Times-Union readers want to know:

An email lists 11 rules that kids won't learn in school and attributes the list to Bill Gates, who supposedly compiled it for a recent high school graduation speech. It's a pretty cool list, but did Gates actually write it?

Maybe Bill Gates found success by following these rules, but he didn't write them:

Rule 1 - Life is not fair; get used to it.


Rule 3 - You will notmake $40,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice president with a car phone, until you earn both.






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.

Rule 10 - Television is not real life. In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.


The list is often cited as having come from Gates' book "Business @ The Speed of Thought," but it's nowhere to be found there. Some versions have him using the list in a commencement speech at Mount Whitney High School in Visalia, Calif. But administrators at the school say that isn't true, according to Snopes.com, a website that confirms or debunks rumors and urban legends.

There's no indication why Gates' name was attached to the rules. Snopes.com speculates that the 11th rule about being nice to nerds "struck a chord with someone who views Gates as the ultimate successful nerd of all time."

Another version of the chain email has Kurt Vonnegut as the author. It wasn't him either.

In reality, the list is a shorter version of an oped piece by education reformer Charles J. Sykes, author of the 1996 book, "Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good about Themselves, but Can't Read, Write, or Add," according to Snopes.com and David Emery, who does urban legend research for the information website About.com. The oped column was originally published in the San Diego Union-Tribune in September 1996 and, by February 2000, Gates' name started showing up as the author, Emery writes. Sykes did go on to write a book based on the column, "50 Rules Kids Won't Learn in School: Real World Antidotes to Feel-Good Education."

carole.fader@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4635