"We expect the slow-moving traditional leader to create less 'chaos' than the entrepreneurial and disruptive leader.... The whole point of Trump’s flurry of activity is that he’s trying to create good outcomes. We don’t know if the good outcomes will pan out. All we know is that it was a bit messy at the start. Is being a bit messy a sign of a problem? Not if you’re the entrepreneurial, disruptive, candidate of change who just got elected.... If you see a pundit crying 'chaos' about Trump’s early moves, you’re probably seeing someone with no entrepreneurial management experience. In the startup world, speed has replaced intelligence whenever you can rapidly test. Doing things quickly, and adjusting as needed, often gets you to a faster/better result than planning a moonshot that has exactly one path to success."
Writes Scott Adams — observing the alternative templates of chaos and disruption.
January 31, 2017
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92 comments:
"a bit messy" The genius persuader at work again.
The only reason Obama's presidency wasn't "messy" was because the press covered up all of his scandals. And Obama had real scandals involving many actual deaths. Obama also was the biggest liar to ever be president and that includes Bill the rapist Clinton who was again covered for by the press.
The messy part is going to be taking the main stream media out at the knees.
FDR moved fast, to widespread acclaim.
Meanwhile, get ready for all the favorable histories of Obama to go alongside the press accounts.
"Meanwhile, get ready for all the favorable histories of Obama..."
I hope that provides adequate succor, readering.
I listen to stock market talk every morning. In particular, two guys who started and run something called Tastytrade. One of the guys, Tom Soznov, is incredibly wealthy. Maybe even up there with Trump. They don't talk a lot of politics, but I wouldn't be surprised if they are both anti-trump lefties.
The other day, they were talking about all the businesses they've created over the years with a third guy. And one of the things they said is, you just make decisions. You don't form committees. You don't spend months talking about it.
You just make decisions and you get things done.
Totally reminded me of Trump. Although I don't think they had Trump in mind when they were talking about that.
readering said...
Meanwhile, get ready for all the favorable histories of Obama to go alongside the press accounts.
Please do this!
Lets remember how successful Obama was handling the Syrian situation! JV! err...
Ok let's remember how awesome the economy was! Wait he was the first president without a single year of growth at 3% or more? ok...
Obamacare! The least popular signature achievement since Carter achieved stagflation! I can keep my doctor? SWEET!
At least Obama succeeded in getting the anti-war protesters to shut up for 8 years.
"Dr. Helen" had the same idea The Art of Exhaustion
Adams has been involved in startups. He has one right now. He also lives in California. He knows of what he writes.
My favorite (and extremely talented) carpenter maintains that "God hates a coward" in the context of producing results and getting things done. He quickly examines a situation, assesses the risks and dives into a project. He occasionally trashes a board or a door, but provides cost effective results when you consider labor rates.
Government is the land of committees, labor unions, EPA rulings and regulations. Washington is not familiar with risk taking, decisiveness, swift action and results oriented management.
Does Scott Adams comment here using a pseudonym?
What's Adams' view re Palin?
I'm picking up a TradGuy vibe.
Anywho, I've got to imagine that self-identified expert persuader Adams is using his powers to pursed folks to pay attention to him. There's no way that folks are persuaded by the literal meaning of the stuff he writes/says.
He's right, as long as the cost for failure isn't too high. And it's not for what he has done so far.
Now that I've read the thread I see that many of y'all do fall for the literal meaning of what Adams writes.
Interesting.
This is the "Fail Faster" theory assuming there is sufficient buffer for any "learning" failures along the way at the appropriate level of execution. You do have to differentiate between macro and micro issues. Screw up one of the macro items and you might be finished.
"Turnaround" specialists are quite adept at being able to walk in, quickly diagnose situations at a high level and then work out the specifics at the more detailed levels.
I don't necessarily group Trump in with "turnaround" specialists but many business folks, like Trump, who are handling deal after deal after deal get pretty good at seeing and exploiting the opportunities.
