
Bill Gates's new website: The Gates Notes - theycallmemorty
http://www.thegatesnotes.com/
======
dnewcome
I think that Bill can do a world of good by sharing his thoughts via a blog
like this. Assuming he is candid and fosters real communication, that is.
Sections like 'What I'm thinking about/what I'm learning' is exactly the right
attitude.

~~~
Alex3917
The problem is that Bill Gates only reads books that reinforce his existing
beliefs. That's why he's so pro-KIPP, because he doesn't have any interest in
authors like John Taylor Gatto. (Or at least this is what I heard from someone
who had lunch with him recently.)

~~~
zach
That's hardly unique to Bill Gates. People rarely re-examine what they presume
to be correct, and when people call that a "problem" I tend to think that it
just means "he's wrong and pig-headed." Which he may likely be, but let's at
least speak plainly.

~~~
gcheong
I also take it as an indication that the person saying "he's wrong and pig-
headed" is also so entrenched in their viewpoint that they are not likely to
examine evidence to the contrary either.

~~~
Alex3917
Well in my case I've read a couple books about KIPP looking for evidence that
I was wrong, but I didn't find any. The problem is that while KIPP is probably
the fastest way to improve kids performance on Things That Can Be Measured,
there's a lot of research showing how this approach is really bad for kids.
And the pro-KIPP literature doesn't take any of this into account. My problem
with Gates specifically is that not only does he not know what these problems
are, but even when told about them he has no interest in learning about them
despite the fact that they are extremely serious.

~~~
gcheong
"The problem is that while KIPP is probably the fastest way to improve kids
performance on Things That Can Be Measured, there's a lot of research showing
how this approach is really bad for kids."

I don't understand this point here. If you cannot measure something, how can
you determine what is an improvement and what is not?

~~~
ytinas
I think what he means is: you can't measure a specific metric but you can see
from the end result that some other technique ended up with a better overall
result.

------
javery
Why am I not surprised that it is using both WebForms and Silverlight... I see
that big chunk of viewstate there Bill.

~~~
kevingadd
I honestly wouldn't have guessed. The layout is understated, the page loads
quickly, and it's easy to navigate and read. I wonder if the site is based on
some existing content management system, or if it's something custom. It would
be kind of a cool surprise if it turned out that Bill authored the site
himself for fun (but that seems unlikely).

~~~
netcan
Why does it seem unlikely? It could be that he is using these technologies
purely out of personal interest.

~~~
cschep
I think it seems unlikely because we all think of BillG as a business man and
not a hacker. Maybe I should only speak for myself, but the thought of him
tinkering away into the early morning on his new site is such a wonderful
juxtaposition of my image of him.

~~~
profgubler
But remember, Bill Gates started out as a hacker. He spent his whole high
school days learning on a computer his Mom's Club purchased for their kids. He
says he was probably one of 50 kids in the country that had that much access
to a computer in his High School days.

~~~
cschep
Yeah totally, I certainly meant no disrespect. The man can hack. It'd be
nothing but exciting to hear about him doing more of it.

------
dskhatri
Just confirming.. built with Microsoft technology :)

<http://builtwith.com/?http%3A//www.thegatesnotes.com/>

~~~
terrellm
The .ASPX extension in the URLs led me to make the same assumption

------
vinhboy
// Workaround for a bug in ASP.NET Ajax Beta, you don't need this in the final
version

and this is also kind of funny: <!--[if lt IE 7]> ...

------
pierrefar
This is doing the rounds on the net too:

<http://www.thegatesnotes.com/robots.txt>

It doesn't mention Bing. Amusing, and useless.

~~~
walkon
Why is it useless (I've never worked with robots.txt)? Are the /css and /js
files not large enough to bother skipping?

~~~
pierrefar
Useless in the sense it doesn't really need to mention Bing.

Blocking /css and /js makes sense because they don't add value in being
crawled. Not necessary, but doesn't hurt.

Best practice: Always have a robots.txt file, even if it's empty.

~~~
beza1e1
What is the reason for your Best Practice advice?

------
unexpected
Really pretty, really well-done website. (Even if it's going to get grief
because it uses Silverlight).

~~~
moe
I humbly disagree.

