ENGLISH SPEECH | BILL GATES: Harvard Commencement Address (English Subtitles)

Summary

In this commencement address, Bill Gates reflects on his time at Harvard, the transformative power of education, and the importance of addressing global inequities. He encourages graduates to use their knowledge and resources to tackle complex problems, advocating for a 'creative capitalism' that leverages market forces to improve the lives of the world's poorest. Gates emphasizes the potential of technology and the internet to unite people in solving these issues and urges the Harvard community to commit to making a meaningful impact on global challenges.

Takeaways

• 🎓 The speaker humorously acknowledges his return to Harvard to receive an honorary degree after dropping out, highlighting his success despite not completing his formal education.
• 👏 He commends the graduates for their direct path to earning their degrees and playfully refers to himself as the 'valedictorian' of dropouts.
• 🤝 He takes pride in having influenced others, like Steve Ballmer, to also leave Harvard and pursue their passions.
• 🏫 The speaker fondly remembers his time at Harvard, emphasizing the vibrant academic and social environment, and his role in the anti-social group.
• 💡 His call to a company in Albuquerque in 1975, which led to the development of software for the world's first personal computers, marked the beginning of his journey with Microsoft.
• 🌟 The speaker reflects on the energy and intelligence at Harvard, which he found both exhilarating and challenging, and how it transformed him.
• 😔 He expresses regret for leaving Harvard without awareness of global inequities, such as disparities in health, wealth, and opportunity.
• 🌍 He calls for graduates to use their knowledge of the world's inequities and the power of technology to address and solve these issues.
• 💰 The speaker discusses the importance of creative capitalism and the role of market forces and government in addressing the needs of the poor.
• 🤔 He challenges the audience to consider where they would spend their time and money to have the greatest impact on saving and improving lives.
• 🤝 He emphasizes the need for a clear understanding of problems, solutions, and impact to turn caring into effective action against global inequities.
• 🔄 The speaker outlines the four stages of finding solutions to complex problems: determining a goal, finding the highest-leverage approach, discovering ideal technology, and making the best use of current technology.
• 📈 He stresses the importance of measuring the impact of work and sharing successes and failures to inspire further action and investment.
• 🌐 The speaker is optimistic about the potential of new technologies like biotechnology, computers, and the internet to end extreme poverty and preventable diseases.
• 📚 He calls on Harvard to dedicate its intellectual resources to solving the world's biggest problems and encourages graduates to become specialists on complex issues.
• 🚀 The speaker urges graduates to use their privilege and awareness to take on big inequities and make a difference in the world.

Q & A

What significant event did the speaker mention about his return to Harvard?

The speaker mentioned that he had returned to Harvard to receive an honorary degree after more than 30 years, fulfilling a promise he made to his father.

What did the speaker refer to as his 'extra credit project' that marked the end of his college education?

The speaker referred to the development of software for a company in Albuquerque that was making the world's first personal computers as his 'extra credit project'.

How did the speaker describe his dorm life at Harvard?

The speaker described his dorm life as terrific, living in Currier House at Radcliffe, with lots of late-night discussions and being the leader of the 'anti-social group'.

What was the speaker's biggest regret after leaving Harvard?

The speaker's biggest regret was leaving Harvard with no real awareness of the world's inequities, such as disparities in health, wealth, and opportunity.

What does the speaker define as humanity's greatest advances?

The speaker defines humanity's greatest advances as not in its discoveries, but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity.

What was the speaker's realization about the millions of children dying from diseases that were preventable in developed countries?

The speaker was shocked to learn that millions of children were dying from diseases like measles, malaria, pneumonia, and others that were no longer a threat in developed countries.

What concept does the speaker introduce to make market forces work better for the poor?

The speaker introduces the concept of 'creative capitalism', which aims to stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can profit from serving those suffering from inequities.

What does the speaker suggest as a way to reduce inequity in the world?

The speaker suggests finding approaches that meet the needs of the poor in ways that generate profits for businesses and votes for politicians, creating a sustainable way to reduce inequity.

