David Potter, founder of Psion, dead at 82

8 hours ago

David Potter was a pioneering engineer and entrepreneur who founded Psion in 1980, creating the first hand-held organiser and later contributing to Symbian.
He was a self-made industrialist who valued creating useful products over profit maximization, contrasting with Milton Friedman's views on business social responsibility.
Potter had a strong scientific background in non-linear physics and computational physics, which informed his innovative approach and broad worldview.
As a South African, his experiences with system change made him fearless and supportive of progressive causes like holding capitalism accountable.
His marriage to Elaine Potter provided a balanced partnership, combining her investigative journalism expertise with his economic and industrial insights.
He was an intelligent philanthropist, notably helping rescue openDemocracy from bankruptcy in 2013 and funding a statue for physicist James Clark Maxwell.

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