Questions of Character

In this book, Joseph Badaracco explores serious fiction in search of leadership examples for us to explore and learn from.

Intriguing considering that most business books does not deal with such topics in literature but rather historical figures and other leaders in various forms or other.

He always starts each chapter with a question, starting from the dreams to reflection. A very structured approach in my opinion, as everyone starts with a dream and only upon reflection can we then learn from successes or failures.

He asks

1) "Do I have a good dream?"
Arthur Miller's Death of Salesman is then used as the serious fiction for this topic. In it, the salesman had big, great dreams... which were far away from his realities. In escaping from reality, he fails miserably not only in his job, but ultimately also in his relationship with family and his son. Resultant ending culminated in his suicide to earn insurance for his son whom was probably already a failure, but he had still high hopes for.

2) "How flexible is my moral code?"
Tells the story of Chinua Achebe's Things fall apart. A leader who stood by his principles so strongly that he refuses to accept other ideas and other people's opinions. In short, the leader failed eventually to repel the British Colonialists and committed suicide.

3) "Do I have unsettling role models?"
Perhaps the most poignant tale amongst the stories. Allan Gurganus's Blesses Assurance: A Moral Tale, tells of a young man who was so affected by an unlikely role model during his time working as a insurance agent, that he somehow still remembers after nearly forty years later when he suffered an heart attack. He had tried to help to poor old folks in paying their insurance until he himself who is not well-to-do could not afford to. But he translated this in his later years, by doing community service, building an ethical business but at the same time still feel guilty about his eventual inability to help them.

4) "Do I really Care?"
F.Scott Fitzgerald's The Love of a Tycoon. A story of a committed and determined business leader in Hollywood's film studios who used his patience, courage and tenacity to continue his the film production business but at the cost of personal family and eventually his life.

5) "Am I ready to take Responsibility?"
Joseph Conrad's The Secret Sharer. The story of a new captain of a ship who took the huge risk of taking secretly a sailor whom had potentially commited a crime in another ship. Along the way, he learns about the nature of leadership and steering a thin line between effective command of his ship and maintaining his desire to assist the sailor for his escape.

6) "Can I resist the flow of success?"
Louis Auchincloss I come as a Thief. A pretty sad story of how a very successful lawyer with promising career ahead of him, took into the path of destruction by choosing to pursue a criminal activity even though he had a choice not to. But he took the courage to expose himself and eventually took responsibility of his ill-intentioned choice and paid the price of losing everything.

7) "How well do I combine principles and pragmatism?"
Robert Bolt's A Man for all Seasons. The story of Thomas More who uses wit, humour while maintaining his strong principles in the face of King Henry.

8) "What is sound reflection?"
Sophocles Antigone. Tells story of Antigone and Creon. Both individuals whom I think had perhaps been too quick to make decisions without thinking through their actions. If a fair measure reflection was done, perhaps the end tragedy would not have occurred.

Good read.... we should ask ourselves these questions all the time....

Three Signs of a Miserable Job

This book by Patrick Lencioni tells of a fable of a retired CEO, Brian Bailey who sets out to transform a small dilapidated pizza outlet with umotivated employees to people who take pride in their work.

Simple but a powerful story nonetheless, but have lots of meaning. In a nutshell:

Anonymity
People cannot be fulfilled in their work if they are not known. All human
beings need to be understood and appreciated for their unique qualities by
someone in a position of authority.
Notes: Give due recognition to people no matter what kind of job/work they do. Everyone is an essential part of the unit. Get to know them personally.

Irrelevance
Everyone needs to know their job matters to someone. Anyone. Without seeing a connection between the work and the satisfaction of another person or group of people, an employee simply will not find lasting fulfillment.

Notes: Link relevance to the job. Think in term of service and linkage to others in the entire team

Immeasurement
Employees must be able to gauge their progress and level of contribution for
themselves. They cannot be fulfilled in their work if their success depends
on the opinions or whims of another person.

Notes: Provide opportunity for the person to set his/her measurements that can tangibly seen through his/her own standards.