Gwenda Blairs books on the Trump family and Trumps campaign are quite interesting and informative.
Did you know that Trump at an early age became an acolyte of Norman Vincent Peale and the Power of Positive Thinking. Probably why for Trump everything is fantastic, great and getting even better, magnificent really, and if anyone around you starts giving off "negative vibes Moriarty" (hattip to Donald Sutherland in "Kelly's Heroes") you get rid of them.
All in all some insightful "stuff".
Lyin'PB_Ombudsman: "Now that I've read the thread I see that many of y'all do fall for the literal meaning of what Adams writes. Interesting."
The Gruber contingent checks in.
Interesting.
Drago,
Your 5:34 should have ended w/ "carry on!" not "interesting."
Missed opportunity.
Just sayin'
What will explode lefty heads is that this is gonna happen every day for 4 years.
Do Not miss this post by Scott Adams. It's perfection.
I'm amazed that the pundits didn't recognize in Trump's use of Twitter that it's a variant of the "Elevator Speech" every business owner is recommended to prepare. An Elevator Speech, named after the imaginary situation where you're on a elevator & another businessman asks you "What does your company do?", & you have to give him an answer in the short period of time before you or he gets off the elevator. The speech is supposed to be brief, clear to someone outside the business (not jargon-y), & gives a potential customer a good idea of your company's value to his company.
Go re-read Trump's tweets as "elevator speeches". He used the 140 character limit as a way of polishing & condensing his message into sound bite form.
Lyin'PB_Ombudsman: "Missed opportunity"
Ouch.
The story of Hillary's life.
Maybe she married the wrong guy. Maybe it shouldn't have been a guy at all.
Fernandinande said...
"Dr. Helen" had the same idea The Art of Exhaustion
It's also the idea that was drilled into me in officer training. An 80% solution now is better than a 100% solution later. Make a decision and then adjust as necessary.
Mr Wibble: "It's also the idea that was drilled into me in officer training. An 80% solution now is better than a 100% solution later. Make a decision and then adjust as necessary."
A mediocre plan, executed ruthlessly, can be successful.
The dems problems can best be summarized by an interpretative dance I've been working on, but since this is just a blog I will attempt to illustrate the dems/Deep State problem with the following dialogue from Ghostbusters (the original funny one, not the feminist pro-Hillary dog of a movie)-
Character Dr. Raymond Stantz: "Personally, I liked the university. They gave us money and facilities, we didn't have to produce anything! You've never been out of college! You don't know what it's like out there! I've WORKED in the private sector. They expect *results*."
I was thinking this. A good friend is dealing with a new BoD at work and it's a source of endless frustration, because these people, unlike the previous board, want to meet about *every*thing. They hem and haw, they ask for reams more data with no explanation of how, or even whether, these additional data will improve the decision-making process. They delay acting, until eventually events themselves force the company into action that they haven't let anyone prepare for or get ahead of.
I've been watching with interest as each Trump EO comes out and is described as if it's struck by the hand of God (or Ba'al) onto a stone tablet, immutable. There seems to be no understanding at all on the press's part that an EO that doesn't work can be unmade or altered as easily as it was made. That would seem to me to be kind of the point of the things...
""Missed opportunity"
Ouch.
The story of Hillary's life.
Bravo.
A bad plan, executed to perfection, is still a bad plan. This was neither a good plan nor executed decently, never mind effectively. The immigration EO is embarrassingly amateur hour on both its substance and implementation.
Trump supporters shouldn't fall into the inane pattern that Obama supporters did - seeing everything as some grand move from a master tactician. This whole debacle is an unforced error he needs to learn from. Fast.
"This was neither a good plan nor executed decently, never mind effectively."
You are wrong about the plan. The polls show that.
You are also not very bright. We don't need a poll to confirm that.
Carry on!
Intelligence and speed. The chaos is perceived by people on the left, right, and center who are accustomed to the status quo and its progress. Trump is not Obama.
