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A comment on What Bill Gates was doing at 20 years old. Parent comment

Re:What Bill Gates was doing at 20 years old by ganeshkrishnan on Wednesday April 18, 2018 @08:57AM (#16866973)
I would assume it's more parenting + rich people than genetics. Also note that Bill Gate's mother sat on the board of open source foundation and she was the one that introduced IBM to Bill Gates and how her Son (Bill) had created this software.

I am an ex-IBMer and trust me, IBM never calls anyone. They have a mind of their own. It's a dinosaur dancing in these new arenas

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Re:What Bill Gates was doing at 20 years old by dogma1138 on Wednesday April 18, 2018 @11:53AM (#16868342)
It wasn't an open source foundation it was United Way https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Way_Worldwide in which Mary Maxwell Gates was the first woman to ever chair (she was the first woman in a few other places as well).

John Opel who became CEO of IBM in 1981 at the time was also on the same board.

The introduction according to the few sources I've read took place in 1982 or 1983 which was well after Microsoft has been founded and actually after Microsoft signed the first contract with IBM.

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Re:What Bill Gates was doing at 20 years old by NicoJuicy on Wednesday April 18, 2018 @09:27AM (#16867183)
Genetics give you a greater chance of being smart ( if both parents are smart). Your statement seems to reasonate with me: 2nd generation : wealthy.

Eg. You need the stablility from the 2nd generation to get to the 3rd ( getting investment loans, contacts, ...) and the opportunity to "hit for the stars" multiple times.

Introduction to IBM is summarized under: contacts.

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Re:What Bill Gates was doing at 20 years old by jjeaff on Wednesday April 18, 2018 @10:10AM (#16867511)
The jury is still out on the causal relationship between iq and net worth.
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Re:What Bill Gates was doing at 20 years old by dba7dba on Wednesday April 18, 2018 @11:21AM (#16868089)
Amazing story. Another case of where personal connections really matter. Not some impersonal business decisions that people trust in. I mean that is some ultimate networking just very few people have.
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