What does the speaker identify as the barrier to turning caring into action?

The speaker identifies complexity as the barrier to turning caring into action, as it blocks people from seeing a problem, finding a solution, and understanding the impact.

What is the speaker's view on the role of technology in addressing global inequities?

The speaker believes that technology, particularly biotechnology, computers, and the Internet, gives us unprecedented opportunities to end extreme poverty and preventable disease-related deaths.

What challenge does the speaker pose to the Harvard community?

The speaker challenges the Harvard community to dedicate its intellect to solving the world's biggest problems and to encourage its students and faculty to take on global inequities.

Outlines

00:00

🎓 Bill Gates Returns to Harvard

Bill Gates begins by expressing his gratitude for receiving an honorary degree from Harvard and humorously notes how he always intended to return to complete his education. He reflects on his time at Harvard, describing it as an intellectually stimulating and socially enriching experience. Gates humorously acknowledges his influence in Steve Ballmer dropping out of business school and reflects on the unexpected journey that led him to found Microsoft.

05:01

🌍 Discovering Global Inequities

Gates shares his regret about leaving Harvard without understanding global inequalities. He emphasizes the importance of applying scientific and technological advances to reduce inequity, highlighting that reducing disparities in health, education, and opportunity is humanity's greatest achievement. Gates urges the graduates to consider how they can address these issues using their skills and resources.

10:04

💡 Turning Compassion into Action

Gates argues that the primary barrier to solving global issues is not a lack of compassion but the complexity of the problems. He outlines a three-step process: recognizing the problem, finding a solution, and measuring the impact. Using the AIDS epidemic as an example, he explains how focused efforts on prevention and leveraging existing technologies can lead to significant progress.

15:05

📊 Measuring and Sharing Impact

Gates emphasizes the importance of measuring the impact of humanitarian efforts and sharing successes and failures to inspire further action and investment. He recalls a health panel in Davos that failed to generate excitement despite discussing life-saving initiatives, contrasting it with the enthusiasm for software launches. Gates stresses the need for storytelling to make the impact of humanitarian work relatable and motivating.

20:08

🌐 Harnessing Technology for Change

Gates reflects on how technology has collapsed distances and increased collaboration, creating unprecedented opportunities to address global issues. He highlights the potential of the Internet and personal computing to democratize access to information and problem-solving tools, encouraging the graduates to use these technologies to tackle inequities.

25:10

🎓 A Call to Action for Harvard Graduates

Gates challenges the Harvard community to use their intellectual resources to address the world's most pressing issues, asking whether the university's best minds should focus on global inequities. He shares a personal story about his mother's belief in using one's talents to help others and urges the graduates to commit to solving complex problems and inequities, making a lasting impact with their knowledge and skills.

Keywords

💡Commencement

Commencement refers to the formal ceremony held to confer degrees upon graduating students. It is a central part of the video's theme as the speaker is addressing the graduating class at Harvard University's 2007 Commencement Afternoon Exercises, celebrating their achievements and offering life advice.

💡Inequity

Inequity denotes the unfairness or imbalance in the distribution of resources, opportunities, or treatment. The speaker emphasizes the importance of recognizing and addressing global inequities in health, wealth, and education, which is a key message throughout the video.

💡Complexity

Complexity in this context refers to the difficulty in understanding and addressing large-scale problems due to their multifaceted and interconnected nature. The speaker discusses how complexity can hinder the transformation of caring into action, particularly in the context of global health and poverty.

💡Caring

Caring is the feeling of compassion and concern for others. The speaker posits that humanity has an abundance of caring but lacks the means to effectively channel this into action, particularly when faced with complex global issues.

💡Preventable Diseases

Preventable diseases are illnesses that could be avoided through interventions such as vaccines, sanitation, or education. The video highlights the disparity in the attention given to high-profile incidents like plane crashes versus the millions of deaths from preventable diseases that occur quietly in the background.

💡Global Health

Global health encompasses the study, research, and practice aimed at improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide. The speaker discusses the importance of global health initiatives in reducing inequities and saving lives from diseases that are preventable in developed countries.

