"The universe is made of stories, not of atoms."
—Muriel Rukeyser
____________________________

Guest Post: AEI CLIENT KEITH ROBERTS ANCIENT VS MODERN BUSINESS


Most people who make investment decisions for themselves or for business probably have technical investment skills like the ability to read balance sheets or calculate net present values. But developing an investment strategy requires a broader perspective, such as the ability to distinguish between fundamental and incremental change.  Using that example, I would like to show how the history of ancient business can usefully contribute to such challenges.

My interest in ancient business did not begin as a quest for investment strategies.  As manager of a small manufacturing and distribution company, I was stomping around my office late one night, frustrated with our antiquated business practices.  I heard myself mutter, “this place is run like a Roman blacksmith shop!”  I stopped.  Did they even have any blacksmith shops in ancient Rome, I wondered?  How did they run, and what did they do?  In fact, how did business, to which billions of us now devote our working lives, even begin, and what are the important differences between ancient businesses like Roman blacksmith shops and the computerized, outsourced, internet-linked, machine-based businesses of today?  Such questions led to The Origins of Business, Money, and Markets.

Satisfying curiosity is fun, but knowledge of history has practical functions as well.  Often, the easiest way to understand complex phenomena like business is to watch their development unfurl over time.  The earliest phases of development often display its driving forces most clearly, thus constituting a relatively simple model of what may now be something of bewildering complexity.

In the back of my mind, then, I hoped that by learning about ancient business and what affected its standing and profitability, I might gain insight into investment strategies applicable today.  As a wise old man once said, if you want to know where the train is going, look at the tracks.
In modern life we face an endless succession of changes, many of which appear dramatic, or are claimed to be so.  Important investment and policy decisions turn on the question of just how fundamental a change may be.  For business, a fundamental change is one that disrupts existing practices in major ways, often hard to foresee.  A leading modern example would be the Industrial Revolution.  Incremental changes have consequences too, but that’s just life; they do not change the nature, role, or operations of business, and they have a more limited, more predictable impact.  Distinguishing between one type and the other is not easy, but has major investment implications.

While change came much more slowly to the ancient world than it does today, there are some interesting examples of the difference between fundamental and incremental change.  For instance, the coming of the Iron Age around 1000 BC, a development of immense political importance, would seem to have fundamentally changed business as well.  After all, the Iron Age led to gigantic empires in the Middle East—the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian—as it dramatically undercut the previous Bronze Age cost of tools, armor and weaponry.  A Bronze Age cooking tripod was worth three women or twelve oxen to Achilles, but iron tripods performing the same function cost a small fraction of that.

On closer observation, however, iron technology changed business very little.  Yes, blacksmiths came into their own, and yes, iron tools made farming more productive.  But the Iron Age did not noticeably improve the marginal role of business in the economies of the Middle East, change business practices, or lead to disruptive new industries.  Business played no different or larger role in the economies of the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Empires than it had in the Sumerian and Egyptian societies that were the first civilizations 2000 years earlier.

By contrast, the second great change—the invention of coinage—dramatically altered the role and practice of business in the Greek world.  Coins were invented late in the 7th century BC, when in order to pay Greek mercenaries the Anatolian kingdom of Lydia began minting pure gold coins in a size equal to a year’s pay.  As the Greeks learned of this innovation, they began issuing their own coins.  Over the course of the 6th century BC, these became smaller and more useful as a medium of exchange in their markets.  Coins vastly increased Greek purchasing power.

This revolutionized the nature and role of business.  As trade in coin replaced barter, economic exchanges became much more frequent, stimulating consumer demand.  With more trades in terms of money, prices became visible indicators of value, and provided instant information about supply and demand.  So useful were these money-based markets that they, and the traders and manufacturers who worked them, became central to many city-state economies and were considered defining features of Greek life.  The conquests of Alexander the Great and the Romans later made this nexus of business, money, and markets the dominant form of urban economy throughout the western world.

