From John Robb’s weblog: On Point.� Anonymous (the CIA agent who wrote “Imperial Hubris”) speaks.� Major points he made: Al Qaeda isn’t a terrorist organization.� If it was, we would have destroyed it several times over by now (NOTE:� this supports my term Global Guerrillas). Al Qaeda and its ilk represent a national security threat [...]
There is a surprising syndrome in standards. At first blush standards exist to make help exchange between parties proceed more smoothly. If buyer and seller agree on weights and measures then transactions are simpler. It’s an efficiency argument. Surprisingly there is a countervailing force. A common, but dangerous, blindness that arises from that simple view [...]
I have an acquaintance who has a little life-cycle model of firms he enjoys: Knowledge: Ideas Action: Realization Relationships: Market Tuning, Discovery, Creation Process: Efficiency, Tuning, Scaling-up One of his little jokes: During the bubble it became possible to sell companies in the first phase. To be make them fungible. Start a company, have a [...]
I’m finding it very interesting to look at the challenges of creating a reputation system that allows it’s participants to remain anonymous. I think this is key. The right solution to the Internet identity design problem must support keeping the users identity compartmentalized. Only that can maintain privacy. If on the one hand we want [...]
Boy this pizza store is very well connected! Lots of nice little details, worth watching twice. thanks Brian!
“Master of the Senate” is about LBJ’s rise to power in the Senate during the 1950s. It is an amazing story. Johnson was a methodical and calculating ass licker and sadist. It’s is difficult to understate that story. He would enter a community, figure out who were the powerful old men, particularly the lonely ones, [...]
This morning I read an article about the resignation of a VP at a discount airline Let’s call it airline B. I loved the story as a marvelous example of secrecy and privacy in the modern world. Three airlines. Guy once worked for airline C; which was later acquired by airline A. So this guy [...]
Maybe all that esoteric stuff I learned back in the 1970s isn’t entirely obsolete! .PS box “joe” box “joe’s” “bank” at last box + (1.2 , 1.2) arrow from 1st box.ne to last box.sw “banking” box “credit” “firm” at last box + (1.2 , -1.2) arrow from 2nd box.se to last box.nw “reporting” box “mortgage” [...]
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