Let him design a course selection system, because to take into account the needs of students, the needs of assessment, the allocation of resources such as classrooms and teachers, Gates and Allen carefully sorted out the variables and logic of the curriculum. The idea is to have a panoramic grasp first, and then adjust and allocate parts. After not knowing how many nights, they finally developed a course selection process the day before the school started.
Poliomyelitis has a distant history in the West. Oral vaccines were available as early as 1955, but there are still 350,000 cases worldwide 30 years later. On the one hand, the vaccine does not cover those remote areas; on the other hand, because of friction between religions and ideas, many regions believe that it is the West that wants to kill their children and reject the vaccine. By visiting local leaders again and again, their fears were eliminated, and the scope of vaccine delivery was increased through the foundation. Even so, the situation continues to worsen, with the number of cases in Nigeria doubling in 2008. To this end, Gates asked the team to redraw an accurate map of Nigeria using high-definition satellite imagery and computer algorithms, and based on this to calculate the incidence of each subdivision. After investigation, Gates found that the map of Nigeria was actually a version that had not been updated in 1945, and many cases were omitted. It can be said that in order to discover the root cause, the Gates team rearranged a “curriculum”.
In this way, the number of new cases worldwide has dropped sharply to double digits. But Gates doesn’t plan to “take it when you see it,” and continues to invest $ 6 billion in the goal of “zero incidence.” But the reality is that this condition is far from complete elimination. “You are not inspiring enough,” the director told him. Gates replied, “Inspiring is not my purpose. What I want is optimization.”
Step back and strive for objectivity
And on nuclear projects, Gates has encountered even greater setbacks. The carbon dioxide released by energy use makes the climate worse, and clean energy such as solar energy and wind energy are constrained by factors such as climate and cannot be continuously supplied, so Gates wants to seize the opportunity to develop a clean and safe nuclear energy . When a neutron hits an atom, a chain reaction occurs, which generates a large amount of thermal energy, which generates steam to drive the turbine. The entire process does not release any carbon dioxide. As a result, Gates founded Terra Energy in 2006 to test new nuclear reactors.
However, the Fukushima nuclear leak in Japan in 2011 affected the progress of the project, and the world is like a bird of astonishment.
But Terra’s technical team is very confident in safety issues. They said that using depleted uranium as a raw material, the traveling wave reactor is like a candle that has been burning slowly, and it can be used for 10 years with one fuel. In addition, Gates said, “The worst thing that can happen to this kind of nuclear reactor is that the reactor stops generating power, not the leakage of radioactive material.” For nuclear waste that cannot be used, the team is also studying ifTurn them into electricity. It can be said that nuclear energy is an “unpopular” energy source. Gates said with a smile, “(Consider seriously promoting this energy), because it is an innovation that cannot be achieved unless I help.” But he also acknowledged the difficulty, “Hundreds of millions of dollars, call A lot of scientists … I wouldn’t have done this if it weren’t for the worse weather. “
In 2015, Terra Energy reached a cooperation with the Chinese government, but in 2018 it was interrupted for various complex reasons. “What do you do when you encounter setbacks?” Gates replied, “I will take a step back and strive to be objective.”
The toilet revolution is still far from the final mass production. When Gates approached the partner, the other party quoted $ 50,000, but he felt that $ 500 could be implemented; in order to completely eliminate polio, billions of dollars were invested each year The implementation of nuclear energy projects is difficult or even temporarily interrupted. Did Bill Gates ever give up? Yes. But at the same time, he is constantly suggesting that he “needs to work harder”, “I hope to take risks to do things that cannot be achieved without vision.”
In the film, the director asked a question, “Many people say that you are a technical lunatic, and you want to solve everything with technology. What do you think of this criticism?” Gates slowly said, “I am only good at this. I only have the ‘technical’ hammer. “
Responsible editor: Song Desheng