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2005 LETTERS
In
Praise of Excess (December
28, 2005)
"It’s just
possible that creative, grand people occasionally do need boilermakers
coursing in their veins." To read more,
click here.
Why Experts
Are Wrong! (December
21, 2005)
"It’s not clear,
in other words, that experts should run the world, because, curiously,
they rule out the complex, in favor of one-way, my-way notions." To read more, click here.
In Search of Perfection (December
14, 2005)
"The creative insight and the hint
of perfection always lurks at the margins, somewhere hidden from view." To read more, click here.
Why
Not Turn Back the Clock? (December 7,
2005)
"Let’s save
something worth saving—that century of independent thinking that gave
birth to our country." To read more, click here.
Men at Work (November
30, 2005)
"If people are
to labor without pause, they need to know their work adds up to
something. But the system turns them into robots programmed to
ladle out bad porridge." To read more,
click here.
New York: Chacun A Son Gout (November
23, 2005)
"The chase for
the perfect and the elusive in Manhattan is a great deal of fun,
leavened by the knowledge that sooner or later you will find something
worth having." To read more, click here.
Just One Fish in the Big Pond (November
16, 2005)
"[W]ith the end of
the Cold War, there’s not one center, or two centers, but a host of
nodes that control our economy and our politics. If we face that
reality, then we will have a better future.."
To read more, click here.
Big Footprints (November 9,
2005)
"It’s hard to
have Big Ideas about small products and small markets, so nano-thinking
has taken over the stage and tried to come to grips with a declining
economy by offering niche products aimed at fractions of the market." To read more, click here.
Just a Crapshoot (November 2,
2005)
"In a world
that’s in utter turmoil and a world economy that’s equally roiled, the
high rollers are still out shooting a little craps."
To read more, click here.
The
Medicine Men; the Cancer Paradox (October 26,
2005)
"At the point when specialists
infected the health system in America, we started treating diseases
instead of curing people." To read more, click here.
In
Search of a Joke (October 19,
2005)
"We have long
known that art and propaganda don’t mix very well: eventually
propaganda, not art, becomes the goal, and the audience races for the
doors." To read more, click here.
Lorenzo's Oil
(October
12, 2005)
"We believe that
in a world of distributed intelligence and virtual networks value is
added by unlikely partnerships." To read
more, click here.
BioWillie
(October
5, 2005)
"Our sober
leaders tell us that so-called alternate energy sources will never
provide more than a drop in the bucket of our energy needs. It’s
fossil fuel and atomic fission/fusion or nothing, and don’t stop to
think about global warming. Or so they say."
To read more, click here.
Sportsmanship (September 28, 2005)
"Is the essence
of sportsmanship a graciousness of spirit that allows one to treat
one’s antagonists as comrades?" To read
more, click here.
Acadia
and Other Deviations off the Beaten Track (September 21, 2005)
"It is morbid to
quiver over what’s past, but it is simply exciting to hone in on the
future." To read more, click here.
Gales
of Creative Destruction? Islands of Self Reliance (September
14, 2005)
"The
trouble, lately, of course is that we have had a lot of
destruction—without the creative." To read more, click here.
Not to Worry (September
7, 2005)
"There are two types of seer in Wall
Street." To read more, click here.
The Uses of
Prayer (August 31,
2005)
"Prayer has
something to do with saving oneself. But, as well, we think it is
part and parcel of reconstructing society in the 21st century." To read more, click here.
Restoration
in August (August 24,
2005)
"Gardening, as it turns out, is very
much about worms and water, the terrestrial infrastructure which makes
all things possible." To read more, click here.
Investment Outlook:
Infrastructure (August 17,
2005)
"We are still a long ways off from
the kind of collaboration we require to move on the biggest problems of
the world. In many ways, conquering space and time is not a
technical problem, but more of a psychological or ethical problem." To read more, click here.
Anthony Converse (August 10,
2005)
"We are peopled with talented,
advantaged men and women. But they lack purpose." To read more, click here.
The Healthy
Society (August 3,
2005)
"As
near as we can tell, we are very much getting the wrong answers about
how to set health care to rights because we are asking the wrong
questions." To read more, click here.
The Collapse
of the Ivory Tower (July 27,
2005)
"Ideas, or the
lack of them, matter we think. The evaporation of principles and
conceptual structure in philosophy have gradually drained the popular
marketplace of big ideas." To read more,
click here.
On Writing
Well (July 20,
2005)
"Strategy in
these United States will revive when our people can put one word in
front of another in a way that goes somewhere."
To read more, click here.
Annual
Reports from 2004: Hubris: The Fat Cat Gets Fatter (July 13,
2005)
"Annual reports
2004 are very dour and hopelessly thick, the optimistic words
notwithstanding." To read more, click here.
