
Accelerating Innovation with Leadership - cryptozeus
https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Accelerating-Innovation?WT.mc_id=20161009140454_AcceleratingInnovation_BG-TW&WT.tsrc=BGTW&linkId=29728490
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webbore
The same public "government largesse" that Gates credits with the microchip
and internet is what Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Google et al have constantly
worked to erode with closed-source, walled-garden ecosystems. They all would
have been unable to build their empires on top of the very ecosystem that
today they try to cultivate.

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shas3
Blue sky research should be open. Last mile product development and products
themselves can be closed source. Else, how do you create profits and value for
shareholders? So far, except Apple, the others have made the outputs of their
research labs open: published papers, demos, packages like TensorFlow, etc.
Besides, there is a division of labor: govt, with its altruistic mission does
open blue-sky research. Companies, OTOH maximize profits and the good ones
that can afford to, also do open basic research. I don't see his vision to be
counter to this.

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teddyh
The problem is, what qualifies as a “last mile product”? AOL before 1991, and
CompuServe before 1989 were complete packages, essentially entire Internets,
provided by one company. Neither one of them probably liked the Internet to
come into a position to replace a large part of their products. It’s the same
everywhere – everybody want to commoditize their complements, but almost every
product is a complement to somebody else’s product.

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lifeisstillgood
Gates' top four priorities :

Provide everyone on earth with affordable energy without contributing to
climate change.

Develop a vaccine for HIV and a cure for neurodegenerative diseases.

Protect the world from future health epidemics, which might be more infectious
than Ebola and more deadly than Zika.

Give every student and teacher new tools so all students get a world-class
education.

I am not even sure how to measure the third and probably not the second. So I
am quite surprised to see them.

I ought to go check out the Copenhagen consensus site to see how they compare.

~~~
Synaesthesia
Very good priorities. I would also add the importance of reducing global
militarism, and making progress on dismantling nuclear weapons.

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boznz
Linux Fanboy here saying Bill Gates would make an awesome president.

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mailarchis
True. At the same time, I believe he can do more good for the world as a
private individual than as the President of the USA

~~~
jfoutz
Depth vs breadth. The president has a lot of power, but has to deal with a
zillion things every day. As a private individual, he can think deeply about
one (or 10) things as long as he needs to to find a great answer.

He's certainly someone i'd say can handle both depth and breadth very well.
I'd agree with you, generally, but i'm not super enthusiastic about any of my
options this year.

 _disclaimer_ Not interested on being sold on a candidate. I've made up my
mind.

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feklar
Don't governments already do this by giving universities large research
grants? [http://research.fas.harvard.edu/funding-
sources#federal](http://research.fas.harvard.edu/funding-sources#federal)

We could triple the grants, but that money has to come from somewhere and
every corner of society has a vocal group of voters who want that money. If
the future US federal leader makes it a priority to cure the HIV epidemic in
foreign countries while taking away cancer research funding or slashing social
security that sounds more like political suicide than leadership.

I wish he would elaborate on his education vision too. "New tools" is totally
vague. Khan academy and other remote tutors?

~~~
kalms
But I think his point is that they're grants without a specific end goal (i.e
mankind on extraterrestrial rock). Having a deadline with a tangible end-
result can be beneficial.

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lvs
> Today, we are far more productive because of the IT revolution.

Actually, this claim is not supported by the numbers. Our labor productivity
(edit: growth) is actually decreasing [1]. But obviously I agree we need to
prioritize science funding, whereas IT is a very small part of what's
necessary to be productive.

The title is also incredibly cringe-worthy.

[1] The POTUS. [http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21708216-americas-
pre...](http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21708216-americas-president-
writes-us-about-four-crucial-areas-unfinished-business-economic)

~~~
vm
US productivity _growth_ has been slowing, though productivity itself is still
more or less increasing and has roughly doubled from 1989. That's remarkable
given the scale of the US economy.

See the "Max" timeline view here to see US productivity over time:
[http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-
states/productivity](http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-
states/productivity)

~~~
lvs
Yes, I'm sorry, you're correct. Growth in productivity is slowing, concomitant
with the "IT revolution." The argument still stands that Gates's claim that
the IT sector can be viewed as a driver of productivity is unsupported.

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bobsgame
I would like to hear a rational discussion that compares how each candidate
stands on these issues. I'm not very political and I don't have a good grasp
on who has said what.

~~~
feklar
They each have websites with their platform up in full. Most discussion you
will find will be each side spinning the other side's platform or outright
lying about it. Just read it yourself and decide

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exabrial
I don't think any of those things he suggested would work. See going to the
moon wasn't a goal in itself that would directly cure a disease or solve a
problem. The fallout from going to the moon _did_ though. I think the goal
needs to be scientific in nature and involves humans doing extraordinary
things.

I think something better would be: humans in orbit around the sun, visit an
asteroid, setup a moon base, send an entire crew to the bottom of a trench
(establish a base there)....

Just my thoughts!

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cryptozeus
Great point is about political innovation, no one talks about it. There is no
way to measure this....obamacare was a good idea but complete disaster on
execution

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MIKarlsen
An important point here is, that public sector institutions can rarely compete
on salary with the private sector, and thus, innovation in regards to things
like cutting edge technologies get insanely hard. Grants, education and a
healthy regulation policy on the capital markets is most likely one of the
best things a government can do for technological innovation (which covers
pretty much all aspects of our society) today.

