How should a lion raise a sheep?

Martin wrote, that a lion does not concern itself with the opinion of a sheep. However, in the world around us, sometimes a lion is sent to raise sheep. What then should the lion do? It would be of no use for the lion to tell a sheep, it is a pity you are only a sheep, or, your limitations as a sheep are not limitations in the grand scheme of things - this would be idiot parenting. Rather a lion must beside the sheep, as if the lion were a sheep. That is the only way to parent.

aesthetic businesses

The difference is an absence or presence of culture. An educated person knows where their tastes come from. A simpleton believes that their tastes are special. A businessman, doesn't care which one is which. :)

scalable substrates

Told an old friend, I'm studying computer operating systems. They asked why, and I said, such fundamentals underpin the success of any machine business - and I'm in the machine business.

They told me their story. I offered to help with their human resource development. They asked why, and I said, well, such fundamentals underpin the success of any meat business - and you're in the meat business.

If your commercial success depends on scale, then you must understand (zero to one) and (one to many) for whatever substrate you picked. Sometimes it's machines. Sometimes it's meat.

At the end of the day, meat and machines are both just people.

Marketing dysphoria is fascinating

Some businesses are competitive mainly because their product is fundamentally sound. Other businesses are competitive mainly because their self-promotion is fundamentally sound. Etc.

It is then excruciatingly cute when a business identifies or aspires to be something which it is not-exactly, or not-yet.

When a business with a sound product believes that it's success depends mainly on promotions ... or when a business with a hype-brand believes that it's success depends mainly on its products ... sometimes we see huge budgets sacrificed at the expense of formerly-core competencies before the error in value-chain alignment is apprehended.

Some business transformations are effective. Some are thoroughly misguided.

Progress Porn

I was reading about aborted attempts and lifesaving exercises on Everest. This stuff is just pornography - a civilisational exercise of assigning arbitarily high value to arbitrary lifestyle achievements, and then narrating the drama of success / failure.

There's no grand strategy about this - we only do this to help children manage their own development in a world that has no sense for optimisation. When the child is mature, they become a good soldier for the contemporary industrial complex. :)

Tofu Chips May Ultimately Kill Me

So my microwaved tofu game has been pushed to the point where the chips are straight-up crunchy. I guess it wasn't until recently that I realised you could execute browning reactions in a microwave because I was under the false conception at the microwaves only heated up water molecules. It turns out you can roast and crisp, furthermore without oil, if you can control the dehydration / steam-flow mechanics.