No biting the personnel

From p. 72:

The state of matters all over the country was so alarming, that George I. shortened his intended stay in Hanover, and returned in all haste to England. He arriver on the 11th of November, and parliament was summoned to meet on the 8th of December. In the mean time, public meetings were held in every considerable town of the empire, at which petitions were adopted, praying the vengeance of the legislature upon the South-Sea directors, who, by their fraudulent practices, had brought the nation to the brink of ruin. Nobody seemed to imagine that the nation itself was as culpable as the South-Sea company. Nobody blamed the credulity and avarice of the people - the degrading lust of gain, which had swallowed up every nobler quality in the national character, or the infatuation which had made the multitude run their heards with such frantic eagerness into the net held out for them by scheming projectors. These things were never mentioned. The people were a simple, honest, hard-working people, ruined by a gang of robbers, who were to be hanged, drawn, and quartered without mercy.

In this chapter, published in 1852, Charles MacKay discusses the ambiance in the early month of the South-Sea bubble that rocked London in 1720. While the South-Sea company was the most prominent story, many smaller ventures appeared.

From p. 54:

In the mean time, innumerable joint-stock companies started up every where. They soon received the name of Bubbles, the most appropriate that imagination could devise. The populace are often most happy in the nicknames they employ. None could be more apt than that of Bubbles. Some of them lasted for a week or a fortnight, and were no more heard of, while others could not even live out that short span of existence. Every evening produced new schemes, and every morning new projects.

From p. 55:

But the most absurd and preposterous of all, and which shewed, more completely than any other, the utter madness of the people, was one started by an unknown adventurer, entitled, “A company for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is.” Were not the fact stated by scores of credible witnesses, it would be impossible to believe that any person could have been duped by such a project. The man of genius who essayed this bold and successful inroad upon public credulity, merely stated in his prospectus that the required capital was half a million, in five thousan shares of 100l. each, deposit 2l. per share. Each subscribe, paying his deposit, would be entitles to 100l. per annum per share. How this immense profit was to be obtained, he did not condescend to inform them at that time, but promised that in a month full particulars should be duly announced, and a call made for the remaining 98l. of the subscription. Next morning, at nice o’clock, this great man opened an office in Cornhill. Crowds of people beset his door, and when he shut up at three o’clock, he found no less than one thousand shares had been subscribed for, and the deposits paid. He was thus, in five hours, the winner of 2000l. He was philosopher enough to be contented with his venture, and set off the same evening for the Continent. He was never heard of again.

On a recent Saturday morning, I found myself at the Shoreline library with time to spare. From the audio books section I came out with three books: Who Moved My Cheese by Dr. Spencer Johnson, When You Ride Alone You Ride with Bin Laden by Bill Maher and Mean Business by Al Dunlap.

I find audio books or podcasts are great for the road. With at least a half hour commute each way, I can average a book per week. Moreover, since I’m driving, I can’t concentrate fully on the book’s content. I can’t stop and ponder. Nor can I use a highlighter. I also can’t fall asleep if the book is too boring for bedtime reading. Finally, for some content, I absorb more by passively listening than active reading. It was true for the Dalai Lama. It’s true for the mice.

Who moved my cheese is a self-help book of the 80s. The author also penned The One Minute Manager. At ~100 pages each, you can probably afford the time to read them both. Will you find happiness? No. Will you get reminded of some basic truth of your career if not your life? Maybe. Will you water your tree of common sense? Probably. We now own both books in paperback version. Let us know if you want to borrow either.

Who Moved My Cheese follows one smock who’s lost his cheese and enters the “labyrinth” to find it. On the way there, he discovers that the cheese was bound to move, the journey shouldn’t be feared and that you learn more by embracing change than fighting it. His buddy instead stays back praying that the cheese will come back. Drawing his sustenance from crumbs and driven by despair then bydelusion, we can assume he’s the stereotypical disgruntled employee that only shows up to draw his paycheck. FWIW, we never learn what type of cheese has gone missing but I recommend you visualize American cheese. I’m not sure any other cheese would drive me as quickly to abandon everything to find something better.

Seriously, what are some of the lessons imparted on the reader? Here are some selections:

1. Having cheese makes you happy.
2. The more important your cheese is to you, the more you want to hold on to it.
3. If you do not change, you can become extinct. My take is you will.
4. Always ask yourself: What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
5. The quicker you let go of old cheese, the sooner you find new cheese.
6. Move with the cheese and enjoy it!

There are more but these should set the tone.

Do I agree with author? Good question. How’bout u? Do you agree with the author? I used the word employee earlier but do you really think this is about work? It doesn’t have to be. What was the last personal project or endeavor you embarked on that fell through. People change; they grow closer; they move away. Tastes and interests evolve; only sometimes do they align with your’s. Change is inevitable. Assume it wasn’t for a second. Assume the entire world around you was stagnant. Would you also be frozen? No, you’d be finding ways to grow - at least we hope you would.

In my opinion, the first question to ask is do you know what cheese you like? If you don’t know, you’ve got bigger problems. Let’s say you like Parmigiano Reggiano. The real question the book doesn’t ask is: do you control your parmesan? Can someone take it away? Could your favorite cheese store one day stop selling it?

Enough with the real cheese analogy. My point is that it’s too easy to say that someone else took your cheese away. If you really care about this cheese, if you’re passionate about it, how did someone else get to take it away? How did you let it be taken away? The book presents this mischievous individual as some mysterious other-worldly power. Bullsh… Whether it is another human being, a trend in people’s opinion, a community dropping the ball or a real mouse, somewhere there’s a point of failure. So why didn’t you intercede to prevent that failure? Why weren’t you positioned to block it? That, the book completely sidesteps.

It’s ok to lose. It happens. Sometimes you try really hard at something you really believe in yet life doesn’t look your way. But to feel the cheese moving and to be smart by moving with it before it’s completely gone, that’s giving up to easily on your ideals.

It’s also ok to be stubborn. If you’re right, go for it. Be stubborn and fight it out tooth and nail. It won’t be easy; but nothing ever is, right? Only then is it ok to move. Don’t take it personal and don’t stick around sulking.

In summary: read the book; acknowledge the existence of cheese; talk to the owner of your cheese store. What our adventurer found in the end wasn’t a new hobby, a new car, a new house or a new relationship. It was mature manchego.