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People accept atrocious conditions, or simply stupidities without questioning. I’m not going to talk about giving around 50% of what you make in your salary to the government in taxes. Let’s keep that for another day. Let’s talk about “changing the hour” or the Daily Saving Time thing. When was the last time that you voted for such a change? Have you been every asked? People think that they live in democracies and have right to vote or at least have an opinion. Well… the idea of changing the hour is old. Very old. Benjamin Franklin, as soon as in 1784, suggested that people could save candles by getting up earlier in the summer. He said it as a joke. But then, a New Zealander, George Hudson, an entomologist, in 1895, suggested shifting clocks to gain more daylight in the evening so that he could have more daylight after work for collecting insects. Con dos cojones! Or “with two balls”... Things like this is why I love NZ… But well… reality is that Germany was “jodida” during WWI and thought that playing with the hours could be a good idea to save energy… the guys were starving. The allies did the same, because if Germany is doing it, of course, it must be good. After the ward, the measure was abandoned... until WWII, where leaders thought that if bullets are still effective to kill people, “changing the hour” must still be good for saving energy… After the war, everyone forgot the idea… too much trouble, no real benefits. But then, the energy crisis in the 70s made that the U.S. passed the Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act in 1973. Then, countries started to copy Uncle Sam, until today. Today, plenty of studies have shown that the savings in energy are negligible… although that’s not the case for the effect on the health of hundreds of millions of people around the world exposed to a change in habits that they didn’t ask for… We don’t work, eat, sleep or consume energy like 100 or 50 years ago… but here we are. Absurd conventions perpetuate themselves without questioning. Lazy leaders. Customs. Playing to be a sheep. Things that you do at your company… Ideas that you have in your mind about money, your career or your personal growth… Many are just conventions imposed by someone else that probably have more negative effects than good ones. Questioning why is a superpower. This one and many others are explained in the link below. ​Join my mentorship - Only $24.90 - LAUNCHING PRICE​ By the way... There is an AI machine that says that you may like what's below. PD 1: If you liked this email, don't keep it in secret and forward it to a friend. They will thank you enormously one day. PD 2: If somebody has sent you this email and you want to receive emails like this yourself, visit vicentevalencia.com PD 3: If you want unsubscribe, click the link below. |
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Accidents aside because of lack of maintenance and incompetent managers and politicians, Spain has made great things in high-speed trains. Let’s go back in time to the good times. 1988 The country decided to build a high-speed railway between Madrid and Sevilla… or Seville. 470 kilometres. New infrastructure. New technology. A country with no previous high-speed rail experience, but willing to become a top guy. By April 1992, passengers were travelling at 250 km/h. About three and a half...
You know... I just came back from China. And I have to admit something. I was impressed. Not by the skyscrapers. Not by the technology. Not even by the infrastructure… or the great toll systems (yes, I’m a geek for them). Although, to be fair, a country that added almost 2,900 km of high-speed railway in a single year deserves some credit. Some countries struggle to build 3 km of metro without a parliamentary inquiry, a budget revision and three changes of government. No. What impressed me...
As you know, I’ve been in China looking at things for our property business. Tiles. Kitchens. Bathrooms. Doors. Windows. A glamorous international adventure involving questions about hinges or how easy is to clean a toilet. Naturally, everything looks fantastic. That is rather the purpose of a showroom. Nobody puts the work-in-progress window under a spotlight. “Come in, sir. This one leaks.” And that got me thinking about infrastructure and construction sites. Project directors that had the...