Rating: **** stars

The Little Prince:

I have been reading a children's book, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery recently.

Surprisely, I find myself having difficulty understanding it on my first read. I was perhaps able to grasp the underlying message the author was trying to tell the reader. I don't know, but maybe it is meant to be read lesuirely as it is classified as a children's book.

But somehow, Saint-Exupery manages to tell the tale of the little prince and at the same time explores a very human condition of man. There are several characters which appears this novel which I trying to decipher:

(1) the King
(2) the Conceited Man
(3) the Drunkard
(4) the Businessman
(5) the Lamplighter
(6) the Geographer
(7) the Snake
(8) the Fox
(9) the Flower

Well... will repost my thoughts and reflections once I have gained a deeper understanding....

The Medici Effect: Free Download

The Medici Effect is now available for download for free here. Read the book last year, and it gave me a new perspective of innovative capacity.

My thoughts on it... Risk Taking and Breaking out of comfort zone and into different networks of one's life to gain new perspectives.

Rating: **** Stars

Reflections for 2007 AD

The year 2007 had been a excellent year for me. Busy but fruitful as my first kid has passed his first year and the second one on the way, due next year.

I also had a chance to do my post-graduate studies, a dream that had taken me 5 years later than when I had planned to start. But nonetheless, it is choice and tradeoff that I have no regrets as my model of personal priorities are clearly laid out in my mind. Something like a personal balanced scorecard that was first envisioned by Norton and Kaplan.

1) Family
2) Professional Life
3) Personal Investment/Finances
4) Personal Life
a. Spiritual
b. Physical Well-Being/Health
c.Learning and Development

The first 2 quadrants seems to be related to our community, one at home and the other at work. The second set of quadrants relates to the individual person, with finances in the current modern age a real important factor. Of course the 4th quadrant, is what I would need to focus on for coming years as well as I grow older. Especially, the part of 4b) which I have been lacking in fitness for far too many years. Being overweight is probably one of the failures in my scorecard, which I am determined to reach goals in 2008.

Currently, reading on Norton and Kaplans' The Strategy-Focused Organization which shows how a strategy map can tied to a balanced scorecard.

Sometimes what we learn in business, leadership, history, books and films can be applied into our personal lives if we just take out a little time to critically think about them. Of course, some tweaking and adaptation can be made to the original models.

I hope this blog that I first started in April 2007, is a form of explicit knowledge of what I have learnt throughout the year. I may have missed out some of the learning due to a busy schedule which prohibits me of writing but then again, even capturing a certain percentage of the tacit knowledge that resides in my brain is still good enough. In time to come, when my hair has gone gray, I would definitely refer back to here to see what I was doing and thinking in the year 2007 AD.

The Power of Persuasion

The Power of Persuasion by Robert Levine rehashes some concepts of persuasion that marketers, salesmen (especially car salesmen) on unwitting consumers like you and me. Totally enjoyed some of jokes he inserts in between the lines, but more so his easy writing style giving cases of how we are manipulated by gullibility. I did not particularly like the chapter on the cults, but it does showcases how cults uses the brainwashing which I think is not really an art of persuasion. To me, its like a form enforced persuasion.

However, what stood out was the part of a MLM company selling knives and the woman who sold aromatic candles to friends/families. It does show how people are subtly manipulated to make people buy stuff that they do not need but they were made to feel that its a must-have.

Utimately, i think self-control and mental toughness plus awareness of such techniques that are employed by marketers and salesmen alike will definitely prevent us from overconsumption.

I referenced a link here to cuppakopi.com in which Roddy speaks of his techniques to fight off hard-sell tactics of a beauty salon.

"NOTHING IS MORE COSTLY THAN SOMETHING GIVEN FREE OF CHARGE"
A Japanese saying.... (quoted in the book)

I am starting a star rating: **** 4/5

Evolutionary Psychology

The theory of evolution has been applied to the area of psychology. Read this book called "Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters: From Dating, Shopping, and Praying to Going to War and Becoming a Billionaire-- Two Evolutionary Psychologists Explain Why We Do What We Do". Really long title, but had an interesting point to make.

