<p><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:303px"><div class="image"></div><p class="source"><a href="http://www.jingdaily.com/chinas-confucius-entrepreneurs-spend-lavishly-on-literary-feasts/24069/">Jing Daily</a></p><p class="caption">"Dream of Red Mansions" set menus have popped up nationwide</p></div>The burgeoning interest in traditional culture among <keyword id="1334" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="China">China</keyword>’s newly wealthy, which has manifested in everything <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=5&amp;cad=rja&amp;ved=0CEoQFjAE&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.com%2Fweird-thing-that-chinese-people-invest-in-2012-11%3Fop%3D1&amp;ei=jwAlUdSGL4fkrAe42YG4Aw&amp;usg=AFQjCNE3nFtKveIfFWUDNmwZRptfNr0aVg&amp;bvm=bv.42661473,d.bmk" target="_blank">from high-priced tea</a> to art, travel and <a href="http://bjtoday.ynet.com/article.jsp?oid=34279409" target="_blank">fashion</a>, is expanding into the culinary world as cashed-up entrepreneurs dish out upwards of 1,500 yuan (US$240) apiece for literature-inspired feasts.</p>
<p>As <a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/7d2ef942-79e2-11e2-9dad-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2LSQ0piDI" target="_blank">the Financial Times writes this week</a>, some wealthy diners with a penchant for books (and fatigue with Western imports like Pizza Hut) are keen on gastronomic adventures inspired by the 18th-century Chinese literary classic, <em>A Dream of Red Mansions.</em> (Known as “Red Mansions Cuisine” (???) in Chinese.)</p>
<p>From the article:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Yangzhou’s Xiyuan hotel serves four to five red mansion feasts a day during peak seasons, to what the catering manager calls “Confucius entrepreneurs”: rich business people with a new-found taste for the traditional culture spurned during what I like to call China’s KFC period (decades of breakneck development when fast was the only speed and big the only size that mattered).</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">“These days entrepreneurs are really interested in traditional culture because they have travelled a lot and seen a lot of the world, and now they are looking for something special,” she says, adding that patrons who want to book dozens of tables at a time are out of luck: there are not enough top-quality ingredients to feed the masses.</p>

Wealthy Chinese Diners Are Spending Hundreds Of Dollars On Feasts Inspired By Classic Literature

