interesting topic

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knabe

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Feb 7, 2007
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Hollister, CA
here's an interesting link (ignoring the fact that it's in the NY times)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/26/science/26tier.html?ex=1361682000&en=23c45d654083c631&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

i suffer from this, (telos, ring a bell?).  this is manifested in myself in what options i am trying to keep open in hopes of landing additional acreage.  for the short term, what i'll think i'll do is focus on landing semen i think is important in different areas i think may payoff, and move forward on a limited basis on the hoof.  progress is measured in moving, not accumulating options.

Xiang Yu was a Chinese general in the third century B.C. who took his troops across the Yangtze River into enemy territory and performed an experiment in decision making. He crushed his troops’ cooking pots and burned their ships.

He explained this was to focus them on moving forward — a motivational speech that was not appreciated by many of the soldiers watching their retreat option go up in flames. But General Xiang Yu would be vindicated, both on the battlefield and in the annals of social science research.
 

chambero

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Joined
Feb 12, 2007
Messages
3,207
Location
Texas
Sam Houston must've read Chinese because he used that principle at the Battle of San Jacinto when we beat the Mexicans under Santa Anna to win Texas Independence.  He burned the bridges behind his own Army so that they didn't have the option of retreat.

Just another variation of putting your full effort into something if its worth doing.  But how many of us really put everything we have into an endeavor? 
 
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