Do you know who Neil DeGrasse Tyson is? He narrated that show Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey that was on FOX recently and is a frequent guest on late night talk shows. He’s an astrophysicist, and he’s seriously smart. He’s one of those high I.Q. eggheads who has a knack of dumbing stuff down and explaining things in a way that that doesn’t make him come off sounding condescending. Normal people like me understand what the heck he’s talking about.

Anyway, a while back I listened to part of a speech he gave at some college. I’m paraphrasing a lot of what he said and even making some of it up but his main point is left intact:

‘So, exactly what is Bill Gates’ net worth anyway? The short answer is: $46 billion OR $46 thousand million OR $4.60 x 10 to the tenth power OR $46 x 1,000 x 1,000 x 1,000. We can’t really comprehend or conceptualize the size of any of those numbers, except for that last one – maybe. People have a feel for how big a thousand somethings is. If a large flock of 1,000 birds suddenly take flight from a stand of trees or you see a school of 1,000 minnows form a cloud or ball in the swimming area at the lake, you kinda understand how big that number is. You can’t (and won’t even try to) stand there and count them all but since somebody already told you how many there are, you just accept it and move on. So, Bill Gates is worth $46 x 1,000 x a large flock of birds x a large school of minnows.’

‘To look at it another way we need to walk in his shoes. Let’s say you’re walking down the street and you come across a coin just laying there on the ground, free for the taking. Do you pick it up? It depends. If it’s a penny or a nickel, it’s probably not worth the trouble so you just walk on by, ignoring it. If it’s a dime or a quarter, however, it’ll most likely make you pause in your tracks, reach down and pick it up and put it in your pocket. After all, we’re talking real money here. Not too long ago, you could make a phone call or buy a cup of coffee with that kind of money!’

‘Now, same scenario only this time you’re Bill Gates walking down the street. What would Bill Gates do? How much money would he have to just run across to make him think that it’s worth his time and effort to stop and pick it up? His ‘dime or quarter’ is about $43,000. Anything less than this just isn’t worth his trouble.’

I think the moral of this story is: If you happen to see Bill Gates walking down the street, you should follow him closely because he just might come upon a bag full of $42,000 and not bother to pick it up.