Links of the week

Nietzche's philosophy, our Reality and The Matrix

One good explaination of the concept of the Overman from Nietzsche. This has to come from The Matrix producer... Listen to this and you'll understand my philosophy of life.

Smart Swarm Animation: Using Animal Behavior to Organize Our World

I am not a conformist. Far from it. But I do acknowledge that, when it comes to group behavior, we have to learn from nature. Precisely from the ones that lives in groups: bees and ants...

This would help us in getting more effective... as individuals.

Political career assassination

The medias last week were full of the story about allegations against Dominique Strauss-Kahn for sexual assault.

I looked at the farce on television and could believe that those people (the medias) were actually believing what they were saying. Lets just say, for their sake, that they were just objectivelly reporting the presented facts.

The guy was arrested, and by enchantment this was publicized right away nation wide. Either the medias are very effective in getting news or… someone somewhere had all the intentions for this story to become public. And everything was done to make sure that Strauss-Kahn looses face before the eyes of the public: we saw him chained like a vulgar criminal, when it was time for his trial, they passed him between two low rank truants. Even Michale Jackson had a better treatment than that. Now I can ecknowledge that Jackson was a good singer, but we are talking about the head of the IMF here!

What’s my point? Look at the facts behind the facts. Today the president of France is Nicholas Sarkozy. Sarkozy is of central right confession, he worked under former president Jacques Chirac in the Union for a Popular Movement Party which is a center-right party. Sarkozy won the presidency at the last elections against the Socialist Party.

And do I have to remind you that America is lethally allergic to socialism? So having a centrer-right president at the head of France plays the game of the United-States.

But now here comes the time for the next elections in France. And this time Sarkozy doesn’t rank well in the polling. In fact it’s the Socialist Party that is foreseen to win the elections. And who is the leader of the Socialist Party? Your bet! Strauss-Kahn!

So this is veeeery convenient to some that Strauss-Kahn has beed arrested and treated like he was. The blow to his reputation is undenyable. Strauss-Kahn lawyers said this week that they are confident that Mr. Strauss-Kahn will come out of this white as snow. I believe them. But that’s not the point. Because the aim of the entire affair has been filled: to kill Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s reputation.

So we just witnessed the assassination of a political career. Don’t be fooled about it and about what you hear. And don’t over exagerate too. I am not talking about global conspiracy and the Illuminati and all that. I don’t say neither that this was asked by Sarkozy or anyone around him. I don’t know who’s the sponsor behind it. And I don’t care to know. I just say that this story serves some people good. And that this is just a plain good old political career assassination at a grander level. To me, this is not purely accidental and random that this story happened just now.

Strategically speaking, since this is a blog on strategy, put all you values and innibitions asside and look coldly at what was done and atchieved. We must admit, all feelings and values asside, that all this was well planned.

Money is the sinews of war.

On a purely economical stand point we could have foresaw the Second world war outcome by studying the economical and financial capacity of the forces in presence. On one side you had Germany that was rich and productive. But constantly attacked from all sides and its economic capacity destroyed a little further every day by the Allies bombing.

On the other side you had America with an even greater economic capacity that Germany and with the added bonus of having its capacity intact because it was not constantly under attack. In the long run, it was an evidence that America would win.

Then came the Cold War. A Titan ideological fight between capitalism and communism. Both trying to show the world that its way of life is THE way. Then again economics did it where the military couldn’t: communism couldn’t keep up with capitalism’s production and constant increase in the level of wealth of its people. The final outcome came in 1989 when communism collapsed leaving capitalism as the sole winner ideology.

Wars can be lost by poor military decisions. Even if the protagonist’s financial means are greater than the opponent. But it is never money that brings the defeat. Money is a essential component of victory in any conflict of any kind. And this is applicable to our personal life too.

If you have the money, then you can avoid many problems and you can solve many more problems. If someone gets on your tail, having more money enables your to hire the best lawyers. This is not a guaranty of victory. But it increases your chances better than being poor and having to means, no resources to fight.

This is one more reason why I sustain the ideology that one must increase in wealth as much as one can.

