Reflections on red/green in business

I am supposed to get ready for a nice dinner, and so have to write a blog post. But I am thinking about many things from earlier in the day. I do not have a “clear” slate, so today may be one of those days when I clear my cache by writing here.

I am thinking about a lot of things. Good news from friends. New learning opportunities. Gaining new skills.

Sadness and sickness too, probably. Haven’t been able to touch my guitar for a week. Haven’t seen a very good movie in a while. In Fabric (2018) was the last good one, a few weeks ago.

Lots of cool stuff that I can do and think about with more energy. But I don’t have the energy.

I have been thinking about what it means to be “red/green” and in business. The background here on this blog is green. I like green.

Red/green takes experience as very real. Green cares a lot about viability. Red cares a lot about taking opportunities in the moment. A business that makes me confused about what I am doing with my life is not very red.

I think this is one of the things that is confusing in our society. There are people who like working at big companies, or like working the same thing every day. They are not actually sheep. They actually feel like they are being themselves, and with other people.

There are various things that they care about, such as having a good team that they like, or not having to work over time. There are people who like getting drinks with people after work twice a week, or playing soccer with their corporate league once a month on a weekend.

If people really hated companies, there would be fewer companies and fewer people working for companies. People like working together.

Companies are often white/blue, or black/blue. Businesses based on something personal, like politics or art, can be black/red.

Green can be something like selling certain kinds of goods, that cost something to make, brings money back, and that can grow the business. Green/white or White/green can be very powerful.

If I am being Green/red, I should be able to make a stretch and think more about white, or think more about black, in the business sense. If I had to guess I am operating without blue, as that’s 2 hops away from red, and 2 hops away from green, aka the farthest away, I should probably make a strategy that partners with white, versus a strategy that partners with black. Black/red can be good if you know you want to be “all-in” on something and really understand the trade-offs. If I am not really sure, then potentially white can be good. Black and green can be natural conflictors in many ways. Red and white are conflictors too, but there are ways that I know about that white can be really nice to read, when white is healthy, and white and green are natural partners.

My eyes hurt already. Blogpost is done.

I think in the current economy, blue+black is a certain kind of superpower, that I don’t think I would be able to just beat with black, or really compete with well, with red/black, unless I really knew what I was doing. Even if I did know what I was doing, it wouldn’t be clear that it’s a better strategy. White meanwhile I already have ideas about what I would do a lot with.