Ian Bremmer’s Every Nation for Itself: Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World is an eminently readable, current, mainstream take on the geopolitical environment. It’s a step above the toilet paper put out by the likes of Friedman, Zakaria, and the other Friedman.

Every Nation is a 20,000 ft view of what happens to world as the massive debt bubble pops.  Chapter One is a fantastic discussion of why nothing is going to get done re: climate change, oil, terror. Simply: when they launched globalization, they forgot about control systems. It’s a chapter that should be taught in schools.

The rest reads like someone narrating a game of pool just after the break: China’s going one direction, the 8-ball another, and in the corner Turkey’s slamming into Greece. It the ricochets of globalization. And as far as what that means to nation-states and Fortune 500 companies, this is a good read. These are, after all, Bremmer’s bread and butter clients.

But in doing so, he ignores the drivers. The major trends. Things like peak oil and systems disruption. Even when he tries to include cybersecurity, it reads like one of his marketing aides told him to add a buzzword. It’s un-nuanced at best (he only covers it as a tool of states and kingmakers).

So it’s not for anyone concerned with unpredictable events or disruptive innovation. But it is a good way to stay on top of white-collar mainstream thinking – which, appropriately, is all it claims to be.

Insanely Simple: The Obsession that Drives Apple’s Success by Ken Segall.

Ken’s the guy behind the i. As in the iPad, iPod. He worked with Jobs at NeXT, then at Apple again. He knows the man, the company. (Note, he worked for an agency, not Apple itself.) As a history of Apple, it supplements. If you’ve read the Isaacson bio you’ll be fine. There’s a couple unique stories of personalities but its not really the premise.

Taking a note from Steven Pressfield’s War of Art: Complexity is given life as a creature of such evil that it deserves a swift but utter demise. Kill it, and you will be victorious.

Is that true? Kind of.

Complexity is creating a business and sustaining it. Simplicity is creating a product and selling it to people. Two very different approaches that probably need to be balanced.

Still,  simplicity is not base. It is not easy. It is complex and messy and the result of slashing and cutting every thing you can while keeping  something whole and real and worthwhile.

And that’s stuff Ken gets at and wants you to think about. Which is why this book is useful.

The one thing this book struggles with is, Ken’s passion for advertising selling product is on every page. Does advertising sell stuff? Of course. Do amazing, well designed products that solve problems sell stuff? Of course. Which comes first?

The egg.

This is probably my favorite podcast right now.

It’s well produced, even aesthetically pleasing (rare for a radio show), and covers a great variety of design (and therefore, social) issues, quickly (~10 min max).

Start with this episode about the first patent troll (and how he was murdered). Really interesting stuff.

The model was pioneered by Toms, then Warby Parker. Buy a hip and sexy product, and they’ll ship off another to someone needs it.

Shoes. Glasses. And now, thanks to Porteur, bikes. Buy a $1200 fixed gear bike (comes with a pack) and they’ll send another to someone in Africa who needs it. Like the others, 1:1.

When I asked them if they send exactly what I buy to the needy – that is, the $1200 bike – they said no. Which, I’m perfectly fine with. There’s no need for a colorful hipster bike to be used as a cargo/commuter on a dirt.

But that’s where they lose the plot. If you’re not sending the exact same shoe/glasses/bikes, but a (much) cheaper variant, send more.

Send five instead of one. Profit margin drops by maybe 10%, but you’re making a 500% greater impact.

Further, if you really want to enhance community you’re marketing as helping, use the cash you would use to build and ship those 5 products to instead produce those goods locally. You’ll do a billion times more good and still make plenty of money.

And, if you really want to be a great business, pool a percentage of equity (1%?) or better, revenue, to help boot up new businesses that commit to the 1:5 rule.

Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam

The author would have you takeaway: Westmoreland was a decent enough officer who just happened to be in the wrong slot at the wrong time in the wrong place and was dwarfed by his responsibilities. Westmoreland flailed under the pressure. Westmoreland failed under the pressure. The war failed.

Simply, the book decimates Westmoreland. But I kind of like that. There’s value on just ripping apart a creature that was responsible when everything went to hell. Not so much from a historical perspective, but from an leadership lessons perspective. Obviously, there’s more value if you can juxtapose it with a more flattering text.

Growing up I read the biographies of all the generals and admirals I could get my hands on: Patton, Nimitz, Rommel etc. MacArthur always struck a chord with me for various underdog reasons. But the first book I found about him didn’t like him (I think it was Old Soldier’s Never Die), much like this book Westmoreland. So I went on and read American Caesar (great), MacArthur’s own Reminiscences (still one of my favorite books). Never got around to D. Clayton James’ four volumes on MacArthur’s life, but the set is on the bucket list. If this book can spark the same for you, then it’s done something great.

Anyway. If you’re reading several books on Vietnam (or have), add this one to the stack. Especially if you’re just looking for command lessons.

The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau follows in (order) the footsteps of the Ultralight Startup (review coming), The 4 hour Workweek, and to a lesser extent, the Lean Startup.

First: The $100 Startup is an odd title. Unless your time and computer are worth zero, write the name off to marketing fluff. It costs money and time to get going.

Chris has an enjoyable set of narratives from entrepreneurs who have done what he calls ‘freedom businesses.’ You make money doing what you like and have time for the rest of what life has to offer. That fills up the first part.

