Just talked to Eric Schmidt and he says apparently this wild excursion to the Caribbean ended up involving lots more than just global warming. Eric says Larry Page came back with a report about forming a superhero “dream team” of Valley boys, under the leadership of Richard Branson, who are going to use their tremendous brain power and wealth to solve a bunch of the world’s biggest problems. Global warming? Check. Figured it out in a weekend on a beach. What’s next? Malaria. AIDS. Poverty. Oh, and then there’s Iraq. Khosla is going to take the lead on that one.
Sure, none of these guys knows anything about biology, or medicine, or chemistry, or economics, or military strategy, or diplomacy, or history. But think about it. They don’t know anything about climate science or meteorology, either, and they solved that one overnight — after all the so-called “experts” spent years doing nothing and being unable to figure it out.
See, the thing people fail to recognize is that extremely rich Silicon Valley guys didn’t get where they are by luck, or by having one narrow little skill. They got where they are because they possess exceptionally broad abilities. These are incredibly special, super-smart, ultra-high-IQ people who have had great success in one area and can easily replicate that success in any other area too.
Look at Andy Grove. Guy has no medical degree. No background in biology. But he is now the world’s leading expert on prostate cancer and Parkinson’s disease. And he is going to single-handedly reform our health care system and the pharmaceutical business by teaching them to imitate the computer and semiconductor industries. Why not?
In this new dream team you’ve got a guy who invented an online payment system, a guy who invented a search engine, a guy who invented an online encyclopedia, a guy who co-founded Sun Microsystems and a guy who runs an airline.
That, my friends, is some fearsome brainpower.
These guys are creative thinkers. Way outside the box. Do they lack experience in fields outside their own? Yes. And that lack of experience is precisely what gives them their edge over the so-called experts. Because guys like the dream team look at so-called “impossible” problems and because they have no training they don’t know that they’re impossible and so they just say, Right, let’s just break this down into pieces and figure it out. And they solve them. Just like that.
I know this because I’ve spent my whole life among people like this, and in fact I’m one of them. I too have these superpowers. I too could solve any of these great world problems too, if I had the time or inclination. Hell, I could probably do it in less time than these guys, too. Who knows? Maybe I will.
For now I’m happy to just invest alongside these guys, and to say this: Namaste, dream team. I honor the place where my funding and your brilliance become one. Capitalism rocks.
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