The Writers’ Cafe

This week’s Supreme Court ruling removing limits from corporate spending on political advertising means that campaign finance reform is dead.

McCain: Campaign Finance Reform Is Dead
Sen. Who Co-Wrote Finance Laws Not Surprised by Court Ruling Given “Skeptical, Sarcastic Comments” by Justices
By Michelle Levi

President Barack Obama, criticized by campaign finance reform advocates for not living up to his repeated pledges to reduce the role of special interests in elections, plans an aggressive push-back to last week’s Supreme Court decision overturning restrictions on political spending by corporations, unions and other organizations.

Monday, January 25, 2010 · Last updated 6:58 a.m. PT
W.H. hopes to blunt court decision
By
POLITICO

The essential question here is how will the Supreme decision, which was rendered last week, help the economy? The answer is obvious, the new growing sector of the US economy it the highly lucrative field political lobbying!

How to become a Lobbyist

Lobbyists perform a unique, and sometimes controversial, role in our society. First, determine what type of lobbying you want to perform. Do you want to work for a lobbying firm and take on whatever work is assigned to you?

How to become a Lobbyist

Okay, so it seems the politicians really need to answer to one particular group more tham anyone else. They need to answer to the group of people who help them purchase the kind of advertising which will be required in order to get them re-elected.

Lobbying firms can’t hire people fast enough. Starting salaries have risen to about $300,000 a year for the best-connected aides eager to “move downtown” from Capitol Hill.
The Road to Riches Is Called K Street by By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 22, 2005>

The intelligent answer is to bypass the whole political game and get right to the heart of the matter. The thing that really matters is to try to appease the largest and most powerful group? Perhaps all the lobby groups could be combined into one or two extremely powerful lobbies.

We will definitely need names for these two new Super-Lobbies. I would like to call one of these lobbies, the CASH lobby. I think the new name should also somehow serve as an acronym. So far I gave come up with Conservatives Against Spending-How? I could not seem to come up with any meaning to the last letter. Which really does not matter because the idea I came up with for behind this group, is that it really does not matter how the spending gets cut mainly that it does get cut, except for the military, of course.

Now I have not yet figured out a really good acronym for the other Super-Lobby because it stands for so many different things. I could propose something like HUMAN or PEOPLE but these two words have two many letters, and a corporation is a person in the eyes of the law. I just came up with one, but it really does not fit, but we need one to fill in for the time being until minds that are greater than my own can come up with something more indicative of what the other Super-Lobby is really all about. So how about we come up something which is specifically devoted to dispel some great myth that currently i being hoisted onto the American people. Lets call the other Super-Lobby CARED. The letters would stand for Conservatives Against Ridiculous Economic Decisions.

Now I suppose my readers, all eleven of them. might be scratching their heads and wondering, hey what about,  Abortions, Stem cell research, Gay marriage, Global Warming  and all that other stuff that seems to be so hotly debated in so many political arenas? The answer is that they would have to be integrated into the CARED Super-Lobby because the people who were at one time concerned about such things, are now no longer able to show up at the rallies for these causes because they are too worried that maybe they would lose their jobs. The other ones who happen to be unemployed anyway just figured while it still may be okay to talk and be concerned about such things, they know  nothing really is going to change regarding these matters hence the past tense sound of the name of the other Super-Lobby- Cared.

Stay tuned next week for the details regarding paradigms which have been known for some time, but seldom explained. These paradigms were, the Art Laffer Curve:

Income Tax Theories - The Laffer Curve - Who pays how much?

The Laffer Curve is aptly named after Professor Art Laffer. He was an advisor to President Reagan in the early 1980s, but, despite that, he has become quite well known through his ‘curve’! He suggested that, as taxes increased from fairly low levels, tax revenue received by the government would also increase. However, as tax rates rose, there would come a point where people would not regard it as worth working so hard.

