Silicon Valley entrepreneur fights spam, deadly cancer
Nicholas Carlson · 12/03/07 05:00PM
Steven Kirsch has cancer. Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia, to be exact. It's rare and deadly. About 1,500 Americans are diagnosed with it each year and its considered incurable. But Kirsch, according to his New York Times profile, is an engineer known for solving tricky problems. In 1982 he designed improved the computer mouse. He founded Infoseek. Kirsch has decided to take on cancer as just another problem to solve. It's just not quite at the top of his priority list. In fact its third, after "Who would make the best president?" and his top priority: "Eliminating spam." And he's got four years and $230 million in personal wealth to do it.