6. May 2008 by admin.

“If time is money, space is also money.”

Interestingly enough, warehouse and storage buildings also cost a monthly rent or a fee per square foot of storage, just like any other enterprise in business. Even land and sustainable development can be worth money, and we exchange our wage, which stores a market value, so that we may gain time and space, and vice versa, that we put into strategic use time and space so that money is gained, as in business, or even created out of thin air, as in finance. Thus, perhaps a new definition of money is needed in the context of economic gain in a particular ecosystem.

Everything in spacetime can potentially be worth money. A single dimension, a line in the form of a road, can be a profitable enterprise. Extend that to a two dimensions, and a rectangular surface is created, in the form of land, which can be converted into a farm, with pastures and livestock. Add a third dimension, height, and buildings sprout from land, and trees shoot up from the ground. A business is born. Integrate a fourth dimension, time, and movement and life is born. The farm is alive, and the workers plowing, managers working on the Internet with customer service. Such a business can be profitable for ten years, which represents the flow of money into and out of this farm over time.

“Complexity cannot be avoided, but it can be managed.”

-S. Barkeshli

Complexity is the largest barrier to entry in a free market. Thus, an effective merchant is not only able to deal with the complexity, she is also able to simplify challenges for consumers. Simpleness in itself is a form of customer service, because simplicity used in a genuine fashion helps people get by.

Posted in Philosophy | No Comments »

17. April 2008 by admin.

The I-Jing is the deepest as well as most obscure of all ancient Chinese texts. The level of mathematical ardor using a 6 digit binary system to compose 64 binary figures, to produce a level of understanding of the world, humbles the most able thinker. The core wisdom of the I-Jing, however, is knowing how to respond to change.

Responding to change is a level beyond responding to a static world. Normal assessment of situations, whether it be military, business, political, uses a three dimensional model to depict the battlefield, the corporate structure, or the political arrangement. Too often, we only use one or two dimensions to simplify the situation. However, the I-Jing is not a passive group of lines used in a linear fashion; it is the active integral of a changing two-dimensional matrix over time. Thus, four dimensions are required to map the changing landscape of the universe.

To know what to do when faced with a situation is one thing, but how does a person, even granted with the best of abilities, deal with a changing situation? This was what I was pondering over as I was driving on the freeway, cruising a variable 80 miles per hour, sometimes speeding up, sometimes slowing down, in the midst of the changing scenery of moving cars. To know when to move forward, when to retreat… To know when to act, when to wait… To know who to befriend, and who to stay away from…

In business, this means when to push forward the business through advertising and initiative. Too often, large and small companies advertise too much, at the wrong time. Much money and effort at lost. The opposite is true as well, when a business feels complacent or does not stand in a moral position - that is the case for many Chinese electronic companies with products that have better quality than mainstream products in America but lack advertising promotion. The lack of coordination between different businesses is what causes the contraction, or recession, in the business cycle.

Equally as important is the allies and competitors a business possesses in its domain. Friends must be gained from a starting position, and intimacy without this initial bond causes the business alliance to fall apart. Allies can shift, and therefore the business must take advantage of favorable conditions and produce relationships that can be still lukewarm even in the most distant of separation.

Knowing one’s competitors does not mean acting according to any fixed plan in the traditional sense. Contention should not be viewed negatively. Competition between businesses can produce better performances and product quality, and often this is how evolution in biology works. However, too much competition is destructive as well, and applying Hegelian dialect to every situation in the world utterly fails to model a failproof way to respond.

Competition, as well as cooperation can enhance communications between rival companies. Cooperation must not degrade into mutual submission, where both parties form an oligarchy and move slowly in the market on purpose. Some competition is best, in the long run. Experience is gained, and strength is built through hardship.

Also, over time, some rival companies take a lot of fire, whether from lawsuits or just having to deal with the bulk of orders from customers, as the top seller of a certain product line. These companies shield smaller companies and does everyone else a great favor.

This excerpt all but draws upon a small portion of the complete wisdom of the I-Jing. More will be written in the future, but in order to understand the world, both a sensory, detail-based understanding as well as an theoretical, intuitive element is required.

Posted in Philosophy | No Comments »

12. April 2008 by admin.

I was discussing on the definition of unity with a close friend, and we used the Socratic method, as well as Ch’an (Zen) logic to arrive at a conclusion.

He asked, “What is unity?”

I replied, “Diversity.”

He asked me to clarify on this definition.

I paused for a few moments, and said,

“Unity is having significant diversity to contribute to the whole.”

An atom, then, is the perfect example of harmonious unity. Where the atom can be made up of many different elementary particles (quarks, gluons, electrons, leptons), they all function as a coherent whole. So is the solar system. Although the planets vary vastly by planetary orbit (elliptical), speed (variable), and composition, they function as a coherent whole, with the Sun in the center.

That being said, my friend pointed out that the phrase on unity was a classic example of Greek irony, which seems paradoxical, but produces truth. Irony moves in multiple dimensions, and is the changing transition between opposing ideas; irony is the seed of movement. When an irony occurs, the unexpected element makes the idea more powerful. How do we teach irony? Through everyday experience, as well as drama in movies, plays, and novels.

Because irony can exist, the logical conclusion is that philosophy can be used against itself. Thus, philosophy by itself is not the proper method of obtaining truth. Traditional Aristotlean philosophy must be paired with intuition, include a moral element, as well as intertwine itself with religion - in order to obtain the truth.

Posted in Philosophy | No Comments »