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>PeopleImages/Getty</span></p><p class="caption">"I don't regret the decisions I made because they were right for me and right in terms of our family priorities," Anita Carleton, who got her MBA at MIT Sloan at age 55.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>The average age for sitting a GMAT test to get into business school is trending downwards. So when exactly is the right time to get your MBA degree?</li><li>Business Insider interviewed five successful MBA graduates who went to business school at different stages of their lives to understand why they decided to go to school when they did and how their degree led to their next moves.</li><li>The graduates, at ages anywhere from 25 to 45 to 60, all argued that going to business school at the right time is more important than going at a certain age. Their stories prove that's the case.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prime?module=article&amp;area=summary">Click here for more BI Prime stories.</a></li></ul><p>The average age of people sitting to take their <a href="https://www.gmac.com/-/media/files/gmac/research/gmat-test-taker-data/profile-of-gmat-testing-north-america-ty2014-ty2018.pdf?la=en&amp;hash=1C40E25A42F794EA54E515CDF403754C56C829A8">GMAT test</a> for business school is trending slightly downwards, from 26.5 in 2014 to 26.0 in 2018.</p><p>Whether education should come before experience - or the other way around - is an age-old question (pun intended).</p><p>Business Insider spoke to five successful individuals in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s who went to leading business schools in the US to find out what led them to embark on an MBA when they did, whether they would have done it differently if they had their time again, and what they learned from their experience.</p><h1>Business school in your 20s: I had the chance to build and refine the leadership skills that'll serve me later on (without giving up too much of my career)</h1><p>Lexy McGranahan had only been out of college for three years, but at age 25, she decided to leave her job to go to <a href="https://michiganross.umich.edu/">Michigan Ross</a> for her MBA.</p><p>"I was progressing quickly in my career, having been promoted after less than a year in the role. However, I found there wasn't enough time in the day to advance my management and leadership skills at the same rate as my technical skills, which would be required as I moved to the next step in my career," she said.</p><p>In an unconventional move, McGranahan decided to go to business school after having been offered another promotion at global cosmetics giant Sephora. "It was about the escalation of commitment. It becomes harder and harder the further you are in your career. I knew that I wanted to go back and get an MBA, it wasn't a question, and I felt like this was the last time that I could walk away from an opportunity to do it," she said.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Courtesy of Lexy McGranahan</span></p><p class="caption">Lexy McGranahan.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>She wanted to focus on her management and leadership development by revisiting the academic subjects she had studied during her business degree within the MBA environment. </p><p>"The focus wasn't just on the topics themselves, but how to manage and lead teams through them, with an emphasis on how they manifest in the 'real world,'" she explained. </p><p>McGranahan, who graduated in 2017 and now works as a global retail manager for Nike, believed that anyone who's interested in going to business school shouldn't be guided by age, but by what they're prepared to contribute.</p><p>"Going back to school with the right mentality was the driver of my ultimate success," she explained. "I was personally and professionally prepared to contribute all of my energy to the program, as I believe this translates to the most enriching experience - not just for the individual, but for the entire class."</p><p>She added: "A full-time, on campus MBA program is all-consuming in the best way possible, so an individual has to be ready for that commitment. And at the time I went back to school, I was ready."</p><h1>Business school in your 30s: I was more established and confident, but young enough to still learn a thing or two</h1><p>When Anjelica Jones started her full-time MBA at Michigan Ross, she was already a successful electrical engineer - but she wanted to do more.</p><p>"I really wanted to change the landscape of engineering and tech and increase the diversity within it, because I rarely saw anyone who looked like me," she explained. "I knew an MBA would give me the leadership skills I needed to effect such change with or without authority, and to do so within a corporate structure that was - and still continues to be, quite frankly - stacked against underrepresented populations."</p><p>At 33, it felt like the right time to go back to the classroom. "It [had been] 10 years since I'd been at college, and in that time I'd done a lot of living," the now 38-year-old recalled. "I was at a crossroads in my career. It was a pivotal time for me to take that leap. I went at a time when I was old enough to impart some life knowledge onto younger classmates, but still young and humble enough to be taught a few things." </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Courtesy of Anjelica Jones</span></p><p class="caption">Anjelica Jones.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>To her surprise, she found that many of her classmates had either just entered their 30s or were already in their early 30s like her, so she didn't feel completely out of place.</p><p>The most important thing that she learned at business school was her worth. On top of that, she has learned technical skills that have enabled her to move to work in finance for Netflix as a finance operations business partner.</p><p>"My MBA gave me the courage to properly and confidently navigate a corporate world that was not built to be to my advantage. As an African-American female with an MBA from a top school, I still have to fight for a rightfully-earned place at the corporate table. But since I graduated, I do not shy away from the fight - I instead go in ready, prepared, and expecting to win it," she said.</p><h1>Business school in your 40s: I found that an MBA could help me more easily carve my path </h1><p>Andy Pechacek began his career as a business manager for schools in Texas. At age 45, he decided to enroll in business school to help with his job at the time, but he had no idea that it would lead to a whole new trajectory for his career.</p><p>"I decided to go back to school because the work I was doing had become more about helping lead entrepreneurial efforts within our organization, and I believed that the concepts learned in the program would help me be better at my job," he said.  </p><p>Pechacek was part of the first executive MBA class that graduated from <a href="https://mitsloan.mit.edu/">MIT Sloan</a> in 2012. The program requires students to be on campus for all of the classes, which is roughly every second or third week for two years. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Courtesy of Andy Pechacek</span></p><p class="caption">Andy Pechacek.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"While I was in class, I had the idea of starting my own business. So I quit my job in mid-spring, right before I graduated, and started an education company that we then went on to sell, and now I'm working on a new startup. So I guess I'm saying that it made me into an entrepreneur," he said.</p><p>Pechacek, who is currently chairman of two startups, Cooperative Resource Management Group LLC and <a href="https://michigan.globalfinder.org/company_page/nahsai-llc">Nahsai LLC</a>, described his decision to go back to school as "a perfect storm" that gave him the insight to realize his own capabilities.</p><p>"Where I was in my career really started to make sense. I began to put things I was learning into practice, rather than understanding it conceptually as you might at an undergraduate level," he explained. "If I could do it all over, I wouldn't change a thing. I don't think I would have gone back to school any earlier, because I wouldn't have been ready to implement as well all of the things that I have learned. I found the business strategies and processes they taught particularly valuable, and have been able to apply entrepreneurial skills, such as looking for creative ways to fulfill customers' needs, to the government sector." </p><h1>Business school in your 50s: I was able to continue to grow and move up after raising a family </h1><p>Anita Carleton had wanted to go to business school all of her professional life, as she saw it as the most significant step she could take toward developing the skills and perspectives she needed to be a more effective executive and to take on the next leadership challenges of her career.</p><p>But she decided to wait until her sons started college to pursue her degree, as balancing her time between her career, family, and helping to support her husband through law school was challenging enough. While she raised her family, she served as the deputy director at the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. "Our mission is software engineering, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence for national defense," she said.</p><p><em><strong>Read more: </strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-get-into-tepper-school-of-business-carnegie-melon-online-mba">The Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon has one of the top online MBA programs in the US. Here's why - and how to get in.</a></em></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Courtesy of Anita Carleton</span></p><p class="caption">Anita Carleton.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>At age 55, she embarked on her full-time MBA at MIT Sloan, which was a combination of on-campus and remote learning. Even after spending 30 years in the workforce, Carleton still found value in learning how to build an innovation ecosystem strategy, pitch ideas in a Hackathon, and create innovation loops.</p><p>"Since I graduated, I pivoted from technical leadership to strategic and executive leadership," she said. "I now lead that division and am a part of the executive leadership team responsible for assembling a national strategy for software for the DoD."</p><p>One pleasant surprise since graduating has been that her combination of work experience and MBA qualifications have led to her being invited to serve on several boards.</p><p>"I wish I could have pursued my MBA earlier, it would have been better, but I don't regret the decisions I made because they were right for me and right in terms of our family priorities. Having more time for the return on investment in business school would have been nice, but I'm just happy that I made the decision to do it," she said.</p><h1>Business school in your 60s: I was able to secure the future of my business while mentoring those below me </h1><p>Michael Kim started his business <a href="https://www.180snacks.com/">180° Snacks</a> in his home kitchen in 1998, and today his healthy bites are stocked at Costco. Now, the 60-year-old wants to prepare to hand the business down to his sons. His first step was enrolling in an executive MBA at <a href="https://mba.haas.berkeley.edu/?_ga=2.198539116.21984435.1569528439-1361073196.1569528439">Berkeley-Haas</a> to learn everything he could about business and finance to make sure his company was in proper shape. Having built it from the ground up to a $30 million business, Kim wanted to ensure that he had done everything right, and that it will be able to survive without him.</p><p>"I like to study, so I thought it would be interesting to see what an MBA teaches. The theories are interesting. I have applied some of the things that I've learned to my company directly, but they have to be customized," he said. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Courtesy of Michael Kim</span></p><p class="caption">Michael Kim.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>As someone who read Confucius and Taoist teachings growing up, Kim found it especially useful to embed the leadership principles taught at Berkley-Haas into how he ran his company, such as continually questioning the status quo and maintaining ethics and responsibility by taking a long view.</p><p>Kim argued that 60 is as good an age as any to go back to school.</p><p>"A lot of people will say, why would you go back to school when you're over fifty? But I think it's a fine age to go to school. What else are you going to do with your time - go and waste it playing golf? I'd rather spend my time and money challenging myself," he said. "I wish my mind was a bit younger to compete with the 30- and 35-year-olds, but the right time for you is the right age to go. You will just apply yourself differently."</p><p>Kim added that he found a lot of value in collaborating with classmates of different ages, which is why he believed that having a diversity of age is important in the classroom environment.</p><p>"You can mentor many of the 30-year-olds who are up-and-coming, and share your knowledge with them. I like that there are ways to give back. When I was coming up, there was no one there to share that information," he explained.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sneaky-ways-credit-card-companies-make-you-spend-more-money-2019-9">Sneaky ways credit card companies get you to spend more money</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Here's how to decide when to go to business school, according to 5 graduates who went at drastically different times in their lives

