Yesterday, Senator Arlen Specter told his audience at a town meeting that he has to read many bills that are a thousand pages or more and the method he uses to manage this task is to assign sections of a bill to his staff and then reassemble the bill from their notes. With this method, Senator Specter implied that he is able to understand an entire lengthy bill without ever having to read a single section of the bill. I would like to see the notes that Senator Specter’s staff took. They must be wonderful notes if merely combining them would be sufficient to enable Senator Specter to understand the entire bill rapidly and sufficiently so that he could make quick decisions.
Then I thought that I must post something about note taking on my blog. I am a firm believer that all people should take notes about information that is important to them and their notes should be personalized. Think about this. Wouldn’t it have been a great benefit if you were handed a file of well written notes concerning data and events that were important to your predecessor when you were promoted? Also, if you are a golfer, wouldn’t it have been great to have received your father’s notes concerning golf lessons that he considered to be important. And if you were Senator Arlen Specter, wouldn’t it have been wonderful if you received well written notes that your staff wrote about “America’s Affordable Health Care Act of 2009” in a timely manner to help you fully understand this lengthy, poorly written, high fog index bill that has the goal of changing the world’s best health care system?
The truth is that I don’t believe that Senator Specter’s staff took any worthwhile notes because note taking is a lost art, especially in the United States Congress.
While I was writing my note taking monograph about the sport of golf, I wondered why so many people, read documents, absorb some information and then return, file or discard the documents, thinking that the documents can always be accessed at a later date if details are needed. I thought that many people use yellow markers to highlight important thoughts in books and other documents so that they will be able to quickly retrieve their thoughts in the future. However, their highlights do not capture their own thoughts and to retrieve their highlights they must return to the original documents and read them again.
When I looked around my office and noticed stacks of “Golf” magazines and golf books. I realized at that moment that I had cluttered up my office with stacks of golf information because I felt that I might want to read some of the lessons again.
I reflected on my golf experiences throughout my life. I am now 75 years old and have been playing golf since I was 13 (62 years). When I was 16 years old I was a scratch golfer. In 2009 I have a 12 handicap. Wouldn’t it have been great if I had written down my own thoughts, feelings and know-how that were important to me for the past 62 years? And wouldn’t it have been wonderful if Senator Arlen Specter had actually read the proposed “America’s Affordable Health Care Act of 2009” and written notes about it before he assigned his staff to read sections of the bill for him?
When I was writing about the sport of golf, I wondered why I hadn’t practiced what I preached. Then and there, I decided that I would take the time to clean up my office and get rid of all of my golf information. If the golf magazines were important to me I should have taken the time to write down my thoughts. The “Shot-Making Notes.doc” file that is in “Strategic Golf” ©2008 ISBN 978-1-60402-420-3 resulted from my effort to document my own thoughts. I told my readers that if they were interested in starting their own golf notes file, they could use my notes as a start and add to them to change my notes until they became their own notes.
Today, I will send Senator Arlen Specter a copy of “Strategic Golf” ©2008 ISBN 978-1-60402-420-3 along with the notes that I took when I read all 1,017 pages of “America’s Affordable Health Care Act of 2009.” I hope that Senator Arlen Specter changes and adds to my notes until they are his own.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
Market Value System Q&A
Questions and Answers
1. Is the Market Value Algorithm a hypothesis, theory or law?
Definitions[1]: A hypothesis is an educated guess, based on observation. Usually, a hypothesis can be supported or refuted through experimentation or more observation. A hypothesis can be disproven, but not proven to be true.
A scientific theory summarizes a hypothesis or group of hypotheses that have been supported with repeated testing. A theory is valid as long as there is no evidence to dispute it. Therefore, theories can be disproven. Basically, if evidence accumulates to support a hypothesis, then the hypothesis can become accepted as a good explanation of a phenomenon. One definition of a theory is to say it's an accepted hypothesis.
A law generalizes a body of observations. At the time it is made, no exceptions have been found to a law. Scientific laws explain things, but they do not describe them. One way to tell a law and a theory apart is to ask if the description gives you a means to explain 'why'.
In 2009, the Market Value Algorithm is considered to be a law because this algorithm is a group of hypotheses that have been supported with repeated testing in hundreds of markets over the past 25 years and no exceptions to this law have been found. It is also true that why the Market Value Algorithm works has not yet been adequately explained.
