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As someone who lives a mile from Paul-land (SLU Seattle) we feel the loss and mismanagement of his various cool nerd monuments painfully. And we came to the sa
by kridsdale1 2y ago
As someone who lives a mile from Paul-land (SLU Seattle) we feel the loss and mismanagement of his various cool nerd monuments painfully.
And we came to the same conclusion. There is an impulse to accuse him of negligence for not setting up these trusts. But he died rather unexpectedly, and certainly decades sooner than he’d “want” to. How many people really bother setting up permanent legacy estate systems while young?
- hughesjj 2y agoYeah, I blame his sister. I don't know what happened behind closed doors (if anything) but I'm also disappointed neither gates nor balmer seemed to pick up the pieces either, or even Bezos given his presence in SLU
- asdefghyk 2y agoI would have thought his sister would have wanted to keep operating as a kind of memorial to brother.
- blackhawkC17 2y agoShe likely doesn’t have Paul’s passion for computers…not her fault. Paul Allen could have set up an endowment if he wanted the collection to last. But he didn’t for some reason, despite having founded other formally endowed organizations like the Allen Institute.
- themadturk 2y agoI'm surprised Jodi Allen hasn't sold his sports teams yet...things she was reportedly not all that interested in at the time of his death.
- KerrAvon 2y agoHe wasn't _that_ young, and it's something literally every person with extreme wealth does as part of their normal financial management process. You frequently interact with lawyers and CPAs who advise you on these things as part of their duties. He would have had a conversation about it at some level. He either wanted to take LCM with him, or someone was grossly negligent.
- KerrAvon 2y agoArainach nails this below
- delecti 2y agoHe was diagnosed with cancer more than 30 years before his death, which also recurred almost a decade before his death. That kind of thing usually gives one a kick in the pants to get your affairs in order. To have those health incidents, that kind of wealth, and still leave so many loose ends, definitely warrants accusations of negligence.
- lotsofpulp 2y agoNegligence of what? Sounds like this guy was doing something as a favor, I don’t see what obliged him to ensure it was kept available after he died.
- delecti 2y ago> negligence, noun - failure to take proper care in doing something. Negligence does not mean that he was obligated to show more care than he did. Pick whatever word you want, my point is just that he had ample warning and opportunity to get affairs in order if he cared about the longevity of those projects.
- lotsofpulp 2y agoThat is a good point, but my reading of “accusations of negligence” (and I think a common interpretation in this context) would be that there was a responsibility for the accused party to do something and they didn’t.
- munificent 2y ago> But he died rather unexpectedly, and certainly decades sooner than he’d “want” to. He was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in 1983, got non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2009, and died in 2018. That's 35 years of reminders—more than half his life!—to plan his legacy.
- daniel_reetz 2y agoSomething useful I learned recently. It's a lot more satisfying to share your favorite things while you're alive. You're alive to experience the rewards. Someone close to me wants me to pick out my favorite things from their collection, so they can have the pleasure of giving them to me. Took me a while to understand. Not everyone is worried about a legacy or where there stuff goes after they're gone. It's the least of my worries, personally.