What was my key-takeaway from this book? Whatever we do in terms of our lives has been due to our tendency to have sex, procreate and ensure our lineage is being continued.

Evolutionary psychology is really new branch of science as compared to the mainstream social psychology... This therefore really goes back to the nature versus nurture that had been going on for many years amongst the scientific community.

Burning Man

Recently read The Google Story by David Vise and Mark Malseed. Also had read The Search by John Battelle before it. I think everyone knows about Google and its incredible story. It is also the the best company to work for in the world in 2007 according to Forbes magazine.

Anyway, the story of the how the Googlers going off to the festival called Burning Man was interesting. So, I checked out in the internet or rather googled the term "burning man" and found the website.

Apparently, every year, a community of people will converge on a area called the playa in somewhere called the Black Rock Desert. I read it, but can imagine the kind of electric atmosphere it generates for its participants. This being an self-organizing event that is being held over a period of a month and reach a climax of burning the man.

Saw the photos from the website and a video from youtube and I am really amazed all these were put up in a middle of a desert by people. Would love to see it myself sometime. IT takes place every year with a different theme.....

Singapore's Third Place

In Ray Oldenburg's book The Great Good Place, he talking about First (home), Second (work) and our Third places. So, what really is a Third Place in that sense?

I think what Oldenburg was trying to address was the disconnect between ourselves and the community that modern life has brought to us. In the age of fast-food and suburban sprawl, where we close our doors, the moment we reach our homes, there is no common place, where people can congregate and converse. This problem is far more prevalent in the US, then Europe or Singapore for that matter.

Anyway, he defined third places with the following:

• It is on neutral ground - It resides on a place where people can come and go anytime.
• It is a leveler - Membership is available to all with no distinction.
• Conversation is the main activity- Colourful talk and storyteller amongst the people
• It is accessible and accommodative.
• Regulars characterized third place - The same people who frequents the place.
• Third place has a low profile - Undistinctive decor and plain.
• It has a playful mood
• It is a home away from home

He goes on to cite several examples of cafes, beer gardens and taverns in US.

So, I was doing some thinking and I thought, our very own Kopi-Tiam was a good example of the Third Place as well. In terms of being a place where we always congregate to eat, talking and conversation is also high on the agenda. We have uncles sitting down there in the evening with bottles of beer, and maybe perhaps watching the English Premier League game there.

Certainly, the idea of the Kopi-Tiam was good one. I see in Toa Payoh, the Kopi-Tiams were just right below at the block of the HDB flats. Its a perfect Third Place for the residents to be there in talk, share local news and maybe even gossip. Remember the old SBC Chinese series, 'Kopi-O'. It was hit in the 80's... why so? Its because people can identify themselves as part of this culture. So much so, that the new MediaCorp shot its sequel 'Kopi-O II' in 2002.

But, I have noticed that the newer estates tend not to have Kopi-Tiams like Toa Payoh. SengKang for example, I heard from some friends only have 2-3 of them in the entire estate. This pales in comparision to the older estates.

In a way, the sense of community would be difficult to build and maintain if the newer estates do not have a Third Place as envisioned by Oldenburg.

Shackleton and Apollo 13

A friend recommended a book to me recently and I could remember it vividly, because I had read it while I was away on a overseas business trip sometime in 2003. The nights were boring, so I took the time to read it.

Ernest Shackleton was perhaps the most amazing character in terms of leadership and charisma in my opinion. Read the book Shackleton's Way by Margot Morrell and Stpehanie Capparell.

How he could sustained his crew of 27 what got trapped in the Antarctica for two long years is really quite an achievement. This man showed all manners of leadership in harnessing the inante power of his people. He not only was able to reshift his priorities quickly after his ship Endurance was crushed by the ice, but he showed that he led by example. I remembered he threw away all his valuables in the snow, to demonstrate his resolve to his crew that anything else other what is a necessity should be not be brought along.

