This excerpt from a recent conversation I had with a friend:

“…I know what you mean about products from China [being ill thought-through]. It is not that they lack the ability. I think they are so used to making bits and pieces in isolation for western companies, and they are only just now realising that they can put the bits together themselves and sell complete products directly to the …

I just realised what the fundamental problem with renewable energy is: it is free and there is a limitless supply of it.

Our current economic model is based on profits from scarcity. If no one can make (big) renewable bucks from renewable energy, no business-as-usual will take it seriously. And if no business will take it seriously, it is unlikely governments will take it seriously.

Oh dear…

I suppose if you …

Small things can and do make a difference. I found myself smiling at this label on a new box of Splenda today:

Exceeding a customer’s expectations, making a small difference in someone’s day, need not be a hard thing.

This is a great little keyboard I spotted on an online shop. It’d be perfect if not for the large and utterly pointless badge.

Was this the designer’s need (must fill up that empty spot)?
Was this the manufacturer’s need (must have a badge)?
Or was it for the sake of customers (they may forget what this thing is)?

The Keep It Simple Stupid approach would be to dump …

The behaviour:

Jerks are in every work place.

Jerks get noticed.

Brazen charm is often mistaken for intelligence.

Dominant behaviour is mistaken as competence.

“We think of these people as deserving even more status…”

“…if you need to establish your position in the office, then glaring at people, maybe insulting them, maybe fighting are actually going to be quite constructive…”

The benefits:

Better opportunities for promotions.

More power and glory.

Public adoration.

Dr. Maccoby finds that the most revered …

Read this Fast Company blog post The Buzz Around “Design Thinking

By way of Logic+Emotion

Some businesses are, by some default, allowed (and expected) to be passionate about what they sell. Examples are hobby shops, pet shops, and toy shops.

When these become “Big” businesses, however, they seem to lose that passion. Contrast your local toy shop with Toys R Us – which is nothing more than a soulless, fluoro-floodlit warehouse. Why is this?

Then there are those businesses we expect to be dispassionate and …

Another thought from The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet by Benjamin Hoff (ISBN 0-416-19526-1):

“[Although] we live in what is commonly described as a Materialistic Society … ours is in reality an Abstract Value society – one in which things are not appreciated for what they are so much as for what they represent.”

So why is Abstract Value so attractive? I reckon it is because Abstract …

“If you put a spoonful of wine in a barrel of sewage, you get sewage. If you put a spoonful of sewage in a barrel full of wine, you get sewage.” Schopenhauer’s Law of Entropy

The nasty few wrecks it for everyone else. Or:

A few demeaning creeps can overwhelm the warm feelings generated by hordes of civilized people.

Basically, it doesn’t matter if most people involved with an organization …

From The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet by Benjamin Hoff (ISBN 0-416-19526-1), this story illustrating the Taoist principle of Effortless Action or Wu Wei ??:

The Old Master and the Horse

A horse was tied outside a shop in a narrow Chinese village street. Whenever anyone would try to walk by, the horse would kick him. Before long, a small crowd of villages had gathered near the …