2. Do markets that are governed by price disprove the Market Value Algorithm?
Markets that are controlled by price are described by a Market Value Algorithm, e.g.:
Market Value = 0 (TMP Value) + 95 (Economic Value) + 5 (Influence)
However, Market Value Algorithms change with time, which is really the 4th variable. If a new technology is discovered that eliminates the use of a product, a Market Value Algorithm can switch to that of a specialized market, e.g.:
Market Value = 65 (TMP Value) + 20 (Economic Value) + 15 (Influence)
1. Is the Market Value Algorithm a hypothesis, theory or law?
Definitions[1]: A hypothesis is an educated guess, based on observation. Usually, a hypothesis can be supported or refuted through experimentation or more observation. A hypothesis can be disproven, but not proven to be true.
A scientific theory summarizes a hypothesis or group of hypotheses that have been supported with repeated testing. A theory is valid as long as there is no evidence to dispute it. Therefore, theories can be disproven. Basically, if evidence accumulates to support a hypothesis, then the hypothesis can become accepted as a good explanation of a phenomenon. One definition of a theory is to say it's an accepted hypothesis.
A law generalizes a body of observations. At the time it is made, no exceptions have been found to a law. Scientific laws explain things, but they do not describe them. One way to tell a law and a theory apart is to ask if the description gives you a means to explain 'why'.
In 2009, the Market Value Algorithm is considered to be a law because this algorithm is a group of hypotheses that have been supported with repeated testing in hundreds of markets over the past 25 years and no exceptions to this law have been found. It is also true that why the Market Value Algorithm works has not yet been adequately explained.
2. Do markets that are governed by price disprove the Market Value Algorithm?
Markets that are controlled by price are described by a Market Value Algorithm, e.g.:
Market Value = 0 (TMP Value) + 95 (Economic Value) + 5 (Influence)
However, Market Value Algorithms change with time, which is really the 4th variable. If a new technology is discovered that eliminates the use of a product, a Market Value Algorithm can switch to that of a specialized market, e.g.:
Market Value = 65 (TMP Value) + 20 (Economic Value) + 15 (Influence)
Since the Market Value Algorithm is:
- continually adjusted based on new information,
- a dimensionless metric,
- used to compare all technologies, and
- judged to be true by experienced teams, including the market,
- the Market Value Algorithm is a law that will be difficult to falsify.
The fact that the Market Value Algorithm is continually adjusted whenever new information is brought to the attention of those who created the knowledge blocks might be the explanation of why it has worked to explain all markets that have been tested.
3. Is the Rank Order Principle a hypothesis, theory or law?
The Market Value System uses the Rank Order Principle to estimate the market shares of players in a market that has reached equilibrium. Since this use of the Rank Order Principle has been supported with repeated testing in hundreds of markets over the past 40 years and no exceptions have been found, this use of the Rank Order Principle is considered to be a law.
The Market Value Algorithm is a law that predicts future Market Value Leaders. When the Market Value Algorithm law is coupled with the Rank Order Principle law, it is possible to predict future market shares.
4. Does effective use of the Market Value System require a culture change?
The 21st century requires a culture advance. Professionals have become accustomed to using the skills that they acquired through education and practice for most, if not all, work. Experiential modeling science makes it possible to use your judgment to create any knowledge block that is required to solve the most complex puzzles. And the Market Value System enables professionals to envision future of market value chains.
Yes, corporate culture must evolve to take advantage of these new innovation tools.
[1] http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistry101/a/lawtheory.htm
Friday, June 26, 2009
Sealed-in Batteries for Laptop Computers
On June 25th The Wall Street Journal (1) published an article by Walter Mossberg concerning rechargeable batteries that are sealed into laptop computers. Mossberg says that historically, most laptop computers come with removable batteries to facilitate inserting a fresh spare when the battery charge is low and replacing the battery when its lifespan is over. However, Mossberg points out that hardly anybody buys extra batteries.
Apparently, sealed-in batteries increase the market value of laptop computers for the following reasons:
- Sealed-in batteries allow laptop computer manufacturers to offer more than 30% higher battery capacity than laptops with replaceable batteries that are the same size and weight.
- When coupled with certain software technology, these sealed batteries can last up to five years in typical use, which is considered to be the useable life of a laptop computer.
- Mossberg tested Apple’s 13” and 15” MacBook Pro laptops and found that these two computers scored among the highest battery lives between charges of any laptop that he has ever tested.
- If the sealed-in batteries ever become unable to hold an adequate charge, the entire computer can be returned to an Apple store for a new battery. This is a same-day process and costs no more than a replaceable battery.
