Bill Gates advice to youth

[_Jersey Girl]

The following was sent to me in an email forward. The comments are attributed to Bill Gates. What do you think of them? Relevant or not?

"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 won'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."

[_Polygamy Porter]

My advice to the youth: "GET A MAC"

[_Gazelam]

Thanks for posting this Jersey. In a local school here in vegas they recently abolished tag. That sounds bad, but compared to the schools that have gotten rid of recess altogether its not that bad. I still get iritated when my kids bring home 8 pages of homework about Martin luther King, and 1 about Christopher Columbus. Maybe that's just a reminder that Schooling should not end at the bell. A family Home evening lesson about Columbus can take the place over skrew-el work.

I wonder what effect this change in values wil eventually have on society? Time will tell.

[_DoubtingThomas]

Doing some archaeology.

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

Very true, but most people believe the afterlife will be paradise.

[_EAllusion]

That reads like a old-fashioned chain email about entitled kids these days more than something Bill Gates would say.

Without Snopesing it, which I recommend you do, I'm going to guess this was written in the early to mid 90's ("car phone", "leave the coffee shop") and spread among old people / conservatives from there.

[_EAllusion]

Well, this is an old thread. Nevermind.

Now that I think about the list more, it really is an interesting time capsule. The "what employers are like" stuff especially comes across as really dated.

Curiosity got the best of me. It was written in 1996 by right wing radio host (from Wisconsin) Charlie Sykes. Or rather, the first 10 were. The last one got added some point later on as it became a popular chain email falsely attributed to Bill Gates.

[_Some Schmo]

Wow... this thread was created before I registered.

I agree with a lot of the sentiment. I think kids do have somewhat unrealistic expectations these days; how excellent is it that they haven't exactly inherited the greatest situation?