I love reading, but read 20 or max 25 per year. So what I do read I want to be really good. That's why I like lists like Bill Gates' (and the subsequent discussions on HN) - they help in finding the gems to read.
I also like writing reviews of what I read (mostly on Amazon [1]). Writing the review helps me remember and understand the contents better - so it benefits me. At the same time, I think it helps other people decide if they want to read the book for themselves. If not, then they got what I considered most important from my review.
> Mr. Gates says he reads about 50 books in a year, eschewing digital readers for old-fashioned books on paper. When he is busy with work, he reads about a book or two a week but will consume four or five in the same period while vacationing with family.
What is a week other than work or vacation? Those account for all days of the year, by tautology if nothing else. (except for the unemployed, I suppose, but him being retired I would think it's impossible to be unemployed).
that works for days, but to rephrase: what is not a work _week_ nor a vacation week? You weekend off is still part of either.
I also am confused by the statement.
I would guess that whoever said this meant "0-2 per week" when busy with work. Taken literally it means he takes almost no vacation, unless you assume there's a third label beyond work and vacation :)
I really enjoy his reviews. He gives perspective why the book at hand is relevant, and succeeds in telling me what to expect from it, not only in terms of content, but often also style.
I haven't read many of his recommended books, but quite a few have are on my Amazon wishlist for later buying.
Of the many books Bill has read, 81/195 have reviews (approximate). Given that he's reading on the order of 50 books a year, let's assume he's been at this for 4 years. That would be about 20 book reviews a year, and each book review on average probably takes him an hour or two to write, get feedback, and revise. (They are not really that involved: https://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/XKCD)
Seems like it is totally doable, and would not even really take up that much time.
Does anyone believe Gates is personally authoring this list?
I've worked with a few celebs over the years. Be them CEOs or models, they all have "people" to handling this stuff. I wouldn't be surprised to hear gates reads none of these books, that the entire scheme is handled by his PR. Worse yet, many extremely wealthy people believe "they" create things when they in fact pay others to do the real work. I'd need lots more evidence before I'd believe that someone like Gates is actually typing the words.
But even if he is reading these books, there is this from the OP:
"“‘We don’t have any say over what Bill chooses,’” she said “‘We just leave it on his desk and he reads what he wants to read.’” Ms. Kim lucked out"
They "don't have any say" except that they appear to be able to shortlist books. Getting your book onto the desk of a reviewer is 90+% of the effort needed to secure a review. The ability to place anything on the desk of a billionaire is the sort of influence for which people pay good money.
> I've worked with a few celebs over the years. Be them CEOs or models, they all have "people" to handling this stuff.
How many of them were largely self-taught engineers who made tens of billions of dollars and then started methodically giving all that money away? (at least then the comparison would be interesting)
It really is not much of a stretch to assume that Bill Gates is an outlier.
Wealth brings "people". Even recluse billionaires have people, law firms, to manage their public images. It isn't personal. When you have billions to protect you need a team.
I think you're very badly missing the point. Reading is how someone like Gates becomes Gates and stays Gates. This particular set of tasks we're talking about is exactly the sort of thing he wouldn't necessarily want or need to outsource.
The article already states Gates' reading habits. Sometimes they do put some videos on Gates' notes, (the one I saw was Bill interviewing Vaclav Smil) and it was largely consistent with review, enough that gave an impression, Bill Gates wrote the review. He may have people prettying up or other stuff, but there is no doubt that Bill Gates is responsible for a very significant portion of the output on Gates notes.
> then started methodically giving all that money away
Gates is still the wealthiest person, he doesn't give all money away. He is like Zuckerberg, they obviously run a foundation that bunkers their money. And to pay little tax money, they give away a few millions/billions. Basically they decide what they want to do with their tax money. That's at least what can read in independent news articles.
At least with Gates it seems that him still being the wealthiest person on the planet has not much to do with his stinginess but with his investments that make money faster than they are giving it away [1].
I can't think of a reason why the richest and one of the smartest men in the world would go through all that trouble just for petty "image management" (he has nothing to prove to you in terms of intellect, we all know already he's super smart. Why would he try to brag about reading lots of books? That's for losers who just want to appear "as though" they are smart) More importantly, I don't see any reason why he woudln't read these books. I've read a lot of them and learned a lot from them. Why wouldn't he want to read these?
