Postcards: Captured By Vines and Regulators

Venture Capitalist Bill Gurley's recent speech on regulatory capture tells us just how bad the chokehold will be in the future for small business... there's only one way to address it: Follow Buffett

Dear Fellow Expat:

I’m fighting a losing battle.

Yesterday, I paid a landscaping company to carve out about a 60-foot by 100-foot area of land in my backyard.

Rip out the soil.

I’m putting in some fences. I’m putting stones in the path.

I’m looking to build a garden surrounded by mango and orange trees.

They did a good job. But they left a lot of weeds still sticking out of the ground. “It’ll be fine,” I said, planning to work on it today.

Fast forward to the overnight rain, and I swear the lawn was 50% green again with vines and weeds this morning.

So, today, I took a cartoonish amount of chemicals to the roots. And I started to kick at the dirt. This is old-school Florida – invasive weeds everywhere.

It will take a lot more muscle to tear at the vines that will overwhelm the productive parts of the garden and bear fruits and vegetables… And if I don’t address them soon, they’ll return quickly and choke out every planter box and inch of space…

It seems like the perfect time for a metaphor…

Kill…