Curt Doolittle

Author: Curt Doolittle

  • MORE FUN FOR AN EXTERNAL CEO THAN TURNING AROUND A TROUBLED COMPANY I don’t like

    http://business.time.com/2012/08/02/10-ceos-who-are-new-on-the-job-and-trying-to-do-the-impossible/NOTHING MORE FUN FOR AN EXTERNAL CEO THAN TURNING AROUND A TROUBLED COMPANY

    I don’t like to refer anyone to Time Magazine. It’s been the intellectual equivalent of a producer of hazardous waste for most of my life. But this article on the tough job of CEO’s whose job it is to turn around companies that the market has left behind, is not so much worth the read, but worth reminding us of how hard it is to solve some of these problems.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-08-03 10:59:00 UTC

  • week has been moving for me. Seeing people I’ve influenced. This is from a post

    http://www.capitalismv3.com/2011/08/21/envy/This week has been moving for me. Seeing people I’ve influenced.

    This is from a post by a young man who worked for me, and the quote is something I say all the time. I got it from Durant. Not sure the original source. He just paid off his car, early, and with savings. He writes:

    “Those tagged have positively shaped/influenced/inspired my financial life in one way or another over the years. …. ‘No man is a hero to his debtors.’

    — http://bit.ly/RewOy9 “

    And points to one of my posts on envy. 🙂

    I beat myself up all the time. I believe that no one ever understands but a tenth of what it is that I’m saying. But I guess that some of time. It works. And I think it makes me happier than anything else in my life.

    I love the gentle people best.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-08-03 02:11:00 UTC

  • @UmeshPatil @Hughman It is not racism to point out the truth. The west had the e

    http://drezner.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/08/02/mitt_romney_is_living_every_social_scientists_nightmare @UmeshPatil @Hughman It is not racism to point out the truth. The west had the extraordinary luck to have the church forbid marriage to cousins, and to award women property rights. Combined with the manorial system, which required that a man demonstrate finess in order to obtain land to work, and therefore the ability to raise a family and reproduce, the west obtained the nuclear family, the work ethic, universalism, property rights, and a near absence of corruption endemic to all other human social orders. Culture matters. India’s power failed because corruption is endemic, and corruption is endemic because of familialism. Europeans are a dying culture because it turned on itself and lost its confidence after the world wars, and because feminism decreased the breeding rate of its women to below replacement levels and governments had to resort to immigration in order to maintain it’s intergenerational redistribution programs.And if that bothers you, race matters too. Because people demonstrably prefer to be around those who look like them, and the distribution of talents does differ between the races. Races might not matter if people did not aggregate and associate by race. But they do. Status signals are the human information system. And status signals are cheaper within group than across groups. So race matters.Many scientific realities are unpleasant. It is impolitic to discuss these realities. But they are still realities none the less. Choosing not to discuss them, is quite different from disbelieving them. One is a demonstration of manners. The other is a demonstration of ignorance.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-08-03 02:01:00 UTC

  • get academic-y about it, Romney is being “conceptually fuzzy” with his terms.”Co

    http://drezner.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/08/02/mitt_romney_is_living_every_social_scientists_nightmare”To get academic-y about it, Romney is being “conceptually fuzzy” with his terms.”Complete nonsense. A population’s formal institutions are a reflection of it’s informal institutions. It’s informal institutions reflect it’s notions of property rights. – where property rights in this case includes several property, familial property, communal property, and cultural norms: morals, ethics, manners and rituals.Romney is a CONSERVATIVE. Conservatives think in terms of, and give higher priority to, moral capital: norms. His framework is that framework. And in that framework he is speaking quite clearly, and accurately, to his audience.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-08-03 01:50:00 UTC

  • “DIRTY STORY” By John Patrick Shanley, Directed by Valerie Curtis The Intiman Th

    “DIRTY STORY”

    By John Patrick Shanley, Directed by Valerie Curtis

    The Intiman Theater

    An allegorical story with four characters representing the Jews, the Palestinians, the Americans and the English. Starts out well, perhaps even deep, which gives the audience hope that something good might follow. But then rapidly devolves into freshman level writing, and embarrassing attempts at slapstick and farce. Humor is a very hard thing. And some subjects make it even more difficult.

    The best thing I can say is that the actors did an exceptional job with material unbefitting either the author or the subject. The cartoonish representation of each position, provided little humor and even less insight into the plight of each, and served to reinforce stereotypical falsehoods rather than provide solutions. In particular it represents the USA as an ignorant buffoon rather than a distant country desperately trying to drag ancient peoples with mortal feuds into the modern world of cooperative consumerism, entirely for their benefit, but entirely against their wishes, using every possible device available. And of course, the author then throws the usual gratuitous, false and apologetic homage to the most primitive ambitions.

