I agree 100% with everything Bill has written here.
Yes I'm a FOSS fanatic but I admire Bill Gates more than pretty much any other technology or business person. MSFT certainly pulled a few unfair business practices along the way, but his passion for winning and passion for finding a better way have had more impact on the world than most other things.
Plus the dude's running around giving away like $30B for really good causes like injections without needles.
2 comments:
Well I agree 100% what he says too but he's just stating the obvious. I don't see why this is news (except for the fact Bill G said it).
"there's no doubt that the ability to use software tools effectively is critical to succeeding in today's global knowledge economy."
Duuh!
"A solid working knowledge of productivity software and other IT tools has become a basic foundation for success in virtually any career."
Virtually Any! Hmm...I guess he means something a doctor wouldn't have succeeded if not for being good at M$ Office sort of thing. Debatable.
"Beyond that, however, I don't think you can overemphasise the importance of having a good background in maths and science."
True but Steve Jobs was a drop out and so was Bill him self.
Bunch of more duuh!'s in the The power of software section :)
"A lot of people assume that creating software is purely a solitary activity where you sit in an office with the door closed all day and write lots of code."
Well it is thanx to M$. You just sit around, drag and drop a few controls here and there, go through a couple of wizards and call it a day.
"Software innovation, like almost every other kind of innovation, requires the ability to collaborate and share ideas with other people, and to sit down and talk with customers and get their feedback and understand their needs."
Yeah and its covered in pretty much all the software development methodologies.
"I also place a high value on having a passion for ongoing learning. When I was pretty young, I picked up the habit of reading lots of books."
While obvious it may be (even my mom/dad gave me this advice) its the best thing he said in this article IMHO. That and the having curiosity thing.
While everything he says is true, to me its not news or anything visionary. Sounds more like an old guy sitting a bunch of kids around and giving them advice. If only he said this 20-30 years ago instead of 2007.
:) Fair enough Bud .. but sometimes it takes people like him to say this stuff for others to hear it.
That's the same reason why its better to get the brand name person to speak about topic X instead of a person who just learnt that topic. Others simply respond to them better even if they say something that's effectively the same thing.
That said, you do have to admire what Bill Gates has achieved ..
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