Sunday, 01 August 2010

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It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat. - Theodore Roosevelt

I hope that no one will claim to know the final answers; no good comes from prophets. But even when acknowledging our falibility, we must nevertheless continue to think about these matters and give the advice to others that intellect and conscience dictate. And let God be our judge, as our grandparents used to say. - Sakharov

Baka ni tsukeru kusuriwa nai (There's no medicine to cure stupidity) - an old Japanese Proverb

Home arrow Blog Archive arrow Ramblings arrow Bill Gates on common sense for high schoolers
Bill Gates on common sense for high schoolers
Wednesday, 12 July 2006
Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this one! To anyone with kids of any age, here's some pertinent advice.

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.
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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 or...else!

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

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


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my notes:
I think #10 is probably one really hits the nail on the head for anyone at any age.  I see men and women my age react to social situations in ways that they learned straight from the soap operas.  I was fortunate to travel while young and also put to hard work, but even I need to be reminded these basic rules.  They truely do differentiate the winners and losers out there.  The kids these days have too much sense of entitlement... and dare I say that women in their 20s have a higher tendancy to have a sick sense of entitlement in specific areas as well.  For example: they often _expect_ a free meal when going on a date.  Of course it is forgivable if they provide some sort of satisfaction in return. :) Sorry, this discussion shouldn't have been dragged into here...
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