The difference between the impact on business of the Iron Age and of coinage cautions us to ignore the “shock and awe” of change as a general proposition, and focus on the practical details of exactly how the change might work in reality.

Consider now two of the most famous changes taking place currently: globalization and the computer revolution.  With the rapid growth of nations like China, India, and Brazil, plus the wonderfully written books of Thomas Friedman, globalization has attracted enormous attention.  It has certainly wreaked havoc with US and European labor markets, as many formerly well paid jobs have been shipped to low wage nations, and it has led both to a great new wave of business consolidation as firms have bulked up for international competition, and also to new competition as formerly protected national markets have opened up to firms and products from outside their borders.  It has also permitted a vast expansion of international investment, and with new players gaining advantage, provided many new investment opportunities.

Based on the example of the Iron Age, however, I would argue that despite its dramatic political and personal consequences, globalization does not represent a fundamental change for business. The expansion of supply chains, the addition or subtraction of competitors, the creation of new investment opportunities, even the internationalization of labor—these are all normal conditions of business life. Globalization has not produced radically new industries, altered the role of business in modern economies, or fundamentally changed the nature of business activity.  Its investment implications are by no means trivial, but they hardly point to dramatic innovations, a proliferation of new businesses, or changed perspectives on the business landscape.

By contrast, the computer revolution (really, the microprocessor revolution) that started in the 1960’s does indeed seem fundamental, comparable in scope and impact to the Industrial Revolution.  Only with computers could many scientific calculations even be made, leading to vital new industries like genomics and virtually the entire modern field of microbiology.  Computer-aided design and manufacturing permit products and tolerances never before possible.  Computers power virtually instantaneous communication and information capabilities that are transforming the modes of buying, selling, innovation, marketing, and business organization.

In finance, computers have greatly increased the trustworthiness of promises to repay, resulting in a vast expansion of purchasing power by way of credit.  Computers have reduced the risk creditors must bear by supporting an explosion in options and other hedging instruments.  Risk has also fallen because computers facilitate the creation of credit instrument portfolios whose risk is lower than that of the components.  By allowing “quants” to create complex structured finance vehicles that allocate credit risk to parties with different risk preferences, computers have greatly increased the supply of credit. Computers also crunch vast quantities of data to provide rapid and massive evaluations of consumer creditworthiness, making predictions of future repayment far more accurate.  In these and other ways, computers make it far more rational to provide credit to many more people and businesses than ever before: that is, to increase the purchasing power that fuels business activity.

In short, the computer revolution resembles the invention of coinage far more than it does the advent of the Iron Age.  As such, it offers vast and fertile possibilities for investment, and requires a much greater focus of attention than do the comparatively simple implications of globalization. That conclusion, I submit, is important for framing investment and even public policy strategies. I am sure that it could be reached without historical knowledge, but for me history has greatly clarified where the train tracks lead.

Story Merchant Client Kerry Valderama's Memories of a Hundred Made The Top 100 List For The Table Read My Screenplay Contest Sundance 2012




"MEMORIES OF A HUNDRED" 



 

The list will be broken down further into the 2 Grand Prize Winners, Top 10 Category Winners,
TOP 100 Overall and Honorable Mentions by Jan. 5th


Authoring and Writing Speaker Dr. Kenneth Atchity


Author and Writing Speaker Dr. Kenneth AtchityProducer/literary manager Dr. Ken Atchity (Yale Ph.D., former professor of comparative literature and Fulbright professor)-Author & Writing-author of fifteen books including A Writer’s Time: A Guide to the Creative Process from Vision through Revision, and Emmy-nominated producer of 30 films, spent his lifetime turning stories into books and films. Based in Los Angeles and New York, will travel anywhere in the world. His keynote speeches are known for their industry knowledge, practicality, classical allusions, and sheer inspiration for audiences seeking to advance and maintain their creativity.

