Insomnia Thought #2
Plato’s republic compares five types of government: Philosophic, Aristocracy, Oligarchy, Democracy and Tyranny. He also places them in that order, best to worst.
Democracy may seem to have done poorly, but he is talking about what we would probably term Anarchy.
The kicker of the book is that he is not exactly writing exclusively about the government of a nation, but also about the government of the self. ie. A person born of wealth (Aristocrat) will be happier than the person who’s goal is the accumulation of wealth (Oligarch), even though both might have the same amount of money. For why, read the book.
It occurs to me that this could also be applied to how companies are run and maybe give some insight into the selection of places to work, assuming your goal is to find a place to work that maximizes your happiness.
So how do these government types relate to business types?
Philosophic:
I have no idea about this one, add a comment if you know.
Aristocracy:
The family business. If you work hard you will be valued, almost as much as a family member, but the people in charge will always be the family. Unexpected bonuses, pay is usually to the limit of what the company can support.
Oligarchy:
The business is focused solely on the production of money, overtime expected, take time off for the dentist and expect a scowl. The pay is terrible unless you are in charge, in which case its pretty damn good, but somehow never enough.
Democracy:
No direction, everyone and no one is in charge. All opinions are treated with equal weight, from the guy who started yesterday to the person that has been their ten years. Academia or a lost department in some huge corporation or government?
Tyranny:
The guy in charge sets the tone, suspicious, insecure, and paranoid. Lots of yes-men. Not much of value gets done as its all about the boss. Constant restructuring to make sure there are no challengers.
Go Go Godzilla!
I, for one, welcome our new lizard overlords.
How To Drive Traffic To Your Site
Here’s an idea of how to drive traffic to your site.
Find popular pages that allow comments and attach a link to your site in the comment.
Most blogs allow comments so you could use a site like technorati.com to find popular sites and then try to leave comments on those site.
Another good way is to use stumbleupon.com, select topics that match your site and then stumble away looking for comment pages.
The benefit of this is twofold; you get visitors from the comment links, and the links also improve your google rank.
William Shatner
This is painful to watch. I admire his self confidence though. Not many people could go on stage and do this. I think I would rather be standing there, naked and in silence, for an equivalent amount of time, than have to deliver this interpretation. Well maybe not, but I would definitely have to be drugged.
This guy is so dead.
I’d give the guy in this video a couple months, maybe, before he’s murdered by someone like Islamic Rage Boy. Yes indeed, the world is on runaway train to doom. Oh well, might as well move to the dining car, open a bottle of Bollie and have a few laughs.