I think it’s far more effective to talk about high speed rail as fundamental economic infrastructure and as a platform for economic development. Let’s use the example of the highway. When Dwight Eisenhower started the process of creating the Interstate Highway System it was a visionary act. The distribution of virtually every single good and service in the US now uses the Interstate Highway System. It is the single largest public work in the world. Initially it was supposed to cost $25 billion over 12 years, it ended up costing $114 billion and took 35 years. Behold its tentacles.
Posted: December 30th, 2010
at 3:20pm by Koookiecrumbles
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Welcome to the New Middle Ages
Imagine a world with a strongAChina reshaping Asia;AIndia confidently extending its reach from Africa to Indonesia; Islam spreading its influence; a Europe replete with crises of legitimacy; sovereign city-states holding wealth and driving innovation; and private mercenary armies, religious radicals and humanitarian bodies playing by their own rules as they compete for hearts, minds and wallets.
It sounds familiar today. But it was just as true slightly less than a millennium ago at the height of the Middle Ages.
In recent years it has become conventional wisdom that the post-cold-war world will see rising powers such as China and Brazil create what international relations experts call a "multi-polar" order. Yet for the next 10 or 20 years, it is not at all clear that the future many imagine will come to pass - namely that the relative US decline will continue, Europe will muddle along, China and India will grow ever stronger, and other straight-line projections.
In fact, the world we are moving into in 2011 is one not just with many more prominent nations, but one with numerous centres of power in other ways. It is, in short, a neo-medieval world. The 21st century will resemble nothing more than the 12th century.
Have you heard of Stockholm Syndrome? It's a name given to the condition wherein hostages develop positive feelings toward their captors despite being held in negative, unfavorable and even life-threatening conditions. Victims of Stockholm Syndrome will even inexplicably stay with their captors even when given the chance at freedom. AHopefully nobody reading this is literally being held hostage right now. If you are, good luck!
Posted: December 30th, 2010
at 2:43pm by Koookiecrumbles
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Part of the reason is that small business owners are already doing everything they already know to stay afloat. Adding a whole new category to what they need to understand and stay up-to-date with is just too much. Imagine you were trying to catch up on 15 years of the Internet starting from scratch. It's not easy. Imagine you spent $5,000 on your website in 1999 and now you need to allocate money to do it again. You wouldn't know where to start.
Posted: December 30th, 2010
at 2:25pm by Koookiecrumbles
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This not only poignant. It also speaks volumes about effective explanation. For a long time my mantra has been: Show, don't tell. If I show you a concrete example, that's better than if I just tell you about an abstract principle. But that still leaves you on the outside looking in. If I can instead get you to experience for yourself what I am trying to explain, you will understand in a deep way and you will never forget.
Posted: December 30th, 2010
at 2:17pm by Koookiecrumbles
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Forty years ago, in a satiric book named "The Peter Principle", Dr. Laurence J. Peter first defined this phenomenon. The principle asserts that in a hierarchy, members are promoted so long as they work competently. Sooner or later they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent, and there they remain, unless they join a startup to get the next level.
Posted: December 30th, 2010
at 2:05pm by Koookiecrumbles
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Imagine you’re a workman, building a tower in the jungle. You’re surrounded by thick, lush undergrowth. Swarms of purple army ants cover the floor. The opal shells of giant beetles glint in the sun as they pick their way down branches that erupt in flowers of a thousand colours. The cries of birds and beasts fill your ears - the cackling laugh of something winged, the screech of monkeys fighting above. Bees, wasps and butterflies trace winding paths in the space between the leaves. You are startled as a deer walks by, antlers catching on branches that flick pearls of water into the thick, humid air.
Posted: December 30th, 2010
at 1:55pm by Koookiecrumbles
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It's no secret that there are two types of people in this world: people who insist on building false dichotomies, and people who don't. At Stanford, we famously offer two flavors of student: "techies" (or scientists) and "fuzzies" (or humanists). The distinction is an indelicate tool used to group new students, legitimize (or denigrate) entire branches of scholarship, and as a rough self-identification.
Posted: December 29th, 2010
at 9:26pm by Koookiecrumbles
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