The fonts are microscopic here and when I increase the size to something half-
readable then stuff gets pushed out the right side. (on the section-overview
pages that is)

I also found this sidebar on the right of the articles very distracting. Don't
throw unrelated content at me while I'm reading.

~~~
delackner
This is one of the few sites I've browsed on a Windows machine that made me
instinctively think "oh the fonts look like crap because someone designed it
on Windows and didn't think about Mac usability", since I'm usually on a Mac.
That the fonts look nearly unreadable at any size on a windows machine is
hilarious.

------
fronx
Some notes on the design: IMO { The navigation feels a little fragile, maybe
because of the small font size and delicate lines. But it's also quite
original, especially the "view by topic" branch. The right column (only
visible on some pages) could easily be mistaken for advertising, possibly
because of the tiny sans-serif type. Overall the style and copy gives a
personal, likable impression. }

~~~
thinkbohemian
No favicon

------
mcav
Do you think he's actually writing/doing all this himself? (vs. having an
intern or something like that be his social media face)

~~~
tibbon
I'm sure he's got some other people doing stuff on the site (code, server,
etc), but I'm likely to believe that this is indeed him writing the content.
Maybe he's got someone proofing it, but Bill like most of us probably find
something nice about writing out your thoughts and interacting with people
through a blog.

------
pbhjpbhj
Doesn't validate for HTML or CSS and has to include IE specific fixes for
proper display of PNG.

Wish he'd had to code it to spec for himself.

------
sjs382
No RSS feed? :/

------
dskhatri
In the introduction note, Bill says:

"I take a lot of notes, and often share them and my own thoughts on the
subject with others through email"

Besides email (which isn't that great if you don't have GMail style threads),
I wonder whether he and other prominent personalities use a closed discussion
forum to engage in discourse about interesting topics like HN does. I can
understand why he would be hesitant to comment on a public forum like HN.

That said, it's great to see people like PG, DHH (and others) mix with the no-
names (or future-names) on HN.

------
rudin
First twitter and now a website?

Looking over the content on the site I was depressed by all the philanthropy
and environmentalism. Not that these aren't good things but I think Bill has
been so successful at building software and corporations that his time would
be better used teaching people these things.

Imagine the articles and insight we could get if he would convert into someone
like Paul Graham.

~~~
whatusername
actually, I completely disagree.

What Bill was truly good at, was hiring smart people and getting them to all
work towards something big. Putting a computer on every desk was a big goal.
Eradicating Malaria and the other things the foundation is working on are big
goals. And to be honest - I'm impressed by the way he is going about it.

This site isn't about him resting on his laurels - looking back at the success
he had. This is the posts/information on what he is working on now. So it wont
have the deep insight that he would have about software/corporations. But the
fact he is applying that insight to Philanthropy and to the world of NGO's is
fantastic and I applaud him for it.

~~~
onoj
Totally agree - and also at the very least I rest comfortable knowing that
such a large amount of wealth (Most of Buffets' empire also) is bookmarked to
at least try and do good. Not somewhere else (ie: funding weapons)

------
pmorici
I find this line from the greeting letter a bit odd, "It often feels like I'm
back in school, as I spend a lot of my time learning about issues I'm
passionate about." Didn't he drop out of college to start MS presumably
because he felt like the things he was learning in school were a waste of his
time?

~~~
metra
What about elementary, middle and high school?

------
intellectronica
It's amazing how the design of the website almost cries "don't read me".

------
thenduks
Several typos on the front page... I guess it's just another blog but, I don't
know, I would expect Bill Gates to put his stuff through some proper proof-
reading.

------
clofresh
I can has rss feed?

------
Raphael
Such a childish signature.

~~~
JacobAldridge
Yup, he'll never make it in the real world if he doesn't master this fourth
grade handwriting course.

------
blintson
<tin-foil-hat>

He could be doing all this because he wants to run for office. The site
frequently refers to Gates in the third person, it's kinda structured like a
lot of political candidates sites.

</tin-foil-hat>

~~~
zyb09
Microsoft for President!

------
rmason
I think Gates should turn comments on. People should be registered, perhaps
using Facebook/LinkedIn credentials.

I do agree he needs to be exposed to opinions outside his comfort zone.

------
ra
Lulz:

<!--[if lt IE 7]> <script type="text/javascript"
src="/js/unitpngfix.js"></script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
href="/css/ie6.css" /> <![endif]-->