- Apple has cut the prices of these two laptops; however, they are still pricey compared with similar-sized models from other companies.
How can one use the Market Value System to quickly assess whether or not sealed-in batteries increase the market value of laptop computers? Rechargeable batteries are one component of laptop computers and battery capacity is but one small performance property. Even if we accept Mossberg’s assessment of Apple’s sealed-in batteries, it would be wise to conclude that this feature will only improve the overall TMP Value of laptops slightly. To assess the unmet market needs of laptop computers, Apple would have to create a TMP Value knowledge block including all of the primary and secondary properties.
Next, Apple would have to create an Economic Value knowledge block to fully understand the cost/performance optimum for laptop computers. The fact that Apple’s laptops are more expense than PC laptops doesn’t necessarily mean that Apple’s laptops have an Economic Value disadvantage.
Finally, the perception of laptop users controls whether or not the laptop market value chain understands and accepts Apple’s TPM Value and Economic Value advantages. This concerns marketing communication and market value chain influence.
The bottom line is that if Apple had a Market Value Laboratory, Apple could create all of the knowledge blocks needed to profitably increase its market share of the laptop computer market value chain. Sealed-in batteries doesn’t do it for me.
1. Walter S Mossberg, Wall Street Journal, June 25, 2009 Page D1
Friday, June 19, 2009
US Healthcare
On June 18th, President Obama said that he is calling for a comprehensive overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system. He warned that soaring medical costs are a great threat not just to the well-being of our families but to the very foundation of the US economy.
I believe that President Obama is really saying that a market value breakthrough is possible in the healthcare market. To achieve a market value breakthrough, the Obama administration must prove that a specific breakthrough healthcare program has a market value advantage of 14 or more points. Not only hasn’t the Obama administration presented proof that a single payer system has a 14 point market value advantage but also, the only guidance that has been given is to create a program that appears to mimic the socialized medicine of Canada and Great Britain, which are known to have a market value disadvantage.
The MV Equation links three (3) multi-factorial components together to calculate a market value metric that correlates with market share and profitability. MV Metric = TechnoMarket (TMP) Value + Economic Value + Marketing Influence.
TMP Value is a scale that links all of a product’s or service’s properties together and correlates them with functional value during the product’s or service’s use for the entire life of the product or service. The TMP Value of healthcare products and services should be studied independently of Economic Value to determine the optimum TMP Value that people want throughout their lives. Services, such as preventative care and diagnostic care are known to require improvement. This doesn’t mean that something is wrong, it just means that one or more properties haven’t been optimized.
Economic Value is determined by an end-product/service to customer goal ratio. The numerator concerns the annual cost of healthcare. The denominator concerns customer goals. For example, the goals to have better service (Increased TMP Value), doctors of your choice, national and international access, etc. are in the denominator. Economic Value can be improved by either cost reduction or goal attainment. Optimum Economic Value is usually best achieved by a slightly higher cost with much better goal attainment. America’s Health Care is the World’s TMP Value leader. I believe that America’s Health Care is also the World’s Economic Value leader. Remember that the lowest cost usually doesn’t produce the best Economic Value.
Marketing Influence concerns all other factors, which are important from consumers’ perspectives. For example, risk/reward issues concerning change throughout a market value chain are an Influence factor, as is the complexity of change. Switching to socialized medicine will reduce the marketing influence of healthcare and hence reduce market value. Tort reform that reduces and stabilizes the cost of liability insurance for healthcare professionals will not only increase Economic Value but will also increase Influence. Federal legislation that creates unfunded mandates is both an Influence as well as an Economic Value factor. Unfunded mandates reduce both Influence and Economic Value.
Healthcare is a market rather than a basic right. In a free, market driven economy, achieving optimum market value should be the goal. Providing healthcare to everyone, whether or not they can afford and/or want it is a different issue. Social programs of this type are independent and should be developed and funded separately.
I have read all 1,017 pages of “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009” and prepared the notes to help me understand what this bill will do to America’s Health Care Market. I hope that others will find my notes useful.
After reading this bill and trying to understand it, I believe that the bill is an incomplete rough draft that is difficult to understand and clearly should not be voted on in its present condition. America has the best health care in the world. America’s Health Care Systems are not broken and creating a new Government Agency with the charter to change everything is not justified by this bill.
I believe that President Obama is really saying that a market value breakthrough is possible in the healthcare market. To achieve a market value breakthrough, the Obama administration must prove that a specific breakthrough healthcare program has a market value advantage of 14 or more points. Not only hasn’t the Obama administration presented proof that a single payer system has a 14 point market value advantage but also, the only guidance that has been given is to create a program that appears to mimic the socialized medicine of Canada and Great Britain, which are known to have a market value disadvantage.