Above courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laffer_curve

The idea of the Art Laffer curve worked really well for Ronald Reagan. Later this was called Reagan nomics by the both friend and foe of the Republican Party. Walter Mondale, remember him, made a failed bid for the Presidency and had referred to this pseudo-scientific economic concept as voodoo economics, when he realized this was giving him enough traction he came up with one of the great campaign slogans of the day which was actually borrowed from the advertising agency world, “Where’s the Beef?” The advertising image was of this little old lady who bought a hamburger from a competing fast food chain, lifted up the bun and loudly exclaimed, “Where’s the Beef”. I guess it was a great and memorable slogan but not enough to get Mondale elected.

What really should have been grabbing our attention is how Reganomics or the trickle down theory as originalyl invented by Art Laffer, and cleverly exploited by Reagan and the Republican Party to create sweeping tax cuts, later required some entirely new terminology of it’s own, namely deficit spending. The hugest deficits the nation has ever seen came about as a direct result of the trickle down theory, failing to produce any significant trickle.

The entire concept seems like such a flawed theory in practice that one wonders if the entire idea was ever really supposed to be taken seriously and applied to the real world of supply and demand, or what later became know as supply side economics. The political pundits of the day probably realized that these textbook theories would never really work in the real world, so they figured it would be wise to keep changing the name of the thing that they actually were doing.

If I was hard pressed to come up with some sort of descriptive terminology for the entire Laffer/Reagan/Bush/G.W.Bush idea I would simply call it: The Art of Laughing all the Way to the Bank.

Rabbi Zev Leff shared an experience from his life when he watched a woman who won a 15 minute shopping spree, collect her prize.

“The woman had a a map of the store, where she would be able to find the most expensive things, hooked up in front of her eyes with a special rig. The woman had special sneakers, and two shopping carts. The rules were simple, what ever she could put into her carts in 15 minutes was hers to keep.”

When the 15 minutes started, Rabbi Zev Leff explained “the woman took off like a mashugana, five minutes into the spree, she started to perspire. If you would have seen this woman and said, hey take it easy. sit down for a few minutes, she would have said, what are you crazy, I only 15 minutes to take what I can get. After the 15 minutes, give me a chair and I’ll sit down for five hours straight.

Rabbi Zev Leff had his audience, at his Motzei Shabbos shiur at Adas Israel Passaic New Jersey, smiling form ear to ear. The shiur was sponsored by -Somaich Achim and was enitiled ”Joy and Happiness in your Torah Life”.

“Somaich Achim,  “Neighbors Helping Neighbors,” was started at the behest of the Rosh HaYeshiva and local Rabbanim of Clifton and Passaic. It is a case management program designed to help individuals and families in crisis withstand extreme difficulty, tragedy or illness.”

Jewish Family Services/Somaich Achim

Rabbi Zev Leff, had several different speaking engagements throughout the Passaic Clifton community this Rosh Chodesh Vayera, Shabbos, Jan 15th/Jan 16 2010, 1 Shevat, 5770. I had the opportunity to hear Rabbi Zev Leff, in three different shuls this Shabbos on three different topics.

The announcement from our Shul gave the following information about Rabbi Zev Leff:

“JFS/Somaich Achim invites the community to an inspiring Shabbos with Rav Zev Leff. Rav Leff is one of Israel’s most popular Torah educators who has the rare ability to bring across a subtle point of Torah learning with humor and analytical brilliance.”

Rabbi Leff definitely lived up to his press release. I first had the opportunity to hear him speak on Friday Night, 8:30 PM @  Bais Torah U’Tefilah (BTU)  on the topic of “The Jewish Home”. He introduced important topics, with a great deal of humor. As much as I definitely appreciate good humor, I would say I appreciate analytical brilliance, more.

The Shabbos Morning Drasha he gave at Ahavas Israel on “The Concept of Avos and Blessing our Children” is something worth trying to give over here on this site. However, it seems only fair to at least take some to finish talking about  ”Joy Happiness in your Torah Life” and why life is like a 15 minute shopping spree.

