Page 19 - Like No Business I Know

Chiropuncture

fifty biggest fads of the last fifty years. Then you can refine the
variables in those equations to make them fit the facts. The result: we
should be able to manufacture our own little success story, with
almost no chance of failure. What do you say? I say we do it and stop
griping.

mark@hotlink.com
11/13/96

Wow! I didn’t have a clue the program would be so complicated.
Meta-fads. Cyclical demographic shift. Transcultural media diffusion.
That’s why I cut you into this deal, buddy. You’ve got the talent and
I’ve got the looks. :)

Anyway, it seems like we’re making progress. Some of those linear
equations have to be run at night on the mainframe, so I will keep
submitting jobs under my administrative account number. I think we
can start refining the type of information going into the analysis—
your printout on the hula hoops, lava lamps and platform shoes
confirmed my suspicions about synthetic materials availability. I am
still a bit confused about the vaudeville components of televangelism
and discount warehouses: if this is a temporal constant, how do we
condition it from decade to decade? Maybe the professor made a
typo. He ought to get cracking. The competition never sleeps,
remember that.

mark@hotlink.com
11/29/96

Now I think we’re getting somewhere. Not quite right, but close.
The home dispenser of frozen yogurt injected with anti-oxidant
vitamins is good. But it doesn’t reach a large enough market. What
we need is to throw in more dimensions. Two or three isn’t enough.
Maybe new television series can be conflated from a couple of prior
successes, but our brainstorm has to combine more proven
ingredients than that. We don’t have the capital to fail and then try
again. If we juice up the formula, I know it will introduce factorial
processing increments—but so what if it brings the mainframe to its
knees at three a.m.? I’ll send you an updated list of trends and

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