ProfileDr. Atchity is a sought-after inspirational speaker, known for the practicality and positivism of his approach to storytellers. He has spoken at dozens of universities, corporations, and social and business groups, in the U.S. and Europe, in search of stories that will work in the commercial marketplaces of New York publishing and Hollywood film and television. An experienced writer and author of fifteen books, he has also produced thirty films for cinema and television and serves as an expert witness in intellectual property actions because of his wide knowledge of all aspects of the professional world of storytelling. Ken delivers hope, inspiration, and practical reality along with precise steps for overcoming the obstacles storytellers face en route to becoming published and produced.

Los Angeles
California
Writing Treatments That Sell
25
1500
Between 100-2500 Participants
30-60 minutes
Selling Your Story to the World: Inspirational and practical, description of today’s story marketplace and how to approach it for commercial success.
45-90 minutes
Writing Treatments that Sell; Options for Publishing Your Book; Turning Your Story into a Motion Picture; Hollywood Today; Publishing Today
Same as above, plus Planning Your Novel to be a Film; Maintaining the Creative Spark; Revolutionary Time Management for Creative People; How the Creative Mind Works; Producing for Hollywood; Finding an Agent
30-90 minutes
100 Mile Radius or more
Website Link

Guest Post: AEI CLIENT DENNIS PALUMBO'S COLUMN FOR PSYCHOLOGY TODAY


There's an old joke about a man working in the circus, whose job it was to follow behind the elephants, sweeping up their droppings. When asked why he doesn't find some other line of work, he replies, "What, and leave show business?"

What makes the joke funny, of course, is the truth behind it. Creative and talented people, having once tasted the nectar of Hollywood success, find it almost impossible to quit the field, even when the odds are stacked against them.

And nothing stacks the odds higher than committing the one unpardonable sin in Hollywood---getting older. As the late, great TV writer Larry Gelbart once said, "The only way to beat ageism in Hollywood is to die young."

I ought to know. I deal with issues like ageism in the entertainment industry---not to mention depression, creative "blocks," relationship crises and dozens of other concerns---every day in my therapy practice.

Who am I? I'm a former Hollywood screenwriter (My Favorite Year; Welcome Back, Kotter, etc.), now a licensed psychotherapist in private practice in Los Angeles. And though I've retired from film and TV, I still do some writing---articles, reviews, and, most recently, a new series of mystery novels.

But my full-time day job is my therapy practice. Given my background, I suppose it's no surprise that my patients are primarily writers, actors, and directors in the entertainment industry. They range from the famous and successful to the unknown and struggling. And after over 23 years of doing therapy in Hollywood, I can state one thing with complete confidence:
Doing therapy is the same everywhere. Except here, where it's different.

Which, by way of example, brings me back to ageism.

At 63, my patient Walter (not his real name, of course) has been directing episodic television for most of his adult life---except for the past five years, during which, despite Herculean efforts to get work, he's been unemployed. He also got divorced and lost his house, and had to move to a condo in Burbank.

At a recent session, Walter announced more bad news.

"My agent finally dumped me," he said quietly, without rancor.

"I'm sorry, Walter. I know you've been his client a long time."

"Twenty-one years. Lasted longer than my marriage. And the sex was better..." He managed a rueful smile. "Hey, I can't blame him. He busted his ass for me. But let's face it, nobody wants to see a gray-haired old fart like me on the set. Everybody there looks like my grandchildren."

As is often the case with patients in his situation, we talked about options. Walter agreed that he could probably teach, but that even teaching jobs were getting scarce and the money wasn't very good.

But the money wasn't really what bothered him. Right now, at 63, he felt he was a better director than at any time in his life. He knew his craft, he understood actors, he could keep his head in a crisis. But it seemed clear that nobody wanted to see a face much over 40 or 45 nowadays.