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container click-to-enlarge"><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design/flickr" title_caption="Do you like your coworkers?" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5437ee0f6da8119745181963-960/dream-job.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/strelka/9215939214/in/set-72157634496835134">Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design/flickr</a></span></p><p class="caption">Do you like your coworkers?</p></div><p></p></div>We all have out own definition of "dream job."</p>
<p class="p1">Some think it's about earning a fat paycheck or being offered great benefits; others believe it involves having good work-life balance, the ability to help others, or the chance to make the world a better place.</p>
<p class="p1">But while many people have defined what a "dream job" means to them, so many can't figure out whether they've actually found one.</p>
<p class="p2">Joel Peterson, chairman of JetBlue Airways, says having your dream career means you think you have the greatest job in the world - not just <em>any</em> job, but the <em>best</em> one.</p>
<p class="p2">"If you're planning out your future, you're not likely to be satisfied with a series of jobs that merely keeps food on the table," he writes in a <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20140929051215-11846967-10-signs-you-ve-found-the-right-career?trk=tod-posts-post1-psum">recent LinkedIn post</a>. "Instead, turn your progression of jobs and assignments into a career that creates relationships, promotes learning, and makes a difference."</p>
<p class="p2">Here are five ways to tell if you've found your dream job:</p>
<h3 class="p2"><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">1. You excel at your job. </strong></h3>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">"There's no sense in fighting Mother Nature on the career front," Peterson says, remembering his days struggling through piano lessons as a child. If you're not in a position where you can be great at your job, it's always going to be difficult to truly love it. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Don't stay in a miserable position where you can't excel, look for something that better suits your skills and talents.</span></p>
<h3 class="p2"><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">2. You don't mind the grunt work. </strong></h3>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Every job comes with tasks no one wants to do, but if you truly love what you're doing, these annoying duties become one small part of a larger project. However, if you constantly complain about these small irritants, you're probably not in the right position. "In your torrent of objections and cautions, you'll never build a great career - and you might just keep others from achieving their dreams," Peterson warns.</span></p>
<h3 class="p2"><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">3. Your job fits your personality type.</strong></h3>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Whether you have a creative, pragmatic, or analytical mind, your career should reflect it. For example, trying to make a creative mind work in a cut and dry industry will leave you tired and miserable. Your dream job should seamlessly fit with who are. "While this alone shouldn't determine what you choose, make sure you understand your dominant traits and those of industry leaders," Peterson advises. </span></p>
<h3 class="p2"><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">4. You like your peers.</strong></h3>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">You should like who you work with - you spend half your week with them, after all. Additionally, genuinely liking your coworkers makes you more productive and motivated at work, while the the opposite can actually degrade your performance, Peterson says.</span></p>
<h3 class="p2"><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">5. You look forward to Mondays.</strong></h3>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">We all love the weekend, but it's important to look forward to going into work on Monday morning as well. Your job should be an enjoyable part of your life, not simply a vessel to propel you from weekend to weekend. "As Confucius said, 'Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.'" Peterson quotes. </span></p>
<p><strong>Click <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20140929051215-11846967-10-signs-you-ve-found-the-right-career?trk=tod-posts-post1-psum">here</a> to read the full LinkedIn post.</strong></p>
<p><em>Want your business advice featured in Instant MBA? Submit your tips to tipoftheday@<span class="skimlinks-unlinked">businessinsider.com</span>. Be sure to include your name, your job title, and a photo of yourself in your email.</em></p>

5 Signs You've Found Your Dream Job

<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div>Starting the spring of my 23rd year, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/americans-habits-that-travelers-give-up-2015-4">I spent 13 months straight in East Asia</a>, teaching English and traveling through South Korea, Japan, and China. </span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">As a 6'3'' blonde guy, it was pretty obvious that I looked different than just about everybody else. </span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">What was less obvious is that as a Westerner, I <em>thought</em> different than my new East Asian friends. Contracts, agreements, appointments - the cultural differences were huge. </span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">According to cultural philosophers, Westerners and East Asians have had contrasting views about the concept of truth and how it works, for thousands of years - and it shows up in present-day psychology. </span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">It all goes back to the cradles of two civilizations: Ancient Greece and Ancient China. </span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">It comes down to two different "laws": </span></span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">  The Greeks followed the <strong>"law of the excluded middle,"</strong> which states that if two people are debating, then one of them must be exclusively right and the other exclusively wrong. </p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">  The Chinese followed the <strong>"doctrine of mean,"</strong> which states that if two people are debating, then they're probably both partly right and partly wrong - the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. </p><p>These things have deep roots.</p><p>The doctrine of the mean dates back to <a href="http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/main_pop/kpct/kp_zhou.htm" target="_blank">Confucius, who lived some 2500 years ago.</a> It is "widely considered as the highest ideal in Confucianism," write scholars <span>Li-Jun Ji, Albert Lee, and Tieyuan Guo in </span><span class="s1"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Handbook-Chinese-Psychology-Library/dp/0198738579/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1432144893&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=The+Oxford+Handbook+of+Chinese+Psychology">"The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Psychology."</a></span><span class="s2"> </span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_left"><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div>"Accordingly, Chinese are encouraged to argue for both sides in a debate (i.e. both arguments are correct), or to assign equal responsibilities in a dispute (i.e. no party is at complete fault)," they write. "This presents an interesting contrast with the law of the excluded middle in Western philosophies, according to which one ought to eliminate ambiguity or inconsistency by selecting one and only one of the conflicting ideas. Unlike the Chinese tradition, it assumes no merit in the middle ground." </span></p><p><span>The "law of the excluded middle" has a very fancy Latin name: <em>principium tertii exclusi</em>.</span></p><p><span>Aristotle wrote about it in his "Ethics" about 2300 years ago. </span></p><p>"T<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">here cannot be an intermediate between contradictories," <a href="http://www.classicallibrary.org/aristotle/metaphysics/book04.htm" target="_blank">he wrote</a>, "but of one subject we must either affirm or deny any one predicate." </span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Incredibly, those ancient takes on truth show up in present-day psychology experiments. </span></p><p class="p1">In <a href="http://culcog.berkeley.edu/Publications/1999AmPsy_DT.pdf"><span class="s1">a widely cited 1999 paper</span></a>, psychologists <span>Kaiping Peng and <span>Richard E. Nisbett gave Chinese and American college students a range of scenarios describing conflicts between people and asked for advice about how to resolve them.</span></span></p><p class="p1"><span><span> As Confucianism would suggest, the Chinese students were more likely to give "dialectical" responses, or seeing truth and fault in both parties. </span></span></p><p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">One prompt </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">was a family conflict:</span></p><p class="p1" style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>Mary, Phoebe, and Julie all have daugthers. Each mother has held a set of values which has guided her efforts to raise her daugther. Now the daugthers have grown up, and each of them is rejecting many of her mother's values. How did it happen and what should they do?</em></p><p class="p1">The responses were remarkably different:  </p><p class="p1" style="padding-left: 30px;">  72% of Chinese students gave compromise-oriented responses, like "both the mothers and the daugthers have failed to understand each other" </p><p class="p1" style="padding-left: 30px;">  74% of Americans found fault on one side, with responses like "mothers have to recognize daugthers' rights to their own values." </p><p class="p1">Just as the differences between Confucious and Aristotle would suggest, Easterners and Westerners had different approaches to conflict. </p><p>But those approaches didn't fall from the sky. </p><p>They came from culture. </p><p><span>In his 2004 book </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Geography-Thought-Westerners-Differently/dp/0743255356" target="_blank">"The Geography of Thought,"</a> Nisbett<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> describes the evolution. </span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Here's Nisbett on China:</span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span>The ecology of China, consisting as it does primarily of relatively fertile plains, low mountains, and navigable rivers, favored agriculture and made centralized control of society relatively easy. </span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span>Agricultural peoples need to get along with one another ... </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">This is particularly true for rice farming, characteristic of southern China and Japan, which requires people to cultivate the land in concert with one another. </span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">But it is also important wherever irrigation is required... </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">In addition to getting along with one's neighbors, irrigation systems require centralized control and ancient China, like all other ancient agricultural societies, was ruled by despots. Peasants had to get along with their neighbors and were ruled by village elders and a regional magistrate who was the representative of the king.</span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span>The ordinary Chinese therefore lived in a complicated world of social constraints. </span></p><p><span>Way different than Greece.</span></p><p><span>Again, Nisbett:</span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span>The ecology of Greece, on the other hand, consisting as it does mostly of mountains descending to the sea, favored hunting, herding, fishing, and trade (and - let's be frank - piracy). These are occupations that require relatively little cooperation with others. In fact, with the exception of trade, these economic activities do not strictly require living the same stable community with other people. <br /></span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span>Settled agriculture came to Greece almost two thousand years later than to China, and it quickly became commercial, as opposed to merely subsistence, in many areas. </span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span>The soil and climate of Greece were congenial to wine and olive oil production, and by the sixth century B.C., many farmers were more nearly businessmen than peasants. The Greeks were therefore able to act on their own to a greater extent than were the Chinese. Not feeling it necessary to maintain harmony with their fellows at any cost, the Greeks were in the habit of arguing with one another in the marketplace and debate one another in the political assembly. </span></p><p><span>Nisbett's argument continues from there.</span></p><p><span>The geography shaped the way people interacted with one another. The Ancient Greek could decide to move his goat heard with little consideration of what other people thought - unless his livestock invaded somebody else's property. But if the Ancient Chinese were to make the most of his rice harvest, he'd need cooperation from neighbors. </span></p><p><span>That's where you get the Greek emphasis on the individual and debate, and the Chinese emphasis on the collective and harmony. </span></p><p class="p1"><span>The takeaway: While those cultural differences have their seed in the craggy mountains of Greece and the open plains of China, they're present with us today. </span></p><p class="p1"><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p> </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-make-good-first-impression-science-body-language-2015-4">Scientists figured out how to avoid making a bad first impression</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="QyeGE1bjqy83ve-kK24C5BgWXh4_Kmxj" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

The fascinating cultural reason why Westerners and East Asians have polar opposite understandings of the truth

<p><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:480px"><div class="image"><p class="source">REUTERS/Rick Wilking</p><p class="caption"><keyword id="6362665" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Berkshire-Hathaway">Berkshire Hathaway</keyword> Vice Chairman <keyword id="293271" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Charlie-Munger">Charlie Munger</keyword>.</p></div></div>Some surprising people, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/exxonenergy-independence-is-undesirable-2013-3">including the CEO of Exxon</a>, think true American <keyword id="6357014" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="energy">energy</keyword> independence is actually a bad idea.</p>
<p>Add Berkshire Hathaway Vice-Chairman Charlie Munger's name to that list.</p>
<p>Munger recently spoke at the Committee of 100 U.S.-China relations conference (via <a href="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/07/energy-independence-is-a-terribly-stupid-idea/?utm_source=dlvr.it&amp;utm_medium=twitter">Farnam Street Blog's Shane Parrish notes</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/TimHarford/status/360037922805784576">Tim Harford</a>).</p>
<p>The moderator asked Munger a basic question about which sectors Berkshire believes are ripe for growth.</p>
<p>He responded by begging off that question and launched instead into a critique of America's energy policy, especially the continued insistence on independence.</p>
<p>But unlike other commentators who've refuted the concept, Munger approached the question from a more apocalyptic angle:</p>
<p>Here's Parrish's transcript:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">If energy independence was such a good thing, let’s just imagine that we go back to 1930 or something like that and we were hell bent to have total energy independence from all the foreigners. And we just drill and use every technique we can and we produce our hydrocarbon reserves which are absolutely certain to be limited.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Well, by now have way less in reserve and are way less energy independent. <strong>In trying to get energy independence we would have destroyed our safety stock of <keyword id="6359072" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="oil">oil</keyword> within our own borders</strong>.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>Oil and gas are absolutely certain to become incredibly short and very high priced</strong>. And of course the United States has a problem and <keyword id="1334" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="China">China</keyword> has a worse problem.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">And China has the correct solution. Imported oil is not your enemy it’s your friend.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Every barrel that you use up that comes from somebody else is a barrel of your precious oil which you’re going to need to feed your people and maintain your civilization.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">And what responsible people do with a Confucius ethos is they suffer now to benefit themselves, their families, and their countrymen later. And the way to do that is to go very slow on producing your own (domestic) oil. You want to produce just enough so that you keep up on all of the technology. And don’t mind at all paying prices that look ruinous for foreign oil. It’s going to get way worse later.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Every barrel of foreign oil that you use up instead of using up your own — you’re going to eventually realize you were doing the right thing.</p>
<p>Energy is one of the unique areas, he continued, where free-market policies end up causing more problems than they solve. In the case of energy, he said, governments should step in and encourage imports (it should be noted, of course, that this situation already partially exists, since exporting U.S. crude has been banned since the '70s): </p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Why are the policy makers in both countries so stupid on this single issue because they are not stupid generally? I think that it’s partly the economists who have caused the problem. Because they have this theory that if people react in a free market that it’s much better than any type of government planning but there is a small class of problems where it’s better to think the things through in terms of the basic science and ignore these signals from the market.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Now if I’m right in this, there are a whole lot of lessons that logically follow:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">(1) Foreign oil is your friend not your enemy; (2) You want to produce your own assets slow; … (3) The oil in the ground you’re not producing is a national treasure; … running out of hydrocarbons is like running out of civilization. All this trade, all these drugs, fertilizers, fungicides, etc. … which China needs to eat with a population so much, they all come from hydrocarbons.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">And it is not at all clear that there is any substitute. When the hydrocarbons are gone, I don’t think the chemists will be able to simply mix up a vat and there will be more hydrocarbons. It’s conceivable, of course, that they could but it’s not the way to bet. I think we should all be quite conservative and we should pay no attention to these silly economics and politicians that tell us to become energy independent.</p>
<p>So what should we be doing instead?</p>
<p>Munger believes we ned to shift resources away from producing whatever is left in the ground and save it for his purported day of reckoning.</p>
<p>Rather, we should be investing in all the other forms of energy out there:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">We have a brain block on this issue. We should behave now to do on purpose what we did by accident: we conserved some of our oil because we were not aggressive enough and smart enough to get it out faster, that was accidentally doing the right thing. Now we should do on purpose what we formally did by accident. We should conserve and subsidize new forms of energy … we should suppose these big national grids.</p>
<p>Here's the full clip. The energy part starts around 37 minutes:</p>
<p></p>

CHARLIE MUNGER: Energy Independence Is A Dumb Idea

Startups offer possibly the coolest working environments. They are organizations where individual creativity is usually credited as the single most important contributing factor. As digital natives, we see many successful startup projects hitting big and procuring VC funding in a short span of time, and in my experience as a marketer, I had few opportunities to meet some notable <keyword id="6359301" type="POSITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Entrepreneur">entrepreneur</keyword>s (mostly through their biographies). Their fiery spirit and appetite for growth was magnetic, and I thought it’d be a great idea to share their wisdom with the world. So, here are 7 tips, which I believe would help every entrepreneur step closer to their dreams.<br />
<h3>
	1.  Swag is important<span> </span></h3> Nobody could put this better than <keyword id="58954" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Richard-Branson">Richard Branson</keyword>. Starting a project and being entirely responsible for its success could take its toll, but that doesn’t mean one couldn’t pull it off in style. There is no better satisfaction than taking the road less travelled by, and improving its look and feel. If you intend to do something awesome, then do it different from others.<br />
<br />
<br />
 <br />
Source:virgin.com<br />
<h3>
	2.  Take setbacks with elan<span> </span></h3>
There’s always a flipside to success and failure. When its failure, know that you haven’t pulled off all the stops and some work is left, and if it’s early success and went too smooth, not worth it. Success comes at a price; and if it came for free, then feel assured that you haven’t paid your dues yet. This will help in maintaining that fiery spirit alive like it was when you started your startup company.<br />
 <br /> I’d like to quote <keyword id="6357934" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Steve-Jobs">Steve Jobs</keyword> here about his terminal ailment.<br />
 <br />
<em>“Living with a disease like this, and all the pain, constantly reminds you of your own mortality, and that can do strange things to your brain if you’re not careful.”</em><br />
 <br />
<em>“You don’t make plans more than a year out, and that’s bad. You need to force yourself to plan as if you will live for many years.”</em><br />
 <br />
Also, one must take on failures with a Pantera-like attitude, and nail the problem in style. It is probably the coolest secret recipe that successful startups have been using since medieval times. <br />
<h3>
	3. Make sports your thing<span> </span></h3>
I understand successful startups are no one-day wonder, and plenty of action takes place during the client-sales calls, development and production floors, but that is your job. What about your life? It needs a little action for its own well-being. <a href="http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/237065">Playing sports induce agility</a> in your system, and I know many brilliant entrepreneurs who play for stress release bouts. It’s all in our biochemistry, and we need Serotonin and Oxytocin, which in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReRcHdeUG9Y&amp;noredirect=1">Simon Sinek’s</a> words are the “unselfish” hormones that make strong leaders.<br />
 <br />
<em>“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” </em><keyword id="121032" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amelia-Earhart">Amelia Earhart</keyword><br />
 <br /> With your system agility on upswing, your <keyword id="2709503" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Startup-Project">startup project</keyword> and teams would never miss action.<br />
 <br />
<h3>
	4. Indulge in your favorite hobby<span> </span></h3>
Work is important, but is it more important than you? The sound of leading a team towards one common objective of creating some paradigm shifting systems is truly inspirational, but the pressure is equally challenging as well. If you’re a tech buff and love trying new stuff, then exploring new innovations like the latest GoPro devices, the new 4K devices in the market or the Victorinox Expedition Kit will definitely sound compelling.<br />
 <br />
Revitalise your spirits, and get back to action and become a force to reckon with. Startup businesses aren’t corporations, which is why their office floors are always full of excitement. Instill that vigor in your project and employees while keeping yourself motivated.<br />
 <br />
<h3>
	5.Socialize like a boss<span> </span></h3>
Running a business has several perks (not sure if many would agree), such as social recognition and influential power, besides the monetary benefits, of course. However, many social entrepreneurs, I had the pleasure of speaking with, told me that they knew many contemporaries that drew inspiration for their startups projects via verbal jousts. The point is, you never know when and where your startup idea resides, and it’s up to you whether you want to latch upon it or not.<br />
 <br /> Also, socializing is a great way of meeting new people, and therefore new ideas. Here's Steve Jobs talking about a <keyword id="10387" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Microsoft">Microsoft</keyword> employee he knew in his autobiography:<br />
 <br />
<em>"This guy badgered me about how Microsoft was going to completely change the world with this tablet PC software and eliminate all notebook computers, and Apple ought to license his Microsoft software. But he was doing the device all wrong. It had a stylus. As soon as you have a stylus, you’re dead. This dinner was like the tenth time he talked to me about it, and I was so sick of it that I came home and said, 'F@$% this, let’s show him what a tablet can really be.”</em><br />
 <br />
<h3>
	6. Stay hungry, stay foolish &amp; keep learning<span> </span></h3>
In her aptly titled book <em>Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish, </em>author Rashmi Bansal compiled the stories of 25 MBAs from IIM Ahmedabad, the premier Indian <keyword id="107736" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Business-school">business school</keyword>, who left lucrative jobs to follow the rough road of entrepreneurship. Each of the stories filtered light on a different and incredible entrepreneur story, many of whom galvanized their hunger for knowledge into successful business setups. The trick is to never hang up on your lab equipment and keep experimenting. Success and failure are subjective, but the experience is precious than both.<br />
 <br />
<h3>
	7. Unwind every weekend<span> </span></h3>
When you love what you do, then work becomes your sport and office your playground, which indeed is a true blessing. I have always admired the great <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius"><em>Confucius</em></a><em> saying, “Choose a job that you like, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” </em>For most startup entrepreneurs, their projects are among the most important things in life, which they emphatically call their primary love interest. Still catching a break every other weekend from hectic daily schedule gets a tad too difficult, which affects both mind and health. Therefore, it is advisable that you should spend some “me time”, and indulge in relaxation techniques, such as swimming, gaming, spa or workouts.<br />
 <br />
Take my word that when you visit office back, you’ll enjoy a fresh new outlook towards work, new ideas will keep pouring in, and thus will resonate a positive flux of energy amid your team.<br />
 <br />
(About the author: The article is written by <a href="https://plus.google.com/+UtkarshSahu9?rel=author">Utkarsh Sahu</a>. Digital marketing, social media &amp; content sum up his current beat.)<br />

