Some random items of interest for those ahead of the power curve:
- OODA loop humor from a reader: Wanna hear something funny? I first read about the concept of OODA loop in your blog a few years back. Anyway, I have a seven year old boy who is interested in, of all things, strategy. Particularly military strategy. So I had recently explained the concept and definition of the OODA loop to him. Meanwhile, he has spelling tests each week in school. And recently, I found the source of the words the teacher is using, and let him study each week's words in advance over the weekend - ensuring a perfect score Monday morning. Anyway, the teacher noticed that he was suddenly getting 100%, and she asked him what had changed. His reply (which caused the teacher to call me - she was a bit alarmed) was "I got inside your OODA loop; that's what happened"... NOTE: An OODA loop is a model for decision making -- observe, orient, decide, act. John Boyd, the strategist that built this model, maintained that faster decision making loops provide competitive advantage/victory in conflict. Tighter/faster decision making loop can place you inside the big/lumbering loops of your competitors (putting you behind them with your guns locked before they even know you are there).
- Laser truck vs. drone.
- Lowtechmagazine. Really fun site.
- What Europe is learning? Same lesson the US is: that the only type of state the global market will allow is a HOLLOW state.
- Hope everyone had a great Black Friday holiday weekend (particularly the great meal we all have on Black Friday's eve and the sports events on the great day itself).
- Signs of an economic depression. This year, corporate profits hit a record % of GDP: 10.3% The highest % since 1929, when it hit 9.56%. In contrast, wage/salaries, as a % of US GDP hit a new low of 43.7%. Lowest since 1929.
- Blueseed. A boat in international waters near SFO that allows entrepreneurs that don't have US residency to take advantage of the Silicon Valley network. I'm assuming that this a scheme to allow entrepreneurs to easily extend visitors visas.
- Vancouver just launched a $15 million "Resilient Capital Program" to help fund projects that help build resilient communities. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that this effort has a framework for evaluating the efficacy of resilient community projects.
- New term: Bloomberging The act of pepper spraying people/crowds that irritate you. Or, a shopper in LA just bloomberged other shoppers trying to buy the same item at Walmart on Black Friday.
- Plutocracy games. Sheltering wealth the Estee Lauder way.
- Trading advice of value in the old system for advice of value in the new.
- Plutocracy games. McKinsey and insider trading.