Slashdot Mirror
Bill Gates Handwriting Analyzed
Kaal Alexander Rosser writes "The BBC is reporting that a doodle left behind at a Davos press conference given by Tony Blair, Bill Gates and Bono shows the writer to be: "an unstable man" amongst other things. The Gates Foundation has confirmed the doodle was left there by Bill Gates."
I'd have to say, no surprise there. Anyone who is a geek knows were all at least a little unstable... You have to be to be attracted by Technology more than girls.
Geez, what next? Are they going to do his star charts? or read the coffee grind remains in his mug?
People say I'm crazy, I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes...
Most of those assessments were made when the "graphologists" in question were under the belief the doodle was Blair's. So we should withhold judgement until we have second opinions from the Phrenologists, Dowsers and any other Pseudo-Scientific Charlatans who feel like chipping in with their worthless, substance less opinions...
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
Right up there with reading tea leaves and goat entrails.
Now analysis to verify for a court that this is the defendants handwriting yes or no,for example is a science.
Tying some Psychological profile to someone's doodle is a joke......
So Long and Thanks for all the Fish.
A spokesman said: "Following the press conference given by the prime minister, Bill Gates and Bono in Davos on Thursday, a number of newspapers printed stories claiming that a page of notes and doodles left behind on the platform belonged to Tony Blair, and provided an insight into the mind of the prime minister.
"They were in fact doodles made by Bill Gates.
"We look forward with amusement to explanations by a variety of psychologists and graphologists of how various characteristics ascribed to the prime minister on the basis of the doodles, such as 'struggling to concentrate', 'not a natural leader', 'struggling to keep control of a confusing world' and 'an unstable man who is feeling under enormous pressure', equally apply to Mr Gates.
"We are astonished that no-one who ran the story thought to ask No 10 if the doodles were in fact Mr Blair's, particularly as it was obvious to anyone the handwriting was totally different."
In other words, graphology is BS and the people who analyzed it already had a preconceived notion about whose it was and made the appropriate BS analyses.
The "unstable" and "unfit to lead" assessments were made when the doodle was assumed to have been made by Tony Blair. While you would think that the same conclusions would be drawn regardless of the identity of the scribbler, there is speculation that the original conclusions were politically motivated.
From reviewing the doodle, it's is my expert opinion that Bill Gates has the doodling skill of my five year old son!
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
No doubt that Microsoft has some shady business tactics. There's no question that they provide shoddy products from a security perspective and then push responsibility for their goofs to on user community. There's the issue ,of corse, that they hound free software by the cheapest pr tricks in the book and the system Microsoft sucks shit! Well, hell! There's a lot of valid complaints when it comes to chastising Microsoft as a corporation
I really don't want to ideolize Mr. Gates and he is often guilty of wrong speak; willingly or out of ignorance.
But attempting a character analyses from a doodle he left at a conference (which potentially was boring) is just plain juvenile.
Hold your ammunition for the real issues, slashdot, and retain your credibility in the bargain...
ich bin der musikant
mit taschenrechner in der hand
kraftwerk
"site"
"sentence"
"spiritual"
"reconstruct"
"something we are sadly losing in the computer age"
Like proofreading?
Why is this newsworthy? Graphology is completely unsound from a scientific point of view, though it might interest students of the Forer effect. What next? Steve Ballmer's horoscope? What the tarot has to say about Larry Ellison's future? Crop circles resembling Linus' face? (All right, I reckon the last one could possibly be newsworthy. But, still, do we really want to go further in this direction?)
This means the people who work in the media are idiots and arent to be trusted. Clearly they're stupid and not worthy of 'informing' us with this sort of filth.
As the parent notes the story isn't really about doodles by Bill Gates, but about doodles that aren't by Tony Blair. And the ensuing BS because people assumed they were. The only thing remarkable about Gate's involvement is that he's such a clear proof that the graphology is crap. Him being a genius and all.
It's like when 2 students pass in the exact same assignment and get 2 vastly different marks.
It's interesting but why does slashdot care about some doodles? I'm sure most of us don't. It has nothing to do with tech or tech-related news. If, however, there was an improved version of quick sort hidden in the doodles we should all sit up. Is there a way to mod the original articles down?
This is really of bad taste guys. As much as I think Bill G. is Napoleonic and demented I don't put that basis on his handwriting.
Would you say Bill Gates was a strong and charismatic leader? That he's NOT struggling to keep control of the world? That he's NOT an unstable man who is feeling enormous pressure?
Handwriting analysis is well known to be a non-science with non-facts based on non-events that produce non-results.
It's also a non-brainer way for slashdotters to do some M$ bashing.
Maybe it's time for /. to move on or for me to stop wasting my time. The quality of information on this site is degrading every day.
He has created one of the biggest companies of all time, and made it almost unassailable.
There is nothing technical he can do that one (or a dozen) of his employees can't do 10 times better and faster.
He has (probably) saved millions of lives through his malaria research.
He has a nice wife and three kids. He has a really cool house.
What else is there left to do?
Maybe he could try being a Linux Kernel Hacker...
My handwriting is non-existant. My verticals go off in every direction and my line is uneven.
Am I disorganized? An idiot?
No. I have MS. To me the pen is an instrument of torture; my own.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Graphology is just as laughable as astrology, acupuncture or homeopathy. Here's a nice experiment for your amusement: when you meet a "graphologist" who'd like to demonstrate her amazing "skills" to you, be sure to make an experiment using text copied from some newspaper, the same text written by all of the tested people who had no contact with the graphologist before and during the handwriting examination at all. Observing the graphologist's face when she doesn't have "side channels data" and no interaction with people to play with "cold reading" is a trully hilarious experience.
"This shape might sometimes mean that maybe some kind of a impatience... am I right?"
"Just keep going, I don't want to disturb you!"
And the most funny thing is that unlike psychics they can't just make up some dumb excuses that they feel some disturbance of Force or that the Angels are scared by the camera, because they are supposed to be scientists. Looking at someone's writing you can usually tell the gender and age--the same I can guess reading someone's palm... Or foot... Or arse! Does it make me an arsologist?
For more interesting informations read: Wikipedia article on graphology, James Randi's comments on graphology (by The Amazing Randi of JREF who offers "a one-million-dollar prize to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event"), graphology in the Skeptic's Dictionary by Robert T. Carroll, PhD, and of course the excellent Quackwatch paper How Graphology Fools People by Barry L. Beyerstein, PhD. This is not the first time we can laugh at psedoscientific morons on Slashdot thanks to The Amazing Randi.
And a comment to CmdrTaco: please add the Monty Python foot to the article because without it we look like a bunch of imbeciles. What next? Bill Gates tested by the lie detector and a story posted on science.slashdot.org? Please just add the foot. Thanks.
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
And when Stalin demanded steel production be at a certain point, every did anything they could to make sure steel production met his demands.