

Left: Malcolm Gladwell. (Jerome Favre/Bloomberg) Right: John Alfred Paulson. (Tim Sloan/AFP via Getty Images)

Hedge fund manager John Paulson had $400 million to put toward a philanthropic endeavor. The only question was where to donate it.

His final decision: a small school in Cambridge called Harvard University. Maybe you’ve heard of it?

Harvard was elated at the gift, the largest in university history. Paulson, a Harvard Business School alumnus, said in the announcement Wednesday that there was no cause more important.

But New Yorker writer and “Tipping Point” author Malcolm Gladwell could think of a few.

It came down to helping the poor or giving the world's richest university $400 mil it doesn't need. Wise choice John! http://t.co/2bFmuTy397 — Gladwell (@Gladwell) June 3, 2015

After all, Harvard is only the world’s richest university, with a $36.4 billion endowment that’s larger than the gross domestic products of Jordan, Bolivia, Iceland and about 90 assorted other countries. Surely there were other institutions that needed Paulson’s support?

Next up for John Paulson: volunteering at the Hermes store on Madison avenue. Let's make this a truly world class retail outlet! — Gladwell (@Gladwell) June 3, 2015

Working the coat check at Art basel. They're short staffed! — Gladwell (@Gladwell) June 3, 2015

For Gladwell, who typically types an average of five tweets a month, it was a practically unprecedented screed.

If billionaires don't step up, Harvard will soon be down to its last $30 billion. — Gladwell (@Gladwell) June 3, 2015

Apparently $200 mil is earmarked for a satellite campus on St Barts. — Gladwell (@Gladwell) June 3, 2015

It's going to be named the John Paulson School of Financial Engineering — Gladwell (@Gladwell) June 3, 2015

Harvard's pitch to Paulson: not all privileged people are equally privileged! — Gladwell (@Gladwell) June 3, 2015

Paulson to Harvard: is there a way to give back without actually giving anything back? — Gladwell (@Gladwell) June 3, 2015

And Gladwell wasn’t the only one frustrated by the gift. Vox reporter Dylan Matthews used the news to update a story on why wealthy people should stop donating to Harvard.

“Giving to Harvard is not philanthropy,” he wrote, noting that the majority of students come from families with incomes of over $125,000 and that the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the recipient of Paulson’s donation, serves already well-funded fields like robotics and computer science. “It’s not helping people who need help, and it’s obscene that Paulson is getting a massive tax write-off for it.”

At Quartz, writer Matt Phillips suggested that public charities like universities be required to meet a minimum payout ratio in order to qualify for tax exemptions. A small investment team, MG Squared Investments, offered a range of other ways Paulson could have spent the money: Associates Degrees for 63,877 Americans, feeding every child in D.C. for two years, mosquito nets that would save the lives of 119,760 children overseas.

Inevitably came a backlash to the backlash. Daniel Gilbert, a psychology professor at Harvard, said that donating to the school does help the world’s poor — by promoting research that can reduce poverty.

@Gladwell cheap jokes & bad logic. If you want to end poverty, research & education are the best investments. — Daniel Gilbert (@DanTGilbert) June 4, 2015

Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen made a similar argument:

America's research universities are our wellspring of scientific progress and economic growth. Gifts to them are moral virtues, full stop. — Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) June 4, 2015

T. Boone Pickens, founder and chairman of B.P. Capital, was less defensive than amused, he told Business Insider.

“My first thought was, hey, wait a minute, get the critic up there and ask, ‘Wait a minute, pal, how much have you given?'” he said of Gladwell. “You may find out he has given, but I have a hard time imagining anyone being critical of a charitable gift.”