💡Creative Capitalism

Creative capitalism is a concept where the power of market-driven competition is combined with the passion of humanitarianism to achieve both economic success and social good. The speaker suggests that developing creative capitalism can help address the inequities faced by the poor by making it profitable for businesses to serve those suffering from the worst inequities.

💡Internet

The Internet is a global network that connects devices and allows for the sharing of information and resources. In the video, the speaker highlights the Internet's role in increasing awareness of global issues, enabling collaboration, and providing a platform for activism and education.

💡Activism

Activism is the policy or action of using vigorous public efforts to bring about political or social change. The speaker encourages graduates to become activists, using their education and resources to tackle the world's inequities and make a positive impact.

💡Humanity

Humanity refers to the human race collectively, or the qualities of compassion, understanding, and brotherhood. The speaker calls for graduates to consider their shared humanity with those less privileged and to use their talents and opportunities to improve the lives of others.

💡Innovation

Innovation is the process of translating an idea or invention into a good or service that creates value or for which customers will pay. The speaker mentions the role of innovation in technology, biotechnology, and the Internet, as tools that can help end extreme poverty and preventable diseases, thus shaping a better future.

Highlights

Bill Gates expresses gratitude for his honorary degree from Harvard and humorously reflects on his time as a dropout.

Gates commends the graduates for their direct path to obtaining degrees, contrasting it with his own unconventional journey.

He acknowledges his influence on Steve Ballmer's decision to leave business school, highlighting his role as a 'bad influence'.

Gates reminisces about his Harvard experience, emphasizing the academic and social aspects that shaped him.

He discusses the importance of dorm life and the formation of the 'anti-social group', indicating the value of unconventional social dynamics.

Gates reflects on the lessons learned from failure and the importance of perseverance, drawing from his own experiences.

The significance of the moment when Gates decided to sell software to a company making the world's first personal computers is underscored.

Gates emphasizes the transformative power of Harvard's intellectual environment and the impact it had on his life.

He expresses regret for leaving Harvard without awareness of global inequities, highlighting the importance of social consciousness.

Gates calls for graduates to use their knowledge of the world's inequities to drive positive change in the age of accelerating technology.

The concept of 'creative capitalism' is introduced as a means to address global inequities through market forces and government action.

Gates discusses the shocking disparity in global health, particularly the preventable deaths of children in poor countries.

He emphasizes the moral imperative to address these inequities, arguing against the notion that some lives are worth saving and others are not.

Gates outlines the four stages of finding solutions to complex problems: determining a goal, finding the highest-leverage approach, discovering ideal technology, and making the best use of current technology.

The importance of measuring and sharing the impact of work in global health is stressed to inspire further action and investment.

Gates challenges the Harvard community to dedicate its intellectual resources to solving the world's biggest problems and encourages graduates to take on these issues.

He concludes with a call to action for graduates to use their talents and energy to address global inequities and to reflect on their impact 30 years hence.

Transcripts

President Bok, former President Rudenstine, incoming President Faust, members of the Harvard

Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, parents, and especially, the

graduates:

I’ve been waiting more than 30 years to say this: “Dad, I always told you I’d

come back and get my degree.”

I want to thank Harvard for this timely honor.

I’ll be changing my job next year … and it will be nice to finally have a college

degree on my resume.

I applaud the graduates today for taking a much more direct route to your degrees.

For my part, I’m just happy that the Crimson has called me “Harvard’s most successful

dropout.”

I guess that makes me valedictorian of my own special class … I did the best of everyone

who failed.

But I also want to be recognized as the guy who got Steve Ballmer to drop out of business

school.

I’m a bad influence.

That’s why I was invited to speak at your graduation.

If I had spoken at your orientation, fewer of you might be here today.

Harvard was just a phenomenal experience for me.

Academic life was fascinating.

I used to sit in on lots of classes I hadn’t even signed up for.

And dorm life was terrific.

I lived up at Radcliffe, in Currier House.

There were always lots of people in my dorm room late at night discussing things, because

everyone knew I didn’t worry about getting up in the morning.

