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Re:Apple Bought $578M Worth of Sapphire by micampe on Friday November 08, 2013 @08:54PM (#6700340)
On that vein, an essay on how a pencil is made: http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html

«I, Pencil, simple though I appear to be, merit your wonder and awe, a claim I shall attempt to prove. In fact, if you can understand me—no, that's too much to ask of anyone—if you can become aware of the miraculousness which I symbolize, you can help save the freedom mankind is so unhappily losing. I have a profound lesson to teach. And I can teach this lesson better than can an automobile or an airplane or a mechanical dishwasher because—well, because I am seemingly so simple.

Simple? Yet, not a single person on the face of this earth knows how to make me. This sounds fantastic, doesn't it? Especially when it is realized that there are about one and one-half billion of my kind produced in the U.S.A. each year.»

Re:Apple Bought $578M Worth of Sapphire by mbreese on Saturday November 09, 2013 @01:37AM (#6700906)
Except that essay doesn't tell you how to actually make a pencil... it tells you how to make a market where the components of a pencil could be bought.

I think it would be more interesting (well, unless you're an economist) to describe the composition of the various parts of the pencil, how they are formed, and ultimately how the pencil is physically manufactured.

Then again, I also like watching How It's Made.

Re:Apple Bought $578M Worth of Sapphire by erichocean on Saturday November 09, 2013 @03:15PM (#6702988)
it tells you how to make a market where the components of a pencil could be bought

As I recall, the point of the essay is that you simply can't make a "market" that would produce a pencil at all. No one can. It happens organically, or not at all.

The strength of markets is that they are self-organizing to a large degree (given the right conditions, e.g. political stability and preservation of capital), and that the sum is greater that the parts—in the essay, the 'sum' being the pencil, which no single organization (or government) can produce on it's own.

Re:Apple Bought $578M Worth of Sapphire by pbhjpbhj on Friday November 08, 2013 @09:59PM (#6700481)
I seem to recall there's a similar essay for Coca-Cola.
Re:Apple Bought $578M Worth of Sapphire by swombat on Saturday November 09, 2013 @05:22AM (#6701265)
Yep, this: https://medium.com/editors-picks/221d449929ef

Better than the pencil thing, imho, since it actually focuses on the can of coke itself, rather than the coffee cup the bauxite miners might be drinking.

Re:Apple Bought $578M Worth of Sapphire by notdrunkatall on Friday November 08, 2013 @11:01PM (#6700640)
Alternatively, here's an excellent video based on the essay:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYO3tOqDISE