Thought of the Day

When the times are good you hire sales people when times are bad you hire R&D

The Economic historian Alexander Field concludes that the 1930s were the “most technologically progressive” decade of the twentieth century…..Although many see it as an easy target during budget cut-back’s, spending on research and development actually doubled over the course of the 1930s. More research and development labs were opened in the first four years of the Depression than in the entire preceding decade seventy-three compared to sixty-six. The number of people employed in research and development quadrupled, increasing from fewer than 7,000 in 1929 to nearly 28,000 by 1940, during a period of double-digit employment overall. Spending on R&D doubled over the course of the 1930s. from The Great Reset: How the Post-Crash Economy Will Change the Way We Live and Work, Richard Florida

Richard Florida explains that peaks and valleys are part of the lifecycle of any society as "obsolete and dysfunctional systems and practices" collapse, replaced by "the seeds of innovation and invention, of creativity and entrepreneurship." The First Great Reset occurred in the 1870s, the Second in the 1930s, and a Third is now developing.

One of his core points is that we tend to confuse capitalism with competition. We tend to think that whoever competes best comes out ahead. In the race to be more competitive, we sometimes confuse what is hard with what is valuable. The intensity of competition becomes a proxy for value.

In fact, Thiel argues, we often shouldn’t seek to be really good competitors. We should seek to be really good monopolists. Instead of being slightly better than everybody else in a crowded and established field, it’s often more valuable to create a new market and totally dominate it. The profit margins are much bigger, and the value to society is often bigger, too.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/24/opinion/brooks-the-creative-monopoly.html?_r=3&ref=opinion

PS This idea from Peter Thiel, is the core idea from the book Blue Ocean Strategy. I believe these days that our kids are wiser to study something different than to study what everybody else is studying even if they are on top of the ranking. If you go to the same schools and learn the same tricks you are a commodity easily replaceable. Also Al Ries has touched in this in all of his books.

Blue Ocean Strategy: How To Create Uncontested Market Space And Make The Competition Irrelevant

Selling to people who aren’t searching for what you sell?

The portion of the population that haven't bought from you or your competition yet is not waiting for a better mousetrap.
They're not busy considering a, b and c and then waiting for d.
No, they're not in the market. They don't believe that they have a problem that's worth the time and money they think it's going to take to solve it.
As a result, smart marketers don't market to this audience by saying, "hey, ours is better than theirs!"
If this group thought that they had a solvable problem, the would have solved it already.
No, they won't respond to a better-than-them pitch. Instead, they're much more likely to respond to a new statement of their problem and a new statement of the solution. Don't ask them to announce that they were wrong when they decided that they didn't need a tablet, a survival kit or an anti-impotence drug. Instead, make it easy for them to make a new decision based on new information.

Seth Godin

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/04/selling-to-people-who-havent-bought-yet.html

Creativity

I think to be creative we have to lose sight of shore this is the key.

Man cannot discover new oceans unless
he has the courage to lose sight of the
shore." - André Gide

Cartoon from SimoleonSense

Don’t pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he’ll just kill you

Jeff Carter, Wisdom from the farm

You pay a Great deal too dear for what’s given freely

William Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale, Act 1, Scene 1

Can Atheists Be Happy? Being religious confers big benefits. Time and again, studies have shown that people who have a religious faith are more likely to be healthy and happy than those who lack one. Religious people may even live longer. Go to church and you could outlive your atheist friends by a good seven years, as we report in this issue (see “Healthy Skepticism,” by Sandra Upson). Yet doctors don’t counsel patients to take up Christianity, say, as a way of beating back mental or physical distress. Even if such advice were socially acceptable, it wouldn’t work. Most people can’t just go out and find religion if the idea hadn’t resonated with them before. But finding out the secret ingredients behind religion’s powerful effects might reveal something that could be prescribed.

One clue: religion makes the biggest difference for well-being in places where life is hard, suggesting the belief system, or the camaraderie that accompanies it, provides support when times are tough. But if you are affluent, and things are going well, you may be perfectly happy without this psychological safety net, studies show. Being religious also seems to be most beneficial if you live among mostly religious people, indicating it is way of fitting in socially. In countries where few people believe, the psychological benefits of faith disappear.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/streams-of-consciousness/2012/04/12/can-atheists-be-happy-and-other-answers-from-scientific-american-mind/

PS Just arrived from Washington where I attended a DB Hedge Fund conference. I loved Washington, George town, New Museum, rooftop of the W Hotel and the Potomac park are very nice the conference that I attended was very well organized. Not a good idea to go early to the airport. Dulles airport is not good.

PS2 Today is my 45^th birthday. I feel in shape 2 weeks before Transportugal Mountain Bike race.