The Carnival of the Capitalists for May 30th ‘05

Welcome to the May 30, 2005 volume of The Carnival of the Capitalists, Capitalism meets Satisficing and welcome to the Slacker Manager.

“Slackers are opportunists. They’re very good at seeking out and doing what they enjoy. Problem is, the current culture tends to view slackers as do-nothing layabouts. In truth, when you let a slacker do something they enjoy–and pay them for it–you’ve got the world’s best employee on your hands.”
—Bren Connelly, the Slacker Manager”

My name is Rosa Say, and I’m sitting in for Bren as your COTC editor. This turned out to be a very important time for the Slacker Manager and his family; if you missed his earlier post you can discover why by reading Slacker baby on the way. Congratulations Bren and Amy!

In this edition of the Carnival of the Capitalists you will find very little editorializing. You see Bren has taught me well about his fine art of satisficing:

“We slackers represent the bright side of overachievers. Slackers are as smart, educated, talented and driven as any standard-issue overachiever you’ll find. The core difference is that slackers have the gift of satisficing: we can stop at “good enough” and go home unburdened by what was left undone. Though slackers will satisfice, it would be a mistake to assume that slackers never exceed expectations. Quite the contrary. Because slackers are at their best when focused upon problems and issues that are important to them, slacker work product is among the finest in the world.”
—from the Slacker@Work manifesto.

Since Bren is our host this week, in his honor this Carnival is an example of satisficing: You’ll find I’ve given you the week’s line-up largely as it was submitted (and in the order submitted within categories), using as few of my own words as possible. I offer you a link to the article each author pointed me to, but also to their home page so you can see what else they have (it’s a three-day weekend; you’ll have time, right?)

So authors, let this be a lesson to you: When you submit to the Carnival use that summary and comment field wisely! You all actually did really well, thank you. I just had to use my own discretion on the categorizing of some of them when you didn’t offer me your preference: let me know if you think I blew it.

Let’s get started, for when I called this a ‘volume’ I wasn’t kidding. We had 56 terrific entries this week and you will not want for good reading today! Hey Jay, is there an entry Carnival record?

Commerce, Economics and Finance

Sandeep Srinivasa asks, “Is the corporate world an arena for the survival of the dumbest?” At Sandeep’s Datum, you will find his answer within Survival of the dumbest.

In what she calls her “little salute to the wonders of capitalism” Kelly Pearson at Time to Lean presents Shameful TRUE confessions of a former welfare recipient.

At Blog Business World, Wayne Hurlbert seeks to help all those internet retailers who work hard to get prospective buyers to visit their e-commerce website, by offering his coaching on E-commerce shopping carts: Stop abandonment.

This came in from Steve Conover: “Because the economy is growing, the burden of the USA’s national debt has been dropping.” At The Skeptical Optimist Steve presents USA’s debt burden drops again.

“Rob Kirby writes in The Anatomy of a Fictional Hedge Fund Collapse about a dream (nightmare) that in part involves Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) which went bust in 1998 and some say, almost brought the financial system down.” Mover Mike tells us about it in his article, Rob Kirby’s Nightmare!

At the Capital Chronicle, Rawdon Adams presents US GDP and the S&P500: holy relic syndrome. He shares that “GDP release data has become a holy relic of finance – more and more, it seems, at the dangerous expense of measures of fair-value in the aggregate equity market.”

Kim Snider at Kimmunications presents Where should you invest your money? She starts her article with, “Let’s take a little quiz to check your investor IQ.”

In Water Water Everywhere Josh Cohen of Multiple Mentality looks at the water “industry.”
He says, “I’m not quite sure how it happened, but somehow, bottled water has gone from being something you laugh about (after all, Evian is just “naive” spelled backwards, isn’t it?) to something you must have.” [at a price.]

“We learned that a person’s net benefit from cheating is equal to the benefit he gets from cheating, minus the opportunity costs, minus the perceived probability of being caught times the punishment, minus the social stigma, minus the moral pain.” For this economics lesson, click in to Half Sigma for The economics of cheating.

