Morrie the Toupee Salesman

Funny piece. What it highlighted for me is a basic management principle – companies that run things differently from the majority, and that develop ideas and systems from “first principles” are more likely to succeed. If you ever hear the words “best practices” being used by management, it’s time to look for a new job, or sell your shares or do whatever qualifies as “voting with your feet.”

Personally I saw the article title on techmeme yesterday, and it was obvious just from the title (“How Apple Got Everything Right by Doing Everything Wrong”), that there was “mind-numbing tripe” ahead. Lazy journalism starts with a gimmicky title.

And I’m going to be using the phrase “mind-numbing tripe” a lot today. I’ve probably used it in the past myself, without realizing the absurd picture it evokes. “Quick, get this tripe off my head, it’s only seconds away from injecting mind-numbing chemicals and then I’m lost forever…”