Bill Gates talks sense shocker
Posted by: Tarquin Maynard - Portly on 22 December 2004
Cut and pasted from elsewhere... pretty sound!
Bill Gates' recent speech at Mount Whitney High School in Visalia, CA is worthwhile reading. Love him or hate him, he sure hit the nail on the head. He talked about how "feel-good" and "politically correct" teachings has created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this is setting them up for failure in the real world. He concluded his speech by outlining the following 11 rules for life:
1. Life is not fair, get used to it.
2. The world won't care about your self-esteem. However, the world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you start feeling good about yourself.
3. You will NOT get $40,000 a year right out of high school, (and you won't be Vice President with a car phone until you earn both).
4. If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss.
Flipping burgers at McDonalds should not be beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping, they called it OPPORTUNITY.
5. If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine.
6. Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rainforest from the parasites of your parents' generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
7. Your school may have done away with recognizing that there are winners and losers but life has not. In some schools they have even abolished failing grades, and they'll give you as much time as you want to get the right answer on an exam. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
8. Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. You are supposed to do that in your own time.
9. Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go out and find a job.
10. Be nice to NERDS. Chances are you will end up working for one.
Seasons greetings.
Mike
Spending money I don't have on things I don't need.
Bill Gates' recent speech at Mount Whitney High School in Visalia, CA is worthwhile reading. Love him or hate him, he sure hit the nail on the head. He talked about how "feel-good" and "politically correct" teachings has created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this is setting them up for failure in the real world. He concluded his speech by outlining the following 11 rules for life:
1. Life is not fair, get used to it.
2. The world won't care about your self-esteem. However, the world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you start feeling good about yourself.
3. You will NOT get $40,000 a year right out of high school, (and you won't be Vice President with a car phone until you earn both).
4. If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss.
Flipping burgers at McDonalds should not be beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping, they called it OPPORTUNITY.
5. If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine.
6. Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rainforest from the parasites of your parents' generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
7. Your school may have done away with recognizing that there are winners and losers but life has not. In some schools they have even abolished failing grades, and they'll give you as much time as you want to get the right answer on an exam. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
8. Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. You are supposed to do that in your own time.
9. Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go out and find a job.
10. Be nice to NERDS. Chances are you will end up working for one.
Seasons greetings.
Mike
Spending money I don't have on things I don't need.
Interesting post, Mike, except...
err...
there are only 10....
JR
err...
there are only 10....
JR
Aaaah yes, I see now - thanks Mr Toon.
JR
PS: Agree about the list - it's an unusual wake-up call from Mr Gates I have to say.
JR
PS: Agree about the list - it's an unusual wake-up call from Mr Gates I have to say.
quote:
Originally posted by seagull:
Jon,
That's down to the typical M$ quality control. It was up to the end user to do Bill's testing for him...
JR
Bill must be getting older. I bet his parents thought his messing about with computers would never add up to anything! 
He's now at that sad age where he thinks his naive home-baked philosophising will have some influence on kids and the young.
The problem is you just can't (ever) put wise heads on young shoulders. Tell them they only get one chance at life and they grin and nod their heads. You can almost hear them thinking: "Oh dear, poor old sod!"
The heartbreaking truth is that his list is so horribly realistic. No matter how utterly shit you think life is when you are young, it's always the best time of your life. Life is so simple when you are young.
It's just as well the young are denied wisdom and power. They'd probably quickly put the world to rights and utterly spoil it for us miserable old buggers "who've seen it all before".
Nime
He's now at that sad age where he thinks his naive home-baked philosophising will have some influence on kids and the young.
The problem is you just can't (ever) put wise heads on young shoulders. Tell them they only get one chance at life and they grin and nod their heads. You can almost hear them thinking: "Oh dear, poor old sod!"
The heartbreaking truth is that his list is so horribly realistic. No matter how utterly shit you think life is when you are young, it's always the best time of your life. Life is so simple when you are young.
It's just as well the young are denied wisdom and power. They'd probably quickly put the world to rights and utterly spoil it for us miserable old buggers "who've seen it all before".
Nime
quote:
Originally posted by Nick Lees:quote:Nope, respect Mr Sykes. Read David's link (above) with the excellent Snopes debunking piece.
Originally posted by 7V:
Respect Mr. Gates!
P.S. Snopes is a great read for those odd moments
Harrumph! Thought it was too good to be true!
quote:
Originally posted by JonR:quote:
Originally posted by Nick Lees:quote:Nope, respect Mr Sykes. Read David's link (above) with the excellent Snopes debunking piece.
Originally posted by 7V:
Respect Mr. Gates!
P.S. Snopes is a great read for those odd moments
Harrumph! Thought it was too good to be true!
Are you suggesting that Bill Gates has run off with someone elses ideas? Surely not!
quote:
It certainly is a depressingly true list
Unfortunately I think things are getting worse, not better. This makes it very difficult to survive if you are someone who does not want to accept the value-system (for whatever personal/philosophical/spiritual reason) that is the _modus operandi_ of the world today.
John.
Seconded.
quote:
Originally posted by Nime:
Bill must be getting older. I bet his parents thought his messing about with computers would never add up to anything!
He's now at that sad age where he thinks his naive home-baked philosophising will have some influence on kids and the young.
The problem is you just can't (ever) put wise heads on young shoulders. Tell them they only get one chance at life and they grin and nod their heads. You can almost hear them thinking: "Oh dear, poor old sod!"
The heartbreaking truth is that his list is so horribly realistic. No matter how utterly shit you think life is when you are young, it's always the best time of your life. Life is so simple when you are young.
It's just as well the young are denied wisdom and power. They'd probably quickly put the world to rights and utterly spoil it for us miserable old buggers "who've seen it all before".
Nime
Excellently put Nime, I only just wonder if Bill actually composed the "Words of Wisdom" himself ?
Fritz Von Doublecheesburger&friespleasebill
I wonder if it's just pure coincidence about the titles of the "Kill Bill" films?
Love him or loathe him, we should all be grateful Bill never showed any interest in joining the army. Napoleon's adventures would have seemed completely insignificant in comparison with Bill's efforts. (given half a chance)
Nime
Love him or loathe him, we should all be grateful Bill never showed any interest in joining the army. Napoleon's adventures would have seemed completely insignificant in comparison with Bill's efforts. (given half a chance)
Nime
Cliff
Did you type that up using Word on your 75.6 GHz, 3 TB memory, 5 PB Raid 1, SRDF'd Windows PC?
cheers
Ross
Did you type that up using Word on your 75.6 GHz, 3 TB memory, 5 PB Raid 1, SRDF'd Windows PC?
cheers
Ross
The nice test of whether a job is a worthwhile career is attending a typical retirement ceremony.
Ask yourself if the poor old/lucky old sod wasn't there next week would the universe actually implode?
Nope! Not even if he were Bill Gates!
Nime
Ask yourself if the poor old/lucky old sod wasn't there next week would the universe actually implode?
Nope! Not even if he were Bill Gates!
Nime