The Soul of Enterprise: Business in the Knowledge Economy

During this annual favorite Ron and Ed will look back on the good, the bad, and the ugly of 2023 including there favorite episodes, news events, pop-culture, business trends, and in memorium.

Waaay back in Episode 22, Ron and Ed detailed the ideas behind Joel Waldfogel's book, Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn’t Buy Presents for the Holidays. Waldfogel makes the case that the deadweight loss to the economy from gift giving, in 2007, totaled $12 billion, out of approximately $66.5 Billion spent (about 12%) and that we should all give cash rather than presents. In this episode, we will speak with Professor Tony Gill about his ideas around Rethinking Scroogencomics and some of his other writings.

For their last show of the 2023, Ron and Ed will clean out their stacks of (business and economic related) stuff. It promises to be a fast-paced conversation that will make it hard to listen on double speed. If you have anything to add, send your email to asktsoe@verasage.com or tag us on X using @asktsoe or #asktsoe.

This is Greg's fifth appearance with Ron and Ed. Some of them incognito. (We'll let you try to figure which is which.) The topics are not scripted, but we assure you jocularity will ensue.

This week Ron and Ed welcome Chelsea Follett to talk about her book, Centers of Progress: 40 Cities That Changed the World. From the book: Where does progress happen? The story of civilization is the story of the city. It is cities that have created and defined the modern world by acting as the sites of pivotal advances in culture, politics, science, technology, and more. There is no question that certain places, at certain times in history, have contributed disproportionately toward making the world a better place. This book tells the story of 40 of those places. In Centers of Progress: 40 Cities That Changed the World, Chelsea Follett examines a diverse group of cities, ranging from ancient Athens to Song-era Hangzhou.

The podcast delves into the growing trend of subscription-based models across industries, skepticism towards life becoming all subscription-based, implications on economic disparities and consumer experiences, strategic branding in market focus, promotions and sponsor advertisements, rise of gaming subscriptions, evolution of pricing strategies, and challenges in taxing subscription services.

Ron and Ed are delighted to welcome Steve Goreham to The Soul of Enterprise. He is the author of four books on climatism and green energy, and we will be discussing his most recent book: Green Breakdown: The Coming Renewable Energy Failure, published this year. We will dive into the physics and engineering issues involved in the transition to renewable energy, and why it won’t be as easy as a lot people claim. Join us for what will be an enlightening and informative discussion.

This week Ron and Ed will explore Goldratt's Rules of Flow by Efrat Goldratt-Ashlag, daughter of Daughter of Eliyahu M. Goldratt whose seminal work, The Goal has been read by millions. Interestingly enough, this topic was suggested by Ron who usually falls asleep when Ed gets rolling on project management topic, so you know this episode will be one to remember.

This week Ron and Ed will continue their conversation on Mark Andreessen's The Techo-Optimists Manifesto. In addition to finishing their analysis, they will talk through some responses that other have had to the document. In addition, Ron and Ed will be joined in the conversation by Greg Tirico of TSOE Bonus episode fame and knower-of-many-techno-things himself.

This week Ron and Ed travel to Miami to attend the Hector Garcia's Creative Business Models for Accountants Conference where they will share their thought about Day 1 of the conference live with the audience. Then they will take questions from the attendees in classic Ask Us Anything style.