As much as Rabbi Leff had painted this humorous picture of a woman who was very serious in her pursuit of the all the things that she would get during here allotted 15 minutes, it was clear that he was drawing on this analogy to  explain a concept that people of our orthodox Jewish community of Passaic NJ, could definitely relate to and appreciate.

Rabbi Zev Leff shlita, is one of Israel’s most popular English-speaking Torah educators. For 25 years, Rav Leff has served as the Rav and Mara D’asra of Moshav Matityahu, in the center of Israel.

Moshav Matityahu,

Rabbi Leff mentioned that our constitution guarantees the pursuit of happiness which he then compared to a specific activity which is unique to Florida. Rabbi Leff compared horse racing to dog racing although he was quick to point out that he never went to either one while he lived and worked in Miami Florida. In horse racing there is a live human riding on the horse who can come up with various motivations to urge his horse to finish first; he can hit the horse with a stick or whisper in the horses ear.

Rabbi Zev Leff’s Website

Moshav Matityahu American-style Orthodox/Yeshivish community

However in dog racing there is no such motivation. The only way to can urge the dogs to race is with a mechanical rabbit which looks, smells and runs like a rabbit. However, the dog can never catch the rabbit, because the rabbit is programmed to run faster than the fastest dog. The pursuit of happiness is like the dog race, it is something that is pursued but never obtained.

A lecture given in the yeshivish town of Passaic NJ to the frum crowd, even if it is on Motzei Shabbos, must have a least a couple of references to various Torah ideals. This indeed did take place.

Amongst the Torah observant crowd there is often a reference to the 613 Mitzvot. Rabbi Zev Leff did refer to these on several occassions.

Explanation:

The idea here is that within the details written in our Torah there are various rules, regulations, and standards of ethical conduct which are is mandated by the Torah. It turns out that there are 613 of these regulations.

/www.jewfaq.org aka Judaism 101

The link above is to an online source that contains “…a list of the 613 mitzvot (commandments). It is based primarily on the list compiled by Rambam in the Mishneh Torah.”

365 of these regulations are said to be negative commandments, in other words these are things you should not do, like steal, or kill.

There are 365 negative commandments, corresponding to the number of days in a solar year, and 248 positive commandments, ascribed to the number of bones and significant organs in thehuman body.

en.wikipedia.org-613 Mitzvot

I have two more points to bring out on this matter and then i will try to connect them to the discussion of the Rabbi Leff’s presentation. Not all of the to do, and not to do Mitzvot are even possible to do, or not to do today because of the destruction of the Holy Temple. Additionally some of the mitzvot are only done one time per year and some mitzvot can only be done in the land (Eretz) of Israel. This significantly decreases the number of do’s and don’ts.

The second idea about the mitzvot is that there are many more regulations which have been enacted by our Rabbi’s over the generations. Which brings us back to the presentation.

Rabbi Zev Leff pointed out the importance of “Joy and Happiness in your Torah Life” when he discussed the generation of Torah observant Jews who came to the United States, and were faced with the problem of keeping their faith, or keeping their jobs. The narrative is all to familiar regarding how a father would come home for shabbos and know full well that he would lose the job he just got because the rule was clear: If one did not show up for work on Saturday, he have to look for a new job on Sunday or Monday.

So therefore there were many fathers who entered into any given shabbos not with the joy and glee which is what we do today, but with sadness and depression. Somehow these parents and role models for the future generation could not manage to overcome their own depression and place a good spin on their problems for the sake of their family.

Therefore Rabbi Zev Leff concluded, it is no wonder that their children to maintain the mitzvot of keeping shabbos when it was their turn to go out on on their own. With this Rabbi Leff managed to drive home some important issues which we face as orthodox Jews. Mainly that even though the performance of the mitzvot and being Torah observant Jews is not easy, we are still expected to live the frum lifestyle in a state of simcha or happiness.

So should we look at the whole idea of being Torah observant as being fun?

