Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Moore's Law for Republicans

This is the year that Republicans were confounded by their recorded history as it was presented to them in video after video, commercial after commercial. They do not understand the information age.

They do not understand that an agent for change is underway that doubles in power every two years. The ability to personally compare a politician's present statements with their past statements will be an iPhone app in years to come. They don't understand this at all.

Time after time, they are led into photo-ops for tomorrow's campaigns against them, denying their vote on laws they had once espoused. They have blocked judicial appointments, clogging the system. They hope to defund agencies. Their agenda is no secret. They preach it to tomorrow's cameras.

They do not understand Moore's Law. Gordon Moore of Intel back around 1968 noticed that transistors were getting about twice as small, twice as cheap and twice as fast every two years, and wrote a paper about it. Transistors have continued to do this for decades, and his observation has become considered to be a law.

It's the corollaries that get you in the heels.

If computing bang for the buck doubles every two years, then so does visibility.

If visibility doubles every two years, then so does transparency.

How do you anticipate transparency.

Thursday, October 07, 2010

Where Wealth Is Made

Walking through a thrift store the other day, my friend Bob latched on to a piece of glossy brass pipe, a converted gas-light lamp fixture that someone had taken down from a ceiling.

"See those rings?", he said, pointing to two circles of brass that had once held the glass shades. "I have to pay $5 just for one of these. Here, for $5 I'm getting the rings and the fixture. And I have a place for it."

He paid $5 and walked out of the store a wealthier man.

The world is round and money moves through a finite universe. Suppose we shrink the world down to five people.

Suppose Harriet the hairdresser pays Joe the plumber $50 to unclog the drain on her shampoo sink. Then Joe pays Mike the mechanic $50 to rotate his tires and bleed his brakes. Mike pays Brenda's Room and Board $50 for his room and board. Brenda pays Glenda the geek $50 to polish her web page. And Glenda gets her hair done over at Harriet's, who does a really good job and only charges $50.

Each is wealthier by $50. $250 for the group. No one has more money than they had before, yet each is wealthier. Each has created value for another.

By having a special skill none of the others had, each could give less and get more.

The more special the skill, the less time it takes to give.

Wealth collects vertically when money moves laterally.

Saturday, October 02, 2010

Did God Invent Science?

Science is the art of discovering reproducible results. Can you reduce a phenomenon to a formula and make it happen again? Everyone seems to be doing this all the time.

Each living thing is a reproducible result. Others worked the formula, and out we all came. God uses science. In fact, we are reproducible reproducible results.