The Meiji Restoration II Wednesday, Sep 26 2007

Time to return to the 19th Century and Japan. So without further ado, we proceed right to the Meiji Restoration.

 Emperor is Divine — Shoguns are no longer fine!

The Japanese people were a bit upset with their shogun for giving away their honour and refusing to die bravely before the foreign invader. Thus a movement began to oust the shogun, and restore power to the Emperor, who was going to teach these foreign powers a real lesson!

You would expect the shoguns to be a bit irritated and refuse to budge. But no, these shogun were smarter than that! They said, “OK. We admit it. We screwed up. Let us bow down to the emperor, and regard him as our rightful overlord”

Of course, things were not quite so straightforward as that. On November 9th 1867, Takigawa Yoshinobo, premier shogun dude resigned from his position and gave back his power to the emperor Meiji, the new emperor. Of course, Takigawa was no fool…He gave his power up voluntarily so that he could still wield it behind the scenes. He knew very well that the emperor would have to toe the Western line as well, and hence saw no real issues with retaining his privilege, at the cost of losing a tiny bit of face.

But what he did not reckon with was Saigō Takamori, and Kido Takayoshi, both of whom were big powerful dudes. They decided that enough was enough, and in January 1868, these two chaps led their armies against the former head shogun. In a series of battles, they pretty much ended the power of the Takogawa’s ending their 240 year long rule.

The Shinto Religion — High Priest Meiji

The Shinto religion was revived..mainly because it insisted that the emperor was a god. While Buddhism and Christianity were not persecuted, Shinto was well….encouraged. A consequence of this of course was the need for a high priest for the religion. In steps in young Meiji, who as resident descendent of God, acted as high priest. What a job, emperor, and priest too!

Of course, this led to a few problems. There are only this many hours in a day, and you can’t do both jobs perfectly. And since a high priest can’t delegate his duties, most of the governing duties got delegated to regents and advisers…who co-incidentally happened to be the chaps who got young Meiji his new power as well.

The Japanese way– Equality for all and LOOK West

 The restoration documents and ideas did not just talk about the emperor being a god. They had many provisions, but they basically boiled down to 5 major points.

1. Involvement of all classes in governence

2. Revocations of class restrictions in employment

3. Establishment of government based on provincial Assemblies

4. Replacement of “Arbitrary laws” with “laws of Nature”  (don’t ask me what that means!)

5) An international search for knowledge to strengthen imperial rule.

The last one is the key that ensured that the emperor would not go back to the isolationist Japan policy. Soon, foreign teachers in everything from Engineering to Ball-room dancing started turning up.

Change was in the air, and by jove, things were moving fast

Cliques and Concerns

The emperor was reduced to figurehead, while all authority now flowed from his advisers. While in theory, all men were equal before law, some were made more equal. The clique of advisers began the changes that would transform Japan forever. First and most laudably, they decided in 1871 to set up an education ministry, and in 1873 made 6 years of education compulsory. They also set up factories, railroads, telegraphs and all the other accoutrements of modern society. Of course, all this took up money, and the peasants and commoners were incredibly taxed, with taxes on everything from property to education fees.

At the same time, the factories were controlled by cliques and firms, which gained huge power and resources. Mitsubishi is an example of a firm that gained power then…and still retains a heck of a bit of it!

What about the Samurai? Takamori commits sepukku (of a sort)

In all this, we would be wise to wonder what happened to the traditional military arm of Japan- The Samurai. They were a privileged class, entitled to chop off the heads of all those that disrespected them. Suddenly, the new constitution stripped away most of their authority. For one thing…no more chopping heads off with the old family sword!

But this was only the beginning. Soon, the emperor ruled that carrying of swords by non-army members was illegal. So your basic samurai could not even carry his sword around any more. As a sweetener, the government promised to pay Samurai a fixed pension.

Most samurai saw the giving up of a sword for a pension as a no brainer. Money in the bank was the general consensus. But the government was not completely dumb. Consider that there were 1.9 million Samurai, which is a whole lot of people with pensions. Soon, the government said, “forget the monthly pensions, we will offer you a one time settlement, and the settlement will be in government bonds!”

At the same time, conscription became the norm, and every male was supposed to serve in the military. From being a privileged militay class, the Samurai were now the average Joe Nakamura on the street.

