Grab a pen and paper, because Bill Gates has shared some words of wisdom when asked what advice he'd give to the next generation.
The billionaire and Microsoft founder offered his priceless advice during a session on the Reddit subforum Ask Me Anything - where celebrities, experts, and members of the public can answer questions put to them by other users.
The thread is Gates' ninth AMA and was conducted to raise awareness for his new book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, written on the subject of combating global warming.
In the thread in question, which was launched on Friday, March 19, the 65-year-old Gates wrote: "There's been exciting progress in the more than 15 years that I've been learning about energy and climate change.
"What we need now is a plan that turns all this momentum into practical steps to achieve our big goals. You can ask me some more about climate change, Covid-19, or anything else."
The thread has since garnered more than 13,000 comments as of the time of writing, but one question from a teenager seemed to resonate with other Redditors.
A Redditor with the handle Icharliee wrote: "What one piece of advice would you give to a 19 year old? [sic]"
Gates replied:
"You should learn about climate change.
"It doesn't need to be a full time thing - you should pick the job you care about and feel you can contribute to but also have goals that aren't just about your own success."
A number of other forum users then took to the comments of the thread to share their personal thoughts on Gates' advice.
For instance, one person wrote: "'Also have goals that aren't just about your own success' that's a statement that needs to be ingrained into the minds of current and future generations.
"We can't be so focused on our own lives without acknowledging the ever present problem future generations are going to face due to our own negligence.
"Every action counts even something as simple as picking up trash along the road, sidewalk, trail, etc. Of course we need to start holding large companies accountable for the sheer amount of waste they produce. [sic]"
Meanwhile, someone else stated: "Love this answer! I was a bit rudderless at 20 years old, left college and started reading about renewables a lot, got a job installing panels.
"10 years later have a moderately successful career in large scale solar installation as a project manager. Last year we turned on the first large scale storage/solar hybrid system in New York! [sic]"
Finally, someone else wrote: "Bill, I just wanna say how this comment is amazing. I don't comment much but this moved me, especially the last sentence: 'feel you can contribute to but also have goals that aren't just about your own success.'
"Even tho I have trouble trusting any [billionaire] and there is no way I can be sure that you truly and mostly use your money for good, I think that just spreading this mindset is a great step. [sic]"
However, this isn't the first time Gates has gone on-record advocating ways to fight the climate crisis, and recently he encouraged people to start eating synthetic beef.
