Reply #75: one of my co-workers met him while they were both doing field research ... [View All]

[Lisa]

... at a remote biology station in Namibia. She reported that he was very down-to-earth and unassuming. And a former student of mine got her degree in the Geography department at UCLA where he teaches, and said that he's the very opposite of a conceited celebrity. So, two more independent assessments to back you up, ellisonz.

I don't recall reading in his books that he approves of people trying to out-do each other in showing off their wealth. As you say, he's doing an academic analysis ... and the impression I got was that he is trying to understand how these things happen, in the hope of getting people to stop acting like that.