New Wealth

I grew up in New England, where the majority of wealthy people have grown up into wealth. Having been in California for the last 8 or so years, with the latter half of that in San Francisco I am beginning to really appreciate the entrepreneur that becomes wealthy.

With old wealth there is such a close-mindedness about it. These people were never really challenged in their lives. They never develop a curiosity that can lead to great things.

With new wealth the curiosity, intelligence and other such talents/skills that earned them their wealth tends to remain. Not always, but frequently enough. Now a days we are seeing all of these rich people putting their money towards more daring, interesting, and challenging ventures than anyone without those resources could do. We've got people looking towards making space travel more commercially viable, exploring and financing all corners of technological development, etc. Not to mention the expansion of open source development by those who no longer need to make money (not that you can't make money from open source development).

I just think it is a really fantastic thing that is going to lead to so much more interesting technical and social innovation.

I just hope one day I will have the financial freedom to explore the depths of my curiosity and imagination in various social and technological areas.