Of course, this was not exactly appreciated by the Samurai. Chief amongst them was Saigō Takamori, who had led the original change over. He was fine with reforms, but gradually as he felt his own samurai powers disappear, he rebelled. In 1877, he led a rebellion where 25000 Samurai tried to hold on to the past.

Against 300000 Japanese troops, now armed with the latest American guns and tactics, he did not stand a chance. His rebellion was crushed, and perhaps most gallingly, the Japanese army was mainly composed of former Samurai who chose the winning side! Poor Takamori got one of his lieutenants to chop his head off rather than be captured and “apologize” to the emperor.

There were other samurai rebellions…but they were half hearted things, after seeing the fate of the most powerful of the, most decided that discretion was the better part of valour.

But Takamori’s death was not completely in vain. The cost of raising the army to defeat him almost beggared the  government. Land prices crashed, inflation set in, and the government was forced to lower taxes in order to stay in power.

Calls began to grow for greater representation as well. It was all very good to proclaim all men were equal, but those provincial assemblies promised in the agreement were not really up to scratch. The Satsuma rebellion led to the protests on the style of governance and the drawing up of the constitution in 1889.

The Japanese Constitution — Prussia revisited.

The Japanese looked at various options. The Americans were first looked at, and hastily abandoned by the Japanese for being “too liberal”. The British system was claimed to be too unwieldy and made the emperor too much of a rubber stamp. Finally, the writers settled upon the Prussian way, which seemed to emphasise structure, while retaining the emperor at the top of the pecking order. The posts of chancellor, and ministers for left and right (no clue whose left and right) were abolished, and a privy council took its place. In addition, there was a Council for War, which had extraordinary powers, and reported directly to the emperor, bypassing almost all protocol.

This constitution had many weaknesses, and was regarded by many observers as one of the reasons for Japan’s extraordinary military aggression till the second world war

Japan — World Power

Emboldened by its constitution, and technology, the Japanese began to wage a series of battles to prove their world power status. Korea and Taiwan soon fell. And China practically became a protectorate of Japan before Western powers wised up and ganged on Japan to give way and let the others have their share as well.

Russia was the worst, making Japan give up a key claim to north China, and then invading it themselves! The Japanese were a bit ticked off by this underhand tactic, and handed the Russians a real whipping1904, which led to Japan controlling vast swathes of frozen Northern Asia.

At its heart, the military expansion of Japan was its desire to make up for lost time and claim its place on the world stage. Well…it finally would, but that would be far later, and to disastrous consequences.

Conclusion

In 1912, emperor Meiji went back to his ancestors, and the era officially ended. But it was one heck of an era. In five decades, Japan was transformed from an agrarian and backward state into a world power. Even today, the speed of transformation and the scale are unprecedented. The cost–Japanese culture changed from wildly xenophobic to wildly xenophilic. Western values were embraced, frequently at the cost of Japanese values, and an era was lost forever. The Samurai vanished, to reappear only in poetry and song. But a new World Power had arisen, and the world would never be the same again.

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Japanese History — The Meiji Restoration I Monday, Sep 24 2007

Yesterday, I spent about 6 hours watching Rurouni Kenshin (Kenshin the wanderer). It is a Japanese Anime set in the Meiji Era…of which I knew Zip. So this morning, a quick visit to Wikipedia, and some refreshing of my memory bank with Glimpses of World History (still my favourite history text) got me to the topic of this post.

Historical Context– Castaway and St. Francis

In 1542, a bunch of Portuguese Sailors were trying to get a good deal in China for a bunch of skins they were selling. In trying to make some extra speed, they decided to dice with the monsoon winds. They bet wrong, and their ship broke up in Japan, and left these hapless fellows stuck here.

Once the Portuguese knew that Japan was an inhabited island rather than just another rock, the missionaries jumped in. And not just any missionary. We are talking about the heaviest of the heavy guns. St. Francis Xavier, who previously was well known as converting more men (and women) than any 10 others before him (barring St. Paul) decided that this represented a true test of his calling. I have to say, the Portuguese colonists were not entire devastated to see him go. He had been making nasty cracks about them taking 3 or 4 wives, and he was making some very uncomfortable statements about the Inquisition, and the Portuguese wanted to see the back of him before he started boiling the oil, and getting the rack readied.