I received an email this week from my ex wife. She stated some stuff that she is not happy with and wants me to remove the source of her discontent. Now what she’s asking from me is unacceptable and an intrusion from herself into my personal life. Which she has no part anymore and nothing to say about.

I know that when I’ll refuse her terms this situation will escalate. I will deal with it by diplomacy. As usual. But as the master of war Von Clausewitz once said: “War is just the continuation of diplomacy by other means”. I shall go to war in court against my former wife if she doesn’t come to her senses. And this needs money. Lots of it if you want to win. Thus money is the sinews of war.

P.S. There is two ways to win a war in court. First is by presenting better arguments and evidences than your opponent. Second is by making the case go for a long time and in doing so, having your opponent’s financial resources depleted into lawyer’s fees.

I shall use both.

Links of the week

The philosophy of War - Part 1 - Heraclitus On Nature

How to make $2K in 4 hours with 45 minutes of "work"

Tim Bohen, a Tim Sykes pupil, showing how he trade the Tim Sykes's Pennystocking method.

How to make an amazing ebook in one weekend.

The Resistance - A Strategic Board Game

I played "The Resistance" with family this weekend. I had no idea what it was. And I must admit that this is an awesome strategic game.

In fact this game is good to develop two things. First you will develop you deductive powers. Second you will develop you capacity to deceive.

The game is played like this. You have two types of people. The rebels and the spies from the government. The rebels have to go into missions. And if the mission succeeds, the rebels wins. The aim for the spies is to abort the rebel mission. If the mission abort, the spies wins. The first team to win three times wins the game.

At the beginning of each turn every player is given a card. This card determine for the turn if you are a rebel or a spy. When that's done. Everyone is asked to close his/her eyes. They it is asked that only the spies open their eyes. So they can identify each other an try to play together to make the mission abort.

It is a very good game. And you must ask questions in order to determine (if you are a rebel) who is a spy. Because once you identify a spy, you don't send him/her into missions. Because iiff you do, they will make the mission abort...

It is hard to explain in here how fun the game is and how hard your skills are called into action.

I recommend this game to any one who likes strategy. And who likes to pass a good night with friends and family, playing a good game.

Case Study - Mark

Here is another case study. But this one is different. I should call it an anti-case study. Because this is the relation of a story of what NOT to do.

This is the case study of Mark.

Mark worked as a cubicle employee for a bank. He always seams to despise management. Until the day he was offered a management job. That day, Mark changed. He set a carrer path for himslef: "now I'm team manager, in five years I'll be department director..." and so on. Mark also lost ground with his friends (this was reported to me by a former friend of Mark). Since he was management now he forsaw no reason why he should speak to the same old cubicle people that used to be his friends. So he built a psychological wall between him and them.

Mark defended the bank's policy against any thing, even when those policies were questionable in terms of employee respect, engagement and commitment. Because Mark reported himself to a nevrotic manager which is so insecure and has such low self-esteem, that she has to micro manage everything, and she holds her department Darth Vader way: she is a employee commitment soul braker. Lets call her Darth.

Darth's way of management is to set a reign of terror over the employees. In order to maintain her employees' productivity, she unleash her team leaders on the floor as watch dogs of productivity. Moving row by row, watching the employees as they work. And even if this was against Mark's own philosophy (according to what Mark's former friend told me), Mark followed her rules to the letter. Just like the other "yes men" team leaders that Darth likes to surround herself with.

One day came that an employee got a special request. Here I don't know the details. It had to do with his work schedule and some course he had to take at school. Mark indulged to accomodate the employee in some way. But it would appear that what Mark did was against the company's policy. So to keep the story short, Mark was investigated and questioned like a witch trial by the company's investigators and Darth. Then it was ruled that Mark needed punishment. He would be demoted and relocated.

And to add to the insult and humiliation, Darth sent a memo on the floor for anyone to read stating that "... Mark is no longer part of the department and of management for reasons of lack of judgement..." This, I won't comment further.

What is the morale of this case study?