7 Tips That Will Help Maintain Your Startup Project’s Momentum

<p><div class="image-container float_right"><div class="image"><p class="source"><a href="http://www.danielgoodmanphoto.com">Daniel Goodman/Business Insider</a></p></div></div>You are a well read bunch so I was looking forward to compiling the <a href="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2012/12/your-favorites-for-the-best-books-of-2012/" target="_blank">second annual</a> look at <em>your</em> favorite reads featured on <keyword id="1737858" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Farnam-Street">Farnam Street</keyword> in <keyword id="133644" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="2013">2013</keyword>.</p>
<p>While I never had any doubt that Farnam Streeters are the smartest people on the internet, the data once again tells that story too.</p>
<h3>1. <a href="http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&amp;it=farstrblo0a-21&amp;fr=farstrblo08-21&amp;de=farstrblo07-21&amp;uk=farstrblo-21&amp;ca=farst-20&amp;com=farnamstreet-20&amp;asin-es=1578644283&amp;asin-it=1578644283&amp;asin-fr=1578644283&amp;asin-de=1578644283&amp;asin-uk=1578644283&amp;asin-ca=1587991888&amp;asin-com=1578644283" target="_blank">Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger</a></h3>
<p>Peter Bevelin begins his fascinating book with Confucius' great wisdom: "A man who has committed a mistake and doesn't correct it, is committing another mistake." From Amazon:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This book is for those who love the constant search for knowledge. It is in the spirit of Charles Munger, who says, "All I want to know is where I'm going to die so I'll never go there." There are roads that lead to unhappiness. An understanding of how and why we can "die" should help us avoid them. We can't eliminate mistakes, but we can prevent those that can really hurt us. Using exemplars of clear thinking and attained wisdom, Bevelin focuses on how our thoughts are influenced, why we make misjudgments and tools to improve our thinking. Bevelin tackles such eternal questions as: Why do we behave like we do? What do we want out of life? What interferes with our goals? Read and study this wonderful multidisciplinary exploration of wisdom. It may change the way you think and act in business and in life.</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>2. <a href="http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&amp;it=farstrblo0a-21&amp;fr=farstrblo08-21&amp;de=farstrblo07-21&amp;uk=farstrblo-21&amp;ca=farst-20&amp;com=farnamstreet-20&amp;asin-es=057809665X&amp;asin-it=057809665X&amp;asin-fr=057809665X&amp;asin-de=057809665X&amp;asin-uk=057809665X&amp;asin-ca=057809665X&amp;asin-com=057809665X" target="_blank">It's Not All About Me</a></h3>
<p>I'm not quite sure how I came across Robin Dreeke's It's Not All About Me but I'm glad I did.</p>
<p>Dreeke is the lead instructor at the FBI's Counterintelligence Training Center in all behavioral and interpersonal skills training. And he wrote an awesome book on how to master the skills of communication.</p>
<p>This is a modern version of the timeless <a href="http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&amp;it=farstrblo0a-21&amp;fr=farstrblo08-21&amp;de=farstrblo07-21&amp;uk=farstrblo-21&amp;ca=farst-20&amp;com=farnamstreet-20&amp;asin-es=0671027034&amp;asin-it=0671027034&amp;asin-fr=0671027034&amp;asin-de=0671027034&amp;asin-uk=0671027034&amp;asin-ca=0671027034&amp;asin-com=0671027034" target="_blank">How to Win Friends and Influence People</a>.</p>
<h3>3. <a href="http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&amp;it=farstrblo0a-21&amp;fr=farstrblo08-21&amp;de=farstrblo07-21&amp;uk=farstrblo-21&amp;ca=farst-20&amp;com=farnamstreet-20&amp;asin-es=0671212095&amp;asin-it=0671212095&amp;asin-fr=0671212095&amp;asin-de=0671212095&amp;asin-uk=0671212095&amp;asin-ca=0671212095&amp;asin-com=0671212095" target="_blank">How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading</a></h3>
<p>From Amazon:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>How to Read a Book, originally published in 1940, has become a rare phenomenon, a living classic. It is the best and most successful guide to <keyword id="4228" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Reading">reading</keyword> comprehension for the general reader. And now it has been completely rewritten and updated.</p>
<p>You are told about the various levels of reading and how to achieve them - from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading, you learn how to pigeonhole a book, X-ray it, extract the author's message, criticize. You are taught the different reading techniques for reading practical <keyword id="5050" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="books">books</keyword>, imaginative literature, plays, poetry, history, science and mathematics, philosophy and social science.</p>
<p>Finally, the authors offer a recommended reading list and supply reading tests whereby you can measure your own progress in reading skills, comprehension and speed.</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>4. <a href="http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&amp;it=farstrblo0a-21&amp;fr=farstrblo08-21&amp;de=farstrblo07-21&amp;uk=farstrblo-21&amp;ca=farst-20&amp;com=farnamstreet-20&amp;asin-es=1477800670&amp;asin-it=1477800670&amp;asin-fr=1477800670&amp;asin-de=1477800670&amp;asin-uk=1477800670&amp;asin-ca=1477800670&amp;asin-com=1477800670" target="_blank">Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind</a></h3>
<p>From Amazon:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Are you over-extended, over-distracted, and overwhelmed? Do you work at a breakneck pace all day, only to find that you haven't accomplished the most important things on your agenda when you leave the office?</p>
<p>The world has changed and the way we work has to change, too. With wisdom from 20 leading creative minds, Manage Your Day-to-Day will give you a toolkit for tackling the new challenges of a 24/7, always-on workplace.</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>5. <a href="http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&amp;it=farstrblo0a-21&amp;fr=farstrblo08-21&amp;de=farstrblo07-21&amp;uk=farstrblo-21&amp;ca=farst-20&amp;com=farnamstreet-20&amp;asin-es=B009MLYM1G&amp;asin-it=B009MLYM1G&amp;asin-fr=B009MLYM1G&amp;asin-de=B009MLYM1G&amp;asin-uk=B009MLYM1G&amp;asin-ca=1165074052&amp;asin-com=B009MLYM1G" target="_blank">The Moral Sayings Of Publius Syrus: A Roman Slave</a></h3>
