Hey, Prius!

I performed a small social experiment today in the spirit of Larry David.  In an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, he decided to wave at random people driving the same type of car he was.  Today I did the same to see if same car owners do indeed share a special bond.

9:07 am …..  Passed a gold 2nd generation Prius doing highway speed.  I waved but the person driving was carrying on a conversation with the passenger and didn’t notice me.  However, a young person in a child seat in the back did wave back.  Nice.  Let’s call that 1 for 1.

1:02 pm …..  Pulled up along side a silver 2nd generation Prius at a stop light.  I smiled and waved and got no response from the middle age woman driving.  Very disappointing.  I made eye contact and everything.  1 for 2.

1:27pm …..  Passed a red 2nd generation Prius going the opposite direction at about 35 mph.  I waved frantically (knowing the encounter would be brief) but again got no response from the driver.  I know he saw me, but my heart wants to believe otherwise for fear of being broken.  1 for 3.

An experiment using only three subjects certainly doesn’t provide sufficient feedback to make a claim about its validity.  However, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t dissapointed with the results.  While the first encounter of the day ended with success (although I’m sure the kid didn’t know why he was waving) the rest of the day was upsetting to say the least. 

I expected the common cause of the Prius owner to offset peoples skeptical nature but was left wanting.  Tomorrow however is another day.

Buffett’s Black Magic

That’s the only explanation I can think of.  I’ve been reading the newest book about the gazillionaire investor titled “Snowball,” and the only thing I can figure is that at a young age, Warren met a strange figure at a crossroads somewhere near Omaha and exchanged his soul for the ability to make large sums of money.  Actually I kid, it becomes clear quite quickly that he did it/does it by following a couple simple rules.  The first is probably the most important;  he’s greedy when others are fearful, and he’s fearful when others are greedy.  Brilliant.  Combine that with the desire and ability to learn, down to the core, everything about a business before he invests in it, and you have a recipe for success.  It’s easy to come to the conclusion that he was born to invest money but with that natural ability came a great deal of hard work and sacrifice.  “Snowball,” if you have the means, (quoting Ferris Bueller) I highly recommend you pick it up.

A thought about thoughts…

I find myself, on occasion, stumbling upon a thought or idea that makes me stop and think to myself, ”boy, I should really write that down.”  This type of inspiration generally occurs at the wrong place and the wrong time so instead of writing it down, I generally forget (almost instantly) what it was, and get on with whatever it was I was doing to begin with.  This blog is my feeble attempt to harness those thoughts and ideas in one place.  I expect that hindsight will prove these random thoughts to be mostly useless but on the off chance that one actually has some type of real world application, here it will be, for all of us to laugh at together.