Exams... Exams... Exams

The dreaded word of all students has finally dawned upon me.... Exams! The whole month of November will see my mugging hard for my examinable subjects. Hmmnn... surely I should be able clear it ah..!

This is the part of any course that I have taken in the past years that really makes me feel compelled to do.... Otherwise it has always self-motivation that had enabled me to read and study subjects of my interest.

Sometimes, I really wonder whether there will a structured formal course from an academic institution would sprout out to accomodate a non-examinable format. Well, it did come about when I read about problem based learning that Republic Polytechnic offers.

I attended one of its seminar which introduced the Academic Associate position. Apparently, the polytechnic hires part-timers to conduct and facilitate its courses with students. Pays SGD300 a day for a someone to do this... Talked to some of my classmates who are doing this full-time and they tells me its not easy work...

If one day, all academic courses from Primary School all the way to the University do it in a non-examinable way... it will be the most joyous day for all students! For me, it would be too late... I don't think I shall live to see that day ah...

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.

Learning by Babies - Influences

Just an observation on babies. Their ability to learn and adapt is really amazing. One week, they may just be sitting down, looking you in the eyes and may look like he does know what to do. The next week, they surprise you by doing something out of the ordinary; which you really do not expect to happen.

They are like sponges, absorbing every visual and auditory details that the world have bombarded them with. I think in certain ways, they have been trying to sense-make what the world is all the about, and along the way managed to figure it all out one thing at a time.

It makes me wonder whether we should return to a state of being babies. We were definitely curious and inquisitive then, and open to new ideas. Now, as adults, we tend to be more closed minded and have certain bianess in our perceptions. Perhaps, we have already molded and shaped by our influences in life.

As a fellow student said to me, we are constantly being influenced by various sources which can ultimately shape our beliefs and eventually become the person we are. Sounds like we do not have independent thinking at all yeah... So therefore, we should always try to develop critical thinking skills or logic reasoning with an eye on human emotions (paradox ah?).

What I meant is that cool reasoning of a given situation should be guided by keen observation of the human emotions relayed by the actors of the situation. This should lead us to a more effective and successful resolution of any problem or issue.

Intellecutual Stimulation

Its been an enjoyable intellectual stimulation for me during past 3 weeks. Why, because there has been a resurgence of energy for me in the KM course. Its tough, considering I have to schedule my time properly for family, work and studies, but I feel it is worth the effort.

I also have met many new people from different cultures. The class has people from China, Myanmar, France, England, Indonesia, Nigeria, India, Vietnam and of course Singapore. Great diversity and mixture of people with different viewpoints and opinions on everything.

Lots of readings and discussions but really it is does bring more sparks in my mind but also fire up my enthusiasm!!!

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.

Grameen Bank - Social innovation to fight poverty

I remembered I had read the story of Mr Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winner for 2006.

This man brought about a total change in Bangladesh's banking industry but setting up Grameen Bank, a bank that provide small amount of money (microcredit) to poor villagers to help them startup small businesses. No longer was there a need for collateral and security when the villagers borrow money to help them sustain a living. The banking model that Grameen Bank had setup was based on trust, community and accountability.

In effect, it revolutionized the way banks were being seen as just a pure profit making entity. Yunus "changed the rules of the game" by making a great social impact in the lives of these villages by this innovative approach of lending. It has proven to be good weapon against the vicious cycle of poverty that had perpetuated the poorest villagers in Bangladesh.

In the year 2007, Grameen provided loans to 7.21 million people of which 97% are women. What is interesting is that Grameen has been profitable other than some years; maintaining an excellent loan recovery rate of 98.61% while at the same time achieving its social aims of helping the poor.

Clearly a success story by Yunus to eradicate poverty in Bangladesh and perhaps in the future to the rest of the developing world. For more information on how they lend the credit and their 16 decisions model.

BTW, Yunus recently was also named the top 30 entrepreneurs of all time too by Business Week alongside Bill Gates, Henry Ford and other well-known people.