That’s how I came to be the leader of the anti-social group.

We clung to each other as a way of validating our rejection of all those social people.

Bill Gates addresses the Harvard Alumni Association in Tecentenary Theater at Harvard University’s

2007 Commencement Afternoon Exercises.

Radcliffe was a great place to live.

There were more women up there, and most of the guys were science-math types.

That combination offered me the best odds, if you know what I mean.

This is where I learned the sad lesson that improving your odds doesn’t guarantee success.

One of my biggest memories of Harvard came in January 1975, when I made a call from Currier

House to a

company in Albuquerque that had begun making the world’s first personal computers.

I offered to sell them software.

I worried that they would realize I was just a student in a dorm and hang up on me.

Instead they said: “We’re not quite ready, come see us in a month,” which was a good

thing, because we hadn’t written the software yet.

From that moment, I worked day and night on this little extra credit project that marked

the end of my college education and the beginning of a remarkable journey with Microsoft.

What I remember above all about Harvard was being in the midst of so much energy and intelligence.

It could be exhilarating, intimidating, sometimes even discouraging, but always challenging.

It was an amazing privilege – and though I left early, I was transformed by my years

at Harvard, the friendships I made, and the ideas I worked on.

But taking a serious look back … I do have one big regret.

I left Harvard with no real awareness of the awful inequities in the world – the appalling

disparities of health, and wealth, and opportunity that condemn millions of people to lives of

despair.

I learned a lot here at Harvard about new ideas in economics and politics.

I got great exposure to the advances being made in the sciences.

But humanity’s greatest advances are not in its discoveries – but in how those discoveries

are applied to reduce inequity.

Whether through democracy, strong public education, quality health care, or broad economic opportunity

– reducing inequity is the highest human achievement.

I left campus knowing little about the millions of young people cheated out of educational

opportunities here in this country.

And I knew nothing about the millions of people living in unspeakable poverty and disease

in developing countries.

It took me decades to find out.

You graduates came to Harvard at a different time.

You know more about the world’s inequities than the classes that came before.

In your years here, I hope you’ve had a chance to think about how – in this age

of accelerating technology – we can finally take on these inequities, and we can solve

them.

Imagine, just for the sake of discussion, that you had a few hours a week and a few

dollars a month to donate to a cause – and you wanted to spend that time and money where

it would have the greatest impact

in saving and improving lives.

Where would you spend it?

For Melinda and for me, the challenge is the same: how can we do the most good for the

greatest number with the resources we have.

During our discussions on this question, Melinda and I read an article about the millions of

children who were dying every year in poor countries from diseases that we had long ago

made harmless in this country.

Measles, malaria, pneumonia, hepatitis B, yellow fever.

One disease I had never even heard of, rotavirus, was killing half a million kids each year

– none of them in the United States.

We were shocked.

We had just assumed that if millions of children were dying and they could be saved, the world

would make it a priority to discover and deliver the medicines to save them.

But it did not.

For under a dollar, there were interventions that could save lives that just weren’t

being delivered.

If you believe that every life has equal value, it’s revolting to learn that some lives

are seen as worth saving and others are not.

We said to ourselves: “This can’t be true.

But if it is true, it deserves to be the priority of our giving.”

So we began our work in the same way anyone here would begin it.

We asked: “How could the world let these children die?”

The answer is simple, and harsh.

The market did not reward saving the lives of these children, and governments did not

subsidize it.

So the children died because their mothers and their fathers had no power in the market

and no voice in the system.

But you and I have both.

We can make market forces work better for the poor if we can develop a more creative

capitalism – if we can stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make

a profit, or at least make a living, serving people who are suffering from the worst inequities.

We also can press governments around the world to spend taxpayer money in ways that better

reflect the values of the people who pay the taxes.

If we can find approaches that meet the needs of the poor in ways that generate profits

for business and votes for politicians, we will have found a sustainable way to reduce

inequity in the world.

This task is open-ended.

It can never be finished.

But a conscious effort to answer this challenge will change the world.

