Cocktail

Mixed thoughts.

Ingredient 1. Recently I learned a fact that isn’t secret but hasn’t been publicized. Jeff Bezos wasn’t an orphan. His grandpa was the founder of ARPA, which started developing the web soon after its founding.

Ingredient 2. I’ve been writing this week about the old system of carrying on the family farm or business. When you follow your genes and start working from birth, you’re going to do a much better job. Meritocracy encourages us to depart from genes and start working at 20 or 30. Guaranteed to produce lots of misfits.

Shaken but not stirred: Jeffy definitely knew Grandpa. He certainly picked up the genes that make a man fit for spy work, and probably picked up the flavor and some verbal training. When Jeffy started his own business, he began with a bookstore as a front business. His goalpoint was to become Node Zero just like grandpa.