    I am too respectful of actors to walk out on a play except at intermission. But the last half hour was so painfully tedious, common and predictable that I desperately wanted to, and literally counted down the minutes to the end. I estimated the theatre’s take for the evening at $750. A pittance. And the economist in me argues that at least we’re keeping people off the streets. But I’m not sure it’s worth it for this kind of fare. Walking the streets would undoubtably be better for both mind and body.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-08-03 01:14:00 UTC

  • STARBUCKS AND PRESERVATIVES Starbucks Pastries are loaded with oils and preserva

    STARBUCKS AND PRESERVATIVES

    Starbucks Pastries are loaded with oils and preservatives. Loaded.

    So not only do that mocha latte and scone have more calories than Big Mac. But they have even more chemistry in them.

    So for the past few days I’ve been drinking iced tea. It’s pretty safe right? And I noticed that I was getting disoriented. Msg and sulphites make you either calm or confused or both. And so by process of elimination I get to the iced tea. And it turns out that Starbucks doesn’t use sugar but “sweetener”. The sweetener is a bottle of horrid chemistry. The fact the the label is Italian apparently should distract you from the fact that it’s probably made in the bowels of new jersey somewhere.

    The moral is: ask for sugar if you need sweetener.

    Oh and aspartame produces sulphite reactions too. And if the label includes yeast or protein or natural flavor in the ingredients then that’s code for neuron toxic MSG.

    You know all those young guys who get sleepy in the afternoons? MSG at lunch.

    At least Starbucks hasn’t stooped to dosing the coffee like Tim Hortons either does by accident or intent. Tim Hortons is a national dietary requirement. No wonder Canadians are so calm. They’re all on MSG maintenance doses. 🙂

    Source date (UTC): 2012-08-02 19:52:00 UTC

  • WANG DOODY SEATTLE I just popped in to visit a friend. Great company. Good peopl

    WANG DOODY SEATTLE

    I just popped in to visit a friend. Great company. Good people. Creative work. Awesome offices with a view of the Sound.

    I’m Envious of the work for Jaguar. I’m not sure I could be more envious of any brand. I’m a dedicated jaguar owner.

    But, you know, I have a reputation for being either devious or cunning. So I tried to stay away from people who had moved on or spun off in order to avoid ill feelings.

    But now that I’m not active in the business I’m free to catch up with people. And it’s really inspiring to see what everyone is up to.

    The spin offs are something even more cautious about. I think people in spin offs tend to have the wrong impression of how I feel about them. And while I have to maintain a certain posture, and I have a responsibility to the current business, it’s how I started some of my own businesses. So I tend to look at spin offs as my offspring and inside I root for them at every opportunity.

    I love entrepreneurship everywhere I find it.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-08-02 19:10:00 UTC

  • I must have worn out my welcome in Seattle because I haven’t got anyone to go to

    I must have worn out my welcome in Seattle because I haven’t got anyone to go to dinner and talk nonsense with tonight. 🙂

    So many startup conversations going on that i didn’t expect this lull.

    I haven’t hit up the libertarian circuit. Maybe I’ll give that a shot.

    🙂

    Source date (UTC): 2012-08-01 19:19:00 UTC

  • The average European and particularly the average working class European always

    The average European and particularly the average working class European always appears on average so much better educated than his American peer. This may be a selection effect since I can only interact with those who are competent English speakers. But the test data seems to confirm it. And while it is heretical to state that the heterogeneity of the American population accounts for those scores, it remains that peers of Europeans in the USA are less literate and less numerate.

    On the other hand, the average American is extraordinarily conscious of the country’s military, political, and financial role in the world – even though the cannot choose whether to be pleased or frustrated by it.

    I am one of those Americans that tends to resent Europeans who treat us with disdain despite our expensive subsidy of their economies.

    American foreign policy is not conducted on emotive or moral grounds, but strategic grounds. Always. Good or bad.

    The world would be a better place if we withdrew from europe and forced them to bear the same burdens we do.

    Perhaps then our values would converge. It is not understood on either side of the pond that two centuries ago Americans thought precisely about Europe what Europeans think about America today.

    And people around the world congratulate themselves on their moral choices despite the fact that geography, demographics, and economic conditions are the source of their opinion, not their deliberate choice.

    The usa will be energy independent soon which will put us in strategic conflict with Europe. We will no longer have material reason nor the means to play policeman to the world.

    Maintaining a stable price of oil as well as food and currency is too much of a burden for the American people.

    So something will change here one way or another.

    And self congratulatory moral convenience will change with it.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-08-01 13:35:00 UTC

  • Every class is unfit to govern. That’s why the english, and our american classic

    Every class is unfit to govern. That’s why the english, and our american classical liberals created a house for each of the upper and middle classes. The mistake they made was in not creating a house for the proletariat, and instead handing the house of the middle class of business owners over to the proles by democratic process. Houses allow classes to cooperate without falling victim to mob rule by the proletariat, necessitating corporatism by the rest.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-08-01 10:40:00 UTC