X-Message-Number: 33014
Subject: Re: Gateway president
From: David Stodolsky <>
Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2010 11:19:44 +0100
References: <>

On 31 Oct 2010, at 10:00 AM, CryoNet wrote:

>> 
>> Also, if he were really going to live forever, making more money so that he
>> can live in luxury longer also makes sense.  But in actuality, those years
>> he keeps struggling as president are years he will not get back, during
>> which he could have been lounging on the beach or whatever.  His decision
>> reduces the amount of pleasurable, luxurious things he will get to enjoy
>> before he dies, rather than increasing them.
> 
> That's not necessarily true.  Dr. Gregory Clark has rather strong
> evidence that some people's of the world underwent selection as
> intense as that that turned wild foxes into tame ones.
> 
> As a result people *like* to work, and the ones from the selected
> cultures work much harder than our hunter gatherer ancestors did.  The
> obvious reason that Clark found in probate records is that for at
> least 20 generations (same as the tame foxes) people who became at
> least modestly well off produced the vast majority of descendants.
> 
>>> From an individual perspective, our instincts are wrong.  What needs to be
>> done so that our memories and thought patterns live on is very different
>> from what our instincts tell us.
> 
> "Instincts," or evolved psychological traits, were optimized by
> reproductive success in a world without birth control.  Genes are
> immortal or potentially so, from the gene's prospective, we are
> throwaways.  You are absolutely correct on this issue.


An incomplete analysis. 

>> I once asked the
>> president of Gateway Computer why he didn't just sell all his stock,
>> take the money, quit the company, and live the rest of his life in
>> luxury, never needing to work again. Apparently no one had ever asked
>> him this. He had had quick answers to all my other questions, but now
>> he just stared at me. He had no answer at all. Then he said--"But
>> we've only just started here!" gesturing at his office and the huge
>> factory beyond. 




"Work" is a modern concept and as such could not have served as a factor in the 
Early Environment of Adaptation (EEA), which is the overwhelming source of 
genetic determination in Man. Regardless of popular science nonsense, such as 
the "Selfish Gene," humans and most animals manifest a group survival instinct, 
as well as an individual survival instinct. In fact, in most evolving systems it
is possible to identify adaptations at the cellular, bodily, group, and 
ecosystem levels. 


What the Gateway Computer President is saying in the above quote, is that he 
considers Gateway to be his 'Group' and feels it is necessary to work for its 
success and survival. The reason that Dr. Clark's findings are limited to 
selected cultures is that these Cultures have made the connection, perhaps only 
implicitly, that 'work' is good for the success of the Group. So, the 
pre-existing group survival instinct is channelled into 'work' for the benefit 
of the Group.


Unfortunately, current marketing strategy, while recognizing the key role of the
group through fee reductions for family members, fails to take advantage of 
this fundamental human instinct. The key to marketing success is to form 
self-identifying groups or find pre-existing ones, and to target an appropriate 
suspension offer to the Group as an entity. 


dss


David Stodolsky
  Skype: davidstodolsky

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