The Paradigm Buster

The Dumbing of America, a good deed in need of a whipping!

2007-04-04T13:32:00.000-07:00

The Dumbing of America and how it started The dumbing of Americans started shortly after WWII with good intentions. Teachers, parents religious leaders, the PTA and School Boards across the country were counting the blessings of having won wars on two fronts. There was a huge sigh of relief; palpable to even those of us living abroad. We saw it through the movies, media, books, letters from home and even the Sears Catalog. What we could not see, however, was that we had chosen to go against nature. Unlike the gardener who dead-heads and trims the sick plant life to foster healthy growth; we Americans chose to do the opposite. To dead-head the smartest in the class in order to elevate the morons to equality. The result is that we drug the so called ADS (Attention Deficiency Syndrome) kids - who are really just bored to death as the teacher struggles to teach the lower half of the percentile. An impossible task and one which simply creates a frustrated teacher who will soon begin teaching to the blackboard, which further bores the smart ones into more daydreaming and angst. You can trace the easy acceptance of the first 'sample' drug from the friendly neighborhood dealer. You can trace the growing acceptance of cradle to grave philosophy, and you can certainly trace the growth of a bureaucratic regime now dominated by 'Robin Hood type do-gooders' from this point in time and the 'normal' curve. Was it a conspiracy from the far left? I doubt it. Did the far left recognize the opportunities for them to eventually take over? Absolutely! And in so doing, promote, preserve and encourage this continuing abomination against nature. My first year of schooling was in Riverheights, Utah. I was in the first row along with 7 other kids. The next row over were some 10 students in second grade. Third, fourth, fifth and sixth grade were in the remaining rows. One teacher taught us all. There was no tolerance for mischief and a stiff hard ruler was often used on deserving wrists. There was discipline in that schoolroom. It was 1941 and I was six years old. By 1942 I was in the Mexico City School; one kid of some 20 in the second grade. The same discipline as I had experienced in Utah. Tough, demanding, but oh! so rewarding when getting a good grade. There are fewer real pleasures in life than to be recognized for having done something well and there is no greater pleasure in life than that of self actualization. These were the greatest gifts I have ever received in life. To know that I could achieve more than I thought possible - at a very early age. Had I been tempted by the local drug dealer I would have laughed as I skipped away in wonderment at their stupidity in thinking that I could be a sucker to their lies. In '46 I was back in Riverheights and now finishing grade school. But things had changed. The teachers were explaining the 'normal curve' and how grading would be based on 'averages'. I did not understand this until one day I was knocked down in the playground by a fellow student who accused me of being responsible for his bad grades because I had raised the 'normal curve'. Years later my tires were slashed in the factory parking lot by fellow employees because I had made more than the 'normal' amount of parts on my turret lathe. It had only taken 15 years for the sickness to become a national plague. I begged my parents to take me back to Mexico where I had to repeat sixth grade before being admitted to a government school. I thrived in that school! The teachers were professionals. My biology teacher was a medical doctor and his office just a few blocks away. I earned his respect and would correct student papers in his office under his supervision. My shop teacher had his own carpentry shop, the math teacher an instructor at the military academy, our civics teacher a practicing attorney. There was no room for nonsense. Not one teacher in the school had graduated from a teacher's school. I came back to the States, joined the Navy, finished college with aid from the GI bill and have since become a satisfied person. I credit my success with the values I learned, through experience, and tough teachers, during that early period. A period in our history before the pressures to be normal went beyond persuasion, and have become law. You don' t believe it? The reality is that the wealth created by honest work is being taken from us, at gunpoint, for distribution to those who can't or won't, and whose vote is being bought by our own stolen wealth. And don't say that taxes are not collected at gunpoint. When the marshal comes to your door and takes you away to prison, a gun is what persuades the reluctant citizen to comply. We continue to dumb America by trying to lift those who simply don't have what it takes - mentally, physically, morally - through artificial means such as the normal curve and Redilin while we continue to push those with real potential down to the lowest common denominator. My daughter took an extensive set of exams, something like an expanded IQ test, and her score was way above average. She was counseled. The counselors showing her ways of how she could become normal! It has taken years for her overcome the stigma. We humans should not be so arrogant as to believe we know better than nature. If we continue on this insane road toward equalizing everybody, we will have created the kind of world that would put most reasonable people to sleep out of sheer boredom and so weaken our gene pool as to make us the easiest victims for whatever warlord that may come around. Easy pickings for a half-bright Saddam type anywhere, anytime. Is that what we want? Proof of the dumbing of Americans: The belief that work is something to be avoided; yet work, under the right conditions, is among the most rewarding of all human activities. The belief that a good chewing out will solve the problem; when in reality most people getting the chewing cause the chewing in order to get a dose of recognition. The belief that one must have the television on most of the time; where in fact if the same rules were applied to it as to drugs, it would be outlawed. The common belief that inventions are the result of necessity; when in fact most innovation happens just for the fun of it - as in the case of the airplane, electricity, steam power, Crazy Glue - people exploring the world of opportunities. The common belief that all good ideas come from the boss; the reality is that most new ideas come from the floor or from the outside in spite of the boss' reluctance. The mind-numbing belief that you must do it right the first time; when in fact progress is made from frequent falling down. Picture the champion skater or infant taking their first steps. The incredibly naïve belief that managers and supervisors motivate their employees; when the fact is that employees are motivated by themselves but begin to be demotivated by stupid rules and regulations designed for the lower half of the human spectrum. The greatest lie of all is that the acquisition of money is a guaranty for happiness; when the reality is that it is the quest, the striving, for whatever goal, that make the key elements for happiness. We should eliminate GDP (Gross Domestic Product) as the principal measurement to the nation's status with a GDH (Gross Domestic Happiness). And happiness is the result of individual strife against great odds to achieve worthwhile goals. The marshal's gun taking from those who do, and giving to those who don't simply does not cut the mustard. These are only a few of the15 fundamental cultural lies that go against Nature's laws. These are things we have created through the belief that we can do better. They are the lies that make the young kids go to the corner and wait for the pusher. They are the lies that allow smooth talking politicians to buy votes from people who would otherwise be forced to work their way through their problems. They are the lies that are slowly grinding away at the hard tool steel of what once was a civilization based on principles. We are tossing away the very principles that allowed us to win two wars and become the world's leader.
--
Wayne in the People's Republic of California; where ALL manufacturing will soon abandon ship and go to Mexico or China since it is impossible to do anything in this state except pay high energy bills, elect democrats (socialists). The dream state is becoming just another socialist experiment doomed to failure. My parachute is on!

