Recently, Netflix released a documentary "Into Bill: Decoding Bill Gates" .
After watching this 3-episode documentary, I have an almost new understanding of Bill Gates.
It turns out that this successful person in the eyes of the public also has many failures, and is even encountering some major failures.
01 3 failures of Bill Gates
Speaking of Bill Gates, the first thing most of us think of is his wealth.
But this documentary is not about his entrepreneurial history, but how Bill Gates thinks about problems.
To sum it up in one sentence -
He's a tech nerd who believes that technology can solve all problems.
He himself said an interesting analogy:
"I have a hammer, so I see a lot of problems as nails, and that's what I'm good at, and that's how I deal with everything."
In this way, he established the Microsoft empire and became the richest man in the world.
After retiring from Microsoft, he also used this method to invest in philanthropy.
But this documentary shows us that, in terms of the wealth he invested, and the problems he solved, he might not have been successful.
The first aspect is that Bill Gates has been trying to solve the malaria problem in Africa for years .
As we all know, an important reason for the prevalence of malaria in Africa is that there is no clean water source. Because of the lack of a sewage treatment system, people's toilet sewage and domestic water cannot be separated.
The technical solution given by Bill Gates is very bold - reinventing the toilet .
He wants to use advanced toilet technology to greatly reduce costs, and without spending a lot of money to build a sewage treatment system, make clean toilets popular in Africa and prevent the spread of malaria from the source.
Since 2011, he has launched the "Toilet Innovation Competition" to encourage scientists to invent the most advanced and cost-effective toilets.
But has he succeeded in this?
So far, he has invested at least 200 million US dollars, but the cost of this toilet technology is still too high to be popularized in Africa.
The second problem that Bill Gates has devoted a lot of energy to in recent years is polio (commonly known as polio).
It is a disease that has disappeared in most parts of the world, but is still widespread in Africa because of low vaccination rates.
Bill Gates' goal is to eradicate the disease by getting more people vaccinated.
Over the past decade, Bill Gates and his wife have invested billions of dollars to vaccinate people there.
But what has actually happened is that, in some areas, things are not getting better.
In places like Nigeria, the number of people suffering from the disease has even nearly tripled.
You can develop cheaper vaccines, and you can use technology to monitor areas of outbreaks, but there is still no guarantee that the vaccine will be vaccinated by all those who need it.
To make things more complicated, the political environment in Africa is unstable, terrorist organizations are prevalent, the Taliban is resurgent, and vaccinations are also hampered.
Bill Gates hopes to use technology to solve all problems, but when he encounters more complex geopolitical and social problems, he is also powerless - that is not what he is good at.
The third issue that Bill Gates is concerned about - environmental protection, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and using environmentally friendly energy , is a global consensus. But how? The technical solution given by Bill Gates is safer nuclear energy .
He has invested heavily in research into safer nuclear energy.
But after the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, an anti-nuclear movement has sprung up around the world.
It is impossible to invest in the establishment of a nuclear power plant in the United States that he believes is safe. He turned to working with the Chinese government.
Just when he reached an agreement with the Chinese government, something beyond his expectations happened again - the Sino-US trade war broke out, and the agreement between him and the Chinese government had to be shelved. Here again, he failed. 02
Bill Gates' Limits and Beyond
So if you look at what Bill Gates did after he retired from Microsoft, we will find that in many ways, he "failed".
He has invested a lot of money, but the problem he is trying to solve has not been fundamentally solved, at least in this respect, it cannot be regarded as a success.
This is the most valuable part of this documentary.
At a time when wealth is the most important measure of a person's success, it's easy to assume that everything a person does is successful because of the wealth he has.
And this documentary shows us very objectively: yes, Bill Gates has invested a lot of money, energy and devotion to charity, but in terms of effect, he is not so successful.
Such a disenchanted presentation allows us to see a real Bill Gates, who also has his own limitations.
He's really smart, he's a leader, and through technology, he's solved a lot of hard problems.
But in the face of social problems, this tendency to hope to solve everything with technology may encounter huge setbacks.
Yes, technology is an important force in promoting social progress, but various factors such as political forces and social systems also play a very important and sometimes decisive role in how technology functions.
Failure to see this may be the limitation of Bill Gates.
As the documentary concludes:
"When you meet someone who wants to change the world, someone who never gives up, someone with a mind like Bill Gates, it's hard not to be touched.
But it's hard not to wonder: Is he too deep? Can he solve these problems? Maybe forever out of reach? "
Of course, this documentary is not to deny Bill Gates in this way, it would be too snobbish and too arrogant.
It shows us the failure of Bill Gates, but it also shows us the value of Bill Gates' spirit of never giving up and his enthusiasm for promoting social progress.
At the end of the film, the director also used Bill Gates' mother to give a speech before his death and gave Bill Gates an evaluation——
"At the end of the day, success isn't about what you get or even what you give, it's about who you become."
For a successful person, there is no need to beautify them with admiration, nor one-sided denial, but to present a three-dimensional person. This is the best part about this documentary.
PS documentary also revealed some anecdotes.
For example, Bill Gates reads super fast and super much.
His friend revealed that he can read 150 pages per hour.
Wherever he goes, he carries a canvas bag full of books, which the secretary helps him organize once a week and reads an average of 14 books a week .
For example, during the interview, the canvas bag contained: "What's Most Important to Measure", "Vaccine Race", "Haiti Matters", "Blockchain Revolution", "Power and Stillness", "The Invention that Changed the World", "How to Create a Mind" " Deep Learning Fundamentals, Quantum Mechanics and Algorithms, The Book of Questions, Bad Blood, Life 3.0, Teachable, Becoming a Machine, The Perfect Weapon, Elasticity
What an all-encompassing, terrifying reader...
Also, since the 1990s, he has had a thought week every year , spending a week alone in a cabin by the lake.
Completely detached from work and seeing no one, spend a week reading, thinking, and planning what to do next.
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