"I might as well pack it in," he said gloomily. "My life in this town is over."
"Your life isn't over, Walter." I said. "Neither is your career. Unless you're ready for it to be over."

"What does that mean?"

"It means you don't have to let other people decide what you can do. Or how to feel about what you can do."

"Hell, don't get all therapeutic on me now."

"I'm not. I'm being pragmatic. If you want to teach, go teach. But if you still love directing, go find something to direct. A play. A short film. You say you have a few bucks. Okay, then hire someone to write something. Or rent a small theater downtown and put something up on its feet."

"Forget it. I'm used to working for studios. Networks. Guys with parking spaces on the lot, who at least have to pay me for the privilege of pissing all over my work."

"And I know how much you'll miss that. But at least you'll be directing. If that's what you still want to do."

"Hell, it's what I am."

He sat back, stroking the edge of his trim, salt-and-pepper beard. Then he laughed. "Hey," he said, "remember that joke about the guy at the circus, cleaning up after the elephants?"
"One of my favorites."

"You think I'm that guy?"

"Walter, I think we're all that guy. These are the lives we lead, the things we do. If it's who we really are, all we can do is keep doing it. As a colleague of mine said once, about trying to achieve in any profession: Keep giving them you, until you is what they want."

He paused. "You know, Alvin Sergeant is in his 70's or 80's, and he wrote those first Spider-Man movies. Huge hits. For years, David Chase couldn't get arrested, and then he creates The Sopranos. Hell, John Huston directed his last picture in a wheelchair, sitting next to an oxygen tank."

"All true."

"I mean, maybe I'm just kiddin' myself, but..." He nodded toward the door. "There's gotta be at least one more elephant out there, right?"

I smiled. "I've never known a circus without one."


Story Merchant Client Lisa Cerasoli's Tribute to Nora Jo












Powerful video footage of Lisa's gram, Nora Jo, revealing what it really means to have Alzheimer disease. Music, "Cattails" by Kevin Macleod.

Lisa's short film 14 Days with Alzheimer's is based on the memoir As Nora Jo Fades Away.
The Television Academy has a special Greeting for you!



Click here to view the card


Authoring and Writing Speaker Dr. Kenneth Atchity


Author and Writing Speaker Dr. Kenneth AtchityProducer/literary manager Dr. Ken Atchity (Yale Ph.D., former professor of comparative literature and Fulbright professor)-Author & Writing-author of fifteen books including A Writer’s Time: A Guide to the Creative Process from Vision through Revision, and Emmy-nominated producer of 30 films, spent his lifetime turning stories into books and films. Based in Los Angeles and New York, will travel anywhere in the world. His keynote speeches are known for their industry knowledge, practicality, classical allusions, and sheer inspiration for audiences seeking to advance and maintain their creativity.

ProfileDr. Atchity is a sought-after inspirational speaker, known for the practicality and positivism of his approach to storytellers. He has spoken at dozens of universities, corporations, and social and business groups, in the U.S. and Europe, in search of stories that will work in the commercial marketplaces of New York publishing and Hollywood film and television. An experienced writer and author of fifteen books, he has also produced thirty films for cinema and television and serves as an expert witness in intellectual property actions because of his wide knowledge of all aspects of the professional world of storytelling. Ken delivers hope, inspiration, and practical reality along with precise steps for overcoming the obstacles storytellers face en route to becoming published and produced.

Los Angeles
California
Writing Treatments That Sell
25
1500
Between 100-2500 Participants
30-60 minutes
Selling Your Story to the World: Inspirational and practical, description of today’s story marketplace and how to approach it for commercial success.
45-90 minutes
Writing Treatments that Sell; Options for Publishing Your Book; Turning Your Story into a Motion Picture; Hollywood Today; Publishing Today
Same as above, plus Planning Your Novel to be a Film; Maintaining the Creative Spark; Revolutionary Time Management for Creative People; How the Creative Mind Works; Producing for Hollywood; Finding an Agent
30-90 minutes
100 Mile Radius or more
Website Link

The Heiligenstadt Testament ...


is a letter written by Ludwig van Beethoven to his brothers Carl and Johann at Heiligenstadt (today part of Vienna) on 6 October 1802.