In a sense, what the authors said about Shackleton was true. He led the most successful unsuccessful mission in the history of our time. Perhaps, only the incident of Apollo 13 can rival that. But Shackleton's true greatness I think, lies in his ability to really foster camaraderie of his people without the usual disintegration that occurs when turmoil is the order of the day. What is even greater was that none of his crew perished in the whole entire ordeal which took two long years.

Apollo 13 in contrast had a shorter duration of a couple of days, but itself is not an easy feat, considering the engineers in NASA were racing against time.

Got another book relating to his story in Alfred Lansing's Endurance, but have not had the opportunity to do so.

Storytelling and Brands

What does storytelling has to do with Brands? Well, it seems alot has to do with it.


I remembered reading a book "We, Me, Them and It" by John Simmons last year. Really a fantastic book that really relates how a brand can be made into story where the consumer can feel the connection to it.

Sounds manipulative yeah? But the truth is we are bombarded everyday with so many messages that if some thing does not stick out in the crowd, our brains just do not register it.

John Simmons writing flair shows throughout the book where he shows how he manages the campaigns in the various organizations in the United Kingdom. I find his attention to words rather than images to invoke the emotions and feel of the brand story he works on to be very compelling.

I think the maxim "A picture is worth a thousand words" does not apply in Simmons case. His short stories of a brand (some fictional and crafted) were great. In bursts of a few lines, he was able to communicate to me as a reader the tinge of history and personality of the organization. Basically, the core values that the organization embodies.

I am unable to share the details of the stories he told, but it was an accidental find in the library, and it has been sometime ago. But do read it, its beauty lies in his way of crafting of words. He had somewhat convinced me too that the business style of writing that we uses on the daily basis were too impersonal.

Words can be used more simply without bombastic language. Ultimately, the brand needs to be understood by the receiver, and if you the sender can convey in a manner that can invoke the sense of connectedness and emotion; the brand will stick everytime.

Second Opinions

I have always wondered how doctors make analysis of problems they face during the treatment of patients. More so, because the human body is probably one of the most complex systems there is and scientists have not even decoded all its secrets.

So, western trained doctors with drug compounds, surgical techniques and other forms of tools are face with dilemmas when trying to diagnose, treat and hopefully cure their patients. In this book, Second Opinions by Jerome Groopman provided me an insight on how doctors think, analyze and decide the course of treatment.

In it, Groopman discusses about his own predicament of an back injury he suffered years ago in which he has since recovered. He also talks in personal terms of the anxieties he and his wife (also a doctor) felt when their first child had a potentially life-threatening episode. All in all, eight stories were shared by him with all the difficult medical terms but still told in a narrative manner that the lay-person like myself could understand.

With the limits of the tools and techniques available to western-trained doctors, it seems that once the onset of any disease has begun, it would be prove difficult for them to help repair the human body. There were failures but also successes in the eight stories which seemingly showed how frail our human bodies. It also showed the human element of emotion in play between the patients, the doctors and also the family members.

Making sense of the known or unknown disease is difficult for the patients as they face their own mortality. Therefore in light of such unknowns, even doctors with decades of experience do face tough decision making choices on what to do.

Not the best of books to read to reassure you that our doctors can help us in our time of need. But it does tells us that we should take our health for granted. Doctors like all other humans, do make mistakes and second opinions with other doctors do help the patients and their families in the overall process of clarifying, understanding and eventually accepting the health issues they face.

The book does actually talks about intuitiveness in decision making in this arena. Sometimes, the data that is being generated by the machines does not tell us the full picture and diagnosis do go wrong. It seems in the modern age, our healers has been too dependent on the high technology machines like CAT imaging, X-rays and many others.

The healers of ancient times did not have such luxury, but what they have do have was a body of knowledge kept through the ages of the medicinal properties of herbs, plants and animals that have curative effects for the various diseases. This is what we call "Traditional Chinese Medicine" or TCM.

I have watched some Chinese documentaries previously which showed how doctors in China are using a combination of TCM and western drugs and techniques in combating the major diseases of our age. I cannot remember the name of documentary now. However, the thought of marrying both western medicine and TCM is not widely accepted in other countries other than China.

