“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”
I recently visited Scotland and on a visit to a distillery they mentioned they bought land in the US to grow trees that will make their barrels one day. The trees take over 100 years to grow (if I remember correctly). How is it we can invest ~200 years into a glass of scotch, yet we aren’t willing to take the same care and long term thinking in most other areas.
Even without being around for 1,000 years, I’d think doing this would de-stress and de-risk. Somewhere along way it became a bad thing to have a good, stable, long-lasting business. The only thing that seems to matter now is growth, even if they means instability, stress, excessive risk, and a short stay.
Craftsmen care about what they make, pursuing excellence even if it may take generations. Businessmen care about robbing you now in the most efficient way.
There is also an element of tradition with scotch, which is something that can survive even the occasional craftsman who may not care as much about what they do, as long as they respect the traditions.
Humans don't live that long, and there's a constant onslaught of fleeting fancies, especially in business (Wikipedia foundation should buy some crypto for it's treasury!)
Tradition is simply brand value to be monetized for most businessmen (to add to your criticism). Just look at scotch whisky and multinational conglomerate acquisitions. They would never plant trees in America, they simply order giant vats used for the strongest PX Sherry to get maximum flavor per euro for their blending process.
Some ancient family dynasty Scotch distillery perilous existential
vulnerabilities:
[] Indifferent, spoiled rotten progeny seeking maximum return upon
inheritance, selling distillery to Seagram's for an immediate
gratification windfall fortune.
[] John Cooper VII, the last barrel maker, skill lost at retirement,
or Master Cooper VIIth lost savings to Mister Market, or an expensive
clandestine affair, extorts 16X per barrel.
[] Seagram's hires brilliant Bill Burr(Breaking Bad car wash business) to pose
as EPA agent, threatening federal lawsuit for illegal violation of
dumping distillery toxic runoff for past centuries, and/or white oak barrels
cause cancer and the distillery has killed victims for hundreds of
years.
[] A society grows fallow when old men plant trees whose shade they
know they shall never sit in, while the president's daughter
threatens to enforce federal white oak forest's toxic(false, but that's ok!)
leaching prosecution if landowners do not immediately purchase a
fortune of President altCoin.
In this painfully craven hostile world, Benedictine liqueur would seem to be more durable spirit than any Scotch.
While that is technically true I have always thought hn as a mere place to find interesting content. Of course many of us, me included, dream about finding someone who pays millions for our code. But the attitude towards businessmen is generally hostile here and for a good reason. They can't make things and they aren't even interested in making things, and overall they are more often than not just lame and boring. They are interested in making money, ripping people off, being leeches, extracting every possible penny they just can. Weird geeks are what the hacker culture is all about and politically correct c-suite suckers can go pound sand.
Scotch is aged in previously used Bourbon barrels from the US. Those Bourbon barrels are harvested from local forests (in Kentucky) which are very large and healthy. The probable reason they purchased land was for an investment or perhaps an alternate income stream or even for some sort of government tax break or credit. They may have told you it was to make barrels but it isn't at all likely that will ever happen. Good story though...
I recently visited Scotland and on a visit to a distillery they mentioned they bought land in the US to grow trees that will make their barrels one day. The trees take over 100 years to grow (if I remember correctly). How is it we can invest ~200 years into a glass of scotch, yet we aren’t willing to take the same care and long term thinking in most other areas.
Even without being around for 1,000 years, I’d think doing this would de-stress and de-risk. Somewhere along way it became a bad thing to have a good, stable, long-lasting business. The only thing that seems to matter now is growth, even if they means instability, stress, excessive risk, and a short stay.