The chaos is also real as special interests on the left, right, and center create perturbations to secure their respective niches.
n.n: "Trump is not Obama."
Obama wasn't even obama.
Just another puffed up lefty cult hero.
They come and go.
The first part of Adams piece - also interesting for a different reason -
"I made the mistake of turning on CNN yesterday and saw all the hypnotized pundits trying to work the secret persuasion word “chaos” into every comment about President Trump. That’s your tell that none of the pundits are offering independent opinions. They are part of the hive mind led by some uncredited persuader on their side. Someone told them to say “chaos” a lot, and so they do. This might signal the return of Godzilla. Reminds me of “dark,” their hive-mind word for the summer of 2016."
i.e., I am supported in the perception that "none of the pundits are offering independent opinions", and that there is some "uncredited persuader" behind them, or more likely some committee that hands them the unified party line, daily, hourly.
There is an opposition HQ. It would be interesting if it can be called out into the open.
Btw, Hillary, the smartest and most qualified and beautiful woman who ever lived is now blaming obambi, the one true God amongst mortals, for her loss.
Gee, this is like a Greek novel about the Gods fighting on Olympus!
"What's Adams' view re Palin?
I'm picking up a TradGuy vibe."
Why? Because they are both Trump fans? They don't sound alike at all. TradGuy often brings up the Scots Irish and religion and is not at all fond of the Vatican. Adams has never mentioned religion to my knowledge. I have no idea what Adams thinks of Palin, but if he likes her, I am sure it is for different reasons than TradGuy.
After reading the comments section of a website for months or years, you'd think you'd be able to pick up on the quirks and common themes of the regulars.
Jack Wayne,
Well it's more than just lefties whose heads are exploding. And --great news!!-- before long, everybody's head gonna be exploding. Not for the faint of heart, these times. Lotsa people gonna get screwed, but I think the screwers will be the screw-ees in a couple of years. Can we dish it out as well as we take it in?
"There is an opposition HQ. It would be interesting if it can be called out into the open"
Don't think of it as a HQ. That's a tactical error.
It's a distributed network of leftists who communicate with each other continuously across different platforms. This is why the buzzwords, talking points etc.,shift so rapidly and completely across "Left-dom".
Drago, it's more like the multiple heads of Cerberus, the monstrous dog that guards the gates of Hades, biting and snarling at each other.
LightenUpFrancis said...
Trump supporters shouldn't fall into the inane pattern that Obama supporters did - seeing everything as some grand move from a master tactician. This whole debacle is an unforced error he needs to learn from. Fast.
What was wrong with either the execution or the substance? I see great poll numbers, exploding prog heads, and at lest a temporary reduction in practitioners of sharia law. We have the added benefit of democrats calling everyone who disagrees with them, in this case strong majorities of American citizens, bigot nazi hitlers while they are defending people who want to kill all the Jews in Israel and throw gay people from roofs.
I see no downside here.
I would guess that Adams is wrong here. Chaos is fine in the tech world, because it is a small self selected world of nerds who thrive on change. Politics is driven Ma and Pa Kettle, their 401K and the bond market. Not big fans of chaos.
Achilles,
Too much of that Limbaugh juice? Obama was an average president in terms of honesty. I was thinking RDT was twice as dishonest, but I am revising that opinion in the light of him being a total ignoramus.
Paris, (MN)
My last comment was in reponse to Drago's quip about Greek Gods fighting.
Although I had Obama and Hill in mind, the multi-headed Hound of Hell is a pretty good description of the Left as a whole, come to think of it.
"I am revising that opinion in the light of him being a total ignoramus."
And yet he's in the WH, while Hillary forlornly wanders in the Hudson Valley woods, despite all the sooper geniuses like Robby Mook she had working for her.
And ignoramuses like Unknown/Inga still don't know how it happened.
A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.
George S. Patton
Patton, you bastard! I read your book!
