I am beyond disgusted with every negative poster in this thread. I have never met or heard of anybody so horrible, awful, and heartless that they would condemn one of the wealthiest people in the world for giving away his entire fortune and retirement to try and save the lives of millions of people.
I want to apologize for these next two words. It's completely out of character for me, and they might get me banned from Hacker News, and that's fine with me. If you are reading this, and you are one of the aforementioned negative posters, I have only two words for you, and I say them from the deepest part of my heart:
edit: redacted. Moment of rage. You can guess what the words are.
well, you know, i could say yes you're right.
(personally i don't think bill gates is a bad guy).
but you kinda described the problem in your very post. that's quite a common problem(in the states arguable more than elsewhere) in attitude. throwing unlimited amounts of money at things, and hoping they will magically resolve themselves is not really very smart imho.
but then again, i would argue he's old, and he's tired, and his own company has turned in this mixture of xerox parc on the one hand, and a massive goliath that moves so slow you barely even notice it on the other, that he feels with some luck the money might just end up in the right guys hands. in a way that's very close to vc thinking
Look, I'm not saying that anybody who engages in philanthropy is beyond criticism. We certainly need to be able to critically discuss these issues in order to provide the best help for those in need.
However, this should not mean that your criticism's of the Foundation's methods should reflect your opinion of Bill Gates The Man, or really provoke any kind of moral response other than "holy shit, this guy is a massive force for good in the world, and my entire life's work will amount to a hair compared to the work that Gates and the foundation has done."
Basically, if every comment here would have started with "Bravo and kudos to Mr. Gates and the foundation. I am concerned that some of their goals, however, are misguided...", then we wouldn't be having this discussion.
Secondly -- unless you've worked extensively with the developing world, there's a very large chance that you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about when it comes to the Foundation's efforts or goals. Developmental economics, for some reason, tends to attract much more armchair philosophers than other professions, and it's much worse because these systems we're dealing with are off-scale in terms of complexity and uncertainty.
Not at all, I can't stand the guy. I'm more of a Carmack and Torvalds fan actually. But I really can't stand pussyfooting around and shielding people from negative perceptions. If something is bad they ought to know it and know why it is bad. One of the more valuable traits of a good professional is having the guts to say what needs to be said, albeit with quite a bit more tact than I demonstrated above and without resorting to insults of course. Truth to power and all that. Get it out in the open or it will fester quietly and blow up at the worst possible time. I think it's also very important not to take personal offence when someone disagrees with a design decision or says they don't like your implementation of something. Entirely too many people take engineering critiques personally and that simply should not happen. How many structural engineers would be butthurt if you showed them how to do something cheaper stronger and safer?
I want to apologize for these next two words. It's completely out of character for me, and they might get me banned from Hacker News, and that's fine with me. If you are reading this, and you are one of the aforementioned negative posters, I have only two words for you, and I say them from the deepest part of my heart:
edit: redacted. Moment of rage. You can guess what the words are.