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Comment by jsz0 | Hacker News Reader

It amazes me Paul Allen ever managed to become filthy rich in the first place. He just doesn't seem like a savvy person. Why even bother criticizing Gates at this point? True or not it just doesn't make much sense to attack someone who is now primarily recognized as one of the individuals doing the most good in the world right now. Between this and his ridiculous patent lawsuits I think he's just getting old and mad that no one worships him as a legendary figure in technology the same way they do guys like Jobs, Woz, Ellison, Gates, etc. Sad really. He made out like a bandit -- he should be happy with that and stop trying to tear down other people.

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Paul is telling his side of the story. Who thought Bill Gates was a saint? He probably thought that he was working a lot harder than Paul the entire time. He was driven. When Paul got cancer, I imagine he realized there's a lot more to life than work, and started enjoying life even more. Microsoft was Bill's life.

This probably happens in lots of successful startups. Some people slack off and want to enjoy life, while others are driven. What's the best way to handle it?

In the end, it's great that we hear the real story, warts, and all.

> one of the individuals doing the most good in the world right now

In what world do you live?

> he should be happy with that and stop trying to tear down other people.

So, the truth deserves to remain hidden and people should continue to worship borderline psychos just because they got rich?

What's your opinion of the Gates Foundation's work?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundati...

Lots of PR, money being directed towards maximizing media impact and arguably more bad than good being done.

While I agree that there is a lot to criticize about the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, it strikes me as fairly silly to claim that because there is a lot to criticize they are not one of the largest / most influential charities in the world or that they are not doing good.

Let's imagine it's the Ernst Stavro Blofeld Foundation deviating attention from SPECTRE through a series of arguably good deeds that are coincidentally profitable for its mother organization. Blofeld always dreamed with being remembered as the new Carnegie for all the good his kind heart brought upon mankind. That or world domination, whatever comes first.

It would be awesome if they had a missile base inside Mount Rainier ;-)

On a more serious note, they may well be one of the most influential charities in the world, but, unless the net result of their activities is good, they are not, really, doing good. Most of the criticism is because their activities are worsening the situation where they are trying to help. It also doesn't help when they push Microsoft (or other companies owned partly by Gates and his satellites) stuff along with their fully tax deductible good deeds.

The Gates Foundation does a lot of good in the world. However I remember seeing cases where their willingness to do good work sure looked like it was contingent on the government of the place signing lucrative Microsoft contracts. That left a foul taste in my mouth.

I don't know whether that was the actual case. Or whether they have changed their policies. But it left me suspicious about motivations.

Anyways the whole purpose of the foundation seems to me to be to whitewash the reputation of a very bad person. Bill Gates committed a lot of crimes to put Microsoft on top. He got off for free from most of them, and lightly from most of the rest. But thanks to the Gates Foundation, history will remember him kindly for some time. Just like it did for Andrew Carnegie.

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