--opposition HQ
He'd be moving faster if it weren't for RESISTANCE.
Achilles -
The issue with the execution is on several fronts. First, springing this without Agencies (at least DHS/INS) knowing what the fuck is happening and how to implement is important - confusion examples being green card / detention confusion. Second, if it goes through a more than cursory review (OLC review is very facial), then your political opponents don't get the "it's literally incoherent" as a talking point. Although folks around here have a boner for chaos, many Americans don't. Third, he should have seen the Acting Attorney General issue ahead of time, gotten rid of her preemptively, and had someone in there ordering DoJ underlings to defend it (a more coherent policy) to avoid the District Court complications.
On substance, well, I'm not an expert on the security implications of immigration law, but if a supposedly national security president's EO loses, for example, Lawfareblog attorneys (Benjamin Witts' piece goes through its ineffectiveness, for example)... it's probably not written well.
That's, of course, assuming the point is national security and running the country, not inane chaos for its own sake. If done well it would have caused enough lefty rage anyway.
As for polls, why does anyone care? He won. Time to govern.
I've worked for bosses who liked doing everything fast and ignored facts on the ground, such as we didn't have the right equipment or the right personnel or the personnel weren't trained or couldn't be trained because the plan kept changing. Usually some manager, the boss whisperer, would quietly took control and made the adjustments behind the scenes with what was doable and we'd put something out there that was kind of like what the plan was supposed to be and declare victory. Or the whole thing would fail totally and the brilliant fast plan would be flushed down the memory hole. But that's in the private sector. No taxpayer money, no congressional oversight committees, no media attention.
Trump gets a pass right now because he's only been in for a week or so and his team is still being formed and I'm sure there's a lot of confusion. But that better get fixed fast. It's not brilliant to be incompetent. It makes him look like a guy who's in over his head.
Several made the point that an imperfect plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.
Perfect or imperfect, any plan needs to be implemented. An unimplemented plan is merely a good intention and we know what the road to Hell is paved with (With apologies to Peter Drucker)
This is a problem that I frequently see in manufacturing businesses. They come up with a great improvement plan (with or without my help) and think they are done. Six months later that are still trying to get funding, assign people, holding meetings about implementation schedules and so on. Just wanking, in other words.
Most important thing you can do with any plan is GET STARTED NOW!!!!
It is something I like about President Trump, he comes up with a plan, AND he implements it.
He's done more in a week than most presidents do in a year.
I love him more and more every day.
John Henry
Matthew S,
Not sure about the resistance. I think a little resistance is always good. "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger." Nietzsche?
John Henry
I spent one year working for the VA. That was more than enough. I had previously worked in business consulting.
My take is that government workers are incredibly lazy and comfortable in their jobs. They have no sense of customer service. It is all about them and their benefits.
Privatize!
Lighten up seems to be a new troll or a new identity for one of the standard ones.
"Now that I've read the thread I see that many of y'all do fall for the literal meaning of what Adams writes."
Whereas nobody falls for your juvenile doofus comments.
"On substance, well, I'm not an expert on the security implications of immigration law,"
Even the blind bird gets an occasional worm.
He's done more in a week than most presidents do in a year.
I love him more and more every day.
Yes. Chip Kelly was very successful with the hurry up offense at Oregon.
Not as successful in the NFL but the NFL defensive coordinators are probably not Democrats,
John:
With all due respect to Nietzsche, it should be: what doesn't break you may make you stronger.
Scott Adams was tiresome before he started months ago. I'm a trained persuader and hypnotist, you don't understand the level-seven chess Trump is playing, I don't even like what's going on, but unlike you, I understand it.
Shut up for a while, Adams.
As opposed to the various immigration law experts parading around here with their on point analysis of the EO? Knowing limits is important.
I've been reading here for many years. Sometimes I forget why I don't bother engaging with folks in the comments. The reminders are always swift.
Trump does seem to have taken Obama's "stray voltage" strategy to it's natural conclusion, throwing off his opponents with the sheer volume of things that will upset them.
