LETTERS FROM THE GLOBAL PROVINCE




GLOBAL PROVINCE - Home - About This Site - Agile Companies - Annual Reports - Best of Class - Best of the Triangle - Big Ideas - Brain Stem - Business Diary - Dunk's Dictums - Global Wit & Worldly Wisdom - Gods, Heroes, & Legends - Infinite Bookstore - Investor Digest - Letters from the Global Province - Other Global Sites - Poetry & BusinessScenes from the Global ProvinceA Stitch in Time - Two Rivers


Contact us


 


2000 Letters2001 Letters2002 Letters2003 Letters2004 Letters2005 Letters2006 Letters2007 Letters2008 Letters2009 Letters2010 Letters2011 Letters2012 Letters2013 Letters2014 Letters2015 Letters2016 Letters2017 Letters2018 Letters2019 Letters

2014 LETTERS

Japan In Toto (December 23, 2014)

"Locked into systems at every level, the Japanese are having a tough time changing their governance and their economy where something brand new is called for. They must give up their very useful nearsightedness that permits them to manipulate the infinitesimal and gain enough vision to merge their practices with the future." To read more, click here.

Triangular Eating (November 20, 2014)

"Greatness will come when some outlandish person comes from the ends of the earth to Durham, having worked for a few years in France or Italy. He or she will have triangulated perhaps between a hamlet in Asia, a provincial restaurant near the coast of France, and the Triangle." To read more, click here.

Knowing the Unknowable (October 15, 2014)

"Assorted Germanic philosophers, helped along by the invention of Freud's unconscious in Vienna, Kant's categorical reasoning in Germany, and the dissolution of Eastern Europe brought on by World War II, have done a stupendous job of showing us all we do not know." To read more, click here.

Salt of the Earth (or Maybe Sea) (August 27, 2014)

"Salt, which had played such a large part in human progress, as a preservative and even as a way to riches, has been sent into exile by the panjandrums of modern medicine. Most recently we learn that too little salt may lay you low." To read more, click here.

In Praise of Insignificance (August 13, 2014)

"In the present age, we are pressed to winnow out the dreck because there is so much of it. If we cannot get it under control, it becomes impossible to dream big dreams and climb tall mountains.  We're meant to do better." To read more, click here.

Got Your Back (July 23, 2014)

"Wherever we turn, things are asunder. Lives are still rent by divorce and acrimony, and an epidemic of depression weighs about the shoulders of millions." To read more, click here.

Alternatives (July 9, 2014)

"When we are at wit's end, with a problem that seems unsolvable and for which the big institutions can offer nothing, it is probably time to look into the home remedy offered up by a grizzled neighbor next door." To read more, click here.

Vienna Part I:  Liberating the Unconscious(June 18, 2014)

"World War II dealt a mortal blow to analysis Freud style in much of the world, but after a few decades the Master did come out of hiding and once again is making himself felt in many corners of the globe." To read more, click here.

Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte (May 21, 2014)

When dreaming of how life might have more texture and color, how it might be better savored, we hearken back to George Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Grand Jatte, which depicts Parisians relaxing on the Seine." To read more, click here.

The Times Are Out of Joint (May 7, 2014)

"Til lately Americans sort of thought we were the exception to the rule. No matter the state of the world. Our future beckoned, and riches lay round any corner. But lately we have gotten to be as wacky as anybody in the solar system.  Nothing works." To read more, click here.

What Do Customers Want (April 23, 2014)

"...the gap between customer and provider does not just occur in the rather intangible world of professional services.  Big industries, such as banking, cellphone service providers, and and credit cards,  trot out product and service packages that fall wide of the mark—with features that fit the convenience or easy-profit desires of the provider, but have little to do with the customer." To read more, click here.

Quick Fixes (April 17, 2014)

"...commonsense people who do not buy into kooky theories look for simple, you-can-do-it patches that will make life easier and make us a bit more fleet footed in a world that wants to tie us up in knots." To read more, click here.

Just a Few Good Deals (March 26, 2014)

"So, dear reader, if you spot a good deal, please let us know.  We will cherish the news and pass it along." To read more, click here.

The Quick Sands of Puerto Rico (March 5, 2014)

"Despite the dross, the Dorado Beach Property is wonderful and well worth staying at if you can afford the tariff.  Marriott is charging ultra-high luxury prices for a middling hotel.  But underneath it all lie some wonderful comforts." To read more, click here.

Tom Canning at War (February 18, 2014)

"We thought we knew all there was to know about Tom.  That life for him was summed up sitting around the family piano singing Rogers and Hammerstein songs." To read more, click here.

Selling by Subterfuge (January 15, 2014)

"We have said elsewhere that in this post-mass manufacturing era the challenge is not only to fashion an article that seems to be one of a kind but to convey it to the customer so magically, so personally, and so incandescently that it has a one of a kind feel which is as special as the product itself. " To read more, click here.

Striking the Right Note (January 1, 2014)

"But all the physicists and psychologists and engineers in the world cannot achieve the pacing and humor and heartfelt meaning that goes into striking the right note if triviality clouds our brains and coats our sentences." To read more, click here.