This is the first time I've seen this text ascribed to Gates. I've been wanting to deconstruct it for a while, and this is probably a fine time to start chipping away at it... First off, where is this thing from? I did an AltaVista search on the text of the first rule, and got both a number of different versions of the text and different original sources cited. For instance, according to http://www.independentvoice.com/columns/curmudgeons.html the text was "written by Charles Sykes, author of "Dumbing Down Our Kids.'" According to http://hometown.aol.com/DCurry4000/tenrules.htm the text (note that there are ten rules here, the one about working for nerds gets appended later -- by Gates?) was "From Ann Landers, Atlanta Constitution 9/21/97. Anyway, you get the idea, wherever this text got started, the folk process has certainly had its way with it. If I had to summarize the spirit of these rules, it seems to be, "Hey kid, just shut up and get to work." No wonder they have caught hold of the imagination of folks who feel that things have gotten out of control. So let's start looking at cases... for present purposes, let me just comments briefly, later (when I get this essay up to the website) I might elaborate... > > RULE 1 - Life is not fair; get used to it. > Does this mean that life can't be fairer than it is? That one should stay silent in the face of obvious injustice? > 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. > Does this mean that there is no such thing as the innate value of the individual, that we are only to be measured by our accomplishments? The subtext seems to be, by the way, that such accomplishments have to be economic in nature... > RULE 3 - You will NOT make 90 thousand dollars a year right out of > high school. You won't be a vice president with a car phone, until > you earn both. Does this mean that being a vice president with a car phone is something worth striving for? > > RULE 4 - If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a > boss. He doesn't have tenure. > Alternative phrasing: If you think school was boring, wait till you have a job. > RULE 5 - Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your > grandparents had a different word for burger flipping; they called > it opportunity. > No, my grandparents would have called it cooking, and done it at home on the grill with the rest of the family. > RULE 6 - If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault; so don't > whine about your mistakes, learn from them. > This one, actually, I think I'm OK with. But sometimes the System does mess you up, and you have to learn which things are your responsibility and which things are systemic flaws. > 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 are. So > before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's > generation, try "delousing" the closet in your own room. > This assumes that all parents are boring -- and if they are, by the way, because they've had to work at unfulfilling jobs and had to numb their minds in one way or another in order to cope, where does the blame for *that* lie? > RULE 8 - Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but > life hasn't. In some schools they have abolished failing grades; > 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. > I dunno, I've never been given an "F" on anything that I've written for a job... but good workplaces will make sure you get the training you need, schools don't always succeed at that... The important thing is that the work gets done, not that we managed to identify the winners and losers. > 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. > Actually, a lot of employers are recognizing that so-called "soft skills" are valuable toward making empoloyees more productive and increasing job satisfaction. > RULE 10 - Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually > have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs. This one is truth. It is also true that not all families solve their problems in half-an-hour, not all cops are good guys, and that not all rich people are happy. > > RULE 11 - Be nice to nerds. Chances are you could end up working for > one. Damn, I wish someone had told the jocks that when *I* was in high school!!!
So, that's a start. I may have more to say about this text down the road, stop by again...