At Drakeview, John Dmohowski says “Entrepreneurs must research their potential VC partners as thoroughly as they do their markets, tech and competitors.  It wastes both the entrepreneur’s and VC’s time by not knowing the type and stage of investment the VC firm prefers.” Read Matching entrepreneurs to VCs.

Social Norms vs. Standardization in Accounting was written by Rob at Businesspundit for us. He says, “This post discusses how the standardization of accounting has led to abuse as financial engineers try to comply with the letter of the law without meeting the spirit of the law.”

In his email to the Carnival, Michael Higgins wrote, “In free market, firms can move into a different market if it is populated by inferiors and just take over. Maybe economics should take over epidemiology.” His post on Chocolate and Gold Coins is called Academic Imperialist Part II.

Brian Gongol of Gongol.com is singing In Praise of Commercial Culture. “America doesn’t have to be a "Christian" nation in order to be a free one; it just needs to be a commercial culture.  In fact, commercial culture is the best way to spread the American experiment around the world — without trying to convert the locals.”

Toni Straka of The Prudent Investor presents A boom in real estate investment (clubs). “The number of real estate investment clubs went elevenfold within 3 years, while the number of stock market investment clubs halved since 1999. Will the (real estate) crash of ‘25 be repeated? All the basic ingredients are there.”

Communication and Networking

Adrian Trenholm of Communicate Better! says too many people – both clients and consultants – treat consulting like stationery, to be bought, used up and replaced. His post argues that, instead, every consulting engagement should be a collaboration between consultant and client, from which both learn and grow. Music isn’t a loaf of bread… and consulting ain’t stationery.

At Kevin’s Blog, Kevin Eikenberry presents Social Capital and Networking, a post on one too-often overlooked component of effective networking. He says, “Even if someone is a "natural" at meeting people and finding common ground for a connection, that is just a small part of being an effective networker.”

At the Alchemy of Soulful Work, Christopher Bailey has written When It Comes To Business Competition, Think British Open. He says that “when it comes to competing in the business world today, the golf model offers a far more productive and powerful way to grow ourselves and our organizations.”

As Sprint introduces an employee tracking system, Russell Buckley of The Mobile Technology Blog looks at various technologies that are steadily eroding our privacy. His article is called The Death Knell of Privacy.

Current Affairs

(and because “other” didn’t quite cut it as a Satisficing category for me)

NOTR at ROFASix presents Wal Mart – Another battle in the war on business. He starts his article by saying, “Ever since South Park, a keen observer of American culture, addressed Wal-Mart in its episode, Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes I have watched the battles over Wal-Mart with interest.”

How much of a difference does your level of education make on your future earnings?  Ironman at Political Calculations digs up a chart to find out! Click in to Your Education and Your Earnings.

Don Baker at Zap*Germs presents UK Gov’t May Hold Hospitals Liable for MRSA Infections. Don explains, “The UK Health Secretary recently let on just how seriously it’s taking the MRSA bacteria problem: it’s turning to the private sector for help in its government-run hospital system!”

Frank Scavo at the Enterprise System Spectator looks at “the shareholder revolt facing Siebel and [he] concludes that Siebel’s problem is that it is ‘stuck in the middle.’” Read Siebel shaken by new shareholders.

At Estate Legacy Vaults Jill Fallon has written an essay called On Borrowed Time. She says, “A failure of imagination blinds us to the very real possibility of a global pandemic of avian flu in the next few years and so we are woefully, criminally unprepared.”

Chris Lynch writes A Large Regular. In this post, Real Consequences for Newsweek he offers “a quick look at the stock price and holdings of the Washington Post Company and how they have not really been too adversely affected by Newsweek’s unfounded allegations of quran abuse.”

Anita Campbell writes, “Thomas Friedman’s new book, The World is Flat, suggests a reason why small businesses are proliferating today.  The reason?  Globalization empowers them.” Her article for Selling to Small Business is called Globalization Empowers Small Business.