Overhauling Studies Engine

After taking a break of nearly ten years since my bachelor's degree, today is going to be first class in Nanyang Technological University's Msc in Knowledge Management.

Well, imagine putting your car engine in the garage for the past decade and then suddenly bringing it out for use! I guess I would have start lubricating and overhauling the inner pistons of this engine so that I can be able to speed up like a Ferrari.

However, it is with anticipation and sheer delight by the thought that I will be having discussions and conversations with fellow like-minded classmates on a subject like Knowledge Management which really spans across many disciplines like psychology, anthropology, technology and other "gies" you can imagine.

I do hope this studies engine of mine can really accelerate and speed up in the highway..... of course within the legal speed limit.

"How" to ponder the improbable for Average Joes.

A follow-up on some of the ideas that I had proposed on the possibilities of the open source communities and prediction markets to enable common people with the ability to "how to" ponder the improbable.

I had been thinking of an overall framework which mashup the models/concepts explained in Wikinomics and Wisdom of the Crowds.

1) Open source communities like Sourceforge can startup a new project; perhaps entitled "WikiPredict". This software (preferably an online tool) will be along the lines of DIANE. I would probably specify that it should include the following features:

• Search engines; in sourceforge I can see there already TrackerDog, SearchSaver, Carrot2 and many others. ( I did not evaluate the suitability of use, but just citing some examples.)


• Wikis or Content Management software; again in sourceforge there current projects like ProWiki, NI Wiki and so forth.


• Data mining and Analytical software along the lines of Google Analytics with nice reporting charts there can be used to break down data ; in sourceforge, Decision Studio Professional looks promising through its description.

Basically, this WikiPredict system would require the 3 components to be fully integrated, tightly coupled with each other and to allow participants to have an effective and efficient manner of searching, collating, analyzing and sharing the information across the community.

Now, with the technology/tools settled, and we can now move on to the framework on how to run this WikiPredict system.

2) A WikiCommunity of people sharing the same interests in areas of politics, economics, cultural, medical or social aspects can form together to use the WikiPredict system. Of course, the particular WikiCommunity must define its purpose and mission. I would term this group of participants as "peer research analysts" producing high quality peer-analysis of world events.

3) Once an event has been so called "predicted", the active participants would then create a prediction market in the same website for the rest of the community (the 80-90% of people). Of course, it should be open to wider network if possible inviting participants from other area of interests as well. This is to encourage diversity too.

From then on, the success of these WikiPredict, WikiCommunity and Crash Prediction Market would be dependent on the quality of the participants. Knowledge can be shared, tools are open-sourced. Perhaps the community can even use Cognitive Edge Methods or other suitable frameworks that are open-sourced thus making it a more robust and accurate system.

Hopefully, if such a mass collobarative effort does materialise, Mr. Average Joes may just be able see through the invisible, connect the dots and therefore would be able to act upon the information given thus avoiding the stock market bubbles, property crashes, resource shocks and other disastrous events.

It may be argued that even with the best intelligence or information at hand, most people may not even have the capacity or courage to act upon it. However, the main purpose of this post is not to debate on that, but rather it is about how to allow the average person to have the ability to ponder the improbable.

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.

When you are on your deathbed....

Recently, I received an SMS from a friend that reads "Hate working life man.. the work's ok but the people's full of shit.. u can quote me in your blog". Hahaaa.

I thought to myself, seems so apt that I had recently posted wisdom of the cabs, and replied him to read it and he would understand. His reply was people like them work to live, while most of us live to work. Hmmmn....

Sounds so familiar again and I remember the a similar question "Do we eat to live or live to eat?".

I would argue that we should eat to live and not live to eat. And similarly, I would accept the wisdom of the aussie cab driver on work to live and not live to work. It will be a very depressing thought for me that our lives that would be just focused on work alone and not on other good things in life, like family, love, enjoyable hobbies and attaining of the fruits of knowledge (which in turn helps to improve our lives).

