A rare financier
February 18th, 2007
David Swensen: “People think working for something other than the most money you could get is an odd concept, but it seems a perfectly natural concept to me.”
It’s been a long time since an article in the business section of The New York Times made me feel so cheery about humanity.
February 20th, 2007 at 7:34 am
He’s an economist, so he understands the concept of declining marginal utility. I really don’t see that an annual income of $13 million, say, brings so much more utility than an annual income of $1.3 million that it’s worth all the extra stress and misery involved. Whenever I meet someone making an eight-figure income, I’m always struck by how unhappy they seem. If Swensen really has a job paying seven figures and is very happy in it, he’s found the holy grail.