I still think the Democrats will be able to bog him down in the bureaucracies once they settle down and concentrate on a few key issues instead of trying to react to everything.
I've been reading here for many years. Sometimes I forget why I don't bother engaging with folks in the comments.
Because they're smarter than you?
Most important thing you can do with any plan is GET STARTED NOW!!!!
It is something I like about President Trump, he comes up with a plan, AND he implements it.
Yes. Create a plan based on what you know, get started, and then confront the inevitable unknown and unknowable. Trump probably had a good idea where the obstacles would be, if not necessarily the specifics of their circumstances. So, he perseveres and adapts, which to the hostile or untrained eye may be perceived as uncontrolled.
In about 2000, a manufacturer of commodity products had a big idea. They made about 800 different products for their own national brand, Walmart, Target, Radio Shack and so on. Marketing decided that they would guarantee 48 hour delivery on any order as small as 2 cases. With this many products, they could not carry inventory, they had to make to order to do it.
Marketing implemented this without consulting the manufacturing plant. Basically just said "Starting tomorrow, 48 hr delivery."
When I got there they were in a helluva mess. They were working 24/7 with extra shifts on overtime. The problem was not capacity, the problem was making so many small lots and every time they changed (5-6 times per line per shift) it took them about 15-20 minutes to get running again.
When I left, they had a plan and 6-8 months later they were running 2 shifts 5 days.
Should this have just been dropped on the plant like a bombshell? The plant manager was almost in tears trying to get it done. Her opinion and my opinion initially was no. They should have worked with the plant and planned for an orderly transition.
Since then I have come to believe that marketing did it exactly right. If they had tried to plan this, a year later it would still have been in the planning/talking stages.
It was only by sink or swim that they forced the plant to make it work.
Yes, a painful transition but the end was worth it. It resulted in significant improvements in the way the plant worked and was organized.
It also resulted in an 8% gain in market share. For a commodity product that is literally the same whichever national brand you buy, that is an enormous competitive gain.
Sometimes what looks like chaos isn't.
John Henry
Unknown says "Well it's more than just lefties whose heads are exploding. And --great news!!-- before long, everybody's head gonna be exploding. Not for the faint of heart, these times. Lotsa people gonna get screwed, but I think the screwers will be the screw-ees in a couple of years. Can we dish it out as well as we take it in?"
Yeah righty squish heads are exploding. But here in Houston we are pretty happy and wish it could go faster and harder. The thing for you to keep front and center is that we don't care about your feelz or your sadz anymore. Whether left or "right". The Cold War in America is warming up. Which side do you think is gonna win? When no rules apply anymore, it's bad for us all. But history tells me that the bourgeoisie always wins in the end.
Adams is a fucking cartoonist. With a bald head and a hot girlfriend. What does he know?
A lot more than the professional media, it turns out. Partly because he is smarter. And less conventional. When was the last time you listened to a MSM media type and thought "that person is really super smart and original."
Of course he is lucky too. Luck always helps unless its bad luck.
tick tick tick
Drago said...
Btw, Hillary, the smartest and most qualified and beautiful woman who ever lived . . .
You have seen pictures of Elizabeth Montgomery, haven't you? ;-)
One more comment on the commodity plant: We did this with little or no capital expense. No additional people, no additional machines. The only major expense was redesigning artwork. Somehow they had wound up with 2 almost but not quite identical packages.
They had to redo about 400 packages at a cost of $1,000 or so each. Just that change alone probably knocked of the need for a 3rd shift.
John Henry
As pointed out by another Georgia Lawyer @ 6:16 above, it is simply George S. Patton's way of leading an Army of men to victory over a foe. Know where the enemy is and you are (observe), know your force's ability (orient) know what movement will win ( decide) and attack before they do the same to you. That keeps the foe always defending.
Or in French it goes "il nous faut de L' Audace , encore de l'audace, toujours de l'audace."
