In an earlier post I ranted about the hand-wringing of the Doom and Gloom people. Let me counterpoint that with this young lady:

Robot Grrl

Take a look at her blog, and the work that she’s doing. An 11th grader who’s crazy about robots, who is selling some hand-made robots to pay for a trip to Stanford (for a special summer program). How cool is that? Someone who is actually DOING SOMETHING to solve their problems. Someone who is excited about the future and is willing to TAKE PART.

Those are the sorts of people we need to get behind and support. In her instance, the only thing that was stopping her was money, and that’s a stupid thing to stop someone. It reminded me of a wonderful quote from the movie Shackleton, in which Sir James Caird said:

After this conversation, I realize there is only one option open to me if I am to protect myself and my money. This is a cheque for £24,000. If I were to give you less, the expedition might never happen, and my money would be wasted. I do not like waste. I particularly do not like to see a man’s abilities wasted.

I wish more people thought like that.