Posts Tagged ‘Michael Steele’

Numberscruncher: Think Win-Win!

I hate corporate jargon at least as much as the next person, and “Think Win-Win!” is one of many good reasons to be self-employed. Still, it represents an interesting idea: how do we find solutions to problems that make everyone better off? To too many managers, the phrase means “I’m going to screw you but will try to convince you that you are now better off”, but that doesn’t mean it never happens.

Economics is the study of how to satisfy infinite wants with finite resources. Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist who died in 1923, was interested in exposing flaws in the Italian government. He found that about 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the people. Furthermore, he found that in almost every society, a small percentage of the people have the bulk of the wealth. The exact proportion could vary; in some places, 20% of the people held 80% of the wealth, and in some places, 5% of the people held 95% of it. Pareto developed equations to explain the phenomenon, which look scary (you can take a gander on the Wikipedia page.) The explanation is easier: every time you increase the amount of an item in a distribution, whether it be wealth, population, or catastrophic accidents, its frequency will decline by a set proportion. Hence, fewer people are wealthier than poor, fewer cities have large populations than small populations, expensive car accidents are less common than fender-benders. This is the genesis of the so-called “80-20 rule” that is almost as beloved by managers as “think win-win!”

Pareto then theorized that the problem with this distribution is that no one can be made better off without someone being worse off. That, he said, was why poverty is intractable. To improve the lot of the 80% of the people without wealth, those who have it would have to give some up, and they wouldn’t like that. Economists say that this type of distribution is “Pareto optimal”. It may not be optimal for society, of course, but hey, there is no free lunch. (Economists like to say that a lot, too.) (more…)

The Popdose Interview: Susanna Hoffs

Last Tuesday, to celebrate the release of Under the Covers, Vol. 2, the latest collaboration between Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs, we offered up the Popdose Interview with Mr. Sweet, wherein he responded to the questions of you, the Popdose readership. We also promised you that, come the following Tuesday, you’d get the chance to find out what his partner in crime had to say to your queries.

Well, my friends, the time has come.

Say hello to the doe-eyed mistress of the Rickenbacker, Ms. Susanna Hoffs:

Popdose: Well, I talked to Matthew the other day, and I don’t know if he told you or if you heard from the folks at Shout! Factory, but these will be exclusively reader questions.

Susanna Hoffs: Oh, that’s always fun!

Well, let’s get rolling, then! I’ll go ahead and start with the Sid ‘n’ Susie questions, and after that, we’ll head into the questions about your solo stuff and the Bangles.

Great!

* Was there a nugget that you both loved and wanted to record for the new album but didn’t because the song was just too obscure?

Let me think about that. (Hesitates) No, because I would have to say that we recorded things that we were just sort of intrigued with or loved in a certain way. Like, we recorded “Marquee Moon”! (Laughs) There are some bonus tracks that you’ll start to see materializing, but I’m not sure how they’re planning to release them. But we just sort of went with our hearts. We didn’t really question whether something was known or unknown.

I’ve heard “Marquee Moon,” thanks to Shout! Factory. Matthew had talked about it and really played it up, but it lives up to his claims.

Okay, great! So did Matthew answer the same questions, or are they all different questions?

Well, the ones that were addressed to both of you, I asked him and I’ll ask you as well, but you each have your own individual questions about your respective careers, too.

Oh, okay!

* Has there been a song that you really wanted to cover but that you couldn’t make work and therefore had to abandon?

Well, we recorded, like, close to 40 songs, and we recorded more than ended up on the first record as well. Sometimes we would take on something that was difficult, and we would surprise ourselves and go, “Wow, that worked!” Like, say, “I’ve Seen Good All People / Your Move,” by Yes. (Laughs) It’s a pretty difficult song to take on! And there were others that were good but, at the end of the day, it was just so difficult picking which songs should go on the record. It was kind of, in some ways, more about trying to find some kind of continuity, even though there isn’t any specific thread or theme to the songs. Somehow they just kind of went together. We recorded “More Than A Feeling,” which is a pretty daunting song to take on, and we recorded “Venus and Mars.” We recorded some pretty epic songs! (Laughs) But it was just a question of…I don’t know, it was just tough picking the songs. We were both dreading that moment. And at first, we thought we could put 20 songs on, but then we were told that that wasn’t going to work. We wanted to make a double record, but we ended up with 16 tracks. But it was fun. Everything we recorded, we enjoyed the process. It’s really been fun doing these cover records.

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