It reflects his despair over his increasing deafness and his desire to overcome his physical and emotional ailments in order to complete his artistic destiny. Beethoven kept the document hidden among his private papers for the rest of his life, and probably never showed it to anyone. It was discovered in March 1827, after Beethoven's death, by Anton Schindler and Stephan von Breuming, who had it published the following October.

A curiosity of the document is that, while Carl's name appears in the appropriate places, blank spaces are left where Johann's name should appear (as in the upper right corner of the accompanying image). There have been numerous proposed explanations for this, ranging from Beethoven's uncertainty as to whether Johann's full name (Nikolaus Johann) should be used on this quasi-legal document, to his mixed feelings of attachment to his brothers, to transference of his lifelong hatred of the boys' alcoholic, abusive father (ten years dead in 1802), also named Johann.
Lockwood, Lewis (2003). Beethoven: The Music and the Life. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-32638-1.




THE HEILIGENSTADT TESTAMENT


For my brothers Carl and Johann Beethoven

Oh you men who think or say that I am malevolent, stubborn, or misanthropic, how greatly do you wrong me. You do not know the secret cause which makes me seem that way to you. From childhood on, my heart and soul have been full of the tender feeling of goodwill, and I was even inclined to accomplish great things. But, think that for six years now I have been hopelessly afflicted, made worse by senseless physicians, from year to year deceived with hopes of improvement, finally compelled to face the prospect of a lasting malady (whose cure will take years or, perhaps, be impossible).

Though born with a fiery, active temperament, even susceptible to the diversions of society, I was soon compelled to isolate myself, to live life alone. If at times I tried to forget all this, oh, how harshly was I flung back by the doubly sad experience of my bad hearing. Yet it was impossible for me to say to people, "Speak Louder, shout, for I am deaf". Oh, how could I possibly admit an infirmity in the one sense which ought to be more perfect in me than others, a sense which I once possessed in the hight̩st perfection, a perfection such as few in my profession enjoy or ever have enjoyed. РOh I cannot do it; therefore forgive me when you see me draw back when I would have gladly mingled with you.

My misfortune is doubly painful to me because I am bound to be misunderstood; for me there can be no relaxation with my fellow men, no refined conversations, no mutual exchange of ideas. I must live almost alone, like one who has been banished. I can mix with society only as much as true necessity demands. If I approach near to people a hot terror seizes upon me, and I fear being exposed to the danger that my condition might be noticed. Thus it has been during the last six months which I have spent in the country. By ordering me to spare my hearing as much as possible, my intelligent doctor almost fell in with my own present frame of mind, though sometimes I ran counter to it by yielding to my desire for companionship.

But what a humiliation for me when someone standing next to me heard a flute in the distance and I heard nothing, or someone standing next to me heard a shepherd singing and again I heard nothing. Such incidents drove me almost to despair; a little more of that and I would have ended my life. It was only my art that held me back. Oh, it seemed to me impossible to leave the world until I had forth all that I felt was within me. So I endured this wretched existence, truly wretched for so susceptible a body, which can be thrown by a sudden change from the best condition to the worst. Patience, they say, is what I must now choose for my guide, and I have done so - I hope my determination will remain firm to endure until it pleases the inexorable Parcae to break the thread. Perhaps I shall get better, perhaps not; I am ready. - Forced to become a philosopher already in my twenty-eight year, oh, it is not easy, and for the artist much more difficult than for anyone else. Divine One, thou seest my inmost soul thou knowest that therein dwells the love of mankind and the desire to do good. Oh, fellow men, when at some point you read this, consider then that you have done me injustice. Someone who has had misfortune may console himself to find a similar case to his, who despite all the limitations of Nature nevertheless did everything within his powers to become accepted among worthy artist and men.

