Canon EOS 5D Mark II
ƒ/4.5
50 mm
1/100
3200

With Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, and Nathan Myhrvold (former CTO of Microsoft). The founders of Google and Twitter were to my right for this TED Braintrust lunch.

An usual confluence of invitations had me dining with Gates for lunch and dinner on the same day (coincidentally, philosopher-king Daniel Dennett was also at both meals).

After we sat down, Gates lamented the setback from the Muslim clerics who preached that polio vaccines made the girls infertile: “The anti-vaccine movement has killed many people. It’s frustrating. But we are working with the clerics. It is very hierarchical, so we can start at the top. In the next three years, we will either conquer polio, or we won’t. It’s a very important time.”

57 responses to “Digging It”

  1. It makes making money all worth while!

    Your dining hours must be interesting, I am sure.

  2. Gates only mentioned meeting with religious leaders in Nigeria during his recent comments to Rotarians, but otherwise left religion out of his assessment of major challenges in defeating polio. For all the obstacles they speak of publicly, I wonder what lurking others are more difficult to even plainly reveal.

    Presumably, progress would freeze with said clerics if Gates et al. were open about their religion being an obstacle; they’re not the type to be shamed into positive action — yet. I wrote recently about managing expectations in the context of Gates and polio. Being less than open endangers expectations management, thus endangering the possibility for progress.

  3. Myhrvold gave one of his famous dino/foodie talks at DWA a few years ago. I think it included footage of whale sex. The guy is a total ham.
    i wanted to invite him to beers just to keep him going.

  4. What schmo ordered the poster board size name badges? I mean really… is that Bill Gates or is it car wash day at St.Cecilia’s School for Girls?

  5. Oh, the guards would not let him through without the picture badge.

    I don’t care who you say you are…

    Brian: Last year, I came across interviews of Gates’ atheism while discovering that the largest charitable donations were made my atheists (Gates, Bufffet, etc.).

  6. lol @ the smile on kevins face.

  7. Kevin and Bill are almost wearing the same shirt 🙂

  8. Thank you for wearing jeans.

    Jeans = Good

  9. Great photo. Like the commentary too.

  10. Gates wants to conquer polio. Rose wants to conquer Anniston.

  11. So Gates / Myhrvold and Page / Brin were in the same space together? Now that would be a good picture!

  12. iconic photograph is not for the fact that Rose has bashed Windows now and then on pownce.

  13. Notice Bill’s name tag is bigger than Kev’s? Or is it just an optical illusion of the powerhouse that Bill is?

  14. Just in case you don’t know who Bill Gates is – haha – love it

  15. Where is your macbook pro? Did you buy your shirt at the same place as gates? Raises the whole "Shirt in" vs "Shirt out" debate 😉

    In all seriousness — good shot. Nice to see folks trying to make the world better.

  16. Thank you Steve, that Atlantic is still in an actual stack on my home desk :: of urgent bits I haven’t explained. It did turn out to be less urgent than I’d feared. A partial answer was contemporary machine support that religion is a product of evolution.

    Religion and disease. Perhaps my approach is akin to vaccination.

    That Atlantic suggests clearly, though that religiosity out classes disease:

    "Human beings have never lacked for things to fight over, but for the last two millennia, they have fought the most over ideas involving the divine. Politics, technology, military capacity, and diseases have all played decisive roles in shaping history, yet it is impossible to understand the rise and fall of empires, the clash of civilizations, and the evolving balance of power without appreciating the unique fervor that religion inspires, and the speed with which new religions can spread. "

  17. ^^ spAM + crapware ^^

  18. That is a really cool picture!

    Thanks for sharing it with us.

  19. Some of the best pictures come at times when you don’t expect it. Did you ask any of them questions?

  20. We had a roundtable discussion around a round table. It was also one of those classic situations, where the question I really wanted to ask him about religion came to me afterward…

    Noticing the page views here… I guess I should have expected the Digg dug. My favorite of the the hundreds of comments over there:

    ●████▅▅██████…█..█████████===███
    ▅█ Microsoft Tank █▅▄▃▂
    ███████████████████►
    ◥☼▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲☼◤

  21. This one made me laugh, too:
    GET IN THA APPLE CHOPPAH!!!!!!
    ………..________________
    ………………….| * _____…………_______________________
    ………………………|….__________________/._
    ……………………. …………………….o….o….o…..o….|_……..
    ………………………___________________________)
    …………………………………….o……….S……….o

  22. who is the guy on the right?

  23. @ criznell

    Kevin Rose, founder of digg.com and co-host of Diggnation

  24. what a famous shot ! nice capture !

  25. thanks y’all. Here are some more Gates dinner quotes I found interesting:

    The vaccines we use today, if developed anew today would not be used. [because of the regulatory path]

    Innovation needs the right set of skills.

    DNA is the most interesting software there is.

    Of all Microsoft offices, the most innovation, the most game changers have come out of China.

  26. I am not sure we are talking about Chinese still in China or now in the North America. Still, I think this:

    I will venture to suggest that the Chinese are better innovators because this is their way of expressing themselves after living within a restricted and structured milieu. Those who are innovators at heart but were not free to do all they wanted in their country, once given freedom to innovate, will tend to do so with great élan. Loosen the noose and the artist creates in full rapture. Let the butterfly come out of its cocoon and he flutters in a graceful furry.

  27. Hi, fotografi is a tumblr blog publishing everyday a photograph from a brillant artist.
    We’d love to have your photograph added to our select group here.
    Thanks.

  28. great photo. good use of action and placement of subjects.
    Free Digital Photography Tutorials and DSLR Tips

  29. Why the humongous dog tags?

  30. Bill for president 🙂 /Erik

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