How does one of the richest men in the world run a business? Is artificial intelligence going to be as big as the Windows PC? What politicians does Bill Gates admire?
Bill Gates joins Rory and Alastair on today’s episode of Leading to answer all these questions and more.
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Very happy to see this on YT already. It is a very important broadcast. I sent it to the Development committee of the European Parliament.
I think the questioning could have been much harsher. Like questioning Blair on Iraq. Or Johnson on Ireland?
What is his view of governance changes, or security issues (democracy to dictatorships), in relation to change and entrepreneurship. Does he see dictators or strict regimes as an unfortunate fact due to poverty or crisis or war? Does he see the humanity of it, as in, it's an attempt to create order.
Sharp questions lads, weak answers though! But great job with the guest
I feel like Rory and Bill should be friends, but they've started off on the wrong foot and are now locked into a kind of weird "Nerd off". Alistair teased Rory in that direction, and that's probably spot on. It seems like a throwaway comment but they know each other so well by now (Alistair and Rory) that it can't be. The other unspoken thing is Bill is probably fed up of having people like Rory, who are passionate about international development and think they have the answer (rightly or not), and just need $10 billion.
I imagine he is stalked endlessly by well connected intellectuals who want to save the world.
Does Blair get paid by Gates for his "work"?
Some of the covid vaccines are "dodgy", very poor trials.
One one of the single most influential and in my opinion disingenuous humans on earth. His hypocrisy building giant estates and property empires while complaining about poverty is staggering.
Whenever Bill Gates speaks about the inception of the personal computer revolution he presents a deeply disingenuous version of the historical truth. It's a worrying aspect of his personality he lies about himself. His response to Rory about Iran was also an example of disrespect for someone who probably knows a lot more about what's happening on the ground in Iran than he does. Very good and smart people who have tried to work with his foundation have some harrowing stories to tell. Also Rory's question about cash for people in poverty – for which the data is very strong – rather than just billions for labs in the USA, fell on deaf ears with Bill Gates. His focus on Malaria over sanitation in Africa is also obsessive rather than data driven. As Ghandi said "sanitation is more important than democracy" and claims more lives than Malaria and is cheaper to fix…but most of the money would go to locals in Africa building toilets and fresh water infrastructure, rather than to rich scientists in the USA. Bill Gates is smart but his 'goodness' persona and the high optimism quotient, does not get the stringent questioning it deserves. His vision for his philanthropy is actually not at all clear, especially in terms of the systemic problems in the USA of income polarity, obesity, substance abuse and disastrous public education which certainly feeds into populist poliitics. Africa is roughly 18% of the world population and the USA is roughly 4.25% yet deaths from opiods alone in the USA (about a 1/3 of amillion from 2019 to 2021) is roughy 60% the annual death rate from Malaria in Africa. Of course Malaria needs to be erradicated but the Gates Foundation is mainly throwing money at US scientists in a framework of dubious priorities.
Rory flattened his African argument with the poverty stats & put him on the back foot. However he has done some service.
I was a bit disappointed with this interview – two extravert politicians interviewing a tech genius who, as many people suspect, is probably on the spectrum. I thought he looked uncomfortable and may even have been a bit bored. I also thought he had difficulty answering your questions because your concerns probably seldom cross his mind. He likes China because of their work-ethic and, like him, they are results-focused and will not let anything stand in their way. Not saying that’s good or bad – just that people are different
Also, he was trying to talk about his work and you kept on prodding him with the soft stuff. It would have been more interesting if you had rather asked him about the progress on his plans for mini-reactors that could be erected relatively quickly. According to the Netflix (I think) documentary he had floated the plan with China after it was turned down by the USA. I cannot remember the exact details because it has been a while since I watched it and I have stopped subscribing to Netflix.
Can you imagine the difference THAT would make to Africa, and to climate change?
