Bill Gates, speaks!

[kiwi_2005]

Bill Gates gave a speech at a High School about eleven things they did not and will not learn in school. He talked 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..


If you can read this - Thank a teacher!

[Stealth Hunter]

Bill does indeed speak... THE TRUTH...

[Happy Times]

Rule No. 1: Life is not fair. Get used to it. The average teen-ager uses the phrase "It's not fair" 8.6 times a day. You got it from your parents, who said it so often you decided they must be the most idealistic generation ever. When they started hearing it from their own kids, they realized Rule No. 1.

Rule No. 2: The real world won't care as much about your self-esteem as much as your school does. It'll expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself. This may come as a shock. Usually, when inflated self-esteem meets reality, kids complain that it's not fair. (See Rule No. 1)

Rule No. 3: Sorry, you won't make $40,000 a year right out of high school. And you won't be a vice president or have a car phone either. You may even have to wear a uniform that doesn't have a Gap label.

Rule No. 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait 'til you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure, so he tends to be a bit edgier. When you screw up, he's not going to ask you how you feel about it.

Rule No. 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping. They called it opportunity. They weren't embarrassed making minimum wage either. They would have been embarrassed to sit around talking about Kurt Cobain all weekend.

Rule No. 6: It's not your parents' fault. If you screw up, you are responsible. This is the flip side of "It's my life," and "You're not the boss of me," and other eloquent proclamations of your generation. When you turn 18, it's on your dime. Don't whine about it, or you'll sound like a baby boomer.

Rule No. 7: Before you were born your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way paying your bills, cleaning up your room and listening to you tell them how idealistic you are. And by the way, before you save the rain forest from the blood-sucking parasites of your parents' generation, try delousing the closet in your bedroom.

Rule No. 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers. Life hasn't. In some schools, they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. Failing grades have been abolished and class valedictorians scrapped, lest anyone's feelings be hurt. Effort is as important as results. This, of course, bears not the slightest resemblance to anything in real life. (See Rule No. 1, Rule No. 2 and Rule No. 4.)

Rule No. 9: Life is not divided into semesters, and you don't get summers off. Not even Easter break. They expect you to show up every day. For eight hours. And you don't get a new life every 10 weeks. It just goes on and on. While we're at it, very few jobs are interested in fostering your self-expression or helping you find yourself. Fewer still lead to self-realization. (See Rule No. 1 and Rule No. 2.)

Rule No. 10: Television is not real life. Your life is not a sitcom. Your problems will not all be solved in 30 minutes, minus time for commercials. In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop to go to jobs. Your friends will not be as perky or pliable as Jennifer Aniston.

Rule No. 11: Be nice to nerds. You may end up working for them. We all could.



This list is the work of Charles J. Sykes, author of the book Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can't Read, Write, Or Add. (The list has appeared in newspapers, although not necessarily in this book.)

Many versions omit the last three rules:


Rule No. 12: Smoking does not make you look cool. It makes you look moronic. Next time you're out cruising, watch an 11-year-old with a butt in his mouth. That's what you look like to anyone over 20. Ditto for "expressing yourself" with purple hair and/or pierced body parts.

Rule No. 13: You are not immortal. (See Rule No. 12.) If you are under the impression that living fast, dying young and leaving a beautiful corpse is romantic, you obviously haven't seen one of your peers at room temperature lately.

Rule No. 14: Enjoy this while you can. Sure parents are a pain, school's a bother, and life is depressing. But someday you'll realize how wonderful it was to be a kid. Maybe you should start now. You're welcome.

http://www.snopes.com/language/document/liferule.asp

[Kapitan_Phillips]

Originally Posted by kiwi_2005

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

Thats rich, coming from Bill Gates.

[Janus]

Originally Posted by Happy Times

Rule No. 14: Enjoy this while you can. Sure parents are a pain, school's a bother, and life is depressing. But someday you'll realize how wonderful it was to be a kid. Maybe you should start now. You're welcome.

[Jimbuna]

Mentioned no 7 to my 19 year old son and he just looked at me in bewilderment

[Onkel Neal]

Urban legend; Microsoft chairman Bill Gates neither wrote the words nor delivered them in a speech to high school students or anyone else.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_bill_gates_speech.htm

[AVGWarhawk]

Rule No. 1: Life is not fair. Get used to it. The average teen-ager uses the phrase "It's not fair" 8.6 times a day. You got it from your parents, who said it so often you decided they must be the most idealistic generation ever. When they started hearing it from their own kids, they realized Rule No. 1.

I do not know about the 'it's not fair' deal but I certainly get tired of hearing, 'I'm bored.' Man, that gets by goat. Growing up I had black and white TV with three channels and a piece of aluminum foil to get reception on the antenna. Cable TV was something you hang your TV with. There was no PSP, Xbox, Playstation, Wii, DS, Nintendo. The best I had was TV pong. Cartoons would play for 1 hour in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. Saturday was the big cartoon day. It was not pumped in via cable 24/7 and on six different channels. Riding a bike was my favorite past time.

[Dowly]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

Urban legend; Microsoft chairman Bill Gates neither wrote the words nor delivered them in a speech to high school students or anyone else.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_bill_gates_speech.htm

And Snopes.com says the same. Not his creation nor gave a speech like that.
http://www.snopes.com/language/document/liferule.asp

Tho, still, a very true points on the list.

[mrbeast]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

I do not know about the 'it's not fair' deal but I certainly get tired of hearing, 'I'm bored.' Man, that gets by goat. Growing up I had black and white TV with three channels and a piece of aluminum foil to get reception on the antenna. Cable TV was something you hang your TV with. There was no PSP, Xbox, Playstation, Wii, DS, Nintendo. The best I had was TV pong. Cartoons would play for 1 hour in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. Saturday was the big cartoon day. It was not pumped in via cable 24/7 and on six different channels. Riding a bike was my favorite past time.

Think thats the problem kids have today, too much choice! Rather than being forced to use their imaginations to think up things to amuse themselves its all laid on for them. So they can't think of something interesting to do when they tire of PSP or Wei or whatever.

[kiwi_2005]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

Urban legend; Microsoft chairman Bill Gates neither wrote the words nor delivered them in a speech to high school students or anyone else.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_bill_gates_speech.htm

[bookworm_020]

Originally Posted by kiwi_2005

You should have relised this Kiwi when you first saw it. It made too much sense for Bill Gates to ever have said anything like this in public. Just look at all his "Predictions" on where microsolft would be in 5 years:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:!

[kiwi_2005]

Originally Posted by bookworm_020

You should have relised this Kiwi when you first saw it. It made too much sense for Bill Gates to ever have said anything like this in public. Just look at all his "Predictions" on where microsolft would be in 5 years:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:!

'Going turncoat' is my second name.

What BG really said:

"640K ought to be enough for anybody"
"People everywhere love Windows"
"Spam will be a thing of the past in two years' time" (2004)
"Does the e-mail say it's about 'enlargement' (that might be spam)

[Skybird]

No matter who authored that list, it holds some valid truths.