Please stop flagging it.
Feel free to downvote me for complaining about the flags, but don't flag the post. No, I'm not OP.
Two rich people got divorced. Who cares? Flag it into the ground.
No...... It's literally a tweet from their verified account. It's literally the exact opposite of gossip; it's their official announcement, and this thread provides room for readers here to analyze the effects of the split in our technical, entrepreneurial, and philanthropic context
You know what's gossip? r/relationship_advice, which this isn't. (discl: I run the subreddit)
Please contribute positively.
It seems your personal relevancy radar is out of sync with the larger HN community. Not a problem in itself, but probably not something you should get up in arms about.
My main concern is around whether the foundation ends up splitting from its current areas of focus (climate change and disease research). There's been a wealth of innovation around both as a consequence of GF's investment and I worry that less focus might mean less funding at a critical time for both.
Similarly, I was a Gates Scholar and it changed my life (no college debt). I hope none of the scholars or scholarship fund partners are affected, either.
[0]https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-15/mackenzie...
I don't really think this impacts the Foundation, and even if it did, it is a relatively small organization.
Seems like none of these are at play. Best of luck to Bill and Melinda.
I will never forgive BillG for his cutthroat and ruthless actions as Microsoft CEO given he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. None of his "charitable" actions will clear his record.
Both things can be true. Especially in this case where they happened sequentially instead of in parallel.
Loyalty and honor count for something, when you're thinking about who should hold your hand in the ICU, or who should be with you and your kids in the next plot (or urn).
It's odd to think that either of them looked at the other and thought "this person is an obstacle to what I really want."
"And why are you getting a divorce now?" the judge asks.
"We wanted to wait until the children died."
Also, any inherited wealth coming from his parents should be his sole property. His dad died last year I believe but his widow(not Bill's mom) is still alive so the inheritance might not have happened yet.
I have doubts this means anything negative for the foundation, other than maybe a rebrand of the name. I live in Seattle and have a few friends who work there - While both Gates are active in the spectacle of the foundation and pushing the broader mission, neither touch day-to-day operations at all.
I wish them and their family the best.
I say this as a very long-time critic of Microsoft and Gates, including on recent issues (patents as applied to vaccines).
