Returns and success

During the lunch we had some discussion on the merits of socialism in education, i.e. that everyone should have the opportunity to learn whatever (s)he likes and as such can improve her/his personal understanding ("personal" is opposed to "socialism", but let's assume that the value of minds under development are equal)

The discussion turnt to the enormous endowments some universities have, and how they manage their financial assets to provide this sort of intellectual freedom for new ways of learning. I found an interesting article on the investment manager of Yale university, with an intersting advice on returns vs. making money1:

"What he demands of himself is exactly what he demands of the custodians of Yale’s capital: 'People who define success by generating great returns, not by making as much money as they possibly can,' he says. "

(1) http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/business/yourmoney/18swensen.html