Now, you would ask…how the heck would our young Francis do any preaching? Does he know Japanese. He did not, but that never stopped a true missionary. Off he went, grabbing a local samurai on the run, and got him to translate a bit of the catechism. Conning…err Converting the local leadership was a piece of cake for an experienced man like Francis, and he soon started preaching all over the place, and more missionaries started joining the party.

A few years later, the Ruling Japanese guys got irritated with the missionaries telling them to lay off the drinking and attending mass every 7 days, so chucked the whole lot out. In fact, they were so irritated with the whole process that they said, “Bugger this whole outside world rot. I would rather sit at home.” So visitors were now encouraged to vanish…else they would be disappeared.

Commodore Perry– Japan opens up..but not by choice

From the early 1600’s to the middle of the 18th Century, only the Dutch were allowed to trade with Japanese…and even that in a tightly regulated manner. One speculates that the Dutch were let by only because they were slightly less rigid than the Portuguese about the whole “sinner shall be burnt at the stake” issue.

But in the mid 1840’s the US of A began to look towards the Pacific Nation. China had already been taken by Britain, and Japan was the only really virgin market left for expansion. (The Dutch did not count because they were only Tulip fanatics…and everyone knows Tulips are silly). A few merchants wandered up to Japan, only to be met with swords and axes.

In 1852, the Americans decided enough was enough. In wandered Commodore Perry of the US Navy, who had the latest in War Technology in the form of a steam boat with more guns than could be counted, and he insisted that he be berthed. The Japs had no choice now. Either they looked polite, saved some face and let Perry in…or they fought him, be beaten up, and still have Perry in.

Finally they did let him in, but Mr. Perry wanted more. He also wanted a trade treaty. And here, the Japanese showed their amazing skills at Bureaucracy. They fobbed him off with minor official after minor official. He finally lost his patience…delivered a letter and said he would return in a year. But he did leave with a final warning…”When I come back, I will return with more than just one ship!”

The Japanese were now in a bit of a quandary. National Pride meant that what they wanted to do was wave their swords about and scream defiance. However, they knew that their cities were coastal towns…and Commodore Perry would only have to open up for a couple of hours before their domain would be one big smoking ruin.

The Shogun who ruled Japan were not sure what to do. But one of the chief Shoguns, Abe Masahiro knew that trying to take on the Americans directly would only lead to humiliation bullied his way to signing a treaty which was fundamentally a surrender. But he did not stop with America. He continued to sign treaties with other European powers, even the English! This led to a lot of heartburn within the Shogun…but the die was cast. Japan was now open.

Signing the Treaty: Drunk as Skunks!

The signing of the treaty opened the Japanese Eyes (At least some of them). They saw the wonders of modern technology with model steam engines and stuff. But champagne was the real deal maker for them. I guess after 3 centuries of drinking sake, they would have settled for anything.

So the treaty signing with the Americans was more like a fair than anything else, what with toy steam engines and drunk Japanese officials busy making honking noises as they barrelled along the rails!

But the Japanese were not so drunk as to be totally stupid. They also got deals to make a Morse Telegraph system set up, and modern technology working. Factions of the Japanese wanted to open up the Japanese economy. These were led by the Samurai, the warriors of the Japanese society, who saw the benifits that cannon and guns could get them. The Shoguns did not quite like this, and as the real powers of the country, their word was law.

But times were changing, and soon the samurai began to fret. They figured that the Shoguns had their time, and went to the history books to check whether the shoguns really deserved their power. And amazingly, they found that the real power was supposed to be held by the emperor, with whom lay the power to tell the Shogun to go to hell! But the emperor was just a figurehead at this time.

It was time to restore power to the emperor. The Meiji restoration was about to begin.

Stay tuned for Part II. I promise it will happen…eventually!

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How about a different view? Friday, Sep 21 2007

I’ve had it with the blasted rhetoric of the Neo Cons. After reading a few comments made by the “administration” in the US, I think its time I tried writing a news article that points out some of the fallacies of the news media at large. So here goes

“Today, the Christian Fundementalist leader of the United States of America, George W Bush brought the world a bit closer to war with his latest saber rattling statement about Iran and its reported non-compliance with UN Resolutions.

In a related story, the concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay was declared illegal by the US Supreme Court, which resulted in a new executive order that restricted jurisdiction of this court to matters only in the continental United states.

