What is ' a mandate to maximize life'? To illustrate the point, Buffett suggested that we imagine that the annual meeting was being held on a tour boat that was blown off course and wrecked on a deserted island. We might elect Buffett to be chair- man of the island with a mandate to maximize life on the island. He would probably set half of the shareholders to work raising food, some to building shelter and an inventive few to creating tools and new tech- nologies for the future. Now imagine that an IQ test was given so that Buffett could take 30 or 40 of the best and brightest, give them each a Quotron terminal and have them trade futures on the output of the food producers. It’s absurd, of course.