Print media is putting in their own words what they have learned on the Internet.
On print media
Reply
Are you ready for the call?
Jean Paul moved from France to the U.S. pursuing the “American Dream”. He started a small business selling French Soaps online. He came to realize the hard way that the grass is not greener here and that it is a struggle to survive by running a small business. Jean Paul would be on the brink of bankruptcy for years. The labor, insurance and marketing expenses would eat all of the modest profit margins before Jean Paul could put something aside for himself. One day Jean Paul was devastated by really bad news. Large national retail chain started selling his mainstream soap “Savon de Marseille” for less than his cost was. “This is the end of it” he said to himself “I better go back to my day job in France if it is still available.” Indeed the online orders went from meager to nil. This lasted for 2-3 months and a miracle happened after that. The orders came back big time and surged to levels unseen before. Jean Paul had finally made it. What happened was that the retailer dropped the “Savon de Marseille” product. They managed to educate the consumer of the wonderful smell of French lavender and the clean fresh feeling after using “Savon de Marseille” soap by their trial. Consumers started looking for the soap online and ordering from Jean Paul in quantities he had never dream of.
The moral of the story is that Lady Luck is out there and she visits those who are prepared and have their doors open for her.
Stories that repeat
The story.
DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) was one of the titans of the computer industry in the 70-ies. Hoards of programmers were writing applications to run on their famed PDP and VAX platforms. Any application one may think of was available. What went wrong and why DEC was sold for cheap to Compaq (part of HP now)? Corporate greed and arrogance among other things. DEC became so big and powerful at the time that they have refused to follow the standards and decided to set their own. They have encapsulated themselves in their own cocoon which led to their demise later.
The repetition
Apple has hoards of programmers writing applications for their famed iPhone OS. Hundreds of thousands are available. Practically any application one can think of is most probably written and available. Of course Apple is not a stranger to corporate greed and arrogance. Their system is closed, proprietary and they twist the hands of their programmers and consumers alike. They do not respect de-facto standards and try to set their own. We know how it ends. Steve Jobs, the history tends to repeat itself sometimes as a comedy and sometimes as a tragedy.
The repetition
Conversations
Shopping for furniture lately. Stumbled across the term “conversation set”. The conversation set consist of two chairs and a small table. Plenty are available online and in the stores. I’m looking and thinking that we need more conversations than conversation sets in this country.
Another recall Toyota ?
I would call my Toyota Highlander Hybrid SUV “the ultimate driving machine” if the slogan was not taken by BMW. The engine, the drive-train, the electrical motor, the suspension work in perfect sync to deliver very powerful and smooth ride at an excellent mpg (about 25 on average). There is one flaw tough that my 14 y.o. daughter Tina discovered in a natural and innocent way in the conversation below one morning when I was driving her to school.
Me: I ‘m very nervous driving today.
T: Why is that?
Me: Your Mom left a light on and drained the battery last night.
T: So…
Me: I recharged the battery this morning, however the car turns itself off at every red light and needs battery power to restart. I don’t know if the slightly recharged battery will last after so many restarts.
T: Why would the car turn itself off at every red light.
Me: The car turns itself off to save gas and protect the environment, because it is hybrid and because it is intelligent.
T: If it is so “intelligent” why wouldn’t it prevent the battery from draining overnight in the first place ?
The moral of the story is that no one can be brilliant in everything. Toyota produced brilliant driving machine, but the intelligence and human interface is something others are doing better.
On Money
Money is like knowledge. One doesn’t know what he is missing when he has too little and the one who has a lot realizes that much more is needed.
Entropy
Our whole world will turn into chaos and dust according to the physical principle of entropy. Leonardo’s Mona Lisa, Michelangelo’s David, Homer’s Odyssey and the paper describing the very theory of entropy among many other things will disappear. It takes energy to keep things in order. As time goes the energy of the Sun depletes and we are getting closer to the moment when there will be no energy left to keep atoms and molecules together and everything will turn into chaos and space dust. One may argue that this time is very far in the future. I think that the process has started looking at my kids’ rooms.
Chopping tomatoes
I’m chopping tomatoes for a salad today. Not from the store. Straight from the garden. We like diversity so we have all kinds – large , small, red, pink, purple and even black tomatoes. Some are nice looking like coming from a ketchup ad and others are ugly with lumps and warts. I’ve noticed that those that look best on the outside are not always good inside and the ugly ones sometimes are wonderful inside. Like people are.
The expensive cheap
I quote by memory here “…for every product there will be someone who will find a way to make it cheaper and of lesser quality…” . It is the favorite of businesses that sell expensive stuff.
While I agree, I think that I see a trend in the marketplace that calls for a modification to this quote “For every product there will be someone who will manage to find a way to make it cheaper, of lesser quality and to charge more for it. “
Me and the establishment
I was rebelling against the establishment when I was young. I am the establishment now.