Rabbi Zev Leff drove home the point by asking if this generation should have simply let this whole matter of losing job after job because of being Torah observant roll off their backs and say, oh no don’t worry its fun, to have to find a new job every week. Clearly, Rabbi Leff was not telling us that this was the answer. He did however continue to pose some thought provoking questions that sought to tie together some of the different examples, stories and analogies that were given throughout his shiur.

Rabbi Leff made the point that being a Torah observant Jew is not particularly fun. When he explained this idea, he framed it as how to explain things so that the children, of the generation where their parent’s would lose their jobs every week, could understand the relative importance of keeping the frum lifestyle. However he was also trying to explain the value and importance of Joy and Happiness in your Torah Life.

There are many various concepts, ideas, thoughts, or words that could be used to describe Torah observance, however the word fun, does not seem to be particularly well suited for the task. The analogy of the woman in the grocery store who only had 15 minutes to keep what ever she could get, was probably more to the point. Certainly no one would imagine that this woman in this particular setting had the idea of doing something fun, for those 15 minutes. However was this moment, these 15 minutes, in the plain meaning from the point of view of the woman who could only be gaining something of tangible value, a rewarding moment for this woman? One would have to answer in the affirmative, yes, this activity was a valuable and rewarding experience.

Of course the analogy does fall apart on some level, as would any analogy because it would be difficult to explain, either qualitatively or quantitatively, the value of taking on the Torah observant lifestyle. I imagine it would be equally difficult to explain the value of keeping the Torah observant lifestyle to someone who has never known any other way to live.

By also sharing with us the analogy of the dogs, at the dog races, Rabbi Leff also provided another important insight into the topic at hand. From a gross materialistic point of view the pursuit of happiness could be explained as something which is never truly accomplished. It is the nature of life itself, that gives us a narrow perspective at times, like when we are children, as to what is the thing that will make us happy. Children will tend to focus on what can be done right now. Or they might prefer to eat something like candy at all times because it tastes so great. As adults we understand the concept of delayed gratification, or working hard for something who’s fruits we will not enjoy until later.

Even now as I write this I recall the other important analogy which Rabbi Zev Leff shared with us all at his shiur.

A company is spending millions of dollar to develop the Jaffa orange, grown in Israel to have no pits, and a thin skin. The importance of this is that people want to be able to get at their orange with little effort, and that they do not want to put up with, having to spit out or otherwise remove the seeds. In reality people, want to do things which require little effort, and not have to do tasks which are considered mundane.

This is by way of explanation to give the company producing this “new” thin skin Jaffa oranges a competitive position in the marketplace. However once again we can understand the analogy, however we also need to understand that it is a concept to apply to the mass market. We as Torah observant Jews will not be breaking any speed records when it comes to how long it takes us to complete our prayer services during Shabbos for example. Or when if we choose to compare the intricacy of completing our daily morning prayer service, to perhaps something which does not even exist in other religions.

I would attempt to conclude this account of Rabbi Zev Leff’s shiur on: Joy and Happiness in your Torah Life, by stating that I feel that everyone who was in attendance that Saturday night was uplifted as a result of their hearing the words of Rabbi Leff, and most likely believed that their time was well spent.

Aharon Moshe (Stephen) Sanders, completed- Wednesday, January 20, 2010.

Any one who has ever attended a passover seder would definitely hear the explanation of a strong hand and an outstretched arm as an essential part of the story of G-d’s redemption of His chosen people, the nation of Israel.

Many people might be familiar with various mathematical explanations regarding how many plagues were brought down upon Pharoh and all Egypt. Certainly everyone would agree that there are ten main plagues.

During the last two days I heard some mathematical explanations which use the numeric values of specific Hebrew letters to make some interesting inferences in relation to the specific Parsha  (portion of Torah which is read in synagogue) of this week; Vayeira.