Mr. Bush has also rejected calls that he be put on trial for Mass murder saying that, “In war, people die”. In spite of a minimum casualty figure of 80,000 at Iraq, he has yet to find a single so called WMD that he claimed Saddam Hussein was capable of deploying in 45 minutes.

Several World leaders have also called for the United States’ own nuclear facilities to be open for inspection, which has thus far been rejected by the far right regime in the interests of national security. Rumours of economic sanctions have flown, but the US Vice President, the hawkish right wing conservative businessman Dick Cheney has insisted that “The world needs US consumption too much to invade the USA”.

Well..that was that for this edition of the world through non Fox news eyes. I find it rather irritating that it is OK to always preface Iranian president with “Conservative Muslim” or maybe “Radical Shia Cleric” before you introduce an article but its not OK to use the same standard to call the US President “The Right wing Christian Conservative”. Heck…fair is fair after all.

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Interest Rates — Oil Prices and Software Firms! Wednesday, Sep 19 2007

The recent decision by the US Fed to drop interest rates down to 4.75% seems to indicate that the economic heads think the Housing problems in the US are far from over. But I am no expert on housing markets in the US so will leave that for others.

Now 0.5% change does not sound like too much. But that is one of the problems of the absolute scale. Consider that 0.5% chopped off from 5.25% is an almost 10% drop in price. Essentially you could say that the variable rate loan you take is now 10% cheaper. This is what has everyone convinced that this is a very big deal for the US Markets.

But my point is not about proportions and percentages. I am going to be talking about the impact this drop in rates is going to have on Inflation. Now, the theory is ridiculously simple. Even George W Bush would be able to explain it. Interest Rates Go down –> Inflation goes up. I have explained the reasons for it in a previous post, but will put them out again. Simply put, people have less incentive to save, so will draw money out of banks to spend. More money in the system means that the value of money drops, which means that things get more expensive…hence Inflation.

Exchange Rates–The weakening Dollar

But Unites States of America is a slightly more complicated story. Here we have a double- whammy lined up. First is of course the impact of people having more money in their pocket to spend. This will raise inflation. But the hidden danger is coming up. With the lower interest rates offered, the American Dollar has just lost some value. Bond yields will drop, which mean that people will be less interested in buying dollars. This means that the value of the dollar with respect to other currencies drops.

The Consequence — Even Higher Oil and commodity prices.

Oil prices are already at all time highs at $80 dollars a barrel as of September 17th 2007. The lower value of the US dollar will mean that the Arab Sheikhs would need even more dollars to buy their LearJets and Ferrari’s. Hence the price of oil, and commodities that are benchmarked by the dollar (almost every commodity) is therefore going to go up by approximately the same amount that the dollar will weaken.

How Much will prices go up by?

Of course, the amount prices will go up is not going to be directly related only to the weakening of the US Dollar. It is also dependent on the elasticity of demand…which I will try to explain simply. Elasticity for a commodity is how price sensitive it is. for example, if intel increases its processor prices by 50% and AMD did not do so, Intel would find that its sales would collapse because people would switch to AMD. But there is no such problem for Oil. Whether the prices go up by 5% or 20%, the consumption is not going to change much because there is no real substitute available. So we can expect the prices for Oil to shoot up by an equivalent amount. Is this 10% or more….probably not. $88 dollars is a lot. But you cannot discount that the price might well be going in that direction. The same of course goes for all other commodities…in varying degrees.

Software Firms: What about them?

For Indian software firms, things are lousy. The RBI seems to be more hands off about the Rupee, and a 0.5% drop in interest rates in the US might well see the Indian Rupee appreciate.  And the appreciation might not be as low as 0.5%. Luckily for India, Inflation is down from a few months ago, so interest rates may not rise immediately…but the increased oil and commodity price increases that are likely to occur worldwide will certainly put pressure on Indian Inflation rates. So we might be faced with a situation where the RBI might actually raise rates again in India (not immediately, thankfully), which would raise the value of the Indian rupee further. This would mean that the exchange rate differential that Software firms survive on is going to be slashed. There is still some headroom available, but it looks as if the Software Industry’s margins and spectacular growth may well be under significant pressure.

