What’s Inside Bill’s Brain?
One such winner is Bill Gates. ‘Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates’ is a Netflix docuseries that brings out the life of Bill Gates (I hope he needs no introduction). Although Melinda Gates says that Inside Bill’s Brain is chaos, I would call it a source of solutions. Let us walk through the solutions he has been trying to create.
Episode 1: WASH- Water, sanitation and Hygiene
They say that 70 per cent of diseases are born within. However, external factors like lack of water, sanitation and hygiene influence the remaining 30 per cent and they might turn fatal. Many parts of Africa and the Indian sub-continent are still struggling with some basic issues. These countries are home to vast slum areas, where living conditions are below par. Lack of sanitation causes diseases like diarrhoea, thus inviting death for many children.
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation came up with a toilet system to solve this problem, which would generate energy from human waste. The energy generated is being used to extract potable water from the same sewage. This module is live in Dakar. Although this is a very expensive system, for now, further innovation will get these modules at an affordable price.
Even though diseases caused by external factors can be controlled by WASH, there is a host of other fatal diseases which could spread through the cleanest environment. Polio has been a prime example. The next episode focuses on the same.
Episode 2: Polio eradication
I have a firm conviction that Data Science and Artificial Intelligence can revolutionize healthcare in ways untold. Precisely, that is what Bill and Melinda Gates foundation exploited to expedite polio eradication. Using high-end technology and accurate Data Analysis, they predicted a likely outbreak of polio in different areas. This brought polio cases down to only 21 in Nigeria by 2010.
Though the African mission came to a standstill because of a terrorist attack in Nigeria, the grit shown by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation was commendable. The previous two episodes focus on WASH and healthcare. The next one focuses on the other major challenge of climate change.
Episode 3: Nuclear Power
We all agree that we are looking at a major climate change in the future. A substantial amount of pollution is caused because of the burning of fossil fuels in pursuit of generating energy. Now, one might think that we have an answer as nuclear energy since it produces the maximum amount of energy with minimal environmental effects. However, it is fraught with risk. The world hasn’t forgotten the aftermath of Chernobyl and Fukushima yet.
Thus, Bill Gates set out to design a low cost but safe nuclear reactor with a team of scientists. They planned to build the prototype in China. However, international circumstances prevented the same. However, this presents hope for a cleaner source of massive energy in the future.
Conclusion
If you read through carefully, all the above projects have been facing major hurdles. Being the second richest man on the planet, he could have conveniently chosen a peaceful retired life. Instead, he chose challenges. His answer to a particular question (roughly) gives an insight into his mindset:
Question: What do you work for?
Bill Gates: Optimization
In conclusion, I would like to agree with Aviral Bhatnagar that the most disruptive organization in the next decade would be the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Read this article here: The Most Disruptive Organization Of The Next Decade?
Perhaps why venture into areas fraught with the risk of failure? However, we need to define success before tagging his efforts as a failure since success is not about what you get, nor what you give. It’s about what you become.
Also read: Indian diplomacy and strategic thinking reminds us of Balarama
Featured Image Credits: Netflix