This interview reminded me of my IT days when we still needed to fix a major problem in the payroll that was due for running in a few hours and our HR rep was nattering away about something like “where do you see yourself in 5 years?” 😊😊😊
Rory, stop playing with your teeth! 🤣🤣
one of the big Demon around the Planet
Countries are far better of than any time in the past! For instance, in the stone age?
I’m increasingly under the belief that most “fake” news is spread by Russia, and I’m afraid Bill needs to get his company to tackle this, or we’ll all be for it. Once Trump gets back in, there will be no going back. Putin has got us by the balls atm.
Populism is partly driven by internet tribalism . But it is also driven by overreach from the genuinely well meaning liberal elete. So for example they want to deep dive into almost an almost religous desire quest to detect micro -racism in poor comunities – and yet struggle to understand that those communities actual primary needs – lack employment and law and order. They see these primary concerns as a primary threat to the quest.
Whereas actually if you deal with the primary problems of the getto you also you will find the sometimes real and sometimes imagined problems around race will start actually solving themselves with a little help from the liberal eletes.
It is their own liberal feet they shoot by their excessive interest in micro social forces that are not entirely worthless but of middling real relevance.
American hegemony and their inability to accept or acknowledge that they are part of a multi-polar world again and that fomenting war and regime change around the world does not make anyone safer. This is the greatest threat to the world now, not Trump, who paradoxically might offer a 4 year respite from the constant warmongering of the Neo-cons and MIC. The liberals will lose their minds again and moron maga types will be a bit smug for a while but we wont have WW3.
This podcast is like watching Skeletor interview Sauron.
Technocrat physiognomy check: childless female, low T male or psychopath, in 2024 they could be any of the 3
Pretty decent interview actually, but only 20 minutes in and he's basically saying there were no other software firms and Microsoft basically innovated everything.
Ehh he bought and rebranded his flagship product at the time (MSDOS) from another company. Got a deal with IBM because of his mam having connections on the board. MS Windows was a rip off of XEROX-Parc system. Might as well call him the monopoly man, it's always been about buying up and shutting out the competition not innovation.
Sort of laughs off the accusation of tracking by saying "why am I interested in where you're going on your daily commute"… yeah YOU might not be but your friends in the security services and private data brokers definitely are.
Very disingenuous interview so far. I'm not saying he's a bad guy but there's a lot of creative reinterpretation of history happening here.
Don't let me waste my time please, did they adress the epstein island?
17 seconds in. He does not want to know where you are but he wants to know someone he can pay to spend time to find out where you are and what you are doing and ultimately thinking.
So was one of the conditions of his appearance you not asking about Epstein?
Gates had his arms folded much of the time, which suggests defensiveness. I don’t trust him.
Yes Me Gates , hand in hand with the WHO and it’s infamous head , Mr Tredros .
Very disappointing. You didn’t address the difficult issues. You were fawning and deferential. Rory tried a little bit, but Alastair quite evidently had difficulty because his former boss was no doubt instrumental in delivering Gates to the podcast.
love the podcast and the Yeti mugs on the table. Thank you guys.
Stop reading TelePrompTer and speak your mind – keep this pre narrated BS to yourself
Bill Gates ..The Bond villain amongst idiots 😂
🥱🤮
Great interview chaps.
I love that opening clip, where Gates just throws big data under the bus like it has no relevance in the real world, or what is being done with it from China and around the world is not something we need to think about.
Alisdair’s open questions on background reset the conversation away from the list of projects. I would imagine it must be exhausting being surrounded by people who agree with him all the time?
Bill Gates has his hands in the things that make us sick and the things that keep us sick and the things that make us better all at the same time
"I like politicians who believe in helping other countries." Says the billionaire who made his fortune as the American middle class was shrinking from 70% of the country to 50%.
Just put this on – do Bill and alastair talk about Epstein who they both met?
Watch the 20/20 Bill Gates documentary.
It's all there. It's all you need to know.
It was on YouTube.
Hopefully it's still there.