Houses Divided

Of course it is always easy to 'just' criticize. But that's not actually what I want to to do here. I will make the distinction between just criticizing for the sake of it, and understanding tactical tools in the context of seeking eventual strategic advantage.

What is the advantage I am seeking?

Well personally I would like to see Putin and Yatsenyuk sit around at a dinner and mull over the relative superiorities of each other's favourite cuisines...

What James Bond would have with his vodka

That isn't going to happen. Not today or not even any time very soon. For one thing Putin is smiling for real these days and Yatsenyuk is scowling for real – those combinations of body language do not make for the best disposed of dinner guests or companions.

So what goes on behind the scenes? We all, I suppose, have some sentiment for the old James Bond franchise – but the glamour of the past days of Panavision and Technicolor are now replaced by predictable stunt chases and outrageous CGI effects, idiotic scripts, too skinny girls, and the dubious moral credibility of modern politics.

To some extent, the actual underlying principle of the thing – good v evil and the eventual victory of superior technology and skill and intelligence – has itself gone the way of big data and mindless drones (which have already been superceded btw) and the real knowledge held by all military leaders that an all-out armed contest, would have no one at all left on the battlefield.

When you play a game of football and go to the ground expecting the opposition team not to turn up, then you are in for a difficult time of things. The question for a businessperson is – can you make money when your side is losing, and ends up being on the losing end? You probably can, but you probably also need to prepare for this.

Team spirit is the energy of the team. I watched Munger and Gates and Buffett on CNN the other day same as many of you did. These guys have all lost the team spirit, lost the energy to win; they are in the mode of preservation of their own capital and position. And you can't win any kind of wars when leaders of capital act like that.

So fine, we're all on our own. But what if the game is now about who will be able to keep his or her own self-confidence high when all around are falling apart. If it's a question of keeping the 'team spirit' together in a team of one – one individual, or one family – then the eventual 'winning side' is going to consist of a small number of individuals who survived psychologically, as much as economically. And I think, in fact, with the stress on the 'psychologically!' Tell me the future, Solitaire...

 

Real Bond girl over there: