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I first heard this story years ago, and I don’t recall exactly where. Good thing it recently appeared at Zappos.com.
THEMANWHOSOLDHOTDOGS
There was a man who lived by the side of the road and sold hot dogs.
He was hard of hearing, so he had no radio.
He had trouble with his eyes, so he read no newspaper.
But he sold good hot dogs.
He put signs up on the highway telling how good they were.
He stood on the side of the road and cried “Buy a hot dog, mister?”
And people bought.
He increased his meat and bun orders.
He bought a bigger stove to take care of his trade.
He finally got his son home from college to help him out.
But then something happened.
His son said, “Father, haven’t you been listening to the radio?”
“Haven’t you been reading the newspaper?”
There’s a big depression.”
“The European situation is terrible.”
The domestic situation is worse.”
Whereupon the father thought, “Well, my son has been to college: he
reads the papers and listens to the radio, he ought to know.”
So his father cut down on his meat and bun orders, took down his
advertising signs, and no longer bothered to stand out on the highway
to sell his hot dogs.
And his hot dog sales fell almost overnight.
“You’re right, son.” the father said to the boy.
“We are certainly in the middle of a great depression.”
Yes, times are tough right now. But I have to wonder: What role is played by self-fulfilling prophesy?
If we’re here because our ancestors were such fierce competitors, why does cooperation exist at all? Author Howard Rheingold believes that new forms of cooperation – enabled by new technologies – will create economic wealth. The open source movement is one example of cooperation on a huge scale.
Is an Apollo Project of cooperation possible? Perhaps NASA has already launched one.
Eleni Gabre-Madhin is an Ethiopian-born economist working to build the country’s first commodities market. Gabre-Madhin believes that sound management and information standards can turn Ethiopia into a food producing powerhouse.
One of her ideas: To create internet cafes in rural areas. The cafes will be a place where farmers can go and view the action on the commodities exchange themselves.
Gabre-Madhin was a World Bank economist for many years. In time she grew frustrated with the daily grind of persuading policy makers to do something about hunger. So she quit her comfortable job with the World Bank and she headed home to Ethiopia to attack the problem herself. We admire her focus, and we wish her well.
High oil prices and a concern for the environment have driven many to look at alternatives to gasoline-fueled vehicles. Electric cars look promising, but batteries are costly. Shai Agassi, CEO of Better Place, might have solution: A subscription model similar to cell phones.
Agassi envisions a future where buyers would pay for a Tesla in the same way that they pay for the iPhone. Just as cell phone users pay for minutes, drivers will pay for miles.
In the history of the web, the biggest disruptions haven’t come from a new product, but from a new business model. Example: Google is driving Microsoft crazy because Google offers web-based software while Microsoft is still focused on the installable software model. Better Place seeks to create a similar disruption within the auto industry.
Better Place plans to build the first Electric Recharge Grids in Israel and Denmark.
John Von Neuman was one of the geniuses of the Manhattan project – America’s quest to build the atomic bomb. After Manhattan ended, Von Neuman shared this with his colleagues: “I am thinking about something much more important than bombs. I am thinking about computers.”
George Dyson discusses von Neuman, Barricelli, Bigelow, and others in this 17-minute history of digital computing: