What Is Price's Law

 Some guy did a statistical study, and came to this conclusion.....if you had a thousand people working for you, the square root of that (31 people) are producing 50-percent of the actual output of the organization.

Over the past month, I've probably watched a dozen YouTube videos to discuss the 'law' and no one can really explain why this works the way that it does.

It means that if you ran a bar with sixteen employees....it's four guys who are carry the bulk of the work.

It means if you need talent to run an operation, but you also need enthusiasm from everyone, and most of the time.....you don't get true enthusiasm.  A guy is happy enough to show up and give you maybe 75-percent of his best, but frankly.....about half the time....he's just not focused or caring about the project.  

Finding these square root people?  If you were to think about this a good bit.....as the chief....it'd be your duty to source them out.....talk with them, and to get a sense about why they feel so attached to the company, and what their drive is about.  Maybe you can put two young employees around them and get some 'magic-dust' off that one square root guy.  

When you don't grasp the square root crowd?  Well....you might keep hiring non-square root people to fill a role, and have twenty people doing the work of seven.  

Observations

 1.  On the Hunter Biden 'hunt'....why now?  I think that the Democrats in various places now see a mess in January with House investigations being started by the Republicans (then in power) and it'd be a lot simpler to have Hunter under federal investigation, and close off the House-type investigation.  I think someone has already written down a number....like 18 months in prison, and Joe has already already agreed to a pardon....with Hunter doing less than a month in prison.

2.  Disney screwed-up?  Well....after coming out of two years of Covid.....the Disney-Florida operation needed a open situation and profit rolling in.  They didn't need to open up a hornets nest and lose potentially a half-billion dollars a year in income or lost tax credits from the state.  The board?  They should have done something a month ago to reverse course.

3.  What'll happen to Netflix?  I'm of the belief that before the end of 2023.....someone will buy the greatly cheapened company, and dissolve about 40-percent of the monthly offerings for view.

4.  More blacks murdered since 'Defund the Police' started?  Yeah, statistically, you can make that case now.  If you asked mayors to explain why....they can't.  

5.  Is Russia a state sponsor of terrorism?  I noticed this question finally started to be asked in the past week.  It probably should have been asked twenty years ago.

What Really Happened To CNN-Plus?

 The basic idea for CNN-Plus was you'd subscribe to a service which gave you more news than regular CNN ($5.99 per month was the rate given).

How much 'more' news was this supposed to be?  That was never clear.

When this was first announced....I pondered over the value and who would be listening/watching.  

Their brand was something like Netflix or Amazon, which drew me  to wonder....if you were an average American, you already had USA-Today, your local news on the radio, and regular CNN, MSNBC, or Fox.  Maybe if you were consumed over news (needing an extra four hours a day to fill your schedule)....it made sense.  

Here's the odd thing though....all of this concept should have been done in 2000 to 2005, when the internet was young and people had fewer options.  Today?  It's too late.

I felt that CNN-Plus would survive for most of 2022....before failing.  Well....I got that totally wrong....it's dead as of this week.

So what lessen did we learn?  I'd say three lessons:

1.  There's more than enough news existing today.....than a normal guy needs.

2.  The fact that CNN was a bit to the left on political leaning?  Yeah, that probably did not help bring in new customers.

3.  What exactly can you put into a 'plus-news' element.....that doesn't already exist?  No one can clearly answer that problem.

Finally, to my one observation.....through all the years that I listened to Paul Harvey news....I came to realize the big stuff that you needed to know....came compacted by Harvey into a simple 12-minute 'discussion'.  Just plain....simple....facts.  Nothing complicated....nothing requiring four different people to sum up a 6-line story.  

How This Fake Trump Evidence Will Collapse On The Clinton Campaign Crew

 I could make this a 300-line summary but I'll limit this to the obvious.

It would now appear that virtually everything that was handed to the FBI to investigate on Trump....to lead to some agenda saying he had under-the-table dealings with Russia....was created out of thin air, and apparently leads back to someone who was hired by the Clinton campaign.

Stopping this before court action?  I don't see that happening now.

So here's the question....if someone was hired by the Clinton Campaign (using their money).....who authorized it?  That individual who created the fake evidence is deep into trouble and has to detail what the contract was.....then the person paying for the agenda.....has to 'fess-up'.

Will it go higher?  Well....someone will ask how the guy who paid the creator got to this point, and who ordered what.  Then you get to the top level of the Clinton campaign.  

My humble belief is that after this wraps up.....three or four folks going to prison.  Trump will go into court and ask for damages, and this will revolve around the Clinton Campaign group.  Money left?  I doubt it.  

But here's the thing.....it's going to get awful close to Hillary Clinton, and she'll have to make some kind of legal statement....mostly saying she remembers absolutely nothing from this period, and looking like she has dementia.  

Most of us will just shake our head, and laugh over the comedy that was played out.  Trust in government?  We already had a marginal degree, and I think this will dissolve most of what is left.  

Why Does Netflix Fail At This Point?

 In the past week, a lot of hype has occurred that subscribers to Netflix are on the decline....affecting profit and stock prices.

I would offer five observations (being a Netflix subscriber myself):

1.  I will admit from a new-material prospective....they are doing things way ahead of CBS, ABC, NBC, and even the Showtime/HBO folks.  But these projects (often done outside of the US) are done on a lessened budget.  So you can produce a eight episode show in Spain....on a mystery murder situation....with thrills and various 'twists' that rarely come with traditional TV.  The producers will be shocked at the viewer numbers and Netflix will suggest a second season.  

A good example of this....the French series....the 'Black Spot'.  The third season for it?  No....numbers dropped in the second season.

2.  Netflix offered up a fair number of comedy event shows (I assume on a limited budget), which I'd say that half did well, and half crapped out.  

3.  These documentary shows?  Total waste of the budget and whoever ran this department....soaked the company of a fair amount of funds.  I'd strongly suggest....for the company to drop that angle entirely.

4.  Companies in media typically evolve....but in this case....you don't see much evolution.

I'd like to see a 'side-channel' of Netflix to feature 1930s movies.  Maybe offer up each month twelve of the 1930s period movies, and refresh them each four weeks. 

5.  Finally, to the Covid topic.  I think a lot of people joined up with Netflix....to fill the hours that kids or adults were at home.  And when Covid went 'away'....the necessity for Netflix also went 'away'.

Netflix isn't going away, but I suspect by early 2023....they will be valued at some degree to be bought by someone....maybe Google....maybe Facebook.   

Yeah, About That Mail Service

 I noticed the US Postal Service announcing today....that if you bought first-class service (one stupid 1st class stamp) and expected real delivery to occur....that capability will go away for about one-third of items. 

They aren't clear about what they mean, but if you were mailing a small box that typically took three days to arrive....based on chatter.....I'd now go and expect the box to take about five days now to arrive.  The fact that you could mail three boxes, and only one of them (all three going to the same place) take the extra two days?  Yeah, it'd be funny to discuss that.

So here's my take in 2032 (a decade away).....you live in Portland and mail a box to some cousin in Boise, Idaho (430 miles away) and it'll arrive 17 days later (first-class shipment by the post office).  

You quiz the gal about this service, which she finally admits....they flew the box from Portland to some giant desert airfield in southern California....spending sixteen hours being sorted by three-hundred different people, then shipped onto Denver....where it sat for ten days....then went onto a truck to Jackson, Wyoming....where it sat in a underground bunker facility where unregistered Mexicans sort the mail.  Then went by one single electric-powered van the final 400 miles to Boise....to be sorted by a half-blind-half-crippled-up-half-witted guy who brings it to your cousin's house.

My advice?  We might all need to just get away from mailing boxes and just call up folks to wish them a happy birthday and mention how weather is in our little part of the world.   

Assessing Things For Yourself

 There was a general talent that people had....at least up through the 1980s, and I suspect it became diluted in the 1990s, which centered on assessing an event or situation with your own common sense.

You'd see a riot developing and ask three or four questions, and within five minutes....determine that this was an irrational event, with no attachment to reality, or that some city/state leaders had really screwed up, with no ability to clean up the mess.

I began to notice in the 1990s.....news journalists wanted to explain more and more details.....some worthwhile.....some being red-herrings.  The minute that you had a moderator and three guests....it start to resemble more of a lecture or brain-wash session....than sharing of information.

The past twenty years?  Between MSNBC, NPR, CNN, the WaPo, and NY Times.....I've stepped back a bit and been more careful about what is said or put on the table.  

Yeah, I've become ten times more skeptical of stories now....than in 1998.

Watching video with the sound 'dimmed'?  Oh I probably spend forty minutes each week watching YouTube in this fashion and gauging the facial expression or the reaction of people....than what is said.

It's almost a talent that we need to introduce to 12-year old kids.....getting them to look at what's going on, and to assess their own opinion.  

Screwed-up?  Maybe.  It seems like a whole bunch of folks have work.....that doesn't seem to be productive, and I'm likely to wonder where they end up going....if let go from their CNN job.