Sage advice
On weekends in Omaha, the invention of the World Wide Web, and the need for a social model that turns to people for wisdom and advice without depending on them to continue making all of the decisions
Every year around the beginning of May, tens of thousands of people head to Omaha, Nebraska, to spend hours in an arena listening to a nonagenarian respond to an unscripted Q&A session. Warren Buffett is no ordinary old man, of course, and it is nothing short of astonishing that he remains mentally sharp and physically energetic enough to remain at the head of one of the world's largest companies.
■ But more of the questions he answers tend to be about matters either only indirectly related to the business or unrelated to it altogether. Audience members recognize not just that he is smart, but that he is unusually wise. And it is his sagacity they value. The questions tend to begin with the words "How would you..." or "What would you do...", because the inquirers want the benefit of hard-earned advice. Even if he were to relinquish all control of the company tomorrow, people would still plan to come next year -- because he is viewed less as a manager than as a masterful source of advice.
■ It has been pointed out that Bill Clinton, who finished his second term as President nearly a quarter of a century ago, is still younger than both of the major-party candidates expected to run for President in the fall. Bill Gates, having accumulated nearly unfathomable wealth and still barely old enough to qualify for full Social Security retirement benefits, is now free to spend his time studying whatever interests him -- advising, marshalling resources, or convening experts wherever he can. Gates is the same age as Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the framework of the World Wide Web, and merely one year younger than Ruby Bridges, through whom the schools of New Orleans were desegregated.
■ These individuals are notable because they, and many others like them, are still living and should be seen as sources of sage advice even though their individual moments in the spotlight are long over. And they are relatively young enough that, if they were to live as long as Warren Buffett, they could be resources for society perhaps into the middle of this century.
■ Yet we, as a society, are terrible about convening them in forums where they can be queried by generations younger than them. Perhaps as a result of that failure, altogether too many American leaders try to remain in the center of the action for far too long.
■ The median age in the United States Senate is in the mid-60s -- meaning that former President Barack Obama, who is just about to turn 63, would be in the younger half of the age bracket if he were to return to the Senate. That Dianne Feinstein died while still in office at age 90 reflects poorly on how we select for leaders while retaining the counsel of our seniors.
■ If there were any perfect answers, they would be obvious already. But the problem is clear enough: It should not be extraordinary for someone like Mitt Romney to voluntarily step aside and move into consultative roles before time takes them out. We ought to look for social models that treat wisdom as a valuable and renewable resource -- not as something to be extracted from individuals who keep working full-time until dying at their posts.
■ Perhaps we could start by convening a few of our wiser elders someplace for an annual Buffett-style Q&A. We as a society shouldn't turn our backs on what they have to tell us -- but we shouldn't behave as though they have to remain in the starring roles long after others should have begun moving into the spotlight.