Hopefully, with more documented evidence of more successes by the Chinese in the treatment of the various diseases, this knowledge can actually be used by western practictioners for the overall benefit of mankind.

A Game As Old As Empire

I read this companion book to John Perkin's Confessions of a Economic Hitmen, A Game As Old as Empire in just two days. Again, it has given me an good insight on the world of shadowy economic activities that mainstream publications do not frequently publish.

The edition comprised of several authors writing of their experiences with the global corporatacy that launders dirty money, pays low wages to third world workers whilst asking them to work in appalling conditions. Worse still, the chapter on the Congo, which has the 80% of Coltan, an important mineral resource for electronic components in computer notebooks and mobile phones really shocked me.

Congo has seen two civil wars, primarily instigated by foreign armies from Uganda and Rwanda, and also blatantly invaded by them. Resources like Coltan are being looted from Congo's warehouses, illegally mined and then exported by these two countries to Western corporations. The cost of this: 4 million lives as documented in the book with numerous footnotes to other sources.

I guess while the workers of the Third World suffer, highly paid financiers in tax-free zones like Jersey launders money in dubious transactions for the dictators and corrupt officials of the same countries. One chapter on Nigeria, also talked about Shell's involvement with government forces in counter-insurgency operations against groups that are opposed to western oil companies drilling for oil in that country.

The multinational corporations therefore has now become the new Empire of the 20th and 21st Century. It works seamlessly through all countries, with total disregard for human suffering and only interested in promoting their own profits and gains; accordingly to this book.

What we as individual citizens do to stop this? The book suggests in its last chapter the following:

1. Know Thyself - Get to know yourself and the role you play in society. Maybe, as a consumer, you can refuse to buy products that harm the environment.
2. Be informed and Challenge Your Preconceptions
3. Be inspired and Trust the Movement
4. Believe in Activism: A Little Does go a long Way
5. Push your Comfort Zone and Expand Your Skills
6. Provide a Service to Those in Long-Term Struggle
7. Look Forward with Hope

I have always wondered why there is always anti-globalisation protesters that seem to be conducting demonstrations in IMF, WTO, World Bank and other big organization meetings. In the news reports, people seem so passionate and determined in their cause. I did not know that the purpose was actually to show their commitment of solidarity with the people that had been exploited by the very effects of globalisation; but who knows what are their motivations are anyway. This is after all a shadowy world of men who would do anything within their power to ensure their continued existence in this profitable scheme.

Interesting read, but would only recommend it if you are into the talk of economic hitmen, the name for the people that John Perkins had termed.

Saper vedere and Everyday Greatness

Stumbled upon this Latin quote "Saper Vedere" from Leonardo Da Vinci in a Everyday Greatness, a book containing the best stories from Reader's Digest. Immediately, did a search on it and found that it meant "Knowing How to See.

Found an Internet link in A D V E N T U R E S in C Y B E R S O U N D and it clearly explains as below:

"An artist by disposition and endowment, he found that his eyes were his main avenue to knowledge; to Leonardo, sight was man's highest sense organ because sight alone conveyed the facts of experience immediately, correctly, and with certainty. Hence, every phenomenon perceived became an object of knowledge. Saper vedere ("knowing how to see") became the great theme of his studies of man's works and nature's creations. His creativity reached out into every realm in which graphic representation is used: he was painter, sculptor, architect, and engineer. But he went even beyond that. His superb intellect, his unusual powers of observation, and his mastery of the art of drawing led him to the study of nature itself, which he pursued with method and penetrating logic, and in which his art and his science were equally revealed."

So, in effect Leonardo did not depend on knowledge from books themselves, but through his powers of observation and experimentation of different fields of knowledge was he able to innovate and create more knowledge. He is definitely the greatest knowledge producer of all time!

Anyway, Everyday Greatness is also fantastic book; culling out short stories which I feel had some heart-warming endings for some and also inspiring in its message. The story of John Brady and Hazel truly touched me. I hope to finish it soon.... Life is also about fulfilling our inner soul, by reading stories like these, and hopefully being able to emulate the people in their noble behaviour and actions.