<p>A Syrian slave, Syrus is full of timeless wisdom. Want an example? "From the errors of others, a wise man corrects his own." Here is another "It is not every question that deserves an answer." Ok, one more? "To do two things at once is to do neither." And he didn't even know of Facebook and Twitter. You can read this book in under an hour but spend the rest of your life trying to learn and apply his wisdom.</p>
<h3>6. <a href="http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&amp;it=farstrblo0a-21&amp;fr=farstrblo08-21&amp;de=farstrblo07-21&amp;uk=farstrblo-21&amp;ca=farst-20&amp;com=farnamstreet-20&amp;asin-es=0140442103&amp;asin-it=0140442103&amp;asin-fr=0140442103&amp;asin-de=0140442103&amp;asin-uk=0140442103&amp;asin-ca=0140442103&amp;asin-com=0140442103" target="_blank">Letters from a Stoic</a></h3>
<p>I came to Seneca a few years ago. It's clear from reading Seneca that he's full of wisdom. His letters deal with everything we deal with today: success, failure, wealth, poverty, grief. His philosophy is practical. Not only will reading this book help equip you for what comes in life but it'll help you communicate with others.</p>
<p>From Amazon:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A philosophy that saw self-possession as the key to an existence lived 'in accordance with nature', Stoicism called for the restraint of animal instincts and the severing of emotional ties. These beliefs were formulated by the Athenian followers of Zeno in the fourth century BC, but it was in Seneca (c. 4 BC - AD 65) that the Stoics found their most eloquent advocate. Stoicism, as expressed in the Letters, helped ease pagan Rome's transition to Christianity, for it upholds upright ethical ideals and extols virtuous living, as well as expressing disgust for the harsh treatment of slaves and the inhumane slaughters witnessed in the Roman arenas. Seneca's major contribution to a seemingly unsympathetic creed was to transform it into a powerfully moving and inspiring declaration of the dignity of the individual mind.</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>7. <a href="http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&amp;it=farstrblo0a-21&amp;fr=farstrblo08-21&amp;de=farstrblo07-21&amp;uk=farstrblo-21&amp;ca=farst-20&amp;com=farnamstreet-20&amp;asin-es=0812968255&amp;asin-it=0812968255&amp;asin-fr=0812968255&amp;asin-de=0812968255&amp;asin-uk=0812968255&amp;asin-ca=0812968255&amp;asin-com=0812968255" target="_blank">Meditations</a></h3>
<p>From Amazon:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (a.d. 121-180) succeeded his adoptive father as emperor of Rome in a.d. 161-and Meditations remains one of the greatest works of spiritual and ethical reflection ever written. With a profound understanding of human behavior, Marcus provides insights, wisdom, and practical guidance on everything from living in the world to coping with adversity to interacting with others. Consequently, the Meditations have become required reading for statesmen and philosophers alike, while generations of ordinary readers have responded to the straightforward intimacy of his style. In Gregory Hays's new translation-the first in a generation-Marcus's thoughts speak with a new immediacy: never before have they been so directly and powerfully presented.</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>8. <a href="http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&amp;it=farstrblo0a-21&amp;fr=farstrblo08-21&amp;de=farstrblo07-21&amp;uk=farstrblo-21&amp;ca=farst-20&amp;com=farnamstreet-20&amp;asin-es=0385421311&amp;asin-it=0385421311&amp;asin-fr=0385421311&amp;asin-de=0385421311&amp;asin-uk=0385421311&amp;asin-ca=0385421311&amp;asin-com=0385421311" target="_blank">The Art of Worldly Wisdom</a></h3>
<p>The Art of Worldly Wisdom: A Pocket Oracle is a book of three hundred aphorisms for making one's way in the world and achieving distinction.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It provides advice not only for modern "image makers" and "spin doctors," but also for the candid: for those who insist that substance, not image, is what really matters. "Do, but also seem," is Gracián's pithy advice</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The book was <a href="http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&amp;it=farstrblo0a-21&amp;fr=farstrblo08-21&amp;de=farstrblo07-21&amp;uk=farstrblo-21&amp;ca=farst-20&amp;com=farnamstreet-20&amp;asin-es=0199540004&amp;asin-it=0199540004&amp;asin-fr=0199540004&amp;asin-de=0199540004&amp;asin-uk=0199540004&amp;asin-ca=0199540004&amp;asin-com=0199540004" target="_blank">imitated by La Rochefoucauld</a>, cherished by Friedrich Nietzsche, and translated into German by Arthur Schopenhauer. Nietzsche observed that "Europe has never produced anything finer or more complicated in matters of moral subtlety."</p>
<h3>9. <a href="http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&amp;it=farstrblo0a-21&amp;fr=farstrblo08-21&amp;de=farstrblo07-21&amp;uk=farstrblo-21&amp;ca=farst-20&amp;com=farnamstreet-20&amp;asin-es=1477428690&amp;asin-it=1477428690&amp;asin-fr=1477428690&amp;asin-de=1477428690&amp;asin-uk=1477428690&amp;asin-ca=1477428690&amp;asin-com=1434102750" target="_blank">A Technique for Producing Ideas</a></h3>
<p>From Amazon:</p>
<blockquote>
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<h3>10. <a href="http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&amp;it=farstrblo0a-21&amp;fr=farstrblo08-21&amp;de=farstrblo07-21&amp;uk=farstrblo-21&amp;ca=farst-20&amp;com=farnamstreet-20&amp;asin-es=1578645018&amp;asin-it=1578645018&amp;asin-fr=1578645018&amp;asin-de=1578645018&amp;asin-uk=1578645018&amp;asin-ca=1578645018&amp;asin-com=1578645018" target="_blank">Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger</a></h3>
<p>Pound for pound one of the most important books I've ever read. To those of you who claim this book is too expensive I say ignorance is even costlier.</p>

