Race and Genes

I learned about how race is more of a societal concept than actual fact today. It's fascinating that race has absolutely no genetic basis. There is no single absolute way to distinguish one race from another. We are all incredibly scientifically similar. I read one fun fact that says that fruit flies have more genetic variation than humans. On top of that, looking at the genetic variation that does exist between people, about 85% of it is between individuals in local populations. Any given two people in one population are likely about as genetically diverse as two people in two different populations. Most variation in the genetics of people are caused by mutation.

Philanthropy

Today, as I said in class, I was reminded that there are a TON of problems that need to be addressed. Honestly, it's just overwhelming how much there is that needs to be done. In class, we discussed starvation, hunger, homelessness, education, disease, climate change, infrastructure, humanitarian efforts, military development, terrorism, and the spread of sports and music. There are plenty of areas of need that we did not even mention. If I were to be a philanthropist, I wouldn't know where to start. You would feel bad for ignoring other needy people.
My homework research brought to my attention that donating to the arts can be perceived as selfish. I read that Carnegie was often criticized for being a socialist because he gave back so much to education. If I had a lot of money, making the world a better place would be much harder than need be.

Thinking About Success

Luck, opportunity, skill, and hard work are all essential to economic success. If I were to rank them in order of importance, I would put them in the following order:

1. Hard Work
2. Skill
3. Opportunity
4. Luck

There is no form of success in the world that can be accomplished without hard work. No matter the level of skill one has or his or her circumstances, one cannot achieve his or her goals unless he or she is willing to put in the effort. Skilled individuals can become complacent; they will not advance if they are lazy. A genius like Thomas Edison would not have invented anything if he never tried.
Even if someone were to have the perfect opportunity to succeed, he or she needs both the proper work ethic and the skill to realize it is there and exploit it.
Finally, luck can be helpful, but one cannot rely on luck for success. It is necessary to work hard, rely on skill, and take advantage of all opportunities. One cannot expect any good fortune. It could be argued that luck is vital to areas like the stock market. Whoever takes that stance, though, cannot say that investors do not also need to work hard to investigate stocks, have talent and experience working with investments, and exploit the promising opportunities that they see. It is best to expect the worst and be prepared through other methods. In other words, one should make his own luck.

Exploring Business and the Clothing Industry

Today, I learned about the supply chain management of Zara, H&M, and Uniqlo. Before an hour ago, the only insight I could have given about these companies would be that I liked Zara better than H&M.

Apparently, I might like Zara because it's main goal is to stay right on top of trends. It is able to do this by restocking its stores as rapidly as twice a week. New clothes are available almost before customers even realize they're the new style, which is to their advantage.

Zara's "more basic T-shirts, sweaters, and the like" are ordered before the beginning of the season, but this only accounts for about half of its designs. The other half is produced in places closer to headquarters, Portugal, Turkey, or Morocco, as the trends come along. This would not have seemed particularly impressive to me before, but I read here that adapting to the sudden changes in the fashion industry is much less prevalent in most retail companies. Eighty percent of products are ordered in advance in a typical business model.

The other two companies compared to Zara are still successful, but make more long-term decisions.
I wonder how this will play out for them as the world continues to become more fast-paced.

Here is Zara's website. Its clothes look really cute.