The MV Equation links three (3) multi-factorial components together to calculate a market value metric that correlates with market share and profitability. MV Metric = TechnoMarket (TMP) Value + Economic Value + Marketing Influence.
TMP Value is a scale that links all of a product’s or service’s properties together and correlates them with functional value during the product’s or service’s use for the entire life of the product or service. The TMP Value of healthcare products and services should be studied independently of Economic Value to determine the optimum TMP Value that people want throughout their lives. Services, such as preventative care and diagnostic care are known to require improvement. This doesn’t mean that something is wrong, it just means that one or more properties haven’t been optimized.
Economic Value is determined by an end-product/service to customer goal ratio. The numerator concerns the annual cost of healthcare. The denominator concerns customer goals. For example, the goals to have better service (Increased TMP Value), doctors of your choice, national and international access, etc. are in the denominator. Economic Value can be improved by either cost reduction or goal attainment. Optimum Economic Value is usually best achieved by a slightly higher cost with much better goal attainment. America’s Health Care is the World’s TMP Value leader. I believe that America’s Health Care is also the World’s Economic Value leader. Remember that the lowest cost usually doesn’t produce the best Economic Value.
Marketing Influence concerns all other factors, which are important from consumers’ perspectives. For example, risk/reward issues concerning change throughout a market value chain are an Influence factor, as is the complexity of change. Switching to socialized medicine will reduce the marketing influence of healthcare and hence reduce market value. Tort reform that reduces and stabilizes the cost of liability insurance for healthcare professionals will not only increase Economic Value but will also increase Influence. Federal legislation that creates unfunded mandates is both an Influence as well as an Economic Value factor. Unfunded mandates reduce both Influence and Economic Value.
Healthcare is a market rather than a basic right. In a free, market driven economy, achieving optimum market value should be the goal. Providing healthcare to everyone, whether or not they can afford and/or want it is a different issue. Social programs of this type are independent and should be developed and funded separately.
I have read all 1,017 pages of “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009” and prepared the notes to help me understand what this bill will do to America’s Health Care Market. I hope that others will find my notes useful.
After reading this bill and trying to understand it, I believe that the bill is an incomplete rough draft that is difficult to understand and clearly should not be voted on in its present condition. America has the best health care in the world. America’s Health Care Systems are not broken and creating a new Government Agency with the charter to change everything is not justified by this bill.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Risk Tolerance (Putting for par versus birdie)
On June 15th the NY Times (1) reported that when PGA Tour golfers from Tiger Woods down to a first time player draw back their putters today at the United States Open, their scorecards will be sabotaged by a force as human as it is irrational: risk intolerance.
According to Professors, Devin Pope and Maurice Schweitzer at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, even the world’s best pros are so consumed with avoiding bogeys that they make putts for birdie discernibly less often than identical-length putts for par. After analyzing laser-precise data on more than 1.6 million PGA Tour putts, Pope and Schweitzer estimated that this preference for avoiding a negative (bogey) more than gaining an equal positive (birdie), known in economics as loss aversion, costs the average pro about one stroke per 72-hole tournament, and the top 20 golfers about $1.2 million in prize money a year.
The article suggested that this finding may become significant among behavioral economists, many of whom have suspected that the loss aversion found through contrived experiments might not be demonstrated by actual, expert competitors vying for high stakes. The paper is being submitted this week for publication in an economic journal.
The problem that I find with innovation programs in business is that failure is too readily accepted. The issue in business is loss tolerance rather than loss aversion. This is much different than the sport of golf. Professional golfers know what they know and they use it to increase the probability of success of all shots. Even so, golfers can still improve their probability of success from excellent to outstanding.
When it comes to innovation, technologists, marketers and business people have generally not kept track of their information and don’t know how to create the knowledge blocks that are required to solve complex technology and market puzzles. Think about what could happen if technologists, marketers and business people learned how to solve their puzzles as well as professional golfers solve the 18 puzzles they find on a golf course.
1. Alan Schwarz, New York Tines, June 15, 2009
According to Professors, Devin Pope and Maurice Schweitzer at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, even the world’s best pros are so consumed with avoiding bogeys that they make putts for birdie discernibly less often than identical-length putts for par. After analyzing laser-precise data on more than 1.6 million PGA Tour putts, Pope and Schweitzer estimated that this preference for avoiding a negative (bogey) more than gaining an equal positive (birdie), known in economics as loss aversion, costs the average pro about one stroke per 72-hole tournament, and the top 20 golfers about $1.2 million in prize money a year.