The 10 Best-Loved Books Of 2013

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<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:African_Bush_Elephant.jpg">en.wikipedia.org</a></p></div><p></p></div><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">The ivory stockpile in the secure government warehouse - six tonnes of scarred tusks, glossy Confucius statuettes with $10,000 (more than £6,000) price stickers, coffee table items, and too many chunky cuff bracelets to count - represents millions of dollars and the slaughter of thousands of African elephants.</span></p>
<p>On 14 November, at <keyword id="15962" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Barack-Obama">Barack Obama</keyword>'s instruction, and in front of visiting dignitaries and television cameras, every last intricately carved and high-dollar item will be fed into the jaws of an industrial strength rock-crushing machine and smashed to splinters.</p>
<p>The hope is that this public act of destruction will serve as a turning point. White House officials and conservation groups calculate that demonstrating the president's commitment to breaking up the illegal <keyword id="71022" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Ivory-trade">ivory trade</keyword> will persuade other governments to take similar measures, and help put the wildlife traffickers on the run.</p>
<p>But it may be too late. Two decades after an international ban on ivory sales, an explosion in wildlife trafficking has once again brought African elephants to the brink of extinction. Nearly 100 African elephants are killed every day for their tusks to feed a huge demand for ivory trinkets from newly wealthy buyers in Asia who see ivory as a status symbol.</p>
<p>US security officials say the global trade in illegal ivory has grown to $10bn (about £6.2bn) a year - just behind drugs and human trafficking. The huge profit potential has also turned ivory into an important line of financing for terrorist networks such as al-Shabaab, the al-Qaida affiliate that carried out <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/oct/04/westgate-mall-attacks-kenya-terror" title="">September's attack on the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi</a>.</p>
<p>"This is not the kind of poaching that we have dealt with in the past," said Dan Ashe, the director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency leading the US fight against wildlife trafficking. "It's syndicated and sophisticated criminal organisations that are driving the trade."</p>
<p>The grisly results are visible in the vast storehouse outside Denver - ordinarily off-limits to the public - where six tonnes of ivory seized by US law enforcement officials over the past 25 years is heaped among stuffed tigers, caiman ashtrays, and other artifacts of the illegal wildlife trade.</p>
<p>The smuggled ivory was seized by US agents at airports and cargo ships, hidden in the false bottoms of suitcases and shipping crates, buried in jars of face cream, or disguised by being stained dark brown with tea. Some of the ivory - the big display case of bracelets - made it as far as a jewellery shop off Times Square in New York city, before it was seized by agents.</p>
<p>"There could be several hundred elephants represented on this pallet alone," said Bernadette Atencio, the supervisor of the US Fish and Wildlife repository.</p>
<p>America is one of the top destinations of illegal ivory from Africa, as well as an important transhipment point for the carved ivory trinkets bound ultimately for the leading markets in China, Japan, Thailand and other Asian countries.</p>
<p>But the six-tonne haul is only half that seized in China this week alone - 3,1888 pieces of elephant tusks were found in Xiamen city, with an estimated value of 603m Yuan ($99m or £62m) on the black market. The sheer volume of trade is depleting populations of African adult male elephants, Atencio said, reaching for a polished tusk, carved with renderings of the "big five" in African game.</p>
<p>"I think the baby tusks are the most heartbreaking," she said. "What I see here are lost generations of elephants, many many generations of elephants that will never be because these elephants were not allowed to mature and to reach an adult size.</p>
<p>By ordering the destruction of the ivory haul in Denver, American officials hope to send a definitive message to traffickers that the bottom is about to fall out of the ivory trade, and that there is no use hanging on to stores of ivory, because it will eventually end up being destroyed.</p>
<p>The strategy <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/18/legalising-rhino-horn-ivory-trade" title="">has been endorsed by leading conservation groups</a>, such as the World Wildlife Fund, and wildlife officials in Kenya and other states which depend on African elephants for their tourism industries.</p>
<p>"It does send a signal that ivory is not going to be a good investment for very much longer," said Allan Thornton, who heads the <a href="http://www.eia-international.org/" title="">Environmental Investigation Agency</a>.</p>
<p>US diplomats are now reaching out to other governments to carry out similar high-profile acts of destruction. Kenya has destroyed its stores of illegal ivory in the past. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/21/philippines-destroys-elephant-tusks-ivory" title="">The Philippines carried out a crush earlier this year</a>.</p>
<p>The Obama administration is stepping up aid and training for park rangers in Africa to try to stop the traffickers on the ground. The Clinton Global Initiative has also aligned with the US government efforts, with <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/26/hillary-chelsea-clinton-african-elephants-ivory-poaching" title="">Hillary Clinton in September announcing an $80m initiative</a> to train park rangers and sniffer dogs at 50 poaching hot spots across Africa.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Obama administration is promising to strengthen penalties against those caught smuggling ivory, a White House adviser said. "The laws need to be changed. They need to be stiffened," said David Hayes, a former deputy secretary of interior who was appointed last September to a new White House council on wildlife trafficking. "I think that's going to be a primary focus for the advisory council - enforcement penalties, and what we allow and what we don't."</p>
<p>The push to end trafficking comes at a desperate time for African wildlife, with rhinos and elephants under threat from mass poaching gangs. The explosion in poaching threatens to reverse a conservation successory story, with African elephants showing signs of a comeback after a 1990 ban on ivory sales.</p>
<p>But conservation groups say that positive outcome was undermined by a misguided decision by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), the entity set up to protect at-risk wildlife, to allow limited sales of ivory. In 1997, Zimbabwe was granted permission to conduct a limited sale of 50 tonnes of ivory. In 2008, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/jul/15/conservation.wildlife" title="">China was also allowed to import 60 tonnes of ivory</a>. The idea was to slake the demand for ivory among the newly wealthy elites of China. But the result was a catastrophe for African wildlife, said Paula Kahumbu, chief executive of <a href="http://wildlifedirect.org/" title="">Wildlife Direct</a>. "We have seen in Kenya an eight-fold increase in poaching since 2009," she said. "The volume of ivory being taken across the country is just staggering."</p>
<p>Campaign groups said the combination of new buying power in Asia - where there is a surge in demand for ivory - and armed groups was overwhelming poorly paid and trained rangers in African wildlife parks.</p>
<p>A new breed of traffickers, armed with night-vision goggles and high-powered rifles, began staging mass attacks - such as last September's cyanide poisoning of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/zimbabwe/10390634/Poachers-kill-300-Zimbabwe-elephants-with-cyanide.html" title="">300 elephants at a Zimbabwe watering hole</a>.</p>
<p>What put elephants on the top of the US agenda however was terrorism. Over the past few years, US intelligence officials have accumulated evidence that <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/dec/12/wildlife-trafficking-national-security-wwf" title="">wildlife trafficking is funding rebel armies and causing instability in Africa</a>.</p>
<p>US security officials and campaign groups have said the militant group al-Shabaab was getting up to 40% of its funds from the illegal wildlife trade, with ivory financing their operations and paying their footsoldiers, by acting as middlemen in the wildlife trade.</p>
<p>The result is a grisly kill-to-order system, with brokers paying poachers as little as $20 a pound for the raw tusks, and selling them onwards for as much as $800 a pound in some parts of Asia. Finished pieces sell for up to $4,000 a pound.</p>
<p>By last year, Clinton, then secretary of state, was so concerned about the links with terrorist groups that <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/nov/08/us-intelligence-wildlife-poachers" title="">she designated wildlife trafficking a national security threat</a>. Barack Obama during a visit to Africa in July also pledged action against the traffickers.</p>
<p>On 14 November, the international community - and the traffickers - will witness the first instalment of Obama's anti-trafficking plan. It's far from certain, though, whether Obama will be able to pull African elephants back from the brink, yet again.</p>
<p>"I believe that the scope and impact of the poaching crisis has now reached the highest levels of the US government," said John Webb, a former Department of Justice environmental prosecutor who is also a member of the new White House advisory council. "But, unfortunately, I think it's going to take a huge effort to turn it around this time."</p>

<p>This article originally appeared on <a>guardian.co.uk</a></p>
<p></p>

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