
Charlie Rose - An hour with Bill Gates  - yef
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/9875
======
breck
This is worth watching if you have an hour to kill. Not only is the first 30
minutes relevant to HN, but the second 30 minutes about foundation stuff is
pretty inspirational. In 20-30 years there will be countless people living
full lives who would be dead if it weren't for BG. Pretty amazing guy.

~~~
bayareaguy
Yes.

As much as I hate to agree with Gates on anything, I too think it is a shame
that neither the governments nor the markets have found it worthwhile to
eliminate preventable causes of suffering such as Malaria. As much as I hate
the Windows tax, it is a little consoling to think that some of it is being
put to good use.

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puzzle-out
Gates' never refers to 'them' as Google - which in a funny way dramatises
Google as a sinister force - I've noticed Steve Balmer avoids saying Google in
interviews too, as if they feel just saying the name is giving Google extra
promotion.

------
rokhayakebe
As I am listening:

1- I agree there is still room for search and we definitely Microsoft in the
game hoping that some of the smart guys there will come up with a better
search experience than we have right now.

2- Bill Gates had a dream several years ago. Because most people hate
Microsoft, they fail to recognize the magnitude of the impact Billy has had in
their life.

3- I agree. We need different input/ouput. A mouse, screen, keyboard, is nice
but we need more.

~~~
cabalamat
> _Because most people hate Microsoft, they fail to recognize the magnitude of
> the impact Billy has had in their life._

What impact? If Bill Gates had never been born, Moore's law would still have
been in effect and computers would still have got ever cheaper. The Apple Mac
would still have been built; the IBM PC would still have been built -- but
probably running CP/M-86, DR-DOS and (later) GEM. The Atari ST and Commodore
Amiga would still have happened. Unix and C would still have been invented,
and their intrinsic wourth would have let to them becoming popular. HTML and
http (or something very like them) would still have been invented.

The only difference is that their would have been no baleful, anti-competitive
Microsoft watching over all and limiting progress. (How many startups weren't
started in the 1990s because their putative founders thought Microsoft would
strangle them if they showed signs of success?). So, minus Gates, if anything
today's technology would have arrived quicker.

~~~
yef
Well, you don't really know that, do you? Perhaps another monopolist would
have come along. Perhaps he would have been in the style of Steve Jobs, who is
not at all known for philanthropy.

Leave your biases at the door, please.

~~~
cabalamat
> _Perhaps another monopolist would have come along._

There were certainly plenty of people who would have liked to dominated
software the way Gates did. So, I agree, one of them might have succeeded. And
if they did, the outcome would have been about that same as it was with Gates'
dominance. In other words, we'd probably have been no worse off.

Could the alternative monopolist have been Steve Jobs? It's possible, though I
think it's unlikely. Jobs' products have tended to be quirky (e.g. the
original Mac had no expansion slot), with an NIH-flavour (e.g. Apple are about
the only people who use Objective C), more expensive than the competition, and
often locked-down (e.g. the iPhone will only run apps approved by Apple); all
attributes that make mass adoption less likely. And Apple itself has often
have the flavour of a religious cult about it.

This is not to denigrate Jobs: he's clearly a brilliant man, and Apple have
clearly made some brilliant products. As opposed to Microsoft's products which
tend towards the mediocre: they always work (sort-of) but are rarely
inspiring.

So if there was an alternate monopolist, and it was Jobs, I think software
technology would have progressed faster than it actually did.

Maybe Jobs isn't known for philanthopy, but that's irrelevant, since the
original assertion was "the magnitude of the impact Billy has had in their
life", and my life (and most HN readers' lives) has been changed more by
technological advances in computing than by Gates' philanthopy.

~~~
yef
All quite debatable. Excel, for example, is one of the single best pieces of
software I've ever used. As another example, I find Itunes clunky and hard to
use.

Don't get me wrong, I still hate Bill Gates the monopolist. What I don't like
is the knee-jerk reaction that anything he or Microsoft does is evil, and
anything that Apple/Google/etc. does is good. We can still learn from him as a
businessman, and we can also admire his philanthropic contributions.

~~~
cabalamat
> _Excel, for example, is one of the single best pieces of software I've ever
> used._

Let's consider Excel. It's a spreadsheet. Spreadsheets were invented by Dan
Bricklin, and since VisiCalc, many have been written. It's therefore clear
that without Bill Gates, spreadsheets would still exist -- no doubt you'd be
describing another one as the best software you're ever used.

> _What I don't like is the knee-jerk reaction that anything he or Microsoft
> does is evil, and anything that Apple/Google/etc. does is good._

Well don't complain about it to me, I'm not asserting either of these!

> _We can still learn from him as a businessman_

Indeed so. The way he pulled the wool over IBM's eyes and stole control of the
desktop from under their noses was masterpiece of business strategy.

------
brandonkm
He's pretty forthcoming on how unsuccessful they have been in the search
space. I don't think he is too worried though, he has his people working day
and night trying to compete with google and during that hour interview he
probably made $750,000.

------
auston
I wish he wouldn't have dodged the question on Web Applications.

------
alexandros
Anyone else notice it's hosted on Google Video? :)

------
tlrobinson
As much as I dislike Microsoft, I respect Bill Gates. This interview
reinforces that respect. Some of his answers to questions about Microsoft were
lame, but the rest of it was pretty good.

But I don't understand this statement: _"you get that death rate down, the
population growth goes down because less kids are dying"_

~~~
jderick
I'm guessing it means that women would have fewer children if they didn't
expect most of them to die.

------
knuton
Does anyone know where this course ‘Big History’ that he is talking about is
being held? Is it on iTunes U? I can’t find it.

~~~
kenshi
I think it is one of teach12.com courses (sounds like Gates mentions teach12
but its not very clear in the video):

<http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/CourseDescLong2.aspx?cid=8050>

~~~
knuton
Yes, I think that could be it. Thank you! But man, this is expensive material.
Crazy expensive.

------
gyeh
I honestly love this show, especially when Charlie has an opportunity to
interview for an hour straight, uninterrupted.

It is very difficult to spit out crafted sound bites and PR scripts, when
you're under the camera for a hour. And even if that happens, it certainly
reveals something about the guest's ability to BS.

------
gyeh
I just cringe every time he says "magically" in reference to software.

------
jonas_b
Isn't calling Microsoft an underdog in the mobile space a bit of a euphemism?
Rather like describing GM as an underdog in the automobile space.

------
ntufar
Bah, innovation in search. Who could have thought. Microsoft looks like a
looser. So pathetic.

