Workbook for Volume 1 – Part III – Section #6: The Experience of a “Foil in the Flow”
For new readers: Please read the “Pinned Post” at the top of this Substack’s Home Page, and titled Why Use Public Peer-Review to Write a Book? - “See for Yourself”.
For returning readers and subscribers: This post introduces the Revised Version for Volume 1 – Part III – Section #6: The Experience of a “Foil in the Flow”
Summary:
Volume 1 – Part III – Section #6: The Experience of a “Foil in the Flow” - This section presents a personal history of doing business like a “Foil in the Flow”. Looking back at the last 40+ years of work reveals critical features of business reality that always stood there, but seemed invisible at the time. The most critical feature was the implicit assumption of continued growth, and the need for frequent adaptations as a “Foil in the Flow” in order to keep growing. Tim Garrett points out that the last 50 years saw two-thirds of the world’s historical growth in energy consumption. No wonder did the last 40 years feel like working as foil in a roiling flow of energy. Growth, like flight, reflects a surplus of energy in the flow. Should growth in energy consumption continue, Garrett’s amazing statistical observation about the last 50 years will repeat for future generations. Should growth in energy consumption stop, the fate of future generations will not match the Boomers’ experience of continuous change, wealth, and innovation. Unlike the Internet’s bottom-up growth, could LLMs become a portend of top-down stagnation? As we examine the premises and assumptions that create “Willful Ignorance, Error & Deceit”, why should we believe that the size of the “High Potential Energy Reservoirs” on this planet, and beyond cannot exceed consumption growth for generations to come - all the way up to building up a “Dyson Sphere”? Who benefits when “Foils in the Flow” accept self-limiting premises?
Developing…
”CTRI by Francois Gadenne” writes a business book in three volumes, published serially on Substack for public peer-review. The book connects the dots of life-enhancing practices for the next generation, free of controlling algorithms, based on the lifetime experience of a retirement age entrepreneur, & continuously updated with insights from reading Wealth, Health, & Statistics research papers on behalf of large companies as the co-founder of CTRI.