Then there’s basically business 101 with an emphasis on virtual products – build-once for low cost, sell a million times for profit, etc. He doesn’t subscribe the Lean Startup terminology, but the ideology is baked in.  Nothing earth shatteringly original, but all in all, this is good stuff to know and quick to consume.

Nice to see a section on health insurance. It was only 2 pages long and rather lame. The 39 step product launch checklist was great, and five pages. He has 1 footnote nod to Ferris. Would have been nice to see a section on taxes.

All-in, it’s a decent intro to the world of the DIY careerist.

But there’s a larger point to be made. This approach has been done. We get it, we can live fantastic lives anywhere we want by building stuff online and making $50k a year. We don’t need anymore convincing.

What we do need:

• Tax/family/health/love/children/education strategies for the anywhere/4 hour/$100/ultralight entrepreneur.
• Chris covered the $50k+ successful crowd here. But what about a systematic study of the entrepreneurs who cratered, or worse, shat debt all over themselves?

In terms of an entrepreneurial system, the advantage these low capital intense endeavors have is that they don’t rely on Spanish queens or VCs for funding. The environment has to be amiable – you need to make enough to start, or get that money from somewhere.

So a deeper analysis of what that environment would be exceedingly useful.

For example I want to see my requests above, but not from successful middle-class to upper-class men, but from extracting lessons from slum dwellers where entrepreneurship is standard and everyone you know participates.

In the same vein: What is systematically holding these companies back? How can we build a capital infrastructure that addresses those points? What about new coding technology that makes it dead-simple to launch interesting products (and not spam)?

The list goes on.

Which brings it back to the point of these books. Maybe these are areas I need to explore, solve, and write about, to get my $50k and life in luxury.

Omnivorous energy is one of the more important tenets of resiliency:

“A truly resilient strategy for the local production of energy (both heat and power) should be able to consumer nearly any type of fuel.  In essence, our energy consumption strategy needs to be omnivorous — it can eat anything.”

Been working with Matt Heath  on a proof of concept that is designed to do just this.

Omne uses a variety of inputs and proven steam technology to generate electricity, heat, and even purify water. It’s pretty cool and pretty cheap.

You can, and should, sign up for the updates, including an exclusive early look at the video of the system in motion, here.

The heart of the framework consists of a set of plastic parts that hold the key functionality of the machine and allows for an almost limitless choice of case materials, designs, and dimensions.

This is a great idea, and what’s even cooler is that it’s already it’s already been funded via Kickstarter to the tune of $6k on a $5k ask.

Why is this important? You can, on the fly, build a 3d printer, of any size, using only locally derived materials in conjunction with a few parts that can fit into a backpack.

Added bonus, those parts will be able to be printed on demand. Think about this on an operational basis. You can ruck out to nowhere. Build a printer, print the framework. Then ruck out further. Build a printer, print the framework. Ruck out even further, build a printer.

In your wake, any designs you can store on a USB stick or iPad can be used to generate tools and in turn productivity.

That pretty amazing. A $5k project takes an already disruptive technology and takes it to the next level. Add the ability to modify/customize designs with a touch screen app and, key, the ability to print with locally available materials, and you’re golden.

Google Glass -

An augmented reality system that will give users the full range of activities performed with a smart phone — without the smart phone. On top of your field of vision, you get icons, alerts, directional arrows, and other visual cues that inform, warn, or beg response.

–

I nestled into Mama’s lap. The fabric of her dress was soft, comforting. Together, we looked down at the crowd. Jostling, sipping.

The first pick-up truck came by. In its bed, they’d painted a white square, filled in with black squares, like tiny Tetris pieces. Together, the sea of people moved and danced and sang, their headpieces clinging desperately to their faces. Parents waved and the children screamed.

Another truck, then another. They kept going by. The crowd roared, some cowered, women grabbed for unseen hats, men hollered for unseen beads. Suddenly everybody looked up, so that Mama and I could make out their eyestrips, and they pointed and laughed. I thought they were laughing at us, but then the laughter turned to screams of fear and delight as whatever specter they saw flew all too close to their outstretched arms.

I begged Mama to let me go down and see. She smiled wanely, holding me close in that bitter cold, and said there was nothing for us to see. I demanded anyway, so she bundled me up and down we went.

On the street, I asked Mama why I couldn’t see what everyone was laughing at. A man overheard me. He was ugly, a nose far too big for his face, and his suit was torn. But he smiled at Mama with his crooked teeth and took off his headset and handed it to me. Try this, he said.

It was too big and covered most of my face. But just like that, the world exploded into light. A barrage of fireworks, creatures swooping in and out of them, dancing stars atop the buildings. There were no pick-ups here. Only singing mountains and fighter planes. Then an enormous, creaking pirate ship, shedding water on us as it passed.

I looked down and saw that I was still dry, but that I was wearing bright multicolored dress of yellows and pinks. I looked around, and the drab grey of the crowd had been replaced with the regalia of a masquerade ball, with sunlight and brilliant suits accompanying still brighter dresses.

I found Mama’s face, a world away. Next to her stood a shining knight. And for a moment, I gave in, and everything was good. But Mama’s tearing eyes didn’t lie, and I ripped off the set and gave it back to the ugly man, then led her inside and away.

–

Part of my ongoing startup dystopia series. Previous installments here.

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