Bill Gates Returns

Paul Farmer has worked for decades to provide health care to patients in Haiti and around the world. A doctor and anthropologist by training, Farmer saw the health of a nation’s people as a product of its culture and political history. For Haiti, centuries of political strife—often at the hands of imperialist powers—had left it one of the most impoverished countries in the western hemisphere.

Despite prevailing wisdom that it was too costly to treat patients in poor countries for diseases like drug-resistant tuberculosis and AIDS, Farmer strived to treat everyone who needed care. His multi-pronged approach included prioritizing preventive services, changing international healthcare policy, and lowering the cost of important drugs. His organization’s approach is considered a model for providing treatment to patients in poor countries.

In The White Man’s Burden, economist, NYU professor, and Brookings Institution senior fellow William Easterly argues that the global humanitarian aid system is fundamentally flawed. His main critique is that the international aid system prioritizes top-down, centralized, and tightly directed aid distribution—all controlled by people in rich countries (primarily the United States and those in Western Europe), far away from the developing world that they're meant to be serving. Because the aid community is so disconnected, it creates big plans and sweeping missions that are overly ambitious and completely unsuited for the reality on the ground, it overlooks local needs and concerns, and it rarely holds itself accountable for its failures.

In this guide, we’ve updated some of Easterly’s statistics, supplemented his ideas with more recent examples, and incorporated alternative and opposing viewpoints from leading experts in the fields of economics, political theory, and business.

Artificial Intelligence could revolutionize every aspect of our lives, but only if we can develop AI that reliably carries out its tasks. While some see AI as a cornucopia that will free the human race from drudgery, others see dangers in ceding so much power to digital, non-human minds. In Rebooting AI, Gary Marcus and Ernest Davis argue that modern AI underdelivers on its promise while AI proponents oversell what it can do. Marcus and Davis are AI advocates who feel that current AI research is heading in the wrong direction, with its narrow focus on “big data” and machine learning.

In this guide, we’ll examine how the public perception of modern AI differs from reality, how AI works, and the many ways in which it fails. We’ll then describe Marcus and Davis’s prescription for producing stronger AI systems to benefit the human race. We’ll also highlight where modern AI trends are leading, other experts’ thoughts on machine cognition, and how AI development is affecting business and society at large.

In the thought-provoking episode of Huberman Lab, Dr. Andrew Huberman invites Marc Andreessen to dive deep into the core aspects of innovation, societal impact, and the role of institutions in driving reform. Their dynamic conversation surgically dissects the traits needed for successful innovation, the vital role of risk-taking, and the significance of innovation in societal transformation. Andreessen identifies certain personality traits key to successful innovation and discusses the power of a like-minded community in supporting innovation amidst a culture of intolerance.

The discussion doesn't stop there. Andreessen and Dr. Huberman further explore the implications of advancements in technology, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), on societal norms and ethics, and the potential these advancements hold for sectors like healthcare. They also discuss the rising public concerns around gene-editing technologies and nuclear energy. The societal fears, potential risks, and transformative impacts of these technological innovations form an essential part of the conversation. Overall, this engaging podcast episode is an insightful exploration into the transformative power of innovation and risk-taking in our ever-evolving society.

You were born to be a badass, but are you getting the most out of your life? In You Are a Badass, author Jen Sincero helps you identify and change the self-sabotaging thoughts and behavior patterns that are stopping you from living up to your potential.

Creating a better life requires only one simple shift: Going from wanting to change your life to deciding to change your life. This book will explain why you are the way you are, how to change what you don’t like, and how to love yourself as you create a new, awesome life.

Alex Banayan writes that success is like a nightclub with three doors: The first is the main entrance, through which you enter by working hard and playing by the rules. The line to this door is crowded and moves slowly. The second door is reserved for billionaires and celebrities and is off-limits to ordinary people. In The Third Door, he focuses on the last option—the door that allows regular folk to skip the line, find hidden opportunities, and think outside the box. He argues it’s the best—and really, only—route to getting ahead of the crowd.

Banayan interviews successful people from a wide range of fields to discover what insights, tricks, and motivations helped them find their unique paths to success. In this guide, we’ll review major themes he came across in his interviews, and we’ll explore how the insights he gleaned compare to theories of success from other thinkers.

When Satya Nadella took over as CEO of Microsoft in 2014, the company was in decline. Once the wealthiest corporation in the world, it found itself lagging behind other tech giants like Apple and Google. Hit Refresh describes how Nadella brought new life to Microsoft by rediscovering its “soul”: He articulated the company’s mission, transformed the corporate culture, and formed strategic partnerships with Microsoft’s fiercest competitors.

In this guide, we discuss the principles and practices that helped Nadella “hit refresh” on Microsoft, which he connects to his experiences of growing up in India, immigrating to the US, and being a father to a child with special needs. We include actionable advice based on Nadella’s principles that can help you reinvigorate your own organization or career. We also explore his thoughts about the future and how we can—and must—ensure that technology isn’t just a means for economic growth but, above all, a force for good that is grounded on empathy.