ActorsE Chat with Story Merchant and Writing Coach Ken Atchity and Comic Host Brett Walkow












 





Ken Atchity with Brett Walkow 
ActorsE Chat is a Live Chat Show on Actors Entertainment, 
a site on the Actors Podcast Network, a Pepper Jay Production

Interview with Author and Therapist Story Merchant Client Dennis Palumbo by Breakfree to Success



Listen to internet radio with Breakfree to Success on Blog Talk Radio



Previously "BreakFree to Success"- the Doug Foresta Show is a self-help show for creative people. The show features extraordinary creative people sharing tips and inspiration for living a successful creative life.Doug Foresta is a radio host, speaker and consultant who helps creative people tap into their inner "spark" and fully express their creativity. The show features one-of-a-kind guest lineup- everyone from celebrities and and up and coming artists to CEO's, business leaders, and unique creative people from all over the world! For more information about the show and various guests, and to read Doug's reflections on the various shows and post your thoughts and comments, visit www.dougforesta.com

Story Merchant Client Lisa Cerasoli's "14 DAYS WITH ALZHEIMERS" is a 2011 NexTV Web Series & Indie Film Competition Semi-Finalist










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ActorsE Chat with Story Merchant and Writing Coach Ken Atchity and Comic Host Brett Walkow












 





Ken Atchity with Brett Walkow 
ActorsE Chat is a Live Chat Show on Actors Entertainment, 
a site on the Actors Podcast Network, a Pepper Jay Production

WILLIAMS DIEHL'S LAST NOVEL IS NOW AVAILABLE ON NOOK BOOK DEVICES AND APPS!



Seven Ways to Die [NOOK Book]



NOOK Book (eBook)
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Overview

From the Nez Perce Indian reservation in Idaho to New York’s Central Park is a straight line right through Bill Diehl’s last and most intriguing lead character, Micah Cody.

There are seven basic ways to die. In 1969 Dr. John C. Cavanaugh catalogued them all in his Primer of Forensic Pathology-Cast Studies for the Novice M.E.

Micah Cody is a 30-something NYPD captain of homicide, who’s founded a special unit known as TAZ with city-wide license to take over any investigation at all, with special focus on serial killers. Now its ultimate challenge is on the loose in Manhattan, with ...
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More About This Book




Overview

From the Nez Perce Indian reservation in Idaho to New York’s Central Park is a straight line right through Bill Diehl’s last and most intriguing lead character, Micah Cody.

There are seven basic ways to die. In 1969 Dr. John C. Cavanaugh catalogued them all in his Primer of Forensic Pathology-Cast Studies for the Novice M.E.

Micah Cody is a 30-something NYPD captain of homicide, who’s founded a special unit known as TAZ with city-wide license to take over any investigation at all, with special focus on serial killers. Now its ultimate challenge is on the loose in Manhattan, with three victims already whose causes of death seem like intentional defiance of TAZ’s existence—and four to go in four deadly days leading up to Halloween. Chronicling it all with great amusement is the Capote-like award-winning crime writer Ward Hamilton who, egged on by his sexually voracious socialite bedmate, is determined to bring TAZ to its knees journalistically.

Captain Micah Cody's Nez Perce name is “Youngest Wolf” from his ability to communicate with the animals and read nature's signs. As all hell is breaking loose in Manhattan, the wolves in Central Park howl, the peregrine falcons shriek their warnings—and Micah is listening.

Seven Ways to Die is a non-stop, sexy read with Diehl doing to the end what he did best throughout his bestselling career.




Product Details

  • BN ID: 2940013453814
  • Publisher: AEI Books
  • Publication date: 11/18/2011
  • Format: eBook
  • File size: 375 KB
  • Items ship to U.S, APO/FPO and U.S. Protectorate addresses.