A shiur (lecture) on the Parsha that I attended last night pointed out the significance of the number 14. One source for obtaining this number was from a Mishna

Mishnah 1:

On the evening (”Or”) of the fourteenth of Nisan we must search for the chametz by the light of a candle.

MISHNAH PESACHIM, CHAPTER 1
SEARCHING FOR CHAMETZ, (.pdf file online, RabbisFeldman.net)

Rabbi Shmuel Kessin gave a shiur last night January 13, 2010 at an apartment on the upper east side, of Manhattan. Rabbi Shmuel Kessin pointed out that the use of the Hebrew word Or, which means light, or the evening of the 14th day may have some meaning which is only hinted at the  Hebrew word. Remez, is the Hebrew word which is used when one is seeking to explain or derive an inner meaning which is only alluded to within a given word, or phrase from the Torah or Mishnah.

Another technique which often helps offers insights into subtle meanings is the use of gematrias. In addition to having a specific sound, the Hebrew letters also have a specific numerical value based in their sequence in the Aleph-Beis. For example the 1st letter of the Hebrew Aleph_Beis is Aleph, which has a numerical value of 1. The tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet is is Yud, which has a numeric value of 10.

Insight and spiritual inspiration may be gained when learning deep concepts by referencing something as seemingly superficial as the numeric value of a given Hebrew word.

Rabbi Shmuel Kessin had used the nuance of meaning and the numerical value from the Mishnah referenced above to point out that we learn of the birth of Pinchas in the current Torah portion of Vayeira. Pinchas is an important personality in the Torah because he will later zealously take up the defense of Hashem by spearing a prince of the Hebrews who publicly disgraces Hashem, with his illicit actions. In so doing Pinchas had brought an end to a plague that had already claimed the lives of 24,000 Jews.

In his typical yet subtle manner of deriving and subsequently revealing a remez of meaning, Rabbi Shmuel Kessin pointed out that it could be Pinchas, who is the “light” of the 14th. Vaeira, the name of the 14th Parsha of Torah, is from the root for Or which is light, and is translated as the word appear. Therefore in the current Parsha, Vaeira (the 14th Parsha of the Torah) of the week one of the important personalities to appear is Pinchas.

Pinchas was rewarded for acting with a vengeance to defend G-d’s honor. Yet, Chazal teach that Pinchas is the same person as Eliyahu Hanavi

The Torah Spring
Edited by Shlomo Katz, Pinchas Volume XIII, No. 37 19 Tammuz 5759 July 3, 1999

In the shiur someone also explained that in addition to being present at all bris milah, and of course stopping by for a glass of wine on Passover, Eliahu Hanavi-

Eliyahu HaNavi- to appear and announce the arrival of Moshiach Ben Dovid- and the end to this long, bitter, and final exile!

Above clip, courtesy thirtysix.org

As part of my daily weekday routine I attend a semi-formal learning in Chumash (Torah) Chevurah (group of friends) in a local Yeshivah Passaic Torah Institute:
Link To PTI’s Web Page w/online Shirum!

Just today I mentioned to our Chevurah, when we had a free moment, about the shiur I had attended last night where Rabbi Shmuel Kessin mentioned that Vaeira was the 14th Parsha. We had just read the pussek (sentence) in the Torah where the Egyptian necromancers tried to duplicate (or eradicate) the plague of lice, but that they could not do it.  The sentence happened to be the 14th sentence, Yud Daled.

One of our very astute member of our chevurah pointed out that the Hebrew word for necromancers, or sorcerers was spelled with the Hebrew letter Yud, while the same Hebrew word: HaHaturim in the next sentence was spelled without a Yud. Meaning that the Hebrew word was some how lacking. Our teacher in the Chevurah had explained that G-d had given 10 portions of black magic to the world, and that the Egyptians had received 9 portions of it.  The Hebrew word for these necromancers contains within it a root word which at least sounds like the Hebrew word Tumah, which are things that defile anyone who comes in contact with it.