>> why the richest and one of the smartest men in the world would go through all that trouble just for petty "image management.
Because he is now a political actor. He and his charities are in constant contact with various governments. He does appearances with world leaders regularly. His public image is what allows him to do things that others with similar means cannot. (Having a great public image and being invited to everything is also just plain fun.)
Maybe you think everyone tries to look smart by pretending to read lots of books, but most smart people read books just because they want to learn. If you don't understand this I guess it can't be helped.
I do. I simply don't have any reason to doubt that he's being truthful when he says he read a certain book. Given that he clearly enjoys reading, I find it hard to believe that he has any reason to be dishonest in listing his favorite books.
Does an executive at such a large company really have any internal behavior? If your emails are going out to 1000+ employees is that really any different than a public statement? I think there is a point at which executives, through their various assistants, act internally in the same way as celebs act publicly, at least when they speak beyond the confines of the board.
I used to see Steve Ballmer at the gym every week or two, and never heard him "talking shop" or acting like anything other than a dude at the gym. Take that however you like - I guess he could have been Jedi-mind-tricking all of us.
Yes they do. People are people at the end of the day - they will focus some of the time on the stuff they think is important/fun.
CEOs/presidents have even a larger amount of individual influence on what they do, as the roles are more open than say a CFO/CTO.
Sure - there are things they need to do, but there are also things they choose to do. Sure - when they do those things they are aware of their overall responsibilities, but they still choose among what things they do and dont do.
Yes, I believe. Gates is one of us... though that might be a bit too flattering for us.
It's a nice skill to be able to read books quickly. You really don't need to read every word of every sentence if you got the author's point 3 pages ago.
I still count these books as read, even if I read some pages in a few seconds.
Flattering? I think it flattering of Gates. The guys does has done some good work but, like Sheldon Cooper, I doubt the two of us could talk for more than a few minutes without him throwing a punch or two. Beyond the hypocrisy of his wasteful lifestyle, his and MS's track record re Africa and the developing world isn't great. In short: Billions out + millions in /= charity.
You'd be surprised how physical celebs can be. They generally have very aggressive or at least very unchecked personalities. I wouldn't expect Gates to be the type but equally I would not be surprised. Also, Sheldon Cooper isn't real. The bit is a hyperbolic statement for comic effect.
You know what, I am not a fan boy of either Gates or Jobs. In fact badly wanted Microsoft to lose the battle with Google in the early 2000s. Hated Microsoft for Internet Explorer vs Netscape battle in the mid-late 90s. Liked Unix/Linus over Microsoft technology for most of my career, and luckily managed to avoid working on the latter for most of the time.
All that said, one must learn to distinguish between a bad company and a good person (or a person playing different roles). I am a big fan of Gates in his post retirement avatar. He comes across as very earnest and well meaning person. Apart from his role as heading his charity foundation, he has good literary tastes ( picked up 'Guns, Germs and Steel' only based on his reco, about which I posted 9 days ago as well[1]), and a way of finding hidden gems (e.g. he was instrumental in making Khan Academy popular in its earlier years, when one fine day he suddenly mentioned it in one of his talks that he uses that to teach his children).
So its not at all that hacking community are fan boys of all billionaires. Remember he was earlier hated by many. And now loved by many. You should try to be fair in your judgement, that's all.
How "good" he is has nothing to do with his fondness for reading. Everything points to Gates being a guy who just likes to read. Are you going to be equally suspicious to learn that billionaire Zuckerberg likes to play video games or that Sergei Brin likes to buy/get bleeding-edge tech gadgets?
While I understand that it's tempting to blame celebs and young people for the lack of agreement you're finding here, it could also just be that smart, reasonable people find your unfounded beliefs petty and cynical. It's a possibility we shouldn't discount.
I think he does. I believe that reading is one of the few things that Gates (and people like him) truly enjoy doing. It's like video games, exercising or playing music to some other people. It's really like a physical addiction.
I also like writing reviews of what I read (mostly on Amazon [1]). Writing the review helps me remember and understand the contents better - so it benefits me. At the same time, I think it helps other people decide if they want to read the book for themselves. If not, then they got what I considered most important from my review.
[1] On Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A1CG7W9QANKGOB/ but occasionally also on my blog, like what I recently wrote about Ghost in the Wire by Kevin Mitnick http://henrikwarne.com/2015/12/27/social-engineering-from-ke...