He then launches into one of his favorite stories about his lunches with the top guys at the Canadian Pacific Railway, one of Canada’s economic jewels and the primary engine behind the settlement of the western frontier during the 19th century. A naive and younger T——— had tried engaging his sexagenarian audience with things like “western economic development,” “resource transportation infrastructure to meet Asian demand,” and “provincially supported railway extensions.” It went over their heads. Within minutes, the conversation had switched to golfing and vacationing at their lake houses. This was the pinnacle of Canadian corporate ambitions. “That’s all they talked about,” says T———, “They don’t even vacation in interesting or exotic places. Just dumb golfing vacations.” And every subsequent lunch went the same way. That was T———’s main frustration with these apparatchiks: mediocre at best and woefully incompetent at worst.

This is what it’s all about. No one gives a shit any more. Just keep what you have running, keep paying out the dividends, and stay happy. No innovation, nothing new, just maintain.