
Not enough people are paying attention to this economic trend - paglia_s
https://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Capitalism-Without-Capital
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jackconnor
The Secret Economic Trend the Celebritites Use to Stay Thin! (this link-baity
title is beneath HN, c'mon)

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piker
The author is Bill Gates. He's earned deference on title drafting from the HN
crowd.

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DoofusOfDeath
Hopefully the HN crowd doesn't readily accept appeal-to-authority logic.

And even if they were, I'm not sure most of is would be aware that
"(gatesnotes.com)" indicated that Bill Gates is the author.

A less problematic wording for the story might be:

Bill Gates: Not enough people are paying attention to this economic trend

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piker
This does not advocate the truth of the author's proposition by appeal to his
credentials, only refutes the shallow, reflexive "this is clickbait, why is it
posted on HN" comment. The answer: it was written by Microsoft founder Bill
Gates.

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paulpauper
He's pretty much describing why Microsoft has been a great investment

That's why large information technology companies have profit margins of 20+%
and seem immune to business cycles and macro factors. They just keep printing
cash even as other sectors ebb and flow. Microsoft, google, facebook, have
huge profit margins and have been good investments.

 _It’s a sunk cost. If your investment doesn’t pan out, you don’t have
physical assets like machinery that you can sell off to recoup some of your
money._

But you can sell intellectual property.

~~~
nokk
Intellectual property grants companies essential monopolies over what they
create as well as lets them pay very low taxes. No wonder they are doing well.

The trillion dollar question is what is going to happen in the long run. We
know that prosperity is largely a factor of how well you spread technology and
wealth. Which I don't think many countries, other than arguably China, manages
to do when it comes to intellectual property.

And if the last half century was infrastructure and industry this half century
is information and intellectual property. So it is essential to get this right
since it might determine whether you get to be Norway or Thailand in the next
century.

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riffraff
> [the ipod] combined Apple’s MP3 protocol, miniaturized hard disk design,
> design skills, and licensing agreements with record labels.

Apple's MP3 Protocol?

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DoofusOfDeath
I object to the clickbait-ish nature of the title.

Titles should provide a summary, not a teaser.

~~~
Analemma_
I'll be sure to let Bill Gates know you disapprove of his blog titles, next
time we're hanging out.

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DoofusOfDeath
Based on currently wide-spread practices, IMO it's quite reasonable to assume
that this is click-bait verbiage, not the title of a post from a well-known
author.

Because of that, I think it would make sense to find different wording for the
HN title.

~~~
rapnie
I've seen so many of these kinds of titles and notice that they now have the
opposite effect on me. They create an unconscious 'click aversion'. I usually
just skip over them automatically. But it was the 9 upvotes and 8 comments in
[new] category that drew me in :)

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samspenc
TL;DR: Bill Gates reviews one of his new favorite books, "Capitalism Without
Capital". The book extends economic principles to measure value of intangible
goods (such as software and online services), which were previously not
correctly incorporated in economic models.

~~~
newscracker
Thanks for the TL;DR. I came here just to get this since the title clearly
seemed to be click-bait, and I’m conscious not to give more clicks/attention
to such things and make the author believe they should produce more of such
titles.

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RickJWagner
A nice article. I hope the local library has a copy, the article has convinced
me to try to read it.

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Bartweiss
Instead of the headline from the site, I propose editing the HN title to "Book
Review: Capitalism Without Capital". It's a neutral statement about the
article's contents, and also conforms to the Gates Notes url: _Books
/Capitalism-Without-Capital_.

