Category Archives: Wisdom

11/12/19

Hanlon’s Razor and Other Adages

I am in New York City freezing my ass off. I come every year to see the Veterans Day Parade (which was a huge disappointment this year). I hate cold weather, but I voluntarily came to NYC, so who can I blame?

I can only blame myself which brings me to my thought for today. We often look for difficult explanations to simple things.

Case in point is something called Hanlon’s Razor. Hanlon’s Razor (like Murphy’s Law and Occam’s Razor) provides us with wisdom when we are looking to explain something we believe to be complicated and transcendental.

Hanlon’s Razor goes something like this:

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

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07/8/19

Viking Rules

Never in history has your Big Red Car touted another’s blog. Not something I do. Don’t like a lot of other blogs.

But the other day one caught my eye and I want to introduce it to you.

It is called “Viking” and can be found at Viking.

The Viking writes about Startups, Search, Books, Music, and Travel. It is well written, pithy, and edgy. I like the tone and voice. [To be clear the use of the word “Viking” is not intended to signal any nationality, but rather the sense of adventure, like adventuring. Got it?

Image result for image of viking

What caught my eye was a post called The Rules from April 2019. Here is the Viking’s Rules. Put your startup hat and glasses on as you read this.

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05/19/19

Herman Wouk, 103, RIP

Herman Wouk, an American writer of substantial importance has died. The Pulitzer Prize author of such masterpieces as “The Caine Mutiny” was 103, only 10 days from his 104th birthday. He was described as a man who made American literature “kinder, gentler, better” by his peers upon the occasion of his 80th birthday. An extraordinary tribute considering his subject matter.

“The Caine Mutiny,” of course, was made into a movie starring Humphrey Bogart as the unstable commander, Lt Commander Philip Francis Queeg, of a Navy, ship with odd fixations on a pair of metal balls he constantly rolled in his hand and some missing strawberries, an incredible delicacy on a US Navy ship.

Humphrey Bogart, center, in a scene from the 1954 film 'The Caine Mutiny.' (Columbia Pictures/Getty Images, via JTA)

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02/17/15

Waffle House Wisdom

There is a brand of wisdom that is only found early in the morning at Waffle House. It’s called Waffle House Wisdom. If you don’t recognize that name it is because you may never have eaten at a Waffle House or you are a thin skinned Tesla liberal (the heir apparent to the limousine liberal in the Internet Age) or you are just stupid.

It is impolite to suggest people are stupid but there is enormous evidence to the contrary and a Big Red Car doesn’t like to ignore evidence. You don’t, right? Continue reading →

01/11/14

Valley Forge — a Primer in Crisis Management for the Startup CEO

Big Red Car here.  Oh boy, it’s going to be 75F and sunny here in the ATX today.  Oh boy!  [Hey, Big Red Car, STFU because other folks live in places like Chicago and it’s wicked cold there.  Actually it’s going to be quite nice in Chicago today.]

So The Boss is still in Steamboat Springs skiing.  It snowed like mad yesterday and last night.  Probably got more than a foot of fresh powder.  They were out grooming it all night long.

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