“Is Sudoku the new Rubik’s Cube?” This is the question Martin Lindeskog has for us at EGO where you will find his post called, SUDOKU: The New Global Puzzle?

Neal Phenes at Et Tu Bloge presents People Are Young When They Get Old Today, a commentary on what our increased life expectancies can mean.

Government and Politics

“Will the Tories try the practical libertarian path?” Jon Pearce of Dodgeblogium says he rather hopes they do. Read more at Come on in, the waters lovely.

At Coyote Blog, Warren Meyer presents Business Relocations and the Prisoners Dilemma: “Why political subsidies to entice businesses to move to the local market are so popular, and why they are simultaneously so wasteful and ineffective.”

In Hey Ralph, Keep your hands off my SUV, you will find Mad Anthony looks at “government regulation and it’s negative impact on the importation of a rather interesting vehicle.”

At WILLisms.com Will Franklin looks at Wi-Fi’s pseudo-political issues, and asks, Is Wi-Fi Public Infrastructure? “If Wi-Fi is considered infrastructure, like sewage systems or roads or power lines, what is the most effective way to get the U.S. to as close to 100% as possible?”

Gordon Smith is the author of Conglomerate, and in his post Mall Wars, Gordon discusses the rise of the mega-mall in China.

At Interested-Participant MikePechar presents, Navajos to Regulate Power Plants: “According to the agreement with the U.S. EPA, the Navajo Nation will be responsible for monitoring emissions from the facility to assure compliance with federal standards until the Navajo environmental agency establishes its own standards. At that time, the Navajo Nation will be the permit issuing agency for the power plants.

Funding Social Security through Estate Taxes was written for us by Ashish Hanwadikar at his blog Ashish’s Niti. He explains, “I argue that the problem of declining workers-to-retirees ratio can be solved by  using estate taxes to fund the social security.”

Free-Market Junkies: Needin’ a “Consumption Tax” Fix is by Dan Morgan at NoSpeedBumps.
He starts, “I mentioned earlier that many conservatives oppose taxes on capital gains, stock dividends, and interest. Here is an example.” 

Leadership and Management

Think your job is hard and managers have it easy?  Skip Angel at Random Thoughts from a CTO says “That’s what I used to think until I got into management.”  How hard is management, really?

“At work, home, and play, both breakthroughs and continuous improvement efforts are important and valuable.” What is a breakthrough? At 2 Weeks 2 a Breakthrough Lisa Haneberg gives us her “definition of a breakthrough experience that helps you have more of them!”

Now here’s a “comparison of Donald Trump and William Hung as it applies to leadership,” at Business BlogCasting written by Laurence Haughton. Click in to The William Hung of Leadership.

Dwayne Melancon is the author of a blog called Genuine Curiosity. About his first entry to the Carnival, called Tone at the top he says, “Problems in organizations often originate from inconsistencies at the top of the chain.” And he asks, “What’s your ‘tone at the top’?”

At A Penny For… Todd Sattersten shares a customer service story from which we can all learn to manage and lead by: Lesson #1 – Speak Your Customers’ Language.

Disruptive Innovation: A Different View was written by David Foster at Photon Courier.
He offers, “a review of an article which suggests that the theory of ‘disruptive innovation’ which was developed by Christensen and Raynor represents only part of the story.”

Marketing, Branding, Advertising and Sales

At Joseph’s Marketing Blog, Joseph DePalma presents Marketing is Life. His article talks about how “Marketing should be thought about BEFORE the product or service.”

“Advertising without branding and branding without strategy and strategy without execution is no good and eventually shows you to be a liar.” So says Gautam Ghosh of Gautam Ghosh on Management in his article, Ad campaigns in the media.

Ankesh Kothari of Marketing eYe tells us the story of unique business cards he found at the Little Ceasar’s Pizzas checkout counter: Business Card Referral Strategy.

