Wikipedia creator Jimmy Wales, as described in Seattle Times business section Jan. 15:
He drives a Hyundai and lives in a modest 2,200 sq. ft. ranch house when not traipsing the globe, coach class. A confessed cheapskate, he fled high-cost California for St. Pete. Lives frugally by choice. Did very well as an options trader on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in the 1990's before joining the dot.com boom in California. Draws no income from Wikipedia, which cost him $500,000 to launch. His philosophy is "you can be a lot more financially independent if you choose to live cheaply. You can have a big expensive house and a Mercedes, but then you are a slave to your job." Wales is more "Wikibohemian" than flashy dot.com dude. His top-echelon friends include Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist, who said "Like me, Jimmy is basically an engineer at heart, and sometimes we are not socialized the way most people are. I joke about us having nerd values, but in a sense it is a reassertion of traditional values and focusing on what matters."
This guy sounds like the prototype of the typical ER poster. I think a lot of people here can relate, although I'm sure very few of us, if any, has the wealth he has no doubt generated for himself as a natural byproduct of his Wikipedia, which I often use for reference or to satisfy my own curiousity about various topics of interest. More importantly, he just sounds like a down-to-earth, modest, and all-around nice guy. Not bad looking, either.
If interested, full article here:
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsourc...s+the+God-King
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