Self-Evident Truths...

I woke up to NPR's "This I Believe" the other day. I particularly like this segment because they're short, interesting, and most of the time, idealistic. This week's This I Believe was written by Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips (a great band that Josh introduced me to).

Creating Our Own Happiness

I think this is a great piece and puts things in perspective. While I'm at it, I also think that our society focuses too much on the idea and pursuit of an individual happiness. Even marketers have figured out a way to link our consumptive patterns to the fulfillment of happiness. I saw a genital herpes ad the other day and the two people were the happiest people I ever saw: "Yay! I don't have a flare-up today because I took Valtrex!" Shoot, I used to think I was happy until I saw these two - then I realized I was far from happy, I was damned near miserable.

I think the constant focus on attaining personal bliss has come at the expense of other ideas - duty, honor, delayed gratification, and self-sacrifice (to name a few). Perhaps that's why each successive generation is more self-centered than the past (thanks Jen) or at the very least, why Prozac, happiness in pill form, is so widely prescribed.

Me? I think I'll be fine with a double-dose of herpes.

And I run faster too...

Entertaining...(I think I'm addicted to YouTube)

Oh what a Feeling! Toyota!

There’s been a lot in the press this past year about the rise of Toyota – culminating with its entrance into Detroit’s “Big 3”. Here’s an excellent NY Times article (“From 0 to 60 to World Domination”, Jon Gertner) which chronicles Toyota’s steady rise. There are some really great business philosophies – the idea of kaizen or continuous improvement, “there are no best ways to do things, but there are better ways”, and it’s relentless focus on customer service.

There are some excerpts that were particularly noteworthy:

On Japanese Customer Service:

On that first trip, at a restaurant one evening, he tried a rich corn soup and asked the waitress for the recipe. She checked with the chef, who explained that there was no recipe; it had been handed down from his mother. The next morning, the waitress came to Press’s hotel room: she had found a cookbook with a recipe for the soup. Press, apparently, was still her customer. “That blew me away,” he said.

On Kaizen:

There was no best way to do something, but there were always better ways. John Paul MacDuffie, a Wharton professor of management, points out that the system was a “cognitive reframing of what is possible.” It showed that quality and productivity were not mutually exclusive; Toyota could indeed produce a greater variety of more durable cars more quickly than anyone else. Some of Ohno’s and Toyota’s ideas also had a deeply subversive quality. It is human nature to cover up a problem rather than call attention to it. At a Toyota plant, the identification of a problem became imperative and exciting. Because then it could be addressed.

There was more to this post (e.g. why GM stinks), but I edited it out because it was lame. Here’s a WSJ Op-Ed article (“Who’s afraid of Toyota”, Holman Jenkins - if you can't view it just google the title) stating that GM would be competitive if it wasn’t anchored down by its legacy pension liabilities… although I think that’s a good point, I'd argue the problem is structurally larger than that.

Washington, WashingTON...

Happy Birthday Uncle George! (thanks Josh)

Why Geeks Make Good Lovers

Kawika forwarded this to me today. I'd like to believe it to be true...but as Conan O'Brien says - "when all else fails, there's always delusion."

Why Geeks Make Good Lovers

One of the Universal Truths that lie just beyond the fabric of modern society is the axiom that geeks, along with nerds and other peoples who overinvest in intelligence but boast underdeveloped social skills, make the best lovers. Once people realize this, the sexual revolution that will sweep through western culture will make the seventies look like the fifties, and I’m not talking about wider pants. The reasons why geeks are unparalleled as lovers are simple and many:

Follow the Link

W.R. Grace

I've been tracking this company, W.R. Grace (GRA) for about 5 years now - since $2.50. It was in a similar situation that USG was - unquantifiable asbestos liability with a voluntary Ch. 11 filing in hopes for a 524g trust fund resolution. Recently, within the past, say, 6 months, things within the courtroom have turned favorable for equity holders. The stock has gone from $10 to $25. There aren't many bankrupt companies that trade at $25 ... Mr. Market is thinking equity holders will get... well, equity.

I'm thinking heavily about investing in this company, although I haven't really looked at the balance sheet and such. All I know is that I've threaded the needle once before, and it looks like this company is capable of threading the needle as well. I've definitely missed out on the 10 bagger though.

Suffice it to say, I'm actually happy that the tide is turning in favor of companies with respect to asbestos torts ... jackpot justice and fraudulent claims, for that matter, is not justice - no matter how "faceless" the corporation is.

You mean the WOW to me...

Awesome...

Florida ROCKIN'

Today, the big news is that Florida Rock (FRK) got bought out by Vulcan Materials at a 45% premium to their closing price on Friday. Building aggregates company going at an 11.3x trailing EBITDA multiple…simply amazing. I thought the Rinker (RIN) / Cemex (CX) bid was high (8.8x EBITDA multiple)…this one really vindicates Rinker’s management for saying the bid is too low.

So, it’s looking like there’s some consolidation in the cement / construction aggregate industry. This is interesting because the construction environment is relatively tepid (from a roiling boil thanks to residential housing) – I wonder what these executives are paying up for? Economies of scale? Oligopolistic pricing power? Or do they see a pending increase in construction spending with a surge in commercial construction like the late 90s (given risk premiums are pretty much zero in the sector and cap rates are ridiculously low)?

There's been other activity in this area as well - ELK just got bought out and AWI is shopping itself. I wonder who’s next: TXI, RMX, EXP? EXP is interesting because it is a drywall and cement company – whoever bought it would probably sell the wallboard operation (we'd finally get to see what the going rate on a wallboard business is). In any case, I know a drywall company that’d be willing to sell out...especially for 11x trailing EBITDA. Pretty please!?!?!

Evil Bovine Master

Why Evil Bovine Master?

A while ago, my friend Josh sent me an email forward telling me why I should never get a job. Reason #6, having an evil bovine master.

When you run into an idiot in the entrepreneurial world, you can turn around and head the other way. When you run into an idiot in the corporate world, you have to turn around and say, “Sorry, boss.”

Did you know that the word boss comes from the Dutch word baas, which historically means master? Another meaning of the word boss is “a cow or bovine.” And in many video games, the boss is the evil dude that you have to kill at the end of a level.

So if your boss is really your evil bovine master, then what does that make you? Nothing but a turd in the herd.

Who’s your daddy?

I am a cow (kao), I am a boss (in the loosest sense) … and I’m evil. Evil Bovine Master fits perfectly…and the domain wasn’t taken. Score one for me…

Genesis 1:1

Many years ago, one of my friends became a blogger. There was little fanfare, maybe a “ps. here’s my website” in a mass email, but that was about it. His blog has been out there for years, read by a handful of people at the most, providing an open window into his thoughts for us voyeurs to peep into.

I’ve chosen a different route – my thoughts and ideas have been passed through a closed system, mainly email. Dialogues have been tailored to individual groups and segregated via email lists. Although I have a high degree of privacy, my system is proving to be horribly inefficient. This blog is my way of reconciling the various threads, providing context to conversation and ultimately, serving as a historic statement of record for my thoughts.