 Impact for the US

So what does this mean for the US. Obviously, they believe that in the short term, its better to have higher inflation than to confront a possible recession due to lowered spending from American customers. The Policy makers are operating under the impression that even though the dollar yields will drop, people will still have demand for US Treasury bonds and this will prevent the dollar from completely collapsing. So far, China has been busy buying up dollars that ensure that demand is going to be met. They are now beginning to invest this money in the US Equity markets, which is going to make things….interesting. Keep watching this space.

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Terry Pratchett still rules, And Robert Jordan is Dead Tuesday, Sep 18 2007

I finished THUD! last night…what a staggeringly good book Pratchett has written. Sam Vimes and the watch books rock!

But some sad news too. Robert Jordan, the author of Wheel of Time succumbed after illness on 16th of September. He leaves his great work unfinished (though someone is bound to write the ending of that one). It will be a shame, for although his last books were not overwhelming, the skill of the first few books of the series is there for all to see.

Am now reading Heinlein, a SF author I have somehow managed to miss during my SF years. He is good…though different from Asimov (who still remains my favourite by  a very long way)

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I Love Bengalooru! Monday, Sep 17 2007

I have to admit it….I do! Went to Blossom’s yesterday and finally had to drag myself out of there! Bought me some Terry Pratchett. Heinlein. Asimov. some others as well. Ah! E-Books are fine…but there is nothing like the real thing!

The feel of Paper…the smell of a good book…everything is different…and better! Well…enough said. Time for me to continue reading.

(skips away to my books…only my big bulk preventing me from trying to click my heels together!)

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Ganeshji — Forest Deity to Forest Cutey Friday, Sep 14 2007

Tomorrow marks Ganesh Chaturthi, a rather big day in the Indian festival season. To Indians, the elephant headed god needs little introduction. His face and features make him the most well known and recognizable deity in a rather crowded pantheon.

My mother insists that I do 108 rounds around the local Ganesh Temple whenever I lose something. No matter how much I claim its statistical in nature, I have to admit that I generally recover said item once I do the 108 (More likely it was because my mother began to search more seriously once finished my duty!).

So, on the eve of Ganesh Chaturthi, lets look at the evolution of the cutest Indian god. Was he always the cute chubby kid of Indian mythology?

Not really…in fact, from the original mythos of Ganapathi, he is hardly a simple god. With the tusk of an elephant and a reputation that he had to be propitiated before any action could be taken, he was the original extortionist. Pay me…or else! And if you were a tribal chap with only a wooden stick for a weapon, a 9 foot tall 10 tonne elephant is NOT cute and cuddly. Big and dangerous is more appropriate.

However, as the ages passed, he seems to have ameliorated his bad attitude. Soon from just another forest god, he was roped into the Indian Mythological Pantheon. Legend has it that he was created by the goddess Parvati as her guardian of privacy. I guess he was the first firewall ever made then. Unfortunately, her husband Shiva could have then been thought of as the first hacker, because annoyed by some random kid who prevented him from meeting his wife, he hacked the boys head off. Of course, this cheesed off Parvati, who promised divine retribution to her erring husband. A chastened Shiva ran out, and got the head of the first animal he found…which happened to be an elephant, and thus the ganapathi whom we know and love came to being.

Of course in Hinduism, there are 10 stories for everything. And the one that I heard about Ganapati was rather different. In that story, there was a god Shani who said that looking at the baby was bad for the baby’s health. Parvati told him that it was a pile of Balderash and insisted that Shani take a look at her pride and joy. Unfortunately, Shani was right, and the kids head came off as soon as he looked at it. Thankfully for all concerned, Vishnu (the third of the trinity for the unenlightened) managed to get a spare head that he was hiding and replaced it with no one complaining too much. (Except perhaps for the elephant donated the head)

Ganeshji is portrayed as being the custodian of knowledge and the arts….Its hard seeing a fat chap like him dance…but then, there must be some perks to being a god! He is also known as a fast typist and wrote down the Mahabharatha for Ved Vyasa when the chap needed a chap who could type at 120 words per minute.

Today Ganeshji is a far cry from the forest deity of 5000 years ago. He is the darling of the masses, and if he were trademarked, his image would fetch great royalty revenues for the companies that use his image. Everybody likes this cute god who rides a mouse rather than a lion, and who always removes obstacles from the truly devoted.