I pointed out that it was in that next sentence, that the necromancers themselves pointed out that it was the finger of G-d. Of course when you think of a finger, you also think of a hand and then, Yitchak Drai, one of Chavurah who loves gematrias, shared one or two with us:

The gematria of the hebrew word for hand (Yud Daled) is 14. A Hebrew word for friend is spelled Yud Daled, Yud, Daled. The idea being that friends people who walk hand in hand.

I pointed out that today was the 14 the day of January, while Yitzchak pointed out that it was the 28th of Teves. Another interesting thing about the gematria of Yad (Yud-Daled) being 14 is that as Yitzchak Drai pointed out that each of the fingers of our hands has three segments while the thumb only has two. Therefore there are total of 14 segments, when we add up the total number of segments of our fingers, which again corresponds with the gematria of 14.

Getting back to some of the ideas presented at the shiur given on the Upper East Side of Manhattan by Rabbi Shmuel Kessin was that there are seven Hebrew words which make up the very first sentence of the Torah in Genesis. As part of our faith we believe with all our heart that G-d is involved in the day to day activities of daily life. The creation of the World, Universe and everything in it is also believed to be part of the ongoing will of Hashem. If Hashem would withdraw his will for at any moment the World as we know would simply cease to exist. Rabbi Shmuel Kessin pointed out that the earthquake in Haiti, on January 12, 2010 measure a 7.0 on the Richter Scale.

Hait 7.0 Richter Scale earthquake.

Courtesy of World Atlas.com

.

There are many things we can learn from the Torah when we study it in a serious manner. Unfortunately there are many trends which shut down some of the various paths of understanding. When I began writing a job description, in an earlier Post, AharonMosheNow:

Most humble man on earth urgently needed to save an entire nation.

Experience Required: None

Some Heavy Lifting. Long Hours, nights and weekends. Must be able to follow directions. Deal with people. Conflict resolution. Work under close supervision. Salary: TBD

I was obviously was using humor to attempt to reveal some of the subtle irony which we can glean by understanding even just the simple meaning of the the Torah portion of the week. In attempting to write such things I am faced with a significant amount of cognitive dissonance. On one hand we are expected to understand the importance of humility specifically in context with Moshe Rabbeinu. Then again how do we then explain the dialogue that Moshe has with Hashem where he tells G-d, in Parshas Shemos, all the reasons why he is not the man for the job, the reluctant messiah. By the end of Parshas Shemos, Moshe is complaining to G-d about the mission:

…”My Lord, why have you done evil to this people, why have you sent me?”"-Exodus 5:22, Artscroll, The Chumash, The Stone Edition, pg 317.

Now we could say many things at this point to explain that from Moshe’s point of view, he came to Egypt in order to save the Jewish people from bondage, and now after her first meeting with Pharoh not only did things not get better for the Jewish people, but indeed they got worse. As the story line goes, Pharoh’s knee jerk response to Moshe’s request to allow the Jewish people to;

“…go for a three day journey in the Wilderness {to bring} offerings to Hashem” Exodus 5:3 The Stone Edition, pg 313,

was to make the work of the Jewish people (slaves) even more difficult by requiring the same quota of bricks without providing them with the straw which was the material which was needed to make the bricks. Now we can certainly understand that Moshe would clearly not be popular with the Jewish people for making their labor even more difficult then it already was. The other significant fact was that it was Pharoh’s reaction to Moshe’s request that made life in Egypt even more difficult than it already was.

It would be a grievous error to think that Moshe was put in charge of the redemption of the Jewish people, because he would be popular with his constituents and well liked.

However while Hashem did not provide Moshe with a detailed explanation of exactly what would happen during the process of freeing the Jewish people from their bondage in Egypt, he did tell Moshe, that Pharoh would not simply acquiesce to Moshe’s request but that G-d almighty would have to bring out a strong hand, and that he would have to strike Egypt.-Exodus 3:20.

Click Here To Enter To Win Free tickets

Most humble man on earth urgently needed to save an entire nation.

