risk-taking

A few weeks ago, I seriously considered buying a Kindle.  After much research on the web, I realized the task was futile.  I live in Europe at the moment, so the Whispernet function would be useless here.  As I am Canadian, with no US address nor credit card, purchasing the device and subsequent ebooks would be impossible.  On a desperate whim, I called up a cousin of mine in Massachusetts, and asked if I could use her card and address to order.  She told me there’s a backorder of those anyway, so why not wait till they get stock?

Then a few days ago, my boyfriend showed me an article from Fast Company that promised a newer and cooler Kindle that might be available worldwide this coming December.  So I abandoned my previous wild goose chase and decided to wait.

Which brings me to this.  The US economy is in disarray and worse news keep coming.  But  there is something to be said about the level of innovation that continuously springs out of the country regardless of the wider macro-economic picture.  Think of some of the best inventions and brands around that provide real value to people everywhere.  Most of them are proudly American creations. It might not be apparent to those of you living there, but for us outsiders, we always have to wait!  The latest services, tech toys, ideas, sometimes they take weeks, if not months, to flow out to the rest of the world.

It’s easy to condemn excessive greed, risk-taking and the resulting hubris at a dire and troubling time like this.  But we should not forget that without some degree of speculation, risk-taking, and ambition, we might not have, say, Amazon.  As a side note, I’m not championing the speculation of paper and inflatable “assets” that so many have resorted to in this crisis, but tangible products or services that provide real value.  Now, this is the very Amazon that some ridiculed for years on end, for not turning a profit.  Ten years ago, amidst our general lament over the disappearance of printed pages, which analyst could have possibly said, yep, Amazon the online book retailer is gonna make reading sexy again?  Read more...