I guess Reader's Digest is the very original magazine that really is a good read. I remember my mum used to subscribe them when I was young and I used to pick them up to read in little chunks. Never did realise that it has such profound stories that can uplift people. Looks like its only other match would be Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen; had managed to see a VCD title, but not their books.

Man's Search for Meaning

This book, Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl is perhaps one of the most influential works in my life. I stumbled upon it in the polytechnic's library during my final semester (there is a reason for this...)

In it, Viktor discusses his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp, and his later development of logotherapy. In a very humanist perspective, Viktor espouses that every person has the freedom of choice even in the most stressful and depressing situations.

In my mind after so many years after reading this book was that Viktor made an observation that the death rate between Christmas 1944 and New Year 1945 was highest in the concentration camp. The reason he concluded was that the prisoners would lose all the naive hope of ever been liberated from the concentration camp and return home. As the time came closer, they would then be so disappointed and and also lose their courage to continue living. He says "The prisoner who has lost faith in the future - his future was doomed. With his loss of belief in the future, he also lost his spiritual hold; he let himself decline and become subject to mental and physical decay".

He also cited Nietzsche's words " He who has the why to live for can bear to live with almost any how".

Perhaps, I felt the paragraph in page 98 below reflected some philosophical thoughts by him on the meaning of life:

"What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves, We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think ourselves as those who were being questioned by life - daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual."

There you are...

Fictional Past

After The Alchemist, I began to think that maybe I should rekindle my appreciation of fiction books. I remember distinctly that I read plenty of fiction during my school time at least until my tertiary education when I started to divert to more non-fiction books.

It seems it was only yesterday that I used to read the popular writers like Sidney Sheldon (just found out he just passed away in 2007), Issac Asimov (Foundation series, one of my all time favourites) and others that I now vaguely remember.

However, another writer that I can recall was Czech writer Milan Kundera whose books tend to be short stories with I can remember to sometimes funny and ironic in the storyline. I remembered reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting and Immortality. Can't exactly remember their storylines since it has been so long ago. Maybe I should consider revisiting them sometime again.

The popular fiction that I read by Sidney Sheldon were books like Sands of Time which I can immediately remember because I bought it with meagre pocket money I had saved during school time. Also, bought a range of Foundation Series which has the mathematician Hari Seldon trying to help galactic mankind and steer them away from the brink of destruction. Ah... the stories of a galactic empire and a group of scientists that invented a branch of science called psychohistory, the ability of mathematics to predict the course of human history really expanded my young mind (although these are science fiction stuff, I thought it was going to possible that sometime in the future this would really be invented)

Going even further back in my younger days, especially in secondary school days, I was trying very hard to remember the Fantasy author that I read, then finally remembered it was Piers Anthony. Went to his website to see his bibliography to refresh my memory and I finally found the books that I had read was actually the Xanth Series. There are a total of 32 titles and counting, so I would think I had read the first top few.

I guess what we read in the past, especially during our youth will definitely shape and form our interests in the future although it seemed that I had missed a good deal of such book genres since I switched to non-fiction.

Well, its been nearly fifteen years since the time of that switch. Maybe I should try to balance my reading between the different book genres. It could perhaps give me a broader perspective of life, knowledge and wisdom.

Career Breakpoints

I just finished another book, The Career Break Book by Lonely Planet. This is largely a travel reference book, with lots of tips of where to go during a time of career breaks. Great advice given with several off-beaten tracks that is not usually taken by travellers.

There were several examples of people taking their career breaks, and generally they changed their perspectives on work and do not go back to their original job/career.

Not much to say, except, if anyone is thinking of stopping their normal worklife routine, and thinking of going for a career break, this is a book to look for. BTW, mostly it seems that people from the US, Europe or Australia do this.

Again, the story of lifestyle choices echo in my mind, and also whether there would be people like Santiagos in The Alchemist in some of us, willing to give up being a shepherd and travel to the pyramids in search of treasure. Difficult, but definitely achievable, if sacrifices are made and proper arrangements made to take care of existing financial obligations. There are several practical tips in the book about these valid concerns and alternative measures to consider.

