Stats for nerds
1recommend
4mentions
4people
2011–2022years
25% recommend75% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Jim Rogers is a pretty interesting guy. He's a well known author of "Investment Biker" and "Adventure Capitalist" about trips he took biking or driving around the world. He definitely has cultivated a unique world view for himself.
I grew up in Singapore (for 16 years), and there are fantastic international schools there. The local schools focus less on learning through creative problem solving and more on learning through repetition. I wouldn't put my kid in a local school, but that's interesting he did.
I think that living in another country as an expat creates it's own problems, but trying to totally assimilate is impossible, especially when you look nothing like the locals. The first tends to make you feel superior or separate like I'd imagine the colonials felt. The second will give you humility and expose you to what it's like to be a minority.
There are many ways to skin a cat. Exposure to thinking other than your own is good regardless of how it happens.
- Reminds me of a surreal example[1] of Indian bureaucracy from Jim Rogers’ Adventure Capitalist:
1: https://mises.org/library/book-review-adventure-capitalistRogers and his wife had left India's State of Manipur and were safely across the border in Myanmar. But wait, here comes an Indian official running after them, who says that they can't leave, because, they didn't have permission to be in Manipur. "He was telling us — I am not making this up — that we had to return to Manipur, because we were not allowed to be in Manipur, and thus we could not leave it," Rogers relates. The debate lasted for two hours before, "someone made a phone call and took the subinspector off the hook, and we were free to proceed." - This reminds me of the account of NGOs ( Non Governmental Organizations )- key functionaries in the dispensation of foreign aid - in Jim Rogers' book, Adventure Capitalist: The Ultimate Road Trip, something I read many many years ago:
On the other hand, this is what Bill Gates has to say on corruption and why it should not be a deterrent to the continued giving of foreign aid:"Even in countries with no roads to speak of, Mercedes service is available – often to the exclusion of things like food – thanks to all the US foreign aid, the IMF, and World Bank money being shipped in. It is no secret that this money is aimed at nourishing only those corrupt enough to get their hands on it, while at the same time fattening the bureaucrats on both sides of the transaction who diligently work the trough. And none of them is driving a Chevy. I knew much of this from my last trip. The upcoming trip, especially as it took us through Africa, would be an eye-opening education into the workings of the latest foreign aid scam: the nongovernmental organization, or NGO. As an American taxpayer, I would be amazed to discover that a lot of the money we send to these countries goes to support Mercedes and BMW dealers and various Swiss bankers." "After cocoa, the commodity produced in greatest abundance in the Ivory Coast is to be found in the commercial capital, Abidjan, one of the more cosmopolitan cities in West Africa: NGO bureaucrats. They grow here in enormously high concentration, even for Africa. They and their like have been directing Africa’s destiny for centuries. One might wonder why so many national boundaries in these parts consist of straight lines. In Germany in 1884, at what was called the Congress of Berlin, the European powers came together and divided up Africa. They paid no attention to religious, ethnic, linguistic, tribal, national, or historical differences – the Ivory Coast, for example, is divided between a majority Muslim population in the north and those who hold to indigenous beliefs and Christianity in the south, explaining why peace in Africa may be far away. And why there will always be work for Western bureaucrats." [1]
Even fully discounting the fact that the man is unimaginably wealthy and can afford the graft and misuse of funds, I am still not quite convinced by this line of reasoning. At this point I'm just hoping that I don't wake up some eight years from now to discover that even things like Kiva loans [3] had been all along a huge waste of effort, time and - yes - money.There is a double standard at work here. I’ve heard people calling on the government to shut down some aid program if one dollar of corruption is found. On the other hand, four of the past seven governors of Illinois have gone to prison for corruption, and to my knowledge no one has demanded that Illinois schools be shut down or its highways closed. [2][1] Adventure Capitalist: The Ultimate Road Trip
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812967267
[2] 3 MYTHS THAT BLOCK PROGRESS FOR THE POOR
http://annualletter.gatesfoundation.org/#section=myth-two
[3] Kiva Is Not Quite What It Seems
- Karl from Conversion Rate Experts here.
We had Jacques, "The Jim Rogers of Tech," (http://www.amazon.com/Adventure-Capitalist-Ultimate-Road-Tri...) for a highly enjoyable two days.
We found him to be intense (on the first day we talked constantly till 9:00 p.m.), wise (he has worked on loads of fascinating projects), trustworthy (he works with many companies at a very high level) and fascinated about everything (he spent five minutes trying to work out how our staircase was made).
We showed Jacques a list of all our challenges and problems, and then for two days we worked through it, asking him for his ideas, resources he knows, etc.. We came away with several pages of useful notes. Since then, he has contacted us several times with further insights he has had.
If you ever get a chance to work with him, I'd highly recommend it.