Gorsuch!
Since the election, the Dems seem to think that their path to victory over Trump and the GOP lies in breaking rules. Trying to convince electors to betray their trust was typical. Today the Dems are boycotting committee meetings to delay (not stop) votes on confirming Trump's appointees.
This is stupid, incompetent, and foolish. This is a democracy. The Dems are in the minority. What power they have, they have because the majority respects the rules. The Dems are working to institutionalize their manifold failures.
Richard Epstein goes off the deep end disparaging Trump's style (podcast).
Epstein isn't the best on some things.
Epstein is against blustering and bullying, he says.
Calls for Trump's resignation.
Evidently Epstein likes a slower-moving style in large organizations.
As previously posted back in July and possibly still relevant today:
'Often, after spending the day with Trump, and watching him pile one hugely expensive project atop the next, like a circus performer spinning plates, Schwartz would go home and tell his wife, “He’s a living black hole!”
Tony Schwartz (Trump's ghostwriter of Art of the Deal)
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/donald-trumps-ghostwriter-tells-all
Trump was reasonably successful in building things. To do this he hired qualified experts in their respective fields. Central Park's Wollman Rink is a good example:
"...The rink was closed in 1980 for a proposed two years of renovations at $9.1 million. Six years and $13 million later, after the problem-plagued work was still not completed by the city, Donald Trump persuaded Mayor Ed Koch to let him complete the work in four months at $2.5 million in order to have it open by the end of the year.[3][4]
Koch initially objected but later agreed to Trump's proposal when Trump offered to pay for the renovations himself with the stipulation that he be allowed to run the venue and an adjacent restaurant and use the profits to recoup his costs.[5]
Trump hired CIMCO, Canada's largest refrigeration company and the NHL's preferred rink equipment supplier, to complete the project.[6] The rink reopened to the public on November 13, 1986, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and press conference attended by Koch and Trump, covered by national evening broadcast television news.[7][8] Total cost of renovations by Trump came in under budget at $2.25 million and two months ahead of schedule."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wollman_Rink
Trump still has to vet the competence of the so-called experts of his senior staff.
Two that most come to mind as having the characteristics of loose cannons are Stephen Miller and Michael Flynn. The latter comes with significant baggage.
So now there are 3 outlier polls supporting the delay from those 7 Muslim countries?
Reuters joins 49/41.
The Reagan historians say that Ronald Reagan's only real regret was not attempting more reforms in his first 100 days, because after that he could not get anything done by Congress.
Seeing Red said...
So now there are 3 outlier polls supporting the delay from those 7 Muslim countries?
Doesn't this just highlight Trump/Bannon's incompetence? A popular policy marred by a flawed execution giving the appearance of chaos.
Put in military terms, Trump is a master of the operational art, a skilled practitioner of Bewegungskrieg, maneuver warfare. Like many other famous and famously successful practitioners of operational art -- e.g., Subatai, Manstein, Guderian, Patton -- he clearly understands the value of conducting high-tempo operations as means of disrupting, dislocating, and discohering his enemies; of using speed, shock, momentum, and maneuver to knock his enemies off balance and send them reeling until they are overwhelmed.
"Seeing Red said...
So now there are 3 outlier polls supporting the delay from those 7 Muslim countries?
Doesn't this just highlight Trump/Bannon's incompetence? A popular policy marred by a flawed execution giving the appearance of chaos."
Wouldn't the more obvious interpretation be that the lame stream media's huffing and puffing about the supposed appearance of chaos is out of touch, i.e. wrong? E.g., maybe what is presented as chaos is actually seen by most Americans as libs gone wild as they try to hinder the security and advancement of average folks.
Startups have a 10% success rate. This is not encouraging to me at all. We have to look at what "failing" would be, and it's really not good folks.
Perhaps the chaos was desired and intended by Trump & Co. to cause controversy from the start. Perhaps he wanted the buzz.
