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| A man leans over a wooden sluice in California between 1890 and 1915. Rocks line the outside of the wood boards that create the sluice. A metal pipe rests on the wood. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Where not to look !
OK when you look for something, it is always in the last place you look.
Does this change where you should look first ? - no !
Or at least, not usually !!!
Does it makes sense to start with good prospects, eliminate them and move on ?
- yes it does, (that is unless you actually enjoy the searching)
My wife can find my stuff when I can't - WHY ?
it's a fraught question that is safer not to ask - but here goes nothing...
Perhaps she is looking for something someone stupid has over-looked before ?
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| English: Crystaline Gold (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
This changes the nature of a "prospect", it means you need to look where others would not bother (or are to lazy to have looked thoroughly).
Note that when it comes to gold laziness, motivation and value are strongly related to commodity prices
It makes for a completely different story.
So say you are searching for gold - What's the best strategy ?
When you search for gold, you can:
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| View of gold miners excavating an eroded bluff with jets of water at a placer mine in Dutch Flat, California, between 1857 and 1870. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Try to stake a rich seam,
- hard work, big rewards - might need
guns and security to stake that claim.
Go on a quest for life-changing nuggets
- grubbing around for massive potential rewards but risk living on fresh air.
Or you can pan in the stream (almost definite winnings, but hardly worth the effort) -
unless ...
Unless, the value of what you are looking for is going up fast!
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| Panning for gold. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
I argue that energy savings are already worth prospecting for, using the grubbing in the dirt method and any other that may work !
Here's why ...
Most everyone knows it is stupid to waste energy - it's like walking around with a hole in your pocket.
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| Protest against fossil fuels April (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Most everyone walks around with a hole in their pocket sometime. (especially if they have nothing of value in their pockets).
But if I told you we were going to talk a walk to the bank, having filled your pockets before you go - with gold-dust.
if we were going next week, would you make the effort to carefully line your pockets with something very, very sticky this week
- yes of course you would !
So if energy has been undervalued (I am not arguing this but hey you can run with the power of forty horses over fifty miles for the cost of a can of coke - if you use fossil fuels)
And if energy use (or worse energy waste) is perceived to be like walking around with holes in pockets - AKA - Stupid and short-sighted.
Then - I would argue we need to review our search strategy.
People are starting to turn over every stone and look in every nook and cranny.
They are renewing their search strategy - by looking where people have rejected options in the past.
Technologies, values, accessibility and motivation have changed.
The day of wild-catting oil wells is over (largely) - this was the oil boom and looked very much like a gold rush.
Coal Shale, shale oil, wind, solar, nuclear deep offshore, arctic are all now being examined in depth (literally ;) - it sounds like prospecting doesn't it!
Well there is a wise adage -
The guy who gets rich of a gold rush, is the guy who sells the tools. Picks, filters, explosives, beans, pit-props, money bags and prospecting know-how (the treasure map).
So my suggestion to energy managers is that instead of competing with the dreaming fools - you should..
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| Scene from the movie The Gold Rush. 1925. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Stitch up the holes in their pockets, get out your maps (energy consumption charts), and check over your equipment.
Because the winners are going to be the ones that are well-equipped, well-educated, and don't mind looking carefully through the dirt and spoils of the idiots that rushed through on the first wave.
Its time to prospect for savings, because waste is all over the place - its the rich seam of leavings that nobody else can bother with.
And the world can be yours !
Feel free to leave a comment, particularly on where you have found the worst sources of waste, or on cool ways of finding stuff like my article on the Princess and the pea !