Is Ganeshji Married? Depends on which side of the Vindhyas you were born on. I always thought that he was the original bachelor boy. But it turns out he has two wives, who are represented by knowledge and discrimination. But down south the whole knowledge and discrimination thing are taken as a metaphor rather than real living supermodels. So I guess the question is yet to be satisfactorily answered.

There are more myths than I can count, and besides I am running out of space and time on this post, so I will leave it here.

Postscript:

Apparently, if you eat only dried fruits and other such stuff on the day prior to Ganesh Chaturthi you are guaranteed a good husband (Thanks Deepti for this info). I guess that finding a good wife is harder, so all us bachelor boys…no such luck. I guess we have to do the old trial and error routine.

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Food and poetry Friday, Sep 14 2007

The one topic I can be poetic about is certainly food….so here is a poem about it!

Food for thought

Some may talk of chicken soup, And salivate over an Onion ring But give me my Sweet Corn soup And hear me as I start to sing.

 

Then you move on to salads and fruit

Nibbling gingerly as you converse of mergers and ships

But me, you may call me a brute

For i like my food cooked and love my potato chips

The next course could be pasta in tomato sauce Perhaps along with some fresh veggies to go I shall move on with barely a pause Heading only for the oily deep fried row

Finally we move on to dessert as it gets set both grabbing pieces as fast as we can get For no one can resist dark chocolate!

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Social Functions Thursday, Sep 13 2007

Yesterday, I attended my first marriage in some time where I did not really know any of the major participants (i.e: Bride or groom). And most of the participants and audience were also candidates whom I did not know very well. It was especially odd to be asked by chap my age…”do you remember me?” Of course I did not, which then made it even more uncomfortable. Thankfully they only think that I am a forgetful studious type rather than an unmannered and arrogant boor.

But there are a lot of things I learnt about marriages. This one was a sort of eye opener, with crackers, an open top ride on the crowded (and hot) streets of Chennai for the groom and tonnes of food, served all through the day for anyone who considered themselves in need of nourishment.

Though I think what will stay with me is the Nadaswaram player. First a brief intro about the nadaswaram. Its a south Indian wind instrument. Think of a clarinet, and then make it about 3 feet longer. That is a nadaswaram. Fiendishly difficult to play, most players sound like they are on the verge of a seizure, and you would wish they would just keel over and be done with this. But the two players I heard were in a different league altogether. Very talented they were, and most of the ceremony time was devoted by me listening to those virtuosos plying their trade.

In between, as a lighter moment, they decided to play a dance number on the nadaswaram. And blow me down, it sounded exactly like waltz music for a western audience. Sure, the instrument tune and the pitch were different, but the rhythm and the beat were perfect, and the combination of Indian instruments and style and western rhythm was sheer magic. I later found out that the piece was written by a chap named Madurai Mani Iyer (MMI) as one of the preliminary examples of fusion music. Now, I have listened to a bit of the guy (his pure Carnatic stuff), and I stood in awe of his voice and training. Now I have to stand up and applaud all over again for his composing skills. One of the pieces of music that goes into my favourite list (once I find the name of the actual piece!).

So well, after meeting more relatives than I believed could be possible, I am now sitting in my room listening to music, and wondering about this whole jamboree…in all of the fireworks and backslapping of relatives, what was the actual attention paid to the stars of the show…the bride and the groom. From me…not much. I think I could recognize them in the next week…but I would not place a bet on it, whatever odds you gave me!

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Fail Early — It costs less! Monday, Sep 10 2007

A quick one, because I have tonnes of work to do today! I was reading about perfectionism and products with great features, and looks and everything else. (Specifically, the Apple line….all of which are rather good).

But I had a contrary view put to me by another blog…and its a good one. Basically, it says, release early. That way, you know if your product is a hit…or whether its going to bomb. If its a hit, you will get tonnes of angry e-mails/ feedback that asks why this does not work well enough, or that does not do what they wanted. If its a bomb….well, nobody will tell you anything.

But at any rate, you save time and money. Time…by not wasting more on a dud, and by getting to listen to your customers. Money, because every product you don’t sell costs you money, and if you get customer feedback, its worth more than gold-dust. Its a direction pointer thing.

Finally, this is not an excuse to release a shoddy product that breaks. That is not acceptable. Your product needs to work! But it does not need the bells and the whistles. It can and should stand on its own until you can build version 2.0 and 3.0 that are better products.

And besides, if you do have a dud, you can find that out early, and move on to your next product.

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