Comments on: This is BS: The Knowledge Economy

By: Jason Seiden

Jason Seiden — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 23:17:22 +0000

@Ed & Wally–You two are consistently among my best critics. I know I’ve hit on something important when I hear from you–and I know I got it right when you agree. Thank you for the quote and commercial–two of my favorites.

By: Wally Bock

Wally Bock — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 23:06:28 +0000

Great post, Jason. You will (I think) love this quote from my favorite philosopher of science, Michael Ponalyi “We only truly know a thing when we can apply it to get results.”

By: Ed

Ed — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:33:07 +0000

“We don’t actually do what we propose. We just propose it.”

I believe this supports your totally valid position.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7M7A34b6Rw

By: Jason Seiden

Jason Seiden — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:07:25 +0000

@Mark—the “execution economy” has a nice ring to it.

btw, I do acknowledge entrepreneurial ideas—those infused with focused and sustained creative energy—as THE exception to the rule!

By: Mark Birch

Mark Birch — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:59:08 +0000

Ideas do have value. Some ideas seem to be good, gets lots of money, get implemented flawlessly by top notch teams, and fail spectacularly. Some ideas genuinely yield something of value down the road that validates that the idea was worthwhile.

As an entrepreneur, I cherish the ability to make something real and to build and idea into a business. The idea behind all of the action though needs to be solid, and some of that requires some upfront researching, analyzing and sythesizing to validate the idea. Both the idea and the end result are all part of what generates value.

I do understand your point though and agree that there is too much energy expended by the consulting industry on the analysis side. We have more than our fair share of knowledge. If this nation is to maintain its competitive advantage, we need turn more ideas into reality and develop a culture of innovation and building stuff. As it stands, the existing setup does not support this culture very well.

Therefore, maybe instead of calling it the “Knowledge Economy”, we need to move towards the “Execution Economy”. We need to be a nation that focuses on building things well.