And the
Earth Moved (July 6,
2005)
"Infrastructure
probably will be where the real money will be made for the next 25
years, and the wise investor will put many long-term dollars into this
sector." To read more, click here.
Heart
Surgery Coming Soon to Santa Fe (June 29, 2005)
"So what if
there is no heart doctor. You are there to enjoy yourself, not to
seek immortality or even another year of life."
To read more, click here.
Best of
Class Index (June 22, 2005)
"Best of Class now has some 365
entries, covering everything from wine to pepper mills."
To read more, click here.
Of Our
Company Index (June 15, 2005)
"We want to make you fully aware of
our Company Index." To read more, click here.
Day by Day (June 8, 2005)
"Cancer amongst friends makes us
think such thoughts." To read more, click here.
Secrets of
Old Age (June 1, 2005)
"[T]here’s
nothing much we can do about the body when we get old, but it’s
possible to recharge the mind and, with it, life itself." To read more, click here.
Canada's Shrinkwrap Comedians (May 25, 2005)
"Not for
Canadians are the bragging jokes and stories of Texas that manage to
make molehills into mountains and mortals into giants." To read more, click here.
Our Daly Bread (May 18, 2005)
"Too much focus on business is bad
for these businesses." To read more, click here.
Bumper Crop of Swiss Spaghetti (May 11, 2005)
"You don’t have
to be a churlish rightwinger to know our media’s a mess." To read more, click here.
The Price of
Tea in China (May 4, 2005)
"[B]oth tea and China are extremely
pertinent to everything that’s happening in our world, especially in
the economic sphere." To read more, click here.
Don't Step
in the Same River Twice (April 27, 2005)
"We now live in
an age of conspicuous conservatism in which, ironically enough, we are
unwinding institutions and ingrained patterns, all in the name of
recapturing some mythical past." To read more, click here.
Quantum Thinking (April 20, 2005)
"[O]ur knowledge
machinery is sclerotic. Big ideas don’t get circulated, and only
the trivial floats through our knowledge canals, stuffed as they are
with fatty substance." To read more, click here.
A Better
Vintage (April 13, 2005)
"If we are to get past the sins of
our media that worships hollow men, we must look for chaps with a
certain low key economy of style who seem to have a penchant for quality." To read more,
click here.
"My Spring
Break" (April 6, 2005)
"The City, then, is on remote
control at the moment—running well, but far from vibrant, perhaps
bloodless, suddenly faceless." To read more, click here.
Debranding (March 30, 2005)
"[T]he general debranding of
business is the greatest threat to American enterprise today." To read more,
click here.
All About Autism (March 23, 2005)
"It’s
not a lead-pipe cinch that we are looking in the right places for the
causes of the disease. [B]lind alleys have slowed progress on
autism." To read more, click here.
The
Digitally Distressed and Getting on with It (March 16, 2005)
"Stress is here
to stay, so what are you going to do with it?"
To read more, click here.
The Post-Consumptive Society (March 9, 2005)
"Our
minds, as much as our stomachs, are surf-fitted."
To read more, click here.
Laws
That Make Outlaws (March 2, 2005)
"Thoughtful
people of every political stripe know that the government is on a
financial binge, that lending practices are beyond the pale, and this
legislation is irrational providing a temporary band aid for shaky
lenders." To read more, click here.
La
Dolce Far Niente (February 23, 2005)
"Only in Italy, we think, would [a
soccer] ref be such a celebrated figure, and would running the match
correctly be judged to be an art." To read more,
click here.
It's Not
Carly's Fault (February 16, 2005)
"Transparency is not the problem;
horsesense about the way of the world is. What we require of
boards is not a makeshift adaptation to the present but a determined
push into the global future." To read more, click here.
Shameless
Hussy Becomes Road Warrior (February 9, 2005)
"Increasingly, we are
discovering that the motormouths who try to do marketing for authors,
for professionals, and for complex products bring very little to the
party." To read more, click here.
Mining the
Global Province (January
26, 2005)
"[W]e are under the
impression that about 10,000 people look at the site with some
regularity, so you are only patronizing a small boutique when you visit
with us." To read more, click here.
Doubletakes (January
19, 2005)
"Why
is it that we like to think that castles in the sky get constructed by
like-minded members of a team acting in ‘creative harmony,’ when it is
likely that earth-shattering achievements spring from an uneasy duel
between alien forces?" To read more, click here.
Wal-Low
Versus The Waterfall Hotel (January
12, 2005)
"Good
revenues and superior profits can arise from superior branded products
marketed in a very controlled retail environment with a true strategic
partner." To read more, click here.
Electric Power and Staying
Power (January 5, 2005)
"Bright ideas are simply no longer worth it unless we can
really, really make them happen." To read more,
click here.
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