I am optimistic that we can do this, but I talk to skeptics who claim there is no hope.

They say: “Inequity has been with us since the beginning, and will be with us till the

end – because people just … don’t … care.”

I completely disagree.

I believe we have more caring than we know what to do with.

All of us here in this Yard, at one time or another, have seen human tragedies that broke

our hearts, and yet we did nothing – not because we didn’t care, but because we didn’t

know what to do.

If we had known how to help, we would have acted.

The barrier to change is not too little caring; it is too much complexity.

To turn caring into action, we need to see a problem, see a solution, and see the impact.

But complexity blocks all three steps.

Even with the advent of the Internet and 24-hour news, it is still a complex enterprise to

get people to truly see the problems.

When an airplane crashes, officials immediately call a press conference.

They promise to investigate, determine the cause, and prevent similar crashes in the

future.

But if the officials were brutally honest, they would say: “Of all the people in the

world who died today from preventable causes, one half of one percent of them were on this

plane.

We’re determined to do everything possible to solve the problem that took the lives of

the one half of one percent.”

The bigger problem is not the plane crash, but the millions of preventable deaths.

We don’t read much about these deaths.

The media covers what’s new – and millions of people dying is nothing new.

So it stays in the background, where it’s easier to ignore.

But even when we do see it or read about it, it’s difficult to keep our eyes on the problem.

It’s hard to look at suffering if the situation is so complex that we don’t know how to

help.

And so we look away.

If we can really see a problem, which is the first step, we come to the second step: cutting

through the complexity to find a solution.

Finding solutions is essential if we want to make the most of our caring.

If we have clear and proven answers anytime an organization or individual asks “How

can I help?,” then we can get action – and we can make sure that none of the caring in

the world is wasted.

But complexity makes it hard to mark a path of action for everyone who cares — and that

makes it hard for their caring to matter.

Cutting through complexity to find a solution runs through four predictable stages: determine

a goal, find the highest-leverage approach, discover the ideal technology for that approach,

and in the meantime, make the smartest application of the technology that you already have — whether

it’s something sophisticated, like a drug, or something simpler, like a bednet.

The AIDS epidemic offers an example.

The broad goal, of course, is to end the disease.

The highest-leverage approach is prevention.

The ideal technology would be a vaccine that gives lifetime immunity with a single dose.

So governments, drug companies, and foundations fund vaccine research.

But their work is likely to take more than a decade, so in the meantime, we have to work

with what we have in hand – and the best prevention approach we have now is getting

people to avoid risky behavior.

Pursuing that goal starts the four-step cycle again.

This is the pattern.

The crucial thing is to never stop thinking and working – and never do what we did with

malaria and tuberculosis in the 20th century – which is to surrender to complexity and

quit.

The final step – after seeing the problem and finding an approach – is to measure

the impact of your work and share your successes and failures so that others learn from your

efforts.

You have to have the statistics, of course.

You have to be able to show that a program is vaccinating millions more children.

You have to be able to show a decline in the number of children dying from these diseases.

This is essential not just to improve the program, but also to help draw more investment

from business and government.

But if you want to inspire people to participate, you have to show more than numbers; you have

to convey the human impact of the work – so people can feel what saving a life means to

the families affected.

I remember going to Davos some years back and sitting on a global health panel that

was discussing ways to save millions of lives.

Millions!

Think of the thrill of saving just one person’s life – then multiply that by millions.

… Yet this was the most boring panel I’ve ever been on – ever.

So boring even I couldn’t bear it.

What made that experience especially striking was that I had just come from an event where

we were introducing version 13 of some piece of software, and we had people jumping and

shouting with excitement.

I love getting people excited about software – but why can’t we generate even more

excitement for saving lives?

You can’t get people excited unless you can help them see and feel the impact.

And how you do that – is a complex question.

Still, I’m optimistic.

Yes, inequity has been with us forever, but the new tools we have to cut through complexity

have not been with us forever.

They are new – they can help us make the most of our caring – and that’s why the

future can be different from the past.

