Bill Gates to new grads: 'This is an amazing time to be alive'

Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft and the Gates Foundation, doesn’t need a commencement speech to give new graduates good advice about planning their future careers. He fits it all into a crisp series of 14 tweets, most coming in under 140 characters in length.

Gates took to Twitter to offer a concise guide to improving the world for new graduates. The core of his advice: go into science fields, especially artificial intelligence, energy and biosciences, and look to use your talents to fix the problems in society.

The tweetstorm is frank and useful, with Gates offering advice on how to avoid the mistakes he made as well as offering an inspiring pep talk for the future: surround yourself with good people, value family, read Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature, and always believe that problems can be solved. Gates finishes with the inspiring message that this is a great time to be alive.

And, while the advice seems very direct and sincere, it starts with a bit of self-deprecating humor: Gates cites a famous scene from the movie The Graduate in which Dustin Hoffman receives advice to go into the plastics business.

1/ New college grads often ask me for career advice. At the risk of sounding like this guy…https://t.co/C68mjJ5g44

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 15, 2017

3/ Looking back on when I left college, there are some things I wish I had known.

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 15, 2017

5/ I also have one big regret: When I left school, I knew little about the world’s worst inequities. Took me decades to learn.

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 15, 2017

7/ Meanwhile, surround yourself with people who challenge you, teach you, and push you to be your best self. As @MelindaGates does for me.

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 15, 2017

9/ If I could give each of you a graduation present, it would be this–the most inspiring book I've ever read. pic.twitter.com/P67BuvpELJ

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 15, 2017

11/ That matters because if you think the world is getting better, you want to spread the progress to more people and places.

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 15, 2017

13/ This is the core of my worldview. It sustains me in tough times and is the reason I love my work. I think it can do same for you.

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 15, 2017

14/ This is an amazing time to be alive. I hope you make the most of it.

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 15, 2017