The Second Order Of Business

[Originally posted on November 16, 2006]

The following books seem to share a common mindset about the nature of modern business that represents a radical break from conventional thinking. But, what exactly *is* the common thread that ties them all together? I don’t know, but I hope that listing all their key findings here will leading to conceptual unification — what I call “Kepler’s Hedgehog.”

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The Purpose of Business: Sustainable Capitalism (2.0)

[Originally posted on October 5, 2005]

Eureka! Thanks to John Mackey’s debate with Milton Friedman, I believe I’ve finally figured out the subtle flaw in the neo-classical formulation of capitalism:

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Madeleine Albright, on Democracy

[Originally posted on May 8, 2006]
An impressive speech at Princeton (hat tip to Winds of Change) with a nice 14-point summary of what it means to realistically promote our ideal of democracy:
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Dee Hock on Noise, Data, Information, Knowledge, Understanding, Wisdom

[Originally posted on March 13, 2006]
Linda Stone is perhaps most famous for coining the phrases “continuous partial attention” and “committed full-attention focus is the next aphrodisiac.” However, I’m especially grateful for her (hat tip to Nat on O’Reilly) pointing me to Dee Hock’s definitions of how information evolves:

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Hello WordPress!

This marks the move of my “News from the Radical Center” blog to WordPress.com.


How to write an Effective Political Platform

[The following article from Centroids was solicited by PetitionSpot, apparently because they were impressed by my petition to Elect Jon Stewart].
Inspired by what I considered excessive solutions, I thought I should actually write down what I think a good, actionable Platform would look like. Or, more precisely what we’d need to do in order to do the job effectively in the context of the Unity08 movement.

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New Activity over on Unity Watch

This is a belated notice that I have shifted my
online activity to the new Unity Watch blog focused exclusively on Unity ’08.
While not without its challenges, Unity ’08 represents the best chance for
centrists to influence the 2008 election, so the Centroids crew is retargeting our efforts to
communicate with that community. Come on over and check us out!

Egocasting: The Good, Bad, and Ugly

[The following is extracted from an email response I sent to a friend who asked about Christine Rosen’s article in The New Atlantis, “The Age ofEgocasting.”]

Interesting stuff. To be sure, this feels more like an extended and eloquent “rant”
than a real essay. Then again, Pod person that I am, I skimmed it rather than
reading it through. 🙂

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Pundita’s Macro-Economics of Micro-Entrepreneurship

My fellow blogger Pundita — mostly on hiatus but returning to a weekly format in April — very kindly responded to my query about fellow blogger Eric Raymond’s enthusiasm for micro-infrastructure:
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Bono’s Radical Centrist Sermon

While Bono does not appear to self-identify with any sort of radical centrism, his combination of spiritual passion and data-driven pragmatism certainly makes him a kindred soul. In particular, his remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast were an impressive balance of:
* self-deprecating humor
* hard, cold facts
* appeal to both spiritual values and enlightened self-interest
* generous affirmation of past achievements
* bold challenge to meet higher standards

It is rare for to see either a political or religious speech that dares to tackle these sort of big issues, much less one that does both so well. A genuine inspiration.


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