The Fast Food Revolution was born in Tijuana

2007-03-31T17:28:00.000-07:00

Innovation examples:

How three illiterate uneducated Mexicans caused a major paradigm shift in American eating and living habits.

Speaking of innovation and success. Follow this short thread from misc.entrepreneurs.moderated:

On Fri, 30 Mar 2007 16:55:37 -0000, "GreatArtist" wrote:

I read with envy the story of Dineh Mohajer and her company, Hard Candy. All she freaking did was mix a pale blue shade of nail polish because none existed. Then everybody told her how much they liked it. Then she mixed more colors using store-bought nail polish and the whole thing blew up huge in no time and she sold her company for $30 million a few years later. I wish success were that easy for me. Anybody know of any other similar stories of unexploited niches that blew up huge, or was this just a one-in-a-million opportunity that's as rare as winning the lottery?

______________________________

Reply from: cylise

Easy? Yah, sure, I bet. She had to recognize the market existed for more than a few of her friends. She had to get manufacturing facilities and pass the government harmless requirements. She had to get salespeople to place the product. She had to expand the business. She had to recognize a good offer and negotiate it.

There were doubtless hundreds or thousands of places she could have blown the whole thing and been left with a facility and some disgruntled ex-employees and, possibly, a large debt.

I've known someone who started a business that later others claimed had been lucky and easy. It wasn't. I've known several others who tried to do the same thing and it didn't work.

The niche is nowhere near enough. One has to be able to fill it solidly.
_____________________________________

My reply:

Thousands.

The secret is to be observant, curious and aware. The key is to always have a piece of paper and pen in your shirt pocket or a miniature recorder. When you see something interesting, like something that fits in a round hole, and the next week you see how a round hole in something is made, you cry Eureka! and pursue the flash of genius.

The best example I can think of is the audacity of the McDonald brothers back when all they had was a traditional sit-down little burger and hot dog joint in San Bernardino. Had they not been observant that day they were enjoying their tacos at a standup hole-in-the-wall by the Tijuana bullring, we may not have the benefits of fast food today.

