--- title: Bill Gates Guest Edits an Issue of TIME description: Bill Gates is the first guest editor in TIME's 94-year history. He asked some of the people he respects the most to write about optimism. canonical: https://time.com/5086870/bill-gates-guest-editor-time/ author: Bill Gates article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-01-04T12:11:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:42:06.336Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Bill Gates: Why I Decided To Edit an Issue of TIME og:description: Gates is TIME's first guest editor in its 94-year history og:url: https://time.com/5086870/bill-gates-guest-editor-time/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e40f45b31eeca0a/6988f639656a3f8266bd2f47/optimist-issue-bill-gates-guest-edits-time.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3040 og:image:height: 1710 og:image:alt: optimist-issue-bill-gates-guest-edits-time og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bill Gates: Why I Decided To Edit an Issue of TIME twitter:description: Gates is TIME's first guest editor in its 94-year history twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e40f45b31eeca0a/6988f639656a3f8266bd2f47/optimist-issue-bill-gates-guest-edits-time.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Bill Gates: Why I Decided To Edit an Issue of TIME > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. Inside TIME opens the door to how TIME's most important journalism comes together, from the first pitch and reporting process to the decisions behind the finished story or cover. Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs takes readers inside the newsroom, revealing the journalists, ideas and editorial choices behind the stories shaping the global conversation. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: Bill Gates on Energy [Watch (HLS stream): Bill Gates on Energy](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fn2oaC5b.m3u8) (2:42)  _Published 2018-01-04. Nancy Gibbs sits down with guest-editor Bill Gates to discuss energy technology._  by [Bill Gates](https://time.com/author/bill-gates/)  ## Bill Gates Jan 4, 2018 12:11 PM UTC  Paul Moakley for TIME Paul Moakley for TIME Bill Gates, the first guest editor in TIME’s 94-year history, meets with the publication’s staff.  by [Bill Gates](https://time.com/author/bill-gates/)  ## Bill Gates Jan 4, 2018 12:11 PM UTC Reading the news today does not exactly leave you feeling optimistic. Hurricanes in the Americas. Horrific mass shootings. Global tensions over nuclear arms, crisis in Myanmar, bloody civil wars in Syria and Yemen. Your heart breaks for every person who is touched by these tragedies. Even for those of us lucky enough not to be directly affected, it may feel like the world is falling apart. But these events—as awful as they are—have happened in the context of a bigger, positive trend. On the whole, the world is getting better. This is not some naively optimistic view; it’s backed by data. Look at the number of children who die before their fifth birthday. Since 1990, that figure has been cut in half. That means 122 million children have been saved in a quarter- century, and countless families have been spared the heartbreak of losing a child. And that’s just one measure. In 1990, more than a third of the global population lived in extreme poverty; today only about a tenth do. A century ago, it was legal to be gay in about 20 countries; today it’s legal in over 100 countries. Women are gaining political power and now make up more than a fifth of members of national parliaments—and the world is finally starting to listen when women speak up about sexual assault. More than 90% of all children in the world attend primary school. In the U.S., you are far less likely to die on the job or in a car than your grandparents were. And so on. I’m not trying to downplay the work that remains. Being an optimist doesn’t mean you ignore tragedy and injustice. It means you’re inspired to look for people making progress on those fronts, and to help spread that progress more widely. If you’re shocked by the idea of millions of children dying, you ask: Who is good at saving kids, and how can we help them do more? (This is essentially why Melinda and I started our foundation.)  Paul Moakley for TIME Bill Gates, the first guest editor in TIME’s 94-year history, meets with the publication’s staff. So why does it feel like the world is in decline? I think it is partly the nature of news coverage. Bad news arrives as drama, while good news is incremental—and not usually deemed newsworthy. A video of a building on fire generates lots of views, but not many people would click on the headline “Fewer buildings burned down this year.” It’s human nature to zero in on threats: evolution wired us to worry about the animals that want to eat us. There’s also a growing gap between the bad things that still happen and our tolerance of those things. Over the centuries, violence has declined dramatically, as has our willingness to accept it. But because the improvements don’t keep pace with our expectations, it can seem like things are getting worse. To some extent, it is good that bad news gets attention. If you want to improve the world, you need some- thing to be mad about. But it has to be balanced by upsides. When you see good things happening, you can channel your energy into driving even more progress. That is what I hope you will take from this issue of TIME. I’ve asked some of the people I respect most to write about what makes them optimistic. You’ll learn surprising facts about the state of the world, and you’ll meet heroes who save lives every day. It’s a crash course in why and how the world is improving. I hope you’ll be inspired to make it even better. 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