I've heard him interviewed about his interest in cooking. He sounded like one of those fastidious geniuses who look at you like you're an insect - totally calculating, without a single molecule of empathy (you didn't know empathy had a molecule? well, it does).
I think with Intellectual Ventures he saw an opportunity to make a lot (more) money within the legal framework of the United States, and despite already having a great deal of money, he simply seized the opportunity. Money is nice, and more money is nicer. It's doubtful that he feels anything like remorse for the destruction his company has inflicted on the nation's innovators. No doubt he sees himself simply as a shrewd businessman who saw an opening and took it.
One of his rationalizations, if he is ever bothered to make one, might be, "Well, if I wasn't doing this someone else would be." Of course, that is true.
It's one of those times when I wish we lived in smaller communities, where people like Nathan would have to deal with the ire of the community - to look people in the eye, to see the hatred and the anger that his actions are causing. Barring that, the AIA is not enough, and we need legislation to put IV and it's ilk out of business for good. E.g. let's turn that hatred and anger that Myrvold never sees (and probably wouldn't care about if he did) into real political action to take his weapons away from him.
His book on cooking is called Modernist Cuisine, and is turning into something of a Landmark publishing/reference work. Its ~5 volumes and retails for ~$500 dollars.
So this is where the profits from the patent litigation goes:
Myhrvold started buying equipment for the research kitchen in the Intellectual Ventures lab. Much of the equipment was standard cooking equipment, but it also included items such as rotor-stator homogenizers, ultrahigh-pressure homogenizers, freeze-dryers, a 50 G centrifuge,[1] ultrasonic baths, and rotary evaporators.[9] The laboratory already included other high-tech and industrial equipment,[10] a 100-ton hydraulic press,[10] a large water-jet cutter, an electrical discharge machine, and automated milling machines.
I can see the connection with Heston Blumenthal in terms of the science of cooking etc.
Myhrvold and Wayt Gibbs, an executive editor at Intellectual Ventures who served as the editor-in-chief and project manager for the book, also started hiring writers and editors, research assistants, photo editors, and an art director. First hired was Chris Young, who had just stopped his work of leading the development kitchen in Heston Blumenthal's restaurant The Fat Duck in England.
That made me think of the bit in the Warren Buffet bio where he dines with the head of Sony (or some other Japanese firm) prepared by the CEO's personal chef, and basically loathes every minute of it and is dying for a burger and fries.
> One of his rationalizations, if he is ever bothered to make one, might be, "Well, if I wasn't doing this someone else would be." Of course, that is true.
Why would that be true? Nobody else is doing it at the scale of IV, despite nothing preventing it from happening. It's not because other people are capable of bad choices that you are excused for your own blunders. Ethics don't work that way.
The patent troll industry in aggregate last year collected around $22B in revenue. In aggregate it dwarves IV, although IV may be the biggest individual player. Legally-sanctioned evil on a giant scale...
I think with Intellectual Ventures he saw an opportunity to make a lot (more) money within the legal framework of the United States, and despite already having a great deal of money, he simply seized the opportunity. Money is nice, and more money is nicer. It's doubtful that he feels anything like remorse for the destruction his company has inflicted on the nation's innovators. No doubt he sees himself simply as a shrewd businessman who saw an opening and took it.
One of his rationalizations, if he is ever bothered to make one, might be, "Well, if I wasn't doing this someone else would be." Of course, that is true.
It's one of those times when I wish we lived in smaller communities, where people like Nathan would have to deal with the ire of the community - to look people in the eye, to see the hatred and the anger that his actions are causing. Barring that, the AIA is not enough, and we need legislation to put IV and it's ilk out of business for good. E.g. let's turn that hatred and anger that Myrvold never sees (and probably wouldn't care about if he did) into real political action to take his weapons away from him.