Benefits of course is subjected one circumstances, as in Santiago's case, a treasure, a potential spouse but most importantly, learning so much about life's journey in the process of his travels. Let's hope we can all learn like Santiago if we ever take a career break in any point of our life.

Found a website for those who want to know more as well; great resource

http://www.thecareerbreaksite.com/index.php

Santiago's journey

I do not usually read fiction, but this time I decided I would give Paul Coelho a try as I happen to keep chancing upon his books again and again. I had a glimpse of his name in one of the book reviews in The Straits Times, saw a girl reading it while waiting to register for my masters course and lastly, in a bookshop that stock piles and piles of his titles.

So, I chose The Alchemist, in which the main character Santiago, a Spanish shepherd boy whom left his comfort zone of tending his sheep to go to the Pyramids of Eqypt in search of a treasure that he had dreamt during one of his one night stays in a broken down church.

From then on, he makes the journey to the pyramids and thus starting the spiritual adventure of his lifetime. If you in for a spoiler, click on the link to Wikipedia and the full story will be there.

Its was splendid light reading for me as I could feel being Santiago being caught in a dilemma on whether to pursue his Personal Legend or stay in his comfort zone as a shephard, and also after falling in love with the girl in the oasis.

Maybe, we all hope we are Santiagos as we live in our everyday routine, with dreams of our own which we want to fulfill. But yet we have fears and contradictory thoughts of pursuing the very dreams we so really wish we can. Or maybe most of us just want to be the like crystal glass merchent who is so afraid to fufill his dream of going to Mecca as it would mean he would then have nothing to live for.

In it, Santiago struggles after leaving, and it says clearly with his conversation with the alchemist:

"Why do we have to listen to our hearts" the boy asked, when they had made camp that day.

"Because, wherever your heart is, that is where you'll find your treasure."

"But my heart is agitated." the boy said, "It has its dreams, it gets emotional, and its become passionate over a woman of the desert. It asks things of me, and it keeps me from sleeping many nights, when I'm thinking about her."

"Well, thats good. Your heart is alive. Keep listening to what it has to say."

The story at the end was a pleasant surprise for me, and I smiled to myself how this simple tale could actually lift my spirits up. I must say I did not regret reading this fiction book on a late Sunday afternoon rather than the two other books I normally juggle with. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi and Critical Mass: How one thing leads to another by Philip Ball was just too heavy for me after a long tiring week of work in the office.

I guess, in terms of pursuing our dreams, we may have our doubts over whether to give up our existing safe and contented state of life to uncertainty, but as always there is a price to pay in such situations.

But what is important that as what the alchemist had said. Listen to your heart it is alive. It may prove to be a satisfying end result as what Santiago had experienced. I will be looking to continue some of other Coelho books. Good light reading that lifts your soul on a lazy weekend yeah.

Unknown Unknowns Part 2 - Impact on Average Joe

I remembered an article was published in the Straits Times regarding "unknown unknowns" and I went to find the newspaper clippings that I normally keep if I find them interesting.

On May 24 2007, Barry Desker, the Dean of S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University actually published a great book review of Seeing the Invisible: National Security Intelligence In an Uncertain Age.

Basically I intend to look for this book and read it myself. The basic take-away is that that asymmetric threats like terrorism (9/11) , disease pandemics (SARS) and natural resource shocks (Opec Crisis 1973) is a disruptive events that can bring about severe impact to not only the countries affected but in fact can become a transnational problem with severe consequences.

Anyway, my thoughts on this is in that such uncertain times, it seems that governments, corporations and big institutions are the only entities that have the resources and financial muscle to build systems or programs like RAHS, Scenario Planning or prediction markets. Prediction markets was mentioned in the book Wisdom of the Crowds by James Surowiecki. HP, Google and Microsoft are some of the companies that are using prediction markets to help them. However mostly, the applications has been on areas of national security or business planning purposes.

But, how about the common people? The man on the street who invests his life savings on stocks, bonds, property, unit trusts and other financial instruments. Also, not to mention the small business entrepreneur whose company who would probably not survive such severe shocks.

