Yo Jets911

I haven't posted for some time, as the discussions can become quite wearisome. Considering the moniker I chose for this forum, one could assume that I am responding to your proposition that "Hope can be an investment strategy". While I do remain hopeful, it was the line "...certain conditions must exist before even the most talernted leaders can lead change". In the arts, we refer to "necessary conditions" that must exist for a given artwork to "succeed" within a given environment. I have placed the word 'succeed' in quotation marke to indicate stipulative meaning, since there are many artists that measure success by critical acclaim rather than monetary gain. No doubt many of you are familiar with the four-quadrant matrix that describes the marketing outcome of a product in regard to critical acceptance vs monetary gain. Those quadrants are: Dog (Low critical acclaim and low monetary return), Problem Child (High critical acclaim, but low monetary return), Cash Cow (Low critical acclaim, but high monetary return) and Star (High critical acclaim AND high monetary return). Examples abound for all categories, although I don't think it is necessary to give examples of "Dogs". Problem Child examples can be found in film of course; and in the visual arts we can look to the academic system for many, many critically acclaimed artists that never sell anything. And speaking of the visual arts, an example of a 'Cash Cow' might be someone like Robert Bateman, who sells very well but has fairly low critical acclaim within academia and the media. And this brings us to "STAR". Sticking with the visual arts, two artists that came to maturity when all the necessary conditions lined up in almost perfect harmony, would be Jeff Koons (reported to be worth 500 million) and Damien Hirst (reported to be worth one billion).

Given the information on the benefits of POET, it seems to me that it will find itself solidly within the "Star" quadrant since it is esoteric enough for critical pundits and efficient enough to achieve maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense. The "necessary conditions" will of course be the limiting factor, but I believe they have already begun to be aligned.

Here's to a happy and prosperous New Year.

Mr. (Sir...groan) HAL