Experience Required: None

Some Heavy Lifting. Long Hours, nights and weekends. Must be able to follow directions. Deal with people. Conflict resolution. Work under close supervision. Salary: TBD

Hm, what’s this? A bush is burning, but not being consumed?  Wow, I am going to check this out!

‘ Take your shoes off.

Once we get past the difficulties presented by this amazing and unprecedented meeting, it becomes even harder to understand that Moshe actually did not want the job.

Aharon Moshe Sanders

Yud Beis Teves 5770, January 8, 2010

(To be completed, G-d willing)

Ideas are valuable, only when put into action. The above statement may seem painfully obvious however from my perspective, it is not. It is difficult for me to expound on my point of view on this matter without at least sharing some of my relevant experiences.

I used to work for a social service organization that (amongst many other things) was involved in helping people obtain jobs. My function at the company was to help individuals who were trained in our training program to obtain jobs. There were numerous obstacles to the accomplishment of this goal, however this would be the topic of a much different essay.

The time period was in the early 90’s when networked PC’s were rapidly becoming the more the preferred method of sharing information throughout different divisions of a multifaceted organization such as the one I was working for. Indeed the internet or what was then called the information superhighway, was still in its development phase.

October 26, 1993 issue of the New York Times: “One of the technologies Vice President Al Gore is pushing is the information superhighway, which will link everyone at home or office to everything else—movies and television shows, shopping services, electronic mail and huge collections of data.”

I remember a particular article, issue, and picture in The Science Times. For now here is a valid source and link.

In 1994: Yahoo!, which stands for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle” is founded by two PhD students from Stanford, Jerry Yang and David Filo

Source of quote above

However getting back to the reality of my day job of the day, I was selected by one of my supervisors to serve on the community that would be developing our computer based job placement system. Naturally I was more familiar with Personal Computers (PC’s) so I had actually looked into some of the PC based systems of the time that were being used by executive search firms. As a matter of fact the relevant experience I had for the job was that I had worked at Vintage Personnel as a recruiter. So there was a really excellent program which helped you search through a list of qualified applicant.

Well, I had some great ideas, some of which were well received,  and then the old guard ( the company in charge of implementing this new computer system) chimed in about how they could not get the existing platform (mainframe) to possibly conduct any of the searches, or matches, which I was stating were essential for the system to function adequately. There was some accommodation made on the part of the company, by this one fellow in the MIS department who’s name I am only witholding at the moment for his benefit because he was a pretty sharp guy with a sense of humor who knew his stuff, and for all I know he still works there.

However, I somehow thought that writing some real long in depth memo about the whole project was in order. I am going to say here that I do recall that my supervisor was trying to either get me to sign off on the entire project, or was asking for my written recommendations prior to the final specification list being submitted to the 3rd party vendor that would be responsible for implementing the system.

Well thought out optimistic ideas that are clearly elucidated are good. Scathing memos targeting existing committee members, or 3rd party vendors and their shortcomings are bad.

There are important differences in operating within a corporate framework with ideas and how they may get implemented versus implementing ideas on an entrepreneurial level.  The great thing about an idea that gets developed by a company, is that people get to earn their hourly wages, or regular salary, while creating and implementing a plan that had already been approved. When somebody comes up with an idea, no matter how great that idea may be, there will always be some element of risk involved in putting that idea into action.

Additionally if the idea has any significant value to commerce or society as a whole there will always some element of cost to develop and implement the idea. Within the normal pursuit of investors  to cover the cost (as opposed to dipping into one’s own savings) comes the concept of thoroughly explaining the idea in all its detail to a second and third party lenders, investment bankers, brokers, or venture capitalists.

It is precisely at the stage of finding investors, where an idea (even if its time has come) gets exposed to its highest degree of stress. The reason is people who invest, want a high return on investment. Also it is in their best interests as an investor to know as much as possible about an idea, before they actually invest any amount of money,