I was reminded of this Financial Times essay by Glenn Reynolds, who mentioned it in his latest newsletter. I've kept a copy of it ever since I first came across it in the 1980's. I thought you might find it useful too.
Crunchiness brings wealth. Wealth leads to sogginess. Sogginess brings poverty. Poverty creates crunchiness. From this immutable cycle we know that to hang on to wealth, you must keep things crunchy.
Crunchy systems are those in which small changes have big effects leaving those affected by them in no doubt whether they are up or down, rich or broke, winning or losing, dead or alive. The going was crunchy for Captain Scott as he plodded southwards across the sastrugi. He was either on top of the snow-crust and smiling, or floundering thigh-deep. The farther south he marched the crunchier his predicament became.
Sogginess is comfortable uncertainty. The modern Scott is unsure how deeply he is in it. He can radio for an airlift, or drop in on an American early-warning station for a hot toddy. The richer a society becomes, the soggier its systems get. Light-switches no longer turn on or off: they dim.
Intelligent questions replace the church’s absolute faith. Seat belts are worn. Words (like these) are not written down, but processed endlessly. Exam papers are no longer passed or failed but graded, with no one quite sure what grade is needed for what.
. . .A crunchy policy is not necessarily right, only more certain than a soggy one to deliver the results that it deserves. Run your country, or your company, or your life as you think fit. But whatever you decide, keep things crunchy.
There's more at the link, although it may disappear behind a paywall.
The sad thing is, nowadays few younger people seem to recognize what "crunchy" means - or recognize the names of those who lived "crunchy" lives. I wonder how many young people today recognize the name of "Captain Scott", referred to in the article? There was a crunchy man if ever there was one . . . but his adventures have faded into distant history. Where are our modern Captain Scotts to renew his example?
Peter
"Crunchiness brings wealth. Wealth leads to sogginess. Sogginess brings poverty. Poverty creates crunchiness. From this immutable cycle we know that to hang on to wealth, you must keep things crunchy."
ReplyDeleteInteresting way to rephrase the last three lines of, "Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. Weak men create hard times."
Exactly my thought!
DeleteWe've got lots of soft people these days... I'm expecting things to get hard sooner than later.
Jonathan
No clue.
ReplyDeletePeople like these Japanese climbers perhaps.
ReplyDeletehttps://thefridaytimes.com/28-Jul-2024/two-japanese-climbers-perish-on-k2
I could make jokes about just how crunchy there were on the way down
Strong (literally, biblically, "a righteous man" proverbs 13:22) men leave an inheritance for their children's children. Weak and unrighteous men create and allow a society that turns their children's children's children (and beyond) into debt slaves to pay for the comfort of those weak men.
ReplyDeleteThe younger generations are going to have to be "crunchy" because their parents and grandparents made everything "soggy". Usury is fun, and leads to things like this: https://m.youtube.com/shorts/OPGi4XWYaag
ReplyDelete