Likewise do we eat to live to enable us to function as a human so that we can pursue the above pursuits in life that I mentioned? Of course, food connoisseurs would argue that the purpose of life on earth is to eat the fine foods while we are able to. But, ah.... be warned that too much fine and great tasting foods would result in great health risks and thus shorten the very life that is so precious.

Well, does it sound crude to put Work and Eating together in these terms? Maybe not after all, because the reason why people work is of course to be able to monetarily provide the means to support themselves; for food, clothing and shelter which has been the basic needs that humans has been striving to attain for millenias.

I remembered I read a masterful piece by Joanne B. Cillua on The Working Life: The Promise and Betrayal of Modern Work . Again, reading this book helps me to understand the great dissatisfaction of why people have on work. Read the review and you shall know what I mean.

So, the question we should ourselves as quoted in the book is actually:

"When you are on your deathbed, will you wish you had spent more time at the office?"

St. Bernard still has the book I think.....

Again, we all have a choice. Basically, in my opinion we have three choices:

1) Do good work and accept the people politics as part and parcel of the environment.

2) Do a lousy job or cruise along and start playing politics to ensure your survival.

3) Leave for other pastures and start anew.

For me, 1) will be my primary choice irregardless. Last resort would be option 3). Doing option 2) is just too exhausting and meaningless and does not add value for the organization or to ourselves. This is what the incompetent and incapable are good at. We always hear that if you can't beat them, you might as well join them! Well, think about it... you will be like joining a rock band that sing not for the pleasure of their fans but only for themselves; which in the long run, this rock band will surely fail.

Self-interested individuals in a complex environments do not survive long without help; the basic foundation block of human societies has been cooperation, realtionship-building and communities. This is how we humans has lept from being a caveman to the modern homo-sapiens we are today.

So, journeyman.... read the my tagline in blue....

Wisdom of the Cabs

Who has the most intimate knowledge of a city's streets but also has the most opinions on current affairs of the day? Well, I would think the only candidate for this would cab (taxi) drivers.

I met two actually recently during my trip to Perth and had some insightful conversation with them. The first one while making my way to my hotel from the airport. He had a strange accent which distinctly sound very familiar, so I commented that he did not sound Aussie. He readily admitted he was Scottish and had come over to Perth on his work vacation holiday some twenty odd years ago, and had stayed there ever since. Got his degree in sociology and married a local lass, and is now a taxi driver plying the streets of Perth.

We talked abit on his hometown in Glasgow and I asked which football team he supported and he said none because he did not want to support either Celtics or Rangers as the fans were separated through either being Protestant or Catholic respectively; and he was neutral. He did profess which faith he is but it was obvious he did not like the sectarianism (this was something I did not know, I do now).

We then shifted gears talking about the state of economy in Western Australia (resources industry boom; eg oil, minerals) and the effects of this on the local property prices. His home cost AUD 90K when he first bought it and is now worth more than AUD 300K. He seem well informed and was able to articulate well on the IT industry over there as well. We even talked about how the effect of China and India being a rising power that might overtake the world economy.

In a space of thirty minutes, we had a very broad range discussion on various topics which I personally felt was nice. Then, I started to have a thought; why would such a well-educated bloke like him choose to become a taxi driver. I did not have the answer to this question, as the taxi pulled over the at the hotel and we shook hands and said goodbye after he helped with my luggage.

The second taxi driver I encountered was when I was on my way to airport from hotel. This time, this bloke was pretty quiet initially. But after few questions about his work hours and the conversation started. Well, he says he was going to knock off immediately after the airport as he wanted to go watch football (I presume it is the AFL) on the Friday night and that he has been working only four hours until he picked me up. The conversation then shifted to the fact that even though he had twelve hours of driving time; he do not fully utilise it as he says he does not want to. And he also said this was the most stress-free job (he owned a few business for nearly seven years but decided to quit them); he is happy that he is self-employed and makes enough to pay his bills.

