Still no new license -- but draft text available

[Alex Martelli]

"John W. Stevens" <jstevens at basho.fc.hp.com> wrote in message
news:39996FC9.A4926C8 at basho.fc.hp.com...
> Alex Martelli wrote:
> >
> > From a theoretical POV, the answer to the latter question is (or
> > could be) "comparative advantage".  That's quite a different
> > economic concept from _competitive_ advantage (such as, say, a
> > trade secret or patent can convey) and was first introduced (or
> > at least analyzed, demonstrated and expounded) by economist
> > David Ricardo, a couple centuries ago, in the context of trade
> > between countries (http://www.systemics.com/docs/ricardo/david.html).
>
> [Great stuff snipped]
>
> Your reply illustrates your reply . . . rather recursive, actually.
>
> Leave economics to the economists.

That would be like leaving English to the Lit majors (foreign-languages
majors, in my case, I guess): a rather silly option.  As one needs to
communicate, there needs to be some direct mastery of the means --
delegating it all is just unfeasible (how would you communicate to
your delegate what he is to communicate of, if you could not yourself
communicate...?-).  As one needs to take decisions, there needs to be
some direct mastery of the tools -- delegating it all is just unfeasible
(how would you decide what to delegate, if you could not decide...?-).

The "practical man", the one he think he can leave economics to the
economists, is just the slave of some dead economist without even
knowing he is.  And the guy who wrote that was one of the greatest
economists of them all:-).


Alex