What can the common people do to help ensure that they can actually see the invisible threats to their lifetime of work or savings? Right now, I would say the there is nothing that they can possibly do. In the article by Barry Desker, he titled it "Why we must ponder the improbable". In my mind, I think for the average person, it should be titled "How can we (the common people) ponder the improbable?".

During the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, there were numerous newspaper reports of rich multi-millionaires falling victim to the meltdown of the markets. I cannot remember reading about housewives, working professionals or retirees that got severely burnt or possibly bankrupt through their own follies. But definitely, I would think the numbers are substantial throughout Asia and the rest of the world. Subsequently, I would think the bursting of the dot.com bubble in 2000 produced many more of such personal disasters.

Alan Greenspan would called this phenomena irrational exuberance in 1996 for the dot.com bubbles and the stock market slumps. But what gave him the insight or ability to see this would be probably he had all the resources that Federal Reserve Bank can provide and not to mention his own unique abilities.

But what can average Mr. Joe do?

Of course, to be able to appreciate such improbable scenarios, Joe would need to be fairly well-educated to understand the complexities and challenges. He would certainly also need to be reasonably well-read, able to collate, analyze, interpret various sources of information and make a conscious decision on what to do.

The problem lies on the fact that the Joe lack the necessary tools and knowledge (software, formal methods or techniques) to overcome the "how to ponder the improbable" question.

I think the way to go is through the use of open source software for prediction markets or the mass collaboration between like-minded individuals interested in such matters forming themselves into forums, online communities, wikis, and practically sharing of good knowledge. In another words, applying the concepts that are being proposed by the book Wikinomics.

Also, I think the Cognitive Edge methods which the company had released under Creative Commons license is open for all is a great resource although I must admit I had not given enough time or effort to understand the material there. Dave Snowden also gently reminded me in my previous post that Cognitive Edge now offers the use of the Sensemaker suite of software tools for employment of their methods.

I had glimpse of what DIANE by the Arlington Institute looks like and I would definitely love to evaluate a demo copy of the Sensemaker software, but I am not sure whether Dave or Cognitive Edge will release them under such terms.

So, I checked from its website that cites "while methods are open sourced, revenue generated to support the network through the development of software and the sale of software licenses and services". Maybe, I would need to be an accredited practitioner. Or maybe it will great to just let everyone see some screenshots of its capabilities.

Back to the solution to the question I posed earlier. In all true sense, it will take some ingenuity and commitment on the part of the community to able to muster enough resources and capability to be able to ponder the improbable unknown unknowns.

We will probably will never know how successful systems like RAHS or prediction markets run by corporations as they remain classified and confidential; which is why I made the statement of "That is still an unknown unknown and only when we know what can be known, therefore we cannot possibly know" in my previous post.

I do not think any government of the day or any corporation would release such information as it may impact them in certain ways. Let's say terrorists or competitors got wind of how their systems or programs are working; they would probably be able to circumvent the loopholes and probably succeed in their actions.

Maybe someday it will become a reality that Joe would be able to connect the dots possibly using the above mentioned solutions and be less impacted by the 9/11s, Oil Shocks, SARS, Financial Crisises and Stock Market Crashes that have plagued him and his family for far too long. Let's see.

More Alternative Media

While continuing my reading of Wikinomics, I found some material in it that has the latest theme that I have been researching: Alternative Media.

In the chapter, The Prosumers, the authors cited Youtube, Slashdot, Digg and the Rabble. All part of the new age of Web2.0 or according to them its the "Democratizing of the Media". Digg's news items are voted by the readers and would be published accordingly by their popularity. Sounds great, as it is allowing participation by people.

I just wonder all these alternative sources of media would be the way to go where all content are actually produced by the consumers themselves whilst there is an erosion of the traditional media. Singapore's Straits Times actually is making use of this class of citizen reporters with their website Stomp with certain degree of success.

Then I found another good alternative website called Tom Paine. There is good article which is dated 20 June Bloggers And Heathers Go 15 Rounds that talks about mainstream media and blogosphere (alternative media).