[qq66]

The thing is that he genuinely loved math. I don't think there's really anyone in his orbit who loves math as much. His family is his family and his colleagues love money.

We'll see in the coming months and years whether he was able to create a structure that continues his legacy but usually the answer to that question is no.

[caddemon]

His foundation also donates a lot to neuroscience research, particularly for Autism. I think there was a family reason for that, so probably at least some of his scientific philanthropy will continue for awhile. But yeah it's extremely hard to create a structure that would perpetuate without the remaining people at the top truly buying into and understanding the mission.

[ironSkillet]

I have heard that he had at least one child with autism, hence his desire to fund efforts to better fund autism and the brain.

[jdonaldson]

It's hard watching venerable institutions rot into "just avoid administerial short term blame" death loops. You have to have skin in the game, not just hire a temporary manager for it.

[anonymouse008]

subtweet @apple

[paulpauper]

I think it's doable. Institutions under top leadership can thrive long after its founders die. This is true of almost every Fortune 500 company. I am sure there is enough redundancy to continue the foundation's goal. Carnegie foundation or Ford foundation, or Apple computers after jobs died .

[epolanski]

I don't understand the relationship with Steve Jobs. Nobody's arguing that Renaissance, his investment fund, will do well without him.

We're talking about the philanthropy that Simmons led in mathematics and science through his foundation.

Now, whether this support will continue depends on the will of Jim as well as his family.

[eigenvalue]

I’d argue that Ford and Carnegie foundations are not good examples here, having veered very far from the intention/goals of the original donors into directions that are arguably diametrically opposed. Essentially they were hijacked from within by hired “professional managers” who pursued their own agendas. Maybe in the future we can set up AIs to make the decisions on our behalf after we’re gone, because humans are extremely unreliable over longer time frames!

[ghaff]

It’s also not unheard of to structure a foundation to just run their assets down over time exactly on the theory that, given enough time, who know how the money will be distributed.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_M._Olin_Foundation