Personally I’m intrigued by the “letters” feature that Substack introduced a little while ago. I would love to see some correspondences / long form dialogues on here, or from any other writers. Have you given this any thought?
On the specialization question: I'm personally more interested in seeing you explore a variety of topics. I care for the thought and ideas that you bring to a topic more than the topic itself. In fact, I think I'd rather see an *interleaving* of posts; something about economics one day, then AI another day, then business, then maybe back to economics..
I agree that business is a desert of shifting sands, which makes theories about it both easy to formulate and difficult to implement. One reason: businesses are actually quite diverse, but folks tend to recommend organizational structures similar to what they're familiar with. The owner of a small customer service business recommends practices only appropriate for a small customer service business, while Jack Welch tells you how to run GE. I presume that launching a 5-person indie video game company requires very different processes than starting a 5-person electronics repair shop.
Which is not to discourage you from writing about it! Just agreeing that it's difficult to create a Grand Unified Theory of Business. ;)
Thanks !! I suspect it's likely to be more like an ecological descriptive view than a grand unified theory, but point taken. Especially "folks tend to recommend organizational structures similar to what they're familiar with" this is true.
"One of the odd things about writing online is the persistent question of whether I should narrow down and find a niche. I love finance, and startups, and crazy sci-fi tech, and culture, and general organisational shenanigans, and economics in an applied sense, but none seemed like something I wanna go all in on."
Niches can be on aspects other than topics. Your niche is *how* you approach this multitude of things!
Keep up the good work my friend! Let's talk soon 💚 🥃
I love reading about a variety of topics and finding my own way to insights among them.
Regarding business being pre-paradigmatic and unsystematic, have you read about systems thinking and specifically system dynamics? I went down a rabbit hole with it in 2022 and it sparked me to start my newsletter. Donella Meadows' book Thinking in Systems is a great intro, if curious. System dynamics isn't specific to business-- it originated in engineering--but is broadly applicable across fields (and, I believe, underused).
So many cool projects for the new year! I think in particular the avenues you’ve started to explore in a philosophy of business are really powerful.
It feels like part of why it feels prescient is timing. We have had a couple hundred years where corporations and larger mercantile efforts have been abundant and core to our societies. This gives us the raw materials to have a philosophy of business. If you had tried to do it any dinner it would have been too early.
Much like how you needed to have the history of the Greek city states and Homer before you could have a political philosophy.
Personally I’m intrigued by the “letters” feature that Substack introduced a little while ago. I would love to see some correspondences / long form dialogues on here, or from any other writers. Have you given this any thought?
No, didn't know it existed, I'll check it out
Thanks for posting this!
On the specialization question: I'm personally more interested in seeing you explore a variety of topics. I care for the thought and ideas that you bring to a topic more than the topic itself. In fact, I think I'd rather see an *interleaving* of posts; something about economics one day, then AI another day, then business, then maybe back to economics..
I agree that business is a desert of shifting sands, which makes theories about it both easy to formulate and difficult to implement. One reason: businesses are actually quite diverse, but folks tend to recommend organizational structures similar to what they're familiar with. The owner of a small customer service business recommends practices only appropriate for a small customer service business, while Jack Welch tells you how to run GE. I presume that launching a 5-person indie video game company requires very different processes than starting a 5-person electronics repair shop.
Which is not to discourage you from writing about it! Just agreeing that it's difficult to create a Grand Unified Theory of Business. ;)
Thanks !! I suspect it's likely to be more like an ecological descriptive view than a grand unified theory, but point taken. Especially "folks tend to recommend organizational structures similar to what they're familiar with" this is true.
I look forward to seeing what you come up with!
"One of the odd things about writing online is the persistent question of whether I should narrow down and find a niche. I love finance, and startups, and crazy sci-fi tech, and culture, and general organisational shenanigans, and economics in an applied sense, but none seemed like something I wanna go all in on."
Niches can be on aspects other than topics. Your niche is *how* you approach this multitude of things!
Keep up the good work my friend! Let's talk soon 💚 🥃
Love this. And yes, talk very soon mate!
Enough people who are pointing out the problems, would love to see some talking about solutions.
In your list of writing interests, I'm most interested in the development of the glass bead game concept.
I love reading about a variety of topics and finding my own way to insights among them.
Regarding business being pre-paradigmatic and unsystematic, have you read about systems thinking and specifically system dynamics? I went down a rabbit hole with it in 2022 and it sparked me to start my newsletter. Donella Meadows' book Thinking in Systems is a great intro, if curious. System dynamics isn't specific to business-- it originated in engineering--but is broadly applicable across fields (and, I believe, underused).
So many cool projects for the new year! I think in particular the avenues you’ve started to explore in a philosophy of business are really powerful.
It feels like part of why it feels prescient is timing. We have had a couple hundred years where corporations and larger mercantile efforts have been abundant and core to our societies. This gives us the raw materials to have a philosophy of business. If you had tried to do it any dinner it would have been too early.
Much like how you needed to have the history of the Greek city states and Homer before you could have a political philosophy.
I want to read 'P G Wodehouse meets a modern caper'.
It shall be done
I absolutely love you talking econ and investing. but just as much love reading your essays on everything else that interests you.
jumped to write the comment lol.