly humiliate the kids who don’t donate by giving stickers
or allowing the others to wear something different.

~~~
marnett
The effects can be monitored in a lot of different ways - that is definitely
one I had not thought since I was a schoolchild. Very effective propaganda
went into this standard American framing of nonprofit orgs.

------
Amygaz
I missed the Gates Foundation of its early days. The Grand Challenges were all
there was. I do not doubt the Gates aspirational letter, but their foundation
Is more like a VC firm, with bad partners and managers who are terrible at
doing their due diligence? They found plenty of stuff that have no bearing
what so ever to any of the grand challenges. There is no oversight, when it is
clear that a technology they invested in is never going to work or never going
to serve the purpose they were sold (because people do lie to get money), they
should pull out and re-invest somewhere. But no. The culture within the
foundation must be pretty bad, and not aspirational at all. So much resources,
so much waste... It makes me sad, really.

------
PaulHoule
Third World Problems don't matter much to First World readers.

Oddly enough, Africa needs markets, and the U.S. needs charity.

------
omegaworks
Great read, but it should be taken with an enormous grain of salt. The
economic system that maintains Gates' private wealth is dependent on positive
PR. Showing all of us that he's doing Good Deeds with his massive foundation,
keeps the masses from questioning how he amassed such a mountain of wealth and
stymies efforts for reforming a system that allows unbridled accretion at any
expense.

[https://medium.com/@CitationsPodcst/episode-45-the-not-so-
be...](https://medium.com/@CitationsPodcst/episode-45-the-not-so-benevolent-
billionaire-bill-gates-and-western-media-b1f8e0fe092f)

~~~
jmpman
How much should [bm]illionaires be allowed to leave to their children? My
opinion is no more than $10m per kid, and only to the first generation (direct
children). Trust fund babies only help yacht builders.

~~~
r0fl
Yacht builders employ lots of people to build large yachts, what's wrong with
being a yacht builder?

Why $10 million? What about in countries outside of the United States? What if
a wealthy person has a single asset that is worth more than $10 million and
has one kid? ex: a $50 million commercial building. Would you force a sale of
the asset and then strip away $40 million away?

What about lottery winners who win over $10 million? Should lotteries be
capped at $10 million?

~~~
maxxxxx
"What about lottery winners who win over $10 million? Should lotteries be
capped at $10 million? "

Actually I think so. I would prefer if more people won a modest amount vs. one
person winning tens of millions with a large jackpot.

~~~
TeMPOraL
It would definitely make more people realize how much of a money waste
lotteries are. If you'd expect to win $1000 every year, you'd quickly realize
you spend more on tickets than you get back.

~~~
Pristina
I can spend $1 on a ticket and feel an insane whirlwind of emotion imagining
myself winning $1 billion, or i can spend $1 on a candy bar and feel some
pleasure eating it.

If buying a lottery ticket is a waste of money then all forms of entertainment
are.

~~~
pluma
Ooh, nice one. A genuine defense of gambling as pure entertainment rather than
a system built on exploiting addicts and people's irrational perception of
chance events. I haven't seen that in decades. Are you next going to say
cigarettes aren't addictive?

EDIT: Okay, fine, here are citations:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambler%27s_fallacy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambler%27s_fallacy)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_gambling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_gambling)

[https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/add.13929](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/add.13929)

~~~
cardboard
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

------
sumitsrivastava
This newsletter was interesting, and probably aimed at a wider range of
audience.

Interesting to note some valuable comments here:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19149479](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19149479)

