Guerilla Economics

James Burke Connections

James Burke. Genius, historian of genius, maker of one of the greatest TV programmes ever.

Let me explain. Back in the 1970s the heavily regulated British TV environment was responsible for adding some true gems to the world repository of human knowledge. Because there were only three channels, and two of those were the BBC, you didn't have to worry about competitive strategy, so you could make programmes to satisfy other objectives. OK you laugh now at the safari suits and flares, and you compare the stilted narratives and all the rest with our hyperaccelerated graphics and everything louder than everything else sound (and you know, us engineers should take a Dogme vow forswearing the use of heavy compression on the master channel.)but let me tell you something. In ten years time, if anything exists of our current creative models, everything we produce now will look just as stupid as old stuff does now. They'll be lining up comedians to say unfunny pieces to camera about Big Brother just as we do now about say The Tube or whatever.

But, like whatever. I loved this when I was ickle. It got me interested in the history of innovation, which is not normally a nice easy linear progression but a set of fits and starts, jumps forward and backwards. It also got me interested in the betweens, which are the really important factors. That is to say, the things which only happen when you connect up knowledge in different fields. We can easily become knowledge islands. So build fucking bridges.

Anyway here's JB at his best. This ep of connections links the atomic bomb to the stirrup. It's clear and it's compelling and it's very interesting. Part One here.

Get the rest while they're still up. I promise you that if you are interested it will reward you. Now to only disconnect, as we might deliberately misquote Forster. You can also get connections here

But why would you. £243 for fucking DVD box set? Are you taking the piss. Yes you are. Thank the ineffable Tao therefore for  a modern knowledge connection method. Here. Thank JamesBurkeFan at youtube for sterling work in uploading to the 'toob. Be careful with the 12GB vols 1, 2, 3 set (it will take days to dl.)

And remember to ding a dong every hour, when you pick a flower, even when your lover has gone....

The Accountant Dance

From At Last the 1948 Show. Enjoy cherubim!

From the Strategist's Brain

Great article on Porter's return to Strategy and competitiveness.

Von Clausewitz homepage. (The great Prussian military strategist has a lot of interesting stuff to say about business.)

Art of War online. (Note this was originally an eidetic text and has a hell of a lot of stuff that's not immediately comprehensible. It's also got some stuff in it that was meant to be incomprehensible to all but adepts)

Deposed CEO has something interesting to say

From Wired, A really good interview with Carly Fiorina, former CEO of HP.

Of course, numbers are important in a business too. But I think frequently people don't understand that numbers are usually lagging indicators. The results that a business posts in the quarter or the products that a business puts on a shelf are the result of decisions that have already been made.

Time management for anarchists

Be your own boss and treat yourself like the vermin you are!!!!

Time management for anarchists is a web movie on how to be more productive under the assumption that you don't want some besuited slimeball telling you how to.

It is very useful.

The Mystery of Capital

Hernando de Soto's acclaimed analysis of why some countries undergo rapid economic development and some do not.

Ultimately it all comes down to property rights (sorry, this is a very short and simple explanation in no way doing justice to de Soto's argument)

Funnily enough, John Sutherland pointed out a similar thing in his educational masterpiece "It's everybody's business"

Part 1

Part 2

The key idea that property rights are essential for the formation and utilisation of capital is common currency amongst economists. It's absolutely also key that solutions that seem developmentally correct can founder if one does not consider the availability of capital and its embodiment in some form of property rights. After all, one would actually need e.g title to one's home to borrow against its value, and say if one lived in a shanty in Lima one would most likely not have title to one's shack. Therefore, the capital that exists embodied in the shack is to some extent "dead": that is to say, it can't really work for you.

A good, non head hurting explanation here. As ever, original video in the Prelinger archives

What makes us tick

Produced by the mighty John Sutherland, You tubed into two parts.

This one is to edumacate the average American worker into the ways of the average American Stockmarket. Ignore the slightly naive and hokey way (and I admit that I'm asking a lot of you) and it's broadly accurate (notice it's a little, er, circumspect on the risk reward trade off).

In Part One we follow the oil drum manufacturing company to its $20Million flotation. Note that it floats with a track record of business. The idea that markets might allow companies without a record to float is surprisingly recent!

Part Two takes us up to a trade on the market, and then leaves with a pretty cute coda...Yes that's when risk gets mentioned. In the SMALLPRINT!

The original is there for your general perusal in the Prelinger Archives.