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Unleashing the Power of Creativity and
Intelligence |
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by Bill Gates
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I've always been an optimist and I suppose that
is rooted in my belief that the power of
creativity and intelligence can make the world a
better place.
For as long as I can remember, I've loved
learning new things and solving problems. So
when I sat down at a computer for the first time
in seventh grade, I was hooked. It was a clunky
old Teletype machine and it could barely do
anything compared to the computers we have
today. But it changed my life.
When my friend Paul Allen and I started
Microsoft 30 years ago, we had a vision of "a
computer on every desk and in every home," which
probably sounded a little too optimistic at a
time when most computers were the size of
refrigerators. But we believed that personal
computers would change the world. And they have.
And after 30 years, I'm still as inspired by
computers as I was back in seventh grade.
I believe that computers are the most incredible
tool we can use to feed our curiosity and
inventiveness -- to help us solve problems that
even the smartest people couldn't solve on their
own.
Computers have transformed how we learn, giving
kids everywhere a window into all of the world's
knowledge. They're helping us build communities
around the things we care about and to stay
close to the people who are important to us, no
matter where they are.
Like my friend Warren Buffett, I feel
particularly lucky to do something every day
that I love to do. He calls it "tap-dancing to
work." My job at Microsoft is as challenging as
ever, but what makes me "tap-dance to work" is
when we show people something new, like a
computer that can recognize your handwriting or
your speech, or one that can store a lifetime's
worth of photos, and they say, "I didn't know
you could do that with a PC!"
But for all the cool things that a person can do
with a PC, there are lots of other ways we can
put our creativity and intelligence to work to
improve our world. There are still far too many
people in the world whose most basic needs go
unmet. Every year, for example, millions of
people die from diseases that are easy to
prevent or treat in the developed world.
I believe that my own good fortune brings with
it a responsibility to give back to the world.
My wife, Melinda, and I have committed to
improving health and education in a way that can
help as many people as possible.
As a father, I believe that the death of a child
in Africa is no less poignant or tragic than the
death of a child anywhere else. And that it
doesn't take much to make an immense difference
in these children's lives.
I'm still very much an optimist, and I believe
that progress on even the world's toughest
problems is possible -- and it's happening every
day. We're seeing new drugs for deadly diseases,
new diagnostic tools, and new attention paid to
the health problems in the developing world.
I'm excited by the possibilities I see for
medicine, for education and, of course, for
technology. And I believe that through our
natural inventiveness, creativity and
willingness to solve tough problems, we're going
to make some amazing achievements in all these
areas in my lifetime.
Bill Gates is chairman and chief software
architect of Microsoft. Under Gates' leadership,
Microsoft's mission has been to improve software
and to make it easier for people to use
computers. He and his wife founded The Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation, which funds global
health, education and public library projects. |
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