17 years

Scientists could have shown, if they only had bothered, that an object that has lasted for 17 years is likely to last for ever. If you have had a car or a stereo for 17 years without problems, then it is likely that it never ever will break.

That's why you should never through away things you have owned for more than 17 years.

When I realised this some time ago (just after breakfast), I set up a scheme for my apartment. Every year in December, I go through all things I have owned for 15 to 16 years. The ones I have never used, I throw away. The ones I have used I also throw away, otherwise my apartment might fill up to the brink with useful quality articles. They may be good, but I value space more than things.

Searching in life is easier than on the net

One day I sat down to look for something on the world wide web. I opened my favourite search engine and for once went to the "Advanced Search" page.

To my surprise they had added the following parameters:

Sort by:

• Quality
• Intelligence
• Originality
• Truthfulness

Then I woke up of course.

Thicker is better

At the company where my sister works, there is a group of analysts with the task to estimate future trends. The manager of that group had a problem measuring the performance of his employees. How do you measure the quality of predictions?

The solution was simple: he uses the number of written pages. The more pages, the better the analyst.

The best in the group managed to produce 700 pages of estimations in one week. So far no one has managed to read more than the first half of the first page, because it is so boring and incomprehensible, but his manager has very good hope that they one day will be able to use the data for something.

Each has his own skills

The farmer does not blame the cow for not laying enough eggs.