The article suggested that this finding may become significant among behavioral economists, many of whom have suspected that the loss aversion found through contrived experiments might not be demonstrated by actual, expert competitors vying for high stakes. The paper is being submitted this week for publication in an economic journal.
The problem that I find with innovation programs in business is that failure is too readily accepted. The issue in business is loss tolerance rather than loss aversion. This is much different than the sport of golf. Professional golfers know what they know and they use it to increase the probability of success of all shots. Even so, golfers can still improve their probability of success from excellent to outstanding.
When it comes to innovation, technologists, marketers and business people have generally not kept track of their information and don’t know how to create the knowledge blocks that are required to solve complex technology and market puzzles. Think about what could happen if technologists, marketers and business people learned how to solve their puzzles as well as professional golfers solve the 18 puzzles they find on a golf course.
1. Alan Schwarz, New York Tines, June 15, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
Automotive Industry
On June 11th, John McCormick (1) said that the auto industry’s decline is a consumer opportunity. With the bankruptcies of Chrysler and General Motors and the spectacular collapse of the new car market, America's automotive industry and its consumers have an unprecedented opportunity. It's a chance for a dramatic resetting of the American automotive scene, a chance finally to bring the U.S. vehicle market more in line with the rest of the world and in keeping with global realities. Today, amid all this upheaval in the auto business, millions of potential new car and truck buyers sit on the sidelines, worried, confused, looking for guidance and confidence that they are shopping for the vehicle that best suits their needs.
The US automotive industry behaves like a 9-player market with 8 major players plus all other. The shares (2) of the 8 major players at market equilibrium follow: Number 1 = 31.4%, Number 2 = 20.3%, Number 3 = 14.8%, Number 4 = 11.1%, Number 5 = 8.3%, Number 6 = 6.1%, Number 7 = 4.2%, Number 8 = 2.6%, Other = 1.2%, Total = 100%.
By the end of 2009, actual market share data will be different because the market will not be at equilibrium. Since the Market Value Metric is the only metric that correlates with future market share and profitability, the major automotive companies are well advised to determine the market value of all offerings for each market segment and manufacture products that best fulfill consumer needs. Now is the time for knowledge-based innovation and marketing communication.
(1) Detroit News, Article 20090611
(2) Kesting Ventures Corp., Literature, Rank Order Principle
The US automotive industry behaves like a 9-player market with 8 major players plus all other. The shares (2) of the 8 major players at market equilibrium follow: Number 1 = 31.4%, Number 2 = 20.3%, Number 3 = 14.8%, Number 4 = 11.1%, Number 5 = 8.3%, Number 6 = 6.1%, Number 7 = 4.2%, Number 8 = 2.6%, Other = 1.2%, Total = 100%.
By the end of 2009, actual market share data will be different because the market will not be at equilibrium. Since the Market Value Metric is the only metric that correlates with future market share and profitability, the major automotive companies are well advised to determine the market value of all offerings for each market segment and manufacture products that best fulfill consumer needs. Now is the time for knowledge-based innovation and marketing communication.
(1) Detroit News, Article 20090611
(2) Kesting Ventures Corp., Literature, Rank Order Principle
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Self-Reliance
Before I read Emerson’s essay, “Self-Reliance,” I thought again about my daughter, Kathy’s, thought that one must understand the man to understand what he is saying in his essays. Effective communication also requires that the reader and/or listener at a lecture must also think about why he/she is reading the essay and/or listening to a lecture.
I have spent the last 25 years developing Experiential Modeling Science and The Market Value System to show people how to use their own mind to literally become a market of the future so that they can create successful new products and services today. If this isn't self-reliance, I don’t know what is. Despite numerous successes, I am disappointed that the science that I have developed is still in its infancy and many people are not even willing to try to use their own judgment to create knowledge blocks that they can use to accurately envision the future today.
Therefore, I am going to study Emerson’s essay, “Self-Reliance,” to not only find out what he said but to also adapt his thoughts to help me with my current challenges.
Human beings have the capability to access tacit[1] information and understanding that is stored in their brains and use rudimentary structures to mentally integrate this stored information and understanding to reveal new insights based on what has been previously learned. The structures that our brains use to solve complex puzzles can be greatly improved such that experienced people can advance to new plateaus of understanding and thus reach new frontiers of markets, technologies and businesses. This is the breakthrough that can be achieved with the Market Value System.