He further elaborated that what Australians had was a Lifestyle. They want to work but they also wanted to have enough time to enjoy the other things in life. The social welfare system is great but abuses are prevalent amongst some the youths and had created anti-social behaviour like crime. Then, he mentioned that the word "SLOW". Perth was a slow city as compared to Sydney and Melbourne but it does has its advantages. He went on to say, if you were young and ambitious, probably it will be good to be in these two cities, but after that, Perth would be great place to slow down and raise a family. Then he vaguely mentioned he has three children, two daughters (in university) and a son (in trade school studying to be electrician). In a nutshell, he is a happy man.

Then, he made an insightful observation. He said all of this was dependent on where the person was brought up. He had picked up a Hong Kong Lady who complained to him that Perth was simply too slow for her and that she needed to go back to recharge her batteries. Well, according to him, it was simply a matter of perception. Since, she was brought up in Hong Kong, the concept of time would be things needed to be fast. So, it was really about where people are brought up.

Also, he discussed about how he has a taxi driver, he had a choice on where he wants to go to pick up his passengers. He says he prefers the more well-to-do suburbs and that he made this his conscious choice, while a bus driver would not be able to do so, as they had to ply certain routes on suburbs which are of lower socio-economic class; and where the kids there are a more rowdy lot.

Along the way, he also gave some nuggets of insights on poker machines in clubs (Western Australia prohibits them while the rest of country allows this) and also on gambling generally. He made a very funny joke on how other taxi drivers normally assess the losers from the winners and would ask them whether they had thirty dollars before taking them on.The thirty minute ride again ended and so did our conversation.

On the plane, I begin to think again. I had my answer to my question in my first taxi ride. These guys are in their forties and obviously still capable to perform any job or work. They have an analytical mind, articulate, well-read and are able to express their opinions independently.

It boils down to one word: Choice. The Aussie Taxi Drivers choose to do this as their profession. Unlike, the taxi drivers in my home country, where there are instances of white collar professionals in the same age group who are unable to find jobs after being retrenched during poor economic period. These people had no choice, as being a taxi driver seems to be only one of the few jobs that they can do. Age discrimination against people in the forty-fifty age group in the manager/professional category is really rampant although this is widely not acknowledged.

I am not saying all the taxi drivers in my home country are all ex-managers/professionals, indeed most of them are from less well educated backgrounds and probably would not be able to hold such thoughtful discussion on a broad range of topics although they are able launch a tirade of complaints (mainly on the rising cost of living and our local politics). This category of taxi drivers probably had no choice too, as they had no or little skills and getting a taxi license seems to be the one of the few tickets to making a living.

The second Aussie taxi driver sums up what I think we all should learn in the search for meaning of our work and our passions for life. It is really about your choice of work and the lifestyle you want to lead.

I would never expect to learn this from a taxi driver (aussie one).... but I do appreciate that slow is good in a society that demands more and more of us to do things always fast, faster and fastest.

So, choose your work and the lifestyle you want if you are able to... easier said than done... but nevertheless, this is a reality Down Under.

Travel Bug and Balancing Equations

I was probably infected by the travel bug some twenty years ago when I first visited Perth with my mum. It was an eye-opening experience as it was my first visit to western country. It was so like my home country but yet it was so different in their outlook and pace of life. I really enjoyed my trip and I told myself from then on that I will travel to more countries to experience their way of life and culture.

I then managed to visit Perth again in eleven years later when I went there for a two week on-campus study. It was not so enjoyable this time as my courses were pretty intense, but I had a better taste of what life was like in down under. People were walking so slowly, buses wait at bus-stops for commuters and shops close at 5pm. I also experienced the coldness of upside down winter that Australia always faces; in June!

Well, tomorrow it is going to be my hat-trick trip to Perth. I was just flipping through one of the news magazines (can't remember which one!) two days ago, and briefly read an article describing surveys of people's attitudes towards work and overall opinion of life actually improved after they had gone on vacation on various length of time.

Slow pace vacation out of the country, Perth seems the ideal place to increase the 3rd element of Passion for Work equation. Let's see.....