The defining and ongoing innovations of this age – biotechnology, the computer, the Internet

– give us a chance we’ve never had before to end extreme poverty and end death from

preventable disease.

Sixty years ago, George Marshall came to this commencement and announced a plan to assist

the nations of post-war Europe.

He said: “I think one difficulty is that the problem is one of such enormous complexity

that the very mass of facts presented to the public by press and radio make it exceedingly

difficult for the man in the street to reach a clear appraisement of the situation.

It is virtually impossible at this distance to grasp at all the real significance of the

situation.”

Thirty years after Marshall made his address, as my class graduated without me, technology

was emerging that would make the world smaller, more open, more visible, less distant.

The emergence of low-cost personal computers gave rise to a powerful network that has transformed

opportunities for learning and communicating.

The magical thing about this network is not just that it collapses distance and makes

everyone your neighbor.

It also dramatically increases the number of brilliant minds we can have working together

on the same problem – and that scales up the rate of innovation to a staggering degree.

At the same time, for every person in the world who has access to this technology, five

people don’t.

That means many creative minds are left out of this discussion — smart people with practical

intelligence and relevant experience who don’t have the technology to hone their talents

or contribute their ideas to the world.

We need as many people as possible to have access to this technology, because these advances

are triggering a revolution in what human beings can do for one another.

They are making it possible not just for national governments, but for universities, corporations,

smaller organizations, and even individuals to see problems, see approaches, and measure

the impact of their efforts to address the hunger, poverty, and desperation George Marshall

spoke of 60 years ago.

Members of the Harvard Family: Here in the Yard is one of the great collections of intellectual

talent in the world.

What for?

There is no question that the faculty, the alumni, the students, and the benefactors

of Harvard have used their power to improve the lives of people here and around the world.

But can we do more?

Can Harvard dedicate its intellect to improving the lives of people who will never even hear

its name?

Let me make a request of the deans and the professors – the intellectual leaders here

at Harvard: As you hire new faculty, award tenure, review curriculum, and determine degree

requirements, please ask yourselves:

Should our best minds be dedicated to solving our biggest problems?

Should Harvard encourage its faculty to take on the world’s worst inequities?

Should Harvard students learn about the depth of global poverty … the prevalence of world

hunger … the scarcity of clean water …the girls kept out of school … the children

who die from diseases we can cure?

Should the world’s most privileged people learn about the lives of the world’s least

privileged?

These are not rhetorical questions – you will answer with your policies.

My mother, who was filled with pride the day I was admitted here – never stopped pressing

me to do more for others.

A few days before my wedding, she hosted a bridal event, at which she read aloud a letter

about marriage that she had written to Melinda.

My mother was very ill with cancer at the time, but she saw one more opportunity to

deliver her message, and at the close of the letter she said: “From those to whom much

is given, much is expected.”

When you consider what those of us here in this Yard have been given – in talent, privilege,

and opportunity – there is almost no limit to what the world has a right to expect from

us.

In line with the promise of this age, I want to exhort each of the graduates here to take

on an issue – a complex problem, a deep inequity, and become a specialist on it.

If you make it the focus of your career, that would be phenomenal.

But you don’t have to do that to make an impact.

For a few hours every week, you can use the growing power of the Internet to get informed,

find others with the same interests, see the barriers, and find ways to cut through them.

Don’t let complexity stop you.

Be activists.

Take on the big inequities.

It will be one of the great experiences of your lives.

You graduates are coming of age in an amazing time.

As you leave Harvard, you have technology that members of my class never had.

You have awareness of global inequity, which we did not have.

And with that awareness, you likely also have an informed conscience that will torment you

if you abandon these people whose lives you could change with very little effort.

You have more than we had; you must start sooner, and carry on longer.

Knowing what you know, how could you not?

And I hope you will come back here to Harvard 30 years from now and reflect on what you

have done with your talent and your energy.

I hope you will judge yourselves not on your professional accomplishments alone, but also

on how well you have addressed the world’s deepest inequities … on how well you treated

people a world away who have nothing in common with you but their humanity.

Good luck.