The following quotes tell us what Emerson thought about self-reliance. I agree with all of these principles; however, these principles don’t teach people how to improve their ability to be self-reliant. I believe that Experiential Modeling Science can be used to solve most puzzles.
“To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, -- that is genius.”
“There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is, which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.”
“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being.”
“These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world. Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.”
“What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”
“I hope in these days we have heard the last of conformity and consistency.”
“Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say `I think,' `I am,' but quotes some saint or sage. He is ashamed before the blade of grass or the blowing rose.”
“It is easy to see that a greater self-reliance must work a revolution in all the offices and relations of men; in their religion; in their education; in their pursuits; their modes of living; their association; in their property; in their speculative views.”
“Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift, you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another, you have only an extemporaneous, half possession. That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him. No man yet knows what it is, nor can, till that person has exhibited it.”
“And so the reliance on Property, including the reliance on governments which protect it, is the want of self-reliance. Men have looked away from themselves and at things so long, that they have come to esteem the religious, learned, and civil institutions as guards of property, and they deprecate assaults on these, because they feel them to be assaults on property. They measure their esteem of each other by what each has, and not by what each is. But a cultivated man becomes ashamed of his property, out of new respect for his nature. Especially he hates what he has, if he see that it is accidental, -- came to him by inheritance, or gift, or crime; then he feels that it is not having; it does not belong to him, has no root in him, and merely lies there, because no revolution or no robber takes it away. But that which a man is does always by necessity acquire, and what the man acquires is living property, which does not wait the beck of rulers, or mobs, or revolutions, or fire, or storm, or bankruptcies, but perpetually renews itself wherever the man breathes.”
[1] Michael Polanyi, 1966, The Tacit Dimension – Doubleday Books
I have spent the last 25 years developing Experiential Modeling Science and The Market Value System to show people how to use their own mind to literally become a market of the future so that they can create successful new products and services today. If this isn't self-reliance, I don’t know what is. Despite numerous successes, I am disappointed that the science that I have developed is still in its infancy and many people are not even willing to try to use their own judgment to create knowledge blocks that they can use to accurately envision the future today.
Therefore, I am going to study Emerson’s essay, “Self-Reliance,” to not only find out what he said but to also adapt his thoughts to help me with my current challenges.
Human beings have the capability to access tacit[1] information and understanding that is stored in their brains and use rudimentary structures to mentally integrate this stored information and understanding to reveal new insights based on what has been previously learned. The structures that our brains use to solve complex puzzles can be greatly improved such that experienced people can advance to new plateaus of understanding and thus reach new frontiers of markets, technologies and businesses. This is the breakthrough that can be achieved with the Market Value System.
The following quotes tell us what Emerson thought about self-reliance. I agree with all of these principles; however, these principles don’t teach people how to improve their ability to be self-reliant. I believe that Experiential Modeling Science can be used to solve most puzzles.
“To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, -- that is genius.”
“There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is, which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.”
“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being.”
“These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world. Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.”
“What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”
“I hope in these days we have heard the last of conformity and consistency.”
“Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say `I think,' `I am,' but quotes some saint or sage. He is ashamed before the blade of grass or the blowing rose.”
“It is easy to see that a greater self-reliance must work a revolution in all the offices and relations of men; in their religion; in their education; in their pursuits; their modes of living; their association; in their property; in their speculative views.”
“Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift, you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another, you have only an extemporaneous, half possession. That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him. No man yet knows what it is, nor can, till that person has exhibited it.”
“And so the reliance on Property, including the reliance on governments which protect it, is the want of self-reliance. Men have looked away from themselves and at things so long, that they have come to esteem the religious, learned, and civil institutions as guards of property, and they deprecate assaults on these, because they feel them to be assaults on property. They measure their esteem of each other by what each has, and not by what each is. But a cultivated man becomes ashamed of his property, out of new respect for his nature. Especially he hates what he has, if he see that it is accidental, -- came to him by inheritance, or gift, or crime; then he feels that it is not having; it does not belong to him, has no root in him, and merely lies there, because no revolution or no robber takes it away. But that which a man is does always by necessity acquire, and what the man acquires is living property, which does not wait the beck of rulers, or mobs, or revolutions, or fire, or storm, or bankruptcies, but perpetually renews itself wherever the man breathes.”
[1] Michael Polanyi, 1966, The Tacit Dimension – Doubleday Books
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