Passion for Work Equation

The most precious resource for us in my mind is definitely Time. The reason is pretty simple, whatever commodities, products or goods that we want is obtainable through means through the marketplace, but Time is something special.

It cannot be bought, sold or traded. Once the Time has passed, there is no turning back and it just goes relentlessly forward without any consideration for anyone anywhere.

I have been so busy that I do not have the time to write nor read. Why? Its all because work... obviously, this is one activity that should not consume anyone, but countless people like myself are being overwhelmed by the workload.

The crux of this problem is the current economic boom that we are experiencing. The paradox is that most companies still expect the costs of products/services should remain low (or better still be slashed even lower) while profits/revenue should continue increase higher and higher. Costs in this context means not hiring more people to perform the never ending work that is being generated. The greed of humankind is limitless.

So, how does it relate to my previous posting which talks about passion for work? Well, I can only express it in as a equation as below:

Passion for Work = Good Work Satisfaction (Emotional/Morale) + Great Compensation (Financial) + Adequate NonWork Time (Precious Resource)

Any element out of this equation will result in a lower passion for work. But I think the most important lever is the third element. Without adequate time for personal, spiritual and family; disatisfaction will increase and and ultimately result in a loss of work passion. No amount of great compensation will then be able to help uplift satisfaction or passion.

raison d'etre

I first heard this French phrase "raison d'etre" from my boss in a meeting. I guess he was trying to inspire the team and it did trigger me to do some research on this. He had mentioned that LKY used this phrase sometime, but I could not find any source article attributed to him on this.
Nevertheless, it means "Reason or justification for existing". This brings to my mind what is the purpose of my existence. I did reflect upon it for a while and I came up on a few thoughts which are of no particular order in importance:

1) Family - The cornerstone of our social circle otherwise we would be just individuals living in a deserted island with no ties to bind us. They are the source of unconditional love and support... but of course there are also challenging times where we need to work on our relationships with our parents, husbands, and children.

2) Friendships - The second layer of the our social circle where people whom we enjoy the company of. They could be bosom friends or close ones that are able to second guess your thoughts but yet able to offer alternative perspectives on things. Such relationships definitely grow us as better individuals, without losing our own identity.

3) Knowlege and True Wisdom - As this blog is titled....the purpose of our being is to bring about the great knowledge and true wisdom that we as humans have gained through the millenia through sharing and collaborating with each other. Reading of great books, watching first rate films would only serve us better.

4) Passion for one's work - This may seem understandbly difficult to achieve if one is bogged down by the daily grind of routine mundaneness. But if one can achieve this, we would be able to feel the satisfaction that we all serve society in a meaningful way. However, passion for the work should not clash and become a work-life balance issue.

5) Cultural Diversity - perhaps I had put this in because of my love of travelling. In the course of travelling, I had been exposed to various cultures and the same time learn their some of their subtle ways. Every country you visit, it opens a new world of ideas and perspectives on how things can be done. We can only learn through acceptance of such other cultures and make us much better individuals.

So, to put it simple terms, its about valuing and building your relationships, continuous learning and lastly, passion for life and work.

Multinational Citizens

Who are the only "persons" in the legal sense whom can become citizens of many countries? They are being allowed to own, buy and sell property in practically all the countries of world. Well, the "persons" just happened to be multinational corporations like Shell, Goodyear, IBM, McDonalds and so forth....

The Corporation by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbot underscores the influence, power and implications of the corporate entity to the world since its first inception in history. In all areas of society, we are being brought up to belief that the business is good, and wealth is the way to prosperity. Remember the 80's when the mantra "Greed is Good" as echoed by Gordon Gekko in the film Wall Street. It was a hilarious start to the film when the film-makers cleverly put together a series of media shots of people describing the corporate debacles of the past years as "Bad Apples"... I really enjoyed it.

