Cortés

I want to be Cortés and burn my ships
Behind me, force myself to conquer, win
Without another choice, declare from lips
Dried in the ocean air, above the din
Of fellow travelers that I will take
The risks I need to make the world quake.

Half-measures aren't the pathway to success --
The jungles must be lit by fires we set.
For then we'll find our fortunes will be blessed
When on ourselves we've made the greatest bet.
No doubt his men thought he had gone insane,
But Cortés had a continent to gain.

Cortés chose either death or victory --
And yet we fear the smallest money lost
To risk. Yet risk is how we become free --
The path to freedom always has its cost --
You must give in to all of life's demands
And fear not making tracks upon her sands.

The Law of One Price

Another good employee gone -- he went
To a competitor who somehow can
Pay more for wages yet sell for much less.

I'll have to check my books, see what I've spent --
I don't think I can lose another man --
My finances have got to be a mess.

Thank God for double entry bookkeeping --
I've found the waste to keep my business sound,
To raise my wages, lower prices too.

Now let me see if these new prices bring
Employees back and customer around.
I think I can survive and make it through.

My best employee's back, and with a raise --
Now let my competition worry how
To bring their customers back home to them

The way I had to worry on for days
How I could with my prices compete now
To offer up the cheapest clean and hem.

Theory

Each piece and particle's particular --
The universe is necessarily
In fragments, though we always much prefer
To act as though it's all a unity.

To analyze the world we break it up --
The data says it must be so -- reduce
To smallest small and understand the cup
From broken fragments -- thus we do deduce.

Yet how do we begin to understand
The unity we see? Inductively,
We bring the world together, see the hand,
Invisible, build all complexity.

Our theories bring together the diffuse
From all the data scientists produce.