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20. Control, integrity and purpose do not lend themselves to financial metrics, yet their value is beyond measure.

21. New localized or web-based models for funding scientific research and development, software development, local enterprise networks, etc. are arising, along with independent, self-organized networks for sharing revenues, ideas and resources. If the status quo is no longer providing you with employment, then pursue these new models of research, development and hybrid work.

There are other work/skill points embedded in the principles: seek them out.

Investing, Speculation, Relative Value and Purchasing Power

Oftwominds.com readers often ask me for investment or real estate advice. I understand the motivation behind the question: we all want a straightforward answer as to how to protect our capital or make it grow in value.

I don't offer investment advice for a number of reasons, chiefly that I am not qualified but also for this reason: if I was any good at speculation, I'd be rich, and I'm not. I am not even average in this respect, so why add poor investment advice to the already long list of my faults and mistakes?

Nonetheless, I think I can offer a context—a step toward an integrated understanding--for protecting capital, investing and speculation.

When we speak of capital, assets, value, wealth and investing, we do not speak only of money.

In some respects, money is a very poor metric of value or wealth.

For instance, health is essentially invaluable, because once you've lost it then no amount of money can restore it. Yes, certain infectious diseases can be cured, certain illnesses fended off and certain cancerous growths removed or eradicated; but health is more than just the absence of disease: it is well-being, strength, alertness, endurance. Once these are lost (or squandered), then no amount of money can restore them. There is no "miracle pill" or surgery or treatment for the generalized loss of health, for the mind-body-spirit is too complex to be reduced to one causal chain.

If you look at a chart of the immune system--one of many complex systems--you will see a staggeringly complicated network of interactions, cascades and signals. As I have noted elsewhere, the entire "magic pill" concept is basically the model of fighting infectious diseases being misapplied to complex interactions. Yes, if a bacteria is the cause of a disease, then eradicating that bacteria will cure the disease.

But most illnesses are not caused by a single agent, and the interactions, influences, feedbacks and cascades which led to the illness are nuanced and difficult to understand. After all, many studies have shown belief in a specific treatment (the placebo effect) is as real as any medication. How do we quantify the placebo effect, or call it forth? It's not that simple.

Thus we can say that any "investment" you make in your own health will pay enormous "dividends."

The proper "investments" are well-known: reduce stress, eat a variety of real (unprocessed) foods and stay active/fit.

Given that health is essentially priceless, then the investment of time (activity) and care (growing and preparing real food) is perhaps the "best investment" we can make. Just as there is no wealth without energy, there is no wealth without health, either.

Once again we benefit from the Chinese proverb: When you're thirsty, it's too late to dig a well. Once health has been compromised, it's often too late to "fix" it. If you want to drink from the well of health, you have to dig it while you're healthy.

From this perspective, the obsession we have with our financial "wealth" is somewhat misplaced; we should start by "investing" in our health, skills and social capital.

I have addressed hedging and risk management, but there is more to say in terms of investment and speculation. Some investments are inherently riskier than others. That "obvious" statement is actually quite profound.

We might start by considering intrinsic (inherent) value.

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