It seems globalization is major theme of this film because it practically describes corporations has permeated into our society by even submitting patents for living organisms, seeds and all things the natural earth has endowed us. Well, I am not sure how they are going to patent all these... but with profit as a main motivator, they will find some means to do it legally. Whether it is enforceable in the eyes of Mother Nature... that is not for them to decide. With global warming as discussed in my previous post, and if no definite steps are taken to address it, all the profit and gains would not be enjoyed by anyone. One CEO interviewed, even called himself "A plunderer of Earth"... this sounds like suitable description so far.

The corporations also tries to own knowledge that has been endowed upon us from the generations of people before us. This in a business perspective seems natural for the corporations but I think this has gone abit too far. Knowledge that we have today, is being enjoyed by us because of the fruits of labour of our past ancestors. The concept of intellectual ownership of knowledge is fairly recent in our history.

I am not saying intellectual property or capital of the various artistes or companies of today should not be respected, but there should be some measure whereby the knowledge accumulated in the past could be in accessed freely and used by all. Of course, I do not offer a roadmap or framework on the how to deal with this... but definitely it should not allow the rule of externalities that was discussed in the film to be abused by the corporations.

Noam Chomsky is one notable interviewee in this film; one whom I admire for his intellectual prowess. His arguments on the various points shows and it makes the film a more watchable one. I remembered a friend of mine mentioned to me about him once a time and I had begun to read Chomsky's articles online.

In an nutshell, this is a film about globalization as well. People from the developing countries exploited by their meagre wages, while the products they produce are being sold at incredible high prices in the developed ones. The companies make no apologies for this, as profits are their main purpose of their existence.

It brings to my mind a book entitled "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins. Similarly, after watching this film and cross-referencing to Perkin's story of global institutions like World Bank, IMF and so forth, I begin to wonder if this is the new societal order that has sprung out in this point of our human history. Of course, anyone would know in previous eras, there were the empires, kingdoms, the church, feudalism and other forms of dominant power in our civilisation.

So, the question is how are we affected by the "soft power" of the corporation wielded by the few in the name of their shareholders on society. Well, one learning point for me is "The Nag Factor". This seemingly marketing tactic has made children of ours as the focal point target to manipulate parents to buy things that they don't seem to need. Well, this is really something I need to be conscious about.... before wielding my credit card while on my way to a cashier at least....

Truth about our climate?

Today, watched two films that largely mirror each other's storyline. The bottom line that both says is that global warming is ruining the earth that we live in now. An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore had all the high powered graphics, his charamastic delivery of the presentation slides and of course with his good wit. The second one is by PBS's Global Warming: The signs and science
hosted by Alannis Morrisette. Less of a drama as it was not delivered by a politician, but still gives us the facts and information through other experts on various fields.

In a nutshell, what both are saying is that if nothing is being done to stop (or was it slow down?) this global crisis, we will end up extinct maybe just like the dinosaurs. So, is there an urgency to alleviate this problem? Apparently not, we are still weighing the costs and the benefits. Some may even be questioning whether global warming is happening or not.

To a certain extent, I can sense that there is "truth" in these messages that are being sent out. Al Gore even had the time to put in the film about how he was influenced by his professor on the environment, his childhood on the farm, his sister's unfortunate death, his son's accident and jibes by former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr on his environmental views.

I wonder whether if he had become the President, would he have done things differently; for the environment and the other contentious political issues of our day (Iraq, 9/11 and so fortha). We will never know of course.

In any case, all the troubles and problems will become inconsequential on the day of reckoning when all the wealth, technology and power of the world will not be able to stop this force of nature. So, let's start small and bit by bit. I know what I can try to do first.... try to stop/refrain from taking those plastic bags from the supermarkets and turn off the lights ....

May the force be with you...

My favourite movies of all time... Star Wars, where Yoda, the Jedi Master utter the words "May the force be with you" to Luke Skywalker.

Well, in the true sense, we humans really lack this capability whereby we can lift objects and change the will of other beings merely by use of our mental powers. But what we have is really intuition. Currently reading the book by Gary Klein "Intuition at Work", whom he describes how people can improve their decision making skills through intuition.

I first encountered Gary Klