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.
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.