Also, it sends a message to the ME that change is coming at the Islamic community fast. America's remaining friends might take the message in the same manner as Paris Island recruits take to a 3:00 AM PT event followed by a full 10 K hike at speed with full loads. Pick up the pace, results matter, every refugee is alert to the fact that they can be reviewed / inspected/ cashiered, held back and prosecuted. Do you really want to immigrate to America?
Why do you assume that the Americans want your contribution Islamic jihadists?
And, it discomforts the MSM / DNC/ DP/ Chattering elites/ Euro-trash enablers.
Change means stirring the pot for der Donald.
Been said before. But the previous situation has been an absolute failure.
10% isn't bad if you get 50 rolls of the die.
Sometimes they call this fail fast.
It also keeps the elite guessing, who think they can grab the tiller and move it in their favor.It's part of Management by objective as well, where the technique insures every manager is responsible for their own area with no one second guessing,which means every manager has as much fun as their boss, and it's always fair and expected to ask for help when you get stuck, it's not an admission of failure, sometimes changing the board, asking for a new deck is all that it takes. Again leaving the competition, or in the Philipe II (Spain) sense enemy guessing and flustered. A lot cheaper than buying one more carrier, w which won't change the 10% a whit, ditto the f35 which is too expensive to use or to train with, a simulator will have to do. Well then why simulate, just fly a drone. Well, says the existing workforce, then I won't get flight pay or a sexy jacket. We can fix that. What, DHS you twittered me a note that we have a possible terrorist coming in, we think he has a green, card might even be a citizen. And our system are so terribly archaic I can't fix them for a decade, much less the international relationships that need to be fixed so I can push the problem back into their court. Ok, what our the options? Inconvenience a million people to save a dozen, and take the fear out of 100 million getting up tomorrow, and put everyone on notice we are going to fix this, and we means "thee." Justice and courts will yell at you. Your political opposition may use this to defeat you at the next election, call it a certainty, since you always assume the worst, d@mn Wharton schooling. Ok, where do I sign? Sound of rustling papers, "why are you still here?"
Lyin'PB_Ombudsman said...
Wouldn't the more obvious interpretation be that the lame stream media's huffing and puffing about the supposed appearance of chaos is out of touch, i.e. wrong? E.g., maybe what is presented as chaos is actually seen by most Americans as libs gone wild as they try to hinder the security and advancement of average folks.
Naaah. The Trump doesn't do deep.
We can actually use Trump and Obama as a case study. Obama led with a moonshot, the proposal that became the ACA. He spent well over a year pleading for this law, while he had a Democratic majority in the House and a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, and was seemingly unable (and/or uninterested) in doing much else.
After much arm-twisting the ACA passed, and then a few months later his majorities were taken away. Squandered all the time he had to do pretty much whatever he wanted, and what did that get him ultimately? The ACA is being swept into the dustbin, probably this year. So much for the signature achievement.
As for all that Trump has done in the span of a week, we will be months and possibly years sorting out the ramifications. It's entirely possible that some, or even most, will prove to be successful policies. No doing stuff three years in and trying to argue it needs time to pan out. We'll have time to see that these policies worked, or didn't, well before the run-up to 2020.
AReasonableMan said...
I would guess that Adams is wrong here. Chaos is fine in the tech world, because it is a small self selected world of nerds who thrive on change. Politics is driven Ma and Pa Kettle, their 401K and the bond market. Not big fans of chaos.
****************
Then why did Obama proclaim that he was going to transform America? Was he taking those people into account?
Why do leftnoids applaud and look forward to "transformation", but expect it to be w/o chaos?
Breaking eggs, omelets, and all that?
So a day or two of minor disruption at airports is freaking CHAOS!!
Trump is transforming, AND serving up omelets.
Obama served up bupkis.
"adjust as needed" is where I think the difference between running a startup and running the Federal Executive department may cause problems. Not a few people who don't at least try to do that may well get fired before people get the hint.