Barry Welford feels “Google’s I’m Feeling Lucky Button seems to be about as useful as your appendix.” At The Other Bloke’s Blog Barry presents I’m Feeling Lucky

Jim Logan says “Some sales people are afraid to ask for an order.” And so in his article at JSLogan, Are You Afraid to Ask For The Order? he coaches, “You should never be afraid to ask for a prospect’s business, after all, that’s why you’re there.”

“Selling to the wrong person is probably the greatest sales mistake made by new and seasoned sales professionals – especially in B2B and complex sales. Here’s why it’s costly to your business and what it means to be a good prospect.”
Visit It’s All About Revenue for Are You Wasting Your Time With the Wrong Prospect?

At The Big Picture Barry Ritholtz asks, Was Revenge of the Sith P2P Released on Purpose? He says, “There’s a lot more to P2P than free MP3s. While the music industry understands this, the recording industry has yet to figure it out yet. And make no mistake about it, they are two very different beasts.”

From SMB TrendWire we have Selling to Big Companies, it Can Be Done. Steve Rucinksi offers, “Just about every entrepreneur or small business wants to know the secret for landing a big company as a customer or client.  This 45 minute audio interview of Jill Konrath explains how.”

Metablogging (Bren calls it Directing Traffic) and Citizen Publishing

Harish Keshwani of Ideologic LLC says ‘Business Blog Process Outsourcing’ is a brand new idea, and that it is very important to consider both pros and cons. In this post he offers the Cons of Blog Outsourcing.

At Ripples, David St. Lawrence has written Citizen Publishing – increasing the rate of change? He says, “The Singularity is coming sooner than anyone can predict, but it will occur as a result of the same incredible process that has driven change for centuries: Like-minded people finding and talking to each other and then doing something about it.”

Slackers and slacker wannabes unite: Smart Strategies

Editorial Privilege: Bren was a bit too busy packing to submit for his own Carnival, so I took the liberty of doing this one for him. It’s one of his recent entries and a true slacker sample. In Wiki on a stick, Bren, the one and only Slacker Manager, evaluates whether or not the GTD TiddlyWiki is better than his current notes solution, EverNote.

Are You Feeling Lucky? Lisa Haneberg of Management Craft offers up 10 ways we can create our own luck. This was number 10: “Get real. If you are on a computer, surfing the net, and reading blogs, you have a lot to feel lucky about. Your life is great already.”

Yvonne DiVita at Lip-Sticking presents Jane Gets Sort of Philosophical, commenting on “Fast Company magazine’s January’s Playbook: Bridging the (Gender Wage) Gap — which lists 6 ways for women to get paid what we”re worth — Six ways Lip-Sticking’s “Jane hopes NO ONE takes seriously.”

“Those who understand the high cost of being busy use technology to create space in their professional and personal lives—not to cram more things into every day. They recognize that opportunities emerge in the white space between being busy and being idle; they realize that being 75% busy, rather than 110% busy, frees the mind to find the perspective that could lead to the next, great business idea.” So says Michael McLaughlin at the Revenue Roundtable, with The Cruel Cost of Being Too Busy.

Steve Pavlina at Steve Pavlina’s Blog presents How to Become an Early Riser and asks us what we think about this: “Are morning people born or made?”

I’ll go last. If you still have some time, visit me on Talking Story, for Why “Just Do It!” is the huge magazine fold-out ad tacked to the wall above my computer, and let’s Talk Story.

Mahalo nui Bren, thank you for your trust in me as your guest editor.
This was fun, and I learned a lot reading everything in the Carnival this time … I feel so much smarter now! Does this type of “forced” reading (which ended up to be great) qualify as satisficing?

To all of the past and future COTC hosts and hostesses out there, I always admired that you did this, and I have an even greater respect for your generosity now.

Aloha mai kākou everyone:
Next week’s Carnival will be up at GalaTime — Where Time is Money! and I hope to see all of you again there. Keep up the great writing, and submit your entries to http://www.gongol.com/random/cotc/ by 3:00 PM ET on Sunday, June 5th.

Tags: Carnival of the Capitalists .
Satisficing