Would You Agree With His Views ?

[bazwillrun]

From a recently given speech by bill Gates at an American high School.
most of it translates equally well to the UK though.

"Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world doesn't care about your
self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters.. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

take a couple of the Ten commandments, eg: though shall not kill and, though shall not steal put it with the above, call it for example " the 14 rules to survival in modern life" and maybe we might get somewhere !

personally at the moment I just wish hed spend some time getting one or two bugs i have come across in Word 2010 sorted out !

[LazyGun]

It appears that the attribution is false. This was not a speech given by Bill Gates, but ratheran education reformer called Charles Sykes. This false attribution to Bill Gates has been circulating since around 2000.

Doesn't necessarily invalidate the points made, but they were not by Mr.Gates :)

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_bill_gates_speech.htm

[DangerUXD]

all good points though, especially no 8.

[Ric.ror]

I think rule 7 is more pertinant :-))

[LazyGun]

Seems to me that it essentially a thinly disguised rant at " the yoof of today" by a grumpy old man, then attributed to Bill Gates in an attempt to give it greater crediblity :)

[DTCwordfan]

All very true.....esp 8, 9. and 10

[Ric.ror]

I agree Lazygun and I cannot help thinking a mum wrote some of those rules;-)

[FredPuli43]

And (12), in the words of my late father, "Don't worry about the rat race.If you can't win in the rat race, enter a mouse race". Well, I think I know what he meant!

[rojash]

Rule 12: The fact that you read it on the Internet doesn't make it true: always check your facts with a number of sources before posting them.

Rule 13: Though is not the same as thou.

[Old_Geezer]

Bah ! Kids of today eh ?

[bazwillrun]

does it matter who actually said/wrote it ? its the content and the messages that are relevant, surely.

I've never seen it before, and if he said it or not, I'd still like him to sort out the bugs I mentioned

i do luv it wen people point out spellin misstakes thou

[Zeuhl]

Rule 14. Learn from the feedback of others even when it is critical or finding fault. Avoid bitterness, it is counter productive.

[Captin Kirk]

Rule 15: always wear sunscreen ...

[rojash]

"i do luv it wen people point out spellin misstakes thou"

See rule 8

[ichkeria]

It does matter who said it. Attributing such trite sophistry to someone like Bill Gates would give it a credibility it doesn't deserve

[Gromit]

I wonder if the billionaire Bill Gates passed on these maxims to his own offspring?