Abandon Text!

W. H. Auden once said: "Poems are not finished; they are abandoned." I have been abandoning writing projects for many years, since only the pressure of deadline and high expectations ever got me to finish, or even start, anything of merit. This blog is an attempt to create a more consistent, self-directed writing habit. Hopefully a direction and voice will emerge.

Monday, June 26, 2006

Warren Buffet, my hero

So, the announced yesterday that Warren Buffet was giving a huge portion of his wealth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Everything I said about Bill Gates a few weeks ago can now be said doubly for Warren Buffet. Not only does Buffet have super-human powers when it comes to making money, he is so powerfuly humble that he has no trouble giving his money to someone else's big charity. (His family has charities of it's own, which he is also funding, but the bulk went to BMG.)

What amazes me the most about the coverage of this announcement is that nobody is reporting on how this announcement coincides with Bill Gates stepping down from his day-to-day responsibilities at Microsoft. This is not a coincidence . . . so what's the story. Did Bill stepping down inspire Warren to make the gift? Or did Bill step down in response to Warren's gift, because he wanted to be sure his best friend's wealth was well-spent? I think a little of both was at work, but more likely the latter. The coverage makes it sound like they've been discussing this move for the past year, and that was probably the sign to Bill that he needed to focus on the foundation.

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