Lyin'PB_Ombudsman said...
Now that I've read the thread I see that many of y'all do fall for the literal meaning of what Adams writes.
Interesting.
***************************
Wot? You gotta Captain Marvel Decoder Ring, or an Enigma Machine, to decode what Adams is *really* saying?
Snort!
I work with a lot of business leaders as a coach. One of the attitudes we help them get more comfortable with is "fail fast, learn fast." That means, gets things 60% directionally correct and then learn and adjust in route to the goal. Trump does this unbelievably well
Liar said...
I'd still say that being a hot dude w/ a big cock, dough, wit and assertiveness would work better w/ the gals.
2/1/17, 12:50 AM
Who told you that? We in the club agreed not to let folks like you know. I'll have to send a sharply worded memo to the Secretary.
BTW "dude" is not the word that we use, but you go ahead. It's just as well you weren't told the real secret.
On his discussion on the bankruptcies... We actually need somebody in government with the idea of liquidating failing enterprises. That just doesn't ever seem to happen. Throw the same money in a black hole. Through more money at it (because that's "always" the issue). Close it? Surely you jest...
It was a strength of Romney he didn't exploit and he let the demos tar him with it. If he came out and said: At Bain Capitol, we bought failing companies, companies that were headed to scrap heap, and bet our money that we could fix them. Most of the time we succeeded, sometimes we did not.
Good post. I think that the immigration EO was kind of a screw-up. But who cares? He'll fix it once the issues appear; he can scribble off another EO when he wants. The EO already does roughly what he wanted to do, or part of it.
The general impression of most people from all of this is surely going to be, He is getting an incredible amount done.
"No one has ever tried moving at Trump’s speed before."
readering said... "FDR moved fast, to widespread acclaim."
FDR is the obvious counter-example to Scott Adam's assertion. Then again, FDR was elected into an immediate crisis with the massive and cascading bank failures.
Can you imagine the outrage if Trump were to propose FDR's court-stuffing proposal, should the Supreme Court declare some major legislation unconstitutional? Then again, would it even be possible to pass something as revolutionary as the National Recovery Act today?
Of course, FDR had plenty of opponents who saw him as exceeding the legitimate authority of the office, yet they could hardly call him "Hitler" because, even though Hitler was in power he'd not yet become "Hitler" by starting WWII and unleashing his "final solution."
Then again, Hitler currency in contemporary politics has been debased due to overuse, and few still believe in Satan and in any case Democrats presumably see little advantage in comparing Trump to FDR.
So, who knows: perhaps Trump will propose a latter-day NRA. And the Court will again declare it unconstitutional. And ...
I note the prevalence of military metaphors. The goal of military operations is is not to arrive at a satisfactory compromise whereby all parties can convince themselves that what they won was worth more than what they lost. The goal is to derail your opponents' plans, so that you can proceed to eliminate their ability to function as an organization. Given the sweeping nature of the objective, the costs are considered acceptable. A military organization can evaluate an operation in which 5% of its members are killed as successful. It seems unlikely that this model can be applied to the sort of politics practiced by politicians, in which coalitions are built and alliances secured. But that does not look to be what Trump has in mind.
FDR moved fast, to widespread acclaim.
Indeed, he did. Ironically, in 1933 "fascist" wasn't such a bad word. In fact, in its general sense of "we are all stronger together than individually" and "liberal individualism has failed," it was the dominant ideology in "western civilization."
(BTW: Wolfgang Schivelbusch's Three New Deals: Reflections on Roosevelt's America, Mussolini's Italy, and Hitler's Germany, 1933-1939 is a wonderful little book.)
"Then again, FDR was elected into an immediate crisis with the massive and cascading bank failures."
We're in a dire crisis now, if not as immediate as that which FDR faced. Our "economic recovery" is anything but. Here's one argument why Trump will be unable to fulfill his promises to kick-start the economy, (assuming he were to actually try). I guess we'll see how it all actually pans out.
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