1. Avoid working for nevrotic manager.

2. If you cannot avoid working for a nevrotic manager, fight his policies when its unlogical.

3. The safest way to fight against a nevrotic manager without being eaten alive is to embrace my philosophy of total independance (aka make money from multiple sources, avoid debt, don't depend solely on you current job)

4. Never spit on your former friends just because you are getting ahead of them in you career.

5. Never put all your eggs into the same bag as Mark did in focusing solely on his manager career and not building an alternate source of income nor opening his possibilities with other employers. He had a vertical view instead of a horizontal one.

Mark's experience should serve has an example to anyone who only see the corporate ladder's way up and nothing else.

Links of the week

Very empowering and inspiring. A must watch several times.

Fierce Fitness Motivation - Jerry Sargeant Training System

Building endurance

In sport like in anything else, endurance is key. If you can't beat your opponent. And that is in any endeavor. Then out-endurance him. You'll be surprised how effective this strategy can be. And as I said, that is in any, and I really mean, any activity you can think of.

Here's the links:

How tu build endurance

The Brosseau Syndrome

The Brosseau Syndrome is very interesting to study on a strategic level. What is the Brosseau Syndrome? I'm sure you've encountered it at least once in your life.

Have you ever met someone that seams to do nothing, does minimal efforts what so ever and they just happen to have what ever they want from life and/or from people? That's the Brosseau Syndrome. And I am not talking here about the people that works hard for several years in shadows, accumulating failure over failure and then succeeding. For those people we only see their success and people says "oh my god they're so lucky!" but they don' know how many work and sacrifice they have put in their endeavor. No, no. I'm truely talking about the people that genuinely does nothing or not much, and they end up with everything.

They're the ones who applies for a dream job and just happen to have it on the first or second interview. They're the ones who get the dream house by the river because they just happen to pass by while the house holder was planting the "for sale" pole. They're the ones that gets the corner offices jobs doing minimal jobs...

There is something to be studied there. There is two things that I see up front. First they are good at timing. Second their mind works with what I call the "magic thinking".

Timing: I guess this is something that can be learned. You need to be aware and become ultra sensitive of your environment. The slight change in opinion, people, thoughts, balance of power, etc... can be an opportunity. A thin opening in the door which is all you need to gently put your foot in the door and make your way.

Magic thinking: Speaking of "putting your foot in the door", the Broseau Syndrome people are very good at that. They are like Nike, they "Just Do it!" For us mortals, we keep a polite distance. We don't want to disturb or anoy. So we don't ask, we don't do, we don't demand, we don't tell. The Broseau Syndrome people, just get in with a light head and genuinely aim for what ever they want. And perhaps its a reason why they get it.

I remember once I was in a restaurant with a female collegue that had the "Magic thought" hability. When the waitress came to take our order my female collegue, with a big smile, asked "I wonder if there is any specials for birthdays? It's my birthday today". And the waitress answered: "why of course! It is 50% off for your birthday". See! Me, on my birthday I wouldn't have dared to ask such a question. But my collegue did. And she got her way.

Why do I call it the Broseau Syndrome? I named it after Ruth Ellen Brosseau a freshly elected deputy for the NPD party at the Canadian national government.

Miss Brosseau applied to be elected in a region that she had never visited. A mostly french speaking region, miss Brosseau speaks very few french. She is a young single mother living in her father's house. In a country where it is the general belief that, to be in politics one must have experience and a Resume as long as the left arm. She's a student or was a student not long ago. She never ever campaigned in the region she applied to be elected and a few weeks before the elections, she took a vacation to Las Vegas. And guess what? She got elected! Thank you very much people of the new circonscription, you just landed her a job for the next four years at over $100 000 per year salary.

Now I have just one thing to say to miss Brosseau: Congratulation!

As I said in the beginning of this post, there is people who has it. The Life seams to take a pleasure to please them. And I am sure that there is a behavior patern there that can be scrutinized and replicated.

Links of the week

The secret power of time

Interesting thoughts and ideas.

Smile or die

I love how they handle the idea that, in enterprises, you must be optimistic or you loose your job. This is so true. I've been able to see this behavior many times. The people in command simply don't want to know the truth. They just want you to comfort them in the idea that the Earth is flat.

Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

Very interesting and insightful. It trows in the garbage a whole bunch of preconceived ideas.

They Railed About Food, And Harvey Took Action

This is an excellent article en read in the Investor's Business Daily a few weeks ago. Very insighful on how to read your environment and get a competitive advantage over your competition.

Innovate: He gave train travelers long-sought satisfaction.

The early years of rail travel were tainted with bad food at stations.

Passagers had to deal with spoiled meat and coffee made with alkali-tainted water.

Service crawled, with meals arriving as the train was about to depart.

The uneaten portions could then be scraped off the plate and reserved for the next arriving train.

Fred Harvey (1835-1901) had been victimized by such hospitality in his travels as a railroad ticket and freight agent.

And he said enough.

He knew he could provide high-quality food and service at an affordable price.

And spotting the lousy competition, he kwew he could make a fortune doing it.

So when the head of Atchison, Topeka & Santa-Fe Railway offered Harvey the chance to run a tiny restaurant in its Topeka, Kan., depot in 1876, he bit on the deal.

The immigrant entrepreneur established a string of Harvey House restaurants and hotels - America'sfirst national chain in stations along the expanding Santa-Fe railroad.

Many historians say Harvey's hospitality and Harvey Girls - the well-groomed and well-trained women he brought in to staff his establishments - civilized the rough-and-tumble West at the end of the 19th century.

The Santa-Fe sped with the food and hospitality of Fred Harvey, says Walter Borneman, author of "RivalRails: The Race To Build America's Greatest Transcontinental Railroad."

He calls Harvey that company's "ace in the hole."

"The Santa-Fe pretty quickly came to realize that, hey this is something that people are talking about in a positive way," Borneman told IBD. "And if you keep floks warm and well-fed, they will come back to you."

It is a simple concept. But in Harvey's time, it was a novel one.

Across The Atlantic

Harvey was born in England to Charles and Ann Harvey. The family went broke when he was young, and by his teenage years the boy was living with an aunt in London.

In 1853, the 17-year-old boarded a steamboatfor New York in search of a better life, according to Stephen Fried, author of "Appetite for America: How Visionary Businessman Fred HarveyBuilt a Railroad Hospitality Empire That Civilized the Wild West."

He soon found a job as a pot scrubber at Smith & McNell's, a popular New York city restaurant. There he learned the business from the establishment's quirky proprietors, Henry Smith and T. R. McNell.

They taught him the importance of quality service, fresh ingredients and the handshake deal.

Harvey quickly worked his way up to busboy, waiter and line cook.

After 18 months he set off for New Orleans.

Soon he headed noorth to St. Louis, running a saloon and restaurant with a partner.

But his partnership - and the nation - were soon divided over the Civil War. Harvey abhorred slavery. His partner was a Southern sympathizer, ran off to join the Confederate cause and took everything the two had saved - about $1,300, according to Fried, or $33,000 in today's dollars.

With the business dead, Harvey moved farther West to St. Joseph, Mo. He dabbled in river shipping, then helped devise a system to speed up mail delivery by sorting it on trains.

Before long, Harvey was working for the railroad itself as a ticket and freight agent. The war was still raging on in the East, but everyone knew that when it ended, the race would be back on to connect the vast West by rail.

Eastern railroads went as far as Missouri. Harvey and his family moved to Leavenworth, on the Kansas side of the Missouri River, in anticipation of the coming tracks.

There was tragedy in his life, too. His first wife, Ann, died giving birth to their second son when they lived in St. Joseph.

He soon remarried, to Sally. But in Leavenworth in 1865 Harvey lost his first two sons - Ann's children - to scarlet fever.

Sally then bore more children in Leavenworth. Harvey would live

Wisdom about crowds

In its edition of April 23rd, The Economist went with an article that is interesting. It's called Wisdom about crowds.

I strongly recommand it. For if you get close to the stock market for a while, or Forex or any financial market. You will realize that it has nothing to do with the theory of random walk. You get to realize that it is all masse movement and crowds psychology.

So if you can understand crowds psychology and if you can model it to some extent. Then you have a edge over people on the Stock Market.

Strategically speaking this is a very interesting thought. I wonder if someone could take the scientists findings in The Economist article, and apply it to the stock market?

Food for thoughts.