Author Archives: Thor

256. You Want Me to Explain? You must be kidding.

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Thor

There is an expla­na­tion for every­thing. You know that’s true because some­body always has an expla­na­tion. The world was surely cre­ated in seven days because some­body impor­tant wrote that in a book. Last week a young woman of twenty was … Con­tinue read­ing →

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255. Age, Ambition and Secret Knowledge

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Thor

He used to be a fac­tory man­ager. They booted him out, “too old” at 40. Some­one with an MBA said he wasn’t fol­low­ing best prac­tice. Best prac­tice was what a text book said it was, appar­ently. Actu­ally it wasn’t. The … Con­tinue read­ing →

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254. Life’s Big Tests and Petty Minded Creeps

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Thor

Life’s big tests are mostly less about fight­ing real mon­sters than find­ing a way past petty minded creeps: their shadow mon­sters are built from stu­pid­ity, igno­rance, greed, incom­pe­tence, jeal­ousy and cow­ardice. Some­times the tough­est part is not being a petty … Con­tinue read­ing →

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253. The Magic Law of Thirty

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Thor

Thirty is a magic num­ber. By 30 Alexan­der the Great was mas­ter of his known uni­verse; (but dead at 33, dummy). So we are sup­posed to be mas­ter of what­ever we are going to be at 30. Well, at least … Con­tinue read­ing →

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252. The Moral Dilemma of an Average Man (or Woman)

Posted on January 1, 2013 by Thor

The Eng­lish word “moral” (adj. moral ; n. moral­ity; v. mor­al­ize) is not sexy. It is stained forever with images of self-right­eous old men say­ing wor­thy things, then rush­ing off (from church or wherever) to lie, steal and coerce the … Con­tinue read­ing →

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251. The Customer is Always Stupid

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Thor

“The cus­tomer is always right” or “the cus­tomer is always stu­pid” – which one is true? Well, it is a bit like hav­ing two sets of account­ing books, one for the tax office and one for pri­vate profit. Any smart … Con­tinue read­ing →

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250. Broken Giants

Posted on November 7, 2012 by Thor

It is the fate of ene­mies and com­peti­tors to look ever more like each other. Carthage looked too much like Rome, impe­rial Britain too much like impe­rial Ger­many.  The United States now is a frac­tured and mil­i­ta­rized nation. In America’s … Con­tinue read­ing →

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