Sunday, April 01, 2012
Hold em, fold em, AND....
Kenny sings "You got to know when to hold em, when to fold em, and when to walk away."
There's another choice: "Know when to pull an ace from your sleeve."
In cards a sleeve-ace is an excellent way to get shot, and it can also look like cheating in other contexts. But it can be the only way to survive.
The important part of the trick, of course, is thinking ahead and stashing the card. If your lifestyle or mindset doesn't allow you to stash, then there's no point in even thinking about the cheat.
Reprinting the piece about a Little Bit of Luck brought this to mind. In an overall economy of Bets and Debts, where the standard game is desperate Three-Job Monte, a saver who can get away with minimal work may look like a cheater.
Specific example from Nash, which I've often cited as the paragon of commercial frugality. In 1958 a sudden recession caught the American auto industry by surprise. The industry was on a maximally wasteful track, with huge grotesquely ugly cars that were poorly built and hard to handle. Even the Rambler had grown larger and uglier, with a model matching Chevy in size and weight. George Romney had the vision to see this, and his company's longstanding frugality gave him an ace to slap on the table. Nash had kept all the tooling and assembly jigs for the small neat durable economical 1955 Rambler. Romney simply re-installed the tooling, made a couple of small modifications (different grille, mount the same taillights upside down) and presto! The American! An effectively new car with near-zero tooling costs and zero development time. A car that looked mighty fine compared to a '58 Olds or Lincoln, and underpriced everything else without losing money. Frugality saved the company.
In the natural world, seeds and spores are obvious examples. Seeds can keep the tooling intact for thousands of years, waiting for the best opportunity to start manufacturing again. Some small invertebrates can dry up and 'seedify' to last through years of drought. More recently, biologists have found that bacteria can seed up when needed, forming special dormant Persister Cells that don't metabolize or split. They just wait till the antibiotic threat has passed, then turn back into regular growing and reproducing cells. ¶ 3:34 AM
There's another choice: "Know when to pull an ace from your sleeve."
In cards a sleeve-ace is an excellent way to get shot, and it can also look like cheating in other contexts. But it can be the only way to survive.
The important part of the trick, of course, is thinking ahead and stashing the card. If your lifestyle or mindset doesn't allow you to stash, then there's no point in even thinking about the cheat.
Reprinting the piece about a Little Bit of Luck brought this to mind. In an overall economy of Bets and Debts, where the standard game is desperate Three-Job Monte, a saver who can get away with minimal work may look like a cheater.
Specific example from Nash, which I've often cited as the paragon of commercial frugality. In 1958 a sudden recession caught the American auto industry by surprise. The industry was on a maximally wasteful track, with huge grotesquely ugly cars that were poorly built and hard to handle. Even the Rambler had grown larger and uglier, with a model matching Chevy in size and weight. George Romney had the vision to see this, and his company's longstanding frugality gave him an ace to slap on the table. Nash had kept all the tooling and assembly jigs for the small neat durable economical 1955 Rambler. Romney simply re-installed the tooling, made a couple of small modifications (different grille, mount the same taillights upside down) and presto! The American! An effectively new car with near-zero tooling costs and zero development time. A car that looked mighty fine compared to a '58 Olds or Lincoln, and underpriced everything else without losing money. Frugality saved the company.
In the natural world, seeds and spores are obvious examples. Seeds can keep the tooling intact for thousands of years, waiting for the best opportunity to start manufacturing again. Some small invertebrates can dry up and 'seedify' to last through years of drought. More recently, biologists have found that bacteria can seed up when needed, forming special dormant Persister Cells that don't metabolize or split. They just wait till the antibiotic threat has passed, then turn back into regular growing and reproducing cells. ¶ 3:34 AM
