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USA Today had an article on China that most Americans will find chilling. View the story here.

It is an Orwellian thought that, on many levels, seems to make sense.  That is, until you look at the dark side of how it could be used by government to control and punish those with whom it disagrees.  We Americans cherish these freedoms and call the approach an invasion of privacy.  And well we should.

Anyone in the power industry will see clear parallels as we embrace the smart grid and business analytics.  We have already seen some refuse to have these meters on their homes on that basis.  My wife Susan has spoken repeatedly on the fine line retailers and grocers face as they use your purchase behaviors and online browsing to position offers to you.  She uses the phrase “creepy or caring” to define that balance.

Now China drew a line in the sand that gets even more profound: Trust.  How much does the government trust you?  Well, given the bad behaviors on the part of some citizens, that seems to make some sense on the surface here in the US as well.  But, we cherish our invasion of privacy.

So, now that China has done this, what happens?  That question will be answered shortly as we watch them react, even more overtly and violently than the events in Tiananmen Square.  We all remember the picture of the citizen standing in the path of the tank.  This will also be a telling test of the new President of China.  It may make the protests here look like child’s play.

 

Can you imagine anyone standing in line for days to get a new utility device from the power company?

You must be shaking your head in disbelief that people line up to be first to get these phones … and paying full price for them as well.  There is something to be learned here, if we are willing to really think about it.

First of all, this is not the mainstream reaction.  It is that early adopter fringe we all know and love.  That represents 1 to 2% of the US population … still a big number, but not a large segment.

We in the energy utility sector are aware of this segment. They are the first to sign up for almost anything and everything we offer that is “techy” … but they are also hard to please, so we have a “love-hate” relationship with them.  That my friends is why we miss the key opportunity to learn from this segment because they give us great feedback.

So, we offer them smart grid data and they use it once or twice … what do we do?  We assume they want prettier graphs or alerts and alarms … we do that … they try that … then they bail out of the relationship.

What is wrong here?  We don’t listen.  We don’t study what they do like.

Please compare your reactions and pace of change with Amazon on the Echo’s capabilities.  If you are thinking about the future of digital engagement, stop thinking of your perspectives and consider what the Echo is offering.

You are competing against this type of thinking … and it is moving very quickly.

And, if you need to see what we are doing in response to this, check out the latest technology from Apogee demonstrated in this video.

 

You may have encountered this question in school in a philosophy or logic class.  The question went something like “If a tree falls in the woods, does it make a noise?”

The professor obviously wanted you to think clearly about the word “noise” and depending upon how you defined it, the correct answer to the question could be yes or no.

Well, in USA Today, the press clearly had no idea what they were saying with the headline:

“Space sounds are creepy. We have the audio to prove it.”  See for yourself. 

Anyone familiar with space knows that sound does not propagate.  Light does of course, but having no medium to transmit sound, space is completely silent even if a bomb went off right next to you.  You need molecules of some gas to propagate sound.  So, we have absolutely no idea what anything in space sounds like.

 

We Americans have become pretty jaded about accepting what we hear and read.  Most of us know there is more to the story, and even when the story makes us think things are going well, we worry there is more to it.

One of my recent blogs about the opioid epidemic in this country is a good case in point.  I ended my plea with a sarcastic quip about the fact that money tends to perpetuate wrongs if keeping the wrong is in the financial interests of most parties.  We just got more proof of that this week, via LinkedIn of all places:

Read: False Hope from War on Drugs to War on Cancer

The speed of information flow may be increasing, but the willingness to stop and do the right thing when we see something wrong seems to be on the decline.  Yes, we celebrate it when we see it, but more often than not, we seem prone to whitewash issues rather than dig deeper to learn and perhaps make wiser decisions.

The world is a complex place and issues are often much more complex than soundbites.  One of my good friends Ken Futch, author and professional speaker, does an excellent job of putting politically sensitive issues in perspective with his funny story about a politician facing reelection and being forced to answer the question of where he stood on the drinking.

Enjoy!

 

 

Maybe it’s just me, but I have always been told that most things happen out of fear and greed, and my experience in the electric utility industry is that more often than not, fear is the basis for most utility actions … perhaps rightfully so given how bad public opinion can hurt when you fail to live up to expectations.

So, it was a bit of a surprise to me that Wall Street monitors these in the markets as an index.  Read it for yourself.  Then, consider where this index is right now … up against the greed limit … it can’t get much higher.  I wonder if we could track the mood in the utility industry the same way?  I think we can certainly all agree it is not pegged against this limit by any stretch of the imagination.

What is the Fear & Greed Index?

Investors are driven by two emotions: fear and greed. Too much fear can sink stocks well below where they should be. When investors get greedy, they can bid up stock prices way too far.

So what emotion is driving the market now? CNN Money’s Fear & Greed index makes it clear.

We look at 7 indicators:

• Stock Price Momentum: The S&P 500 (SPX) versus its 125-day moving average
• Stock Price Strength: The number of stocks hitting 52-week highs and lows on the New York Stock Exchange
• Stock Price Breadth: The volume of shares trading in stocks on the rise versus those declining.
• Put and Call Options: The put/call ratio, which compares the trading volume of bullish call options relative to the trading volume of bearish put options
• Junk Bond Demand: The spread between yields on investment grade bonds and junk bonds
• Market Volatility: The VIX (VIX), which measures volatility
• Safe Haven Demand: The difference in returns for stocks versus Treasuries

 

For each indicator, we look at how far they’ve veered from their average relative to how far they normally veer. We look at each on a scale from 0 – 100. The higher the reading, the greedier investors are being, and 50 is neutral.

Then we put all the indicators together – equally weighted – for a final index reading.

When the S&P 500 (SPX) plummeted to a three-year low on Sept. 17, 2008 – the height of the financial crisis — the Fear and Greed index sank to 12. The index gained some ground to 28 before stocks finally bottomed out on March 9, 2009 and the latest bull market began.

Most recently, in the first quarter of 2012, stocks staged their best run in decades, and the index showed pure greed.