According to Wikipedia:

The McDonald Brothers business began in 1940, with a restaurant opened by siblings Dick and Mac McDonald in San Bernardino, California. Their introduction of the "Speedee Service System" in 1948 established the principles of the modern fast-food restaurant.

According to my good friend and mentor Victor Rubio, most popular, respected and well known restaurateur in Tijuana during the WWII years through to his death in 2004:

"I remember the McDonald brothers coming into my restaurant near the bullring and inviting me to have a beer with them as they shared their love of bullfighting and mariachi music during their occasional trips to Tijuana. This was around 1947, I remember because of the brouhaha around Margaret Truman's first public singing appearance. Tijuana had been and was still a huge magnet to Hollywood types, sailors and marines before and after the war. It was not until sometime in 1955 when I put two and two together, recalling Dick's penchant for taking notes, that I remembered their telling me of their observing how a small taco stand could serve so many people in such a short time that they began experimenting with the idea back at their San Bernardino restaurant. By 1960 you could not go anywhere in the United States without finding a nearby McDonald's. Truly an amazing story of how the fast food concept changed the way Americans eat. All from observing a trio of uneducated taco stand workers."

The lesson to be learned:

Be observant, think outside the box, swim upstream against all odds, WRITE IT DOWN, have pen and paper next to your bedside as the best ideas may hit you at 2:30 in the morning and if you don't grab it on paper it will be forever gone. Then take action.

It's really that simple. But because it's so simple and requires no Cray computer, few people believe in it's power. I'll spend hours teaching my clients/students this secret along with Tony Buzan's Mind Mapping and out of 30 only 2 or three will actually change their way of doing things and start with the pen/paper in the pocket. Hardly any will try the Mind Mapping magic.

Wayne www.pueblaprotocol.com (free, non-commercial site sharing experiences)

Looking for examples

2006-12-29T10:17:00.000-08:00

Some companies fully understand the need to be forever on the lookout for changing paradigms. The rumor-mill is filled with examples. Sitting in the airport waiting for a flight I've heard a lot of these rumors. One is the legendary corporate culture at Intel which may be the best of the best of these rumors. It's said that any manager or supervisor who wants to continue working at Intel, must be forever trying to sell their ideas for improvement, even it it means being a real pest. If you are not pulling at your boss' sleeve asking for a chance to pitch your idea of improvement, you do not belong at Intel.

I don't know if this is true, but it sure makes sense. Even Andy Grove admitted to management's original reluctance to look beyond memory chips as the Japanese were taking over this industry. Andy admits it was a fellow from some unknown skunk-works hidden in some cubby hole in the Intel empire that pulled enough shirt-tails to get management to really look at a thing he called microprocessor. I'm not sure, but think this was the birth of the 4004.

A recent book on the history of HP illustrates this philosophy at work as a part of their corporate culture. Anybody worth their salt was constantly sandwiched between being fired for insubordination or promotion for their brilliant breakthrough idea.

Another closely guarded secret management technique by one of the top four hotel chains in the world is the systematic challenging of the way things are done. Rumor has it that a new employee will be given a challenge on the very first day. "You are to make a note of anything that you see that you do not believe is appropriate for this hotel. At the end of the week I will sit down with you to review your observations and to give you feedback on your performance, as observed by your team-mates and others. We have put in place five things that any person with reasonable intelligence would detect as out of the normal."

The trick here, is that nobody put any 'thing that any person of reasonable intelligence' in their environment. What this hotel chain is looking for, are opportunities to continue improving service, quality and pricing. They do this from the first moment the person is hired. And it never stops. Continuous Process Improvement is a system that keeps this chain on top of the pile.

Do you have some examples to share?

What happened to vacuum tube manufacturers?

2006-12-27T12:00:00.000-08:00

Paradigm shifts bring giants to their knees and open the door to new breeds of entrepreneurs to fill the vacuum. Successful entrepreneurship depends on our ability to see into the future and anticipate when the wind-up watch, the vacuum tube, photographic film and land line telephones will be a thing of the past.

My blog will attempt to take in observations and suggestions from those people with keen foresight abilities, from psychics and even an occasional lunatic. Lunatic being the term used in the past for those who claimed clairvoyance.

I will also be exploring the latest and greatest in mind mapping, brainstorming, strategic breakthrough techniques and anything to do with the idea of peeking into the future. Then, develop the ability to convince others, such as bankers, to invest in this vision.

Think of Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, Sam Walton, the founders of Google, Amazon, eBay, Paypal as leading lights.