This and That

Take a look at the TED talk by Jeff Skoll, the first president of eBay and the founder of Participant, a social initiative film studio that produced `An Inconvenient Truth', `Good Night and Good Luck', `North Country', `Kite Runner' and others.

His goal while doing his engineering degree and then going to Stanford to do his business degree was to become financially independent so that he could do things to make a positive change in the world. To `invest in good people who do good things'.

I am fortunate to know quite a few of these people and I would love to one day have that same opportunity. From paediatricians, to child psychologists, to people studying how to give people the ability to walk again through stem cell research or finding the cure for Aids.

That is why I love seeing the work being done by the Gates Foundation with the profits of the two richest men in the world... Buffet and Gates; Richard Branson donating all the future profits of Virgin Atlantic to finding a renewable energy source; the work that Jeff Skoll is doing (though I know less about that)... and other philanthrocapitalists.

They don't have to do what they are doing. There is no rule to say they must do this with the extreme wealth they create. It is not right or wrong, moral or immoral... but the world will certainly be a better place if this is one of the norms of what to do with extreme wealth.

Buffet is not a fan of inheritance (which I see as one of the major inefficiencies of capitalism)... he says something along the lines of

I want to give my children enough that they can do anything, but not enough that they will do nothing.

Mena Trott's talk is less about being `good' but equally about changing the world... she talks about blogs, why people find them scary and what value they can offer.

I still think people don't exchange enough ideas. I know lots of fascinating people and I so seldom get to interact with them all... I wish everyone had a blog.