É sobre algumas idéias feitas quanto à inovação, mas tem aplicação em outros domínios

"5. 'There is a huge gap between how an innovator sees the world and how others see the world. Howard Aiken, a famous inventor, said, 'Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats.'' 

6. 'The love of new ideas is a myth: we prefer ideas only after others have tested them. We confuse truly new ideas with good ideas that have already been proven, which just happen to be new to us. The paradox is that the greater potential of an idea, the harder it is to find anyone willing to try it.”"

"9. 'The myth that the best idea wins is dangerous. The goodness or newness of an idea is only part of the system that determines if it will win or lose.'" 

Ten Myths of Innovation:  Scott Berkun, The Myths of Innovation

Energia; picos de petróleo, gás e colapso

 Clicar para aceder a versões ampliadas dos gráficos.

• The Oil Drum | World Oil Capacity to Peak in 2010 Says Petrobras CEO. O nº 1 do petróleo brasileiro diz da sua justiça, e demonstra a sua tese com um conjunto de gráficos bem ilustrativos (exemplos acima).

Tirados do The Oil Drum | Drumbeat: February 4, 2010 as seguintes referências: 

• The Oil Drum | Energy Flow, Emergent Complexity, and Collapse: "Civilizations grow in complexity given the right circumstances. And all too often they end up collapsing. History is replete with examples. Joseph Tainter, among others, has examined collapse from the standpoint of decreasing marginal return on investment in increasing complexity, which he posits is the most common factor in collapsed societies. The key question one must ask is: What critical circumstance (if there is one factor above all others) enables a society to grow in complexity in the first place? If we find an answer to that question we may also find what causes the decrease in marginal returns as complexity increases. This is certainly a growing concern for our modern civilizations. I advance a systems theoretical and principled thesis, below, that puts the increased flow of energy as the key enabler of increases in complexity. And I examine what we might expect from declines in that flow rate when sources are depleted." Aquilo que é dito atrás cruza com isto.

• The oil industry: Beyond the black stuff | The Economist: "Big Oil is being forced to rethink its future"

Números interessantes, mas a informação do que o Google está a fazer no domínio das renováveis e da eficiência energético diz-nos um bocado de como alguns estão atentos:

• Where's Google Putting Its Money? | SolveClimate.com: "The International Energy Agency projects that global energy demand will increase 46 percent by 2030, requiring an investment of $26.3 trillion in energy infrastructure to meet the expected demand. Yet, last year, global investment in the sector fell to $5.6 billion, a 33 percent drop from 2008, and that was the second highest year. Revamping our energy system will take substantial funding, and while some countries, like China, are investing in the whole cleantech pipeline, from “lightbulb to lightbulb” — from idea to implementation, as Google puts it — the U.S. is investing only sporadically. Since 1980, funding for R&D has dropped 58 percent, with energy getting only 2 percent of the pie."

Boa discussão da temático do Pico do Petróleo:

• Endless Oil: Peak Production vs. Oil Price -- Seeking Alpha: "One of the persons cited in Mr. Reed’s article is Leonardo Maugeri, a senior executive of the Italian oil major ENI. He states that “there will be enough oil for at least 100 years.” Actually there will be enough for a thousand or more, but not enough to keep our Volvos in the fast lane up to the skiing and partying in the Midnight Sun at Riksgränsen in the North of Sweden. There should, however, be enough though for the lamps of China and Beverly Hills."

Diz-se que o desenvolvimento da tecnologia de extracção de gás irá resolver grande parte dos problemas de abastecimento de energia durante este século:

• The Quiet Energy Revolution — The American, A Magazine of Ideas

A China, a Internet, e a Google

Nota: Clicar na imagem para aceder a uma versão maior. 

Embora, se discuta muito o que poderá estar a justificar, em última instância, a atitude da Google, o certo é que sabe bem saber que alguém é capaz de fazê-lo. A imagem foi tirada da Information Is Beautiful, e aquilo que se transcreve em seguida, tem sentido.

What Does China Censor Online? | Information Is Beautiful

Five Economics Pieces Worth Reading: January 14, 2010 - Grasping Reality with Opposable Thumbs:

"3) BEST NON-ECONOMICS THING I HAVE READ TODAY: James Fallows: The Google news: China enters its Bush-Cheney era: In terms of information flow into China, this decision probably makes no real difference.... Anybody inside China who really wants to get to Google... can still do so easily, by using a proxy server.... For the vast majority of Chinese users, it's not worth going to that cost or bother, since so much material is still available in Chinese from authorized sites.... In terms of the next stage of China's emergence as a power and dealings with the United States, this event has the potential to make a great deal of difference -- in a negative way, for China. I think of this as the beginning of China's Bush-Cheney era.

To put it in perspective: I have long argued that China's relations with the U.S. are overall positive for both sides... that China is a still-poor, highly-diverse and individualistic country whose development need not 'threaten' anyone else and should be encouraged. I still believe all of that. But... a difficult and unpleasant stage of China-U.S. and China-world relations lies ahead. This is so on the economic front.... It may prove to be so on the environmental front -- that is what the argument over China's role in Copenhagen is about. 

It is increasingly so on the political-liberties front, as witness Vaclav Havel's denunciation of the recent 11-year prison sentence for the man who is in many ways his Chinese counterpart, Liu Xiaobo. And if... Google has... concluded that, in effect, it must break diplomatic relations with China because its policies are too repressive and intrusive to make peace with, that is a significant judgment. Everything in the paragraph above has the similarity of being based directly or indirectly on recent Chinese government decisions..."

A acompanhar ...

Why Are Some Cities More Entrepreneurial Than Others? - Economix Blog - NYTimes.com: "Edward L. Glaeser: "The success of a city is tied to the area’s entrepreneurship, but what explains why some places are more entrepreneurial than others?"

São uma série de apontamentos. Este é o primeiro. Fico com curiosidade quanto ao que se segue.

Chocolate preto e os mistérios de algumas decisões empresariais

Aquilo que é dito na nota do NYT referida ao fim deixa-ne perplexo, a mim, enquanto economista e apreciador de chocolate puro (com o mínimo possível de açúcar). O que poderá justificar que se abastarde um produto de qualidade cujo mercado está em crescimento? Mistérios do capitalismo norte-americano.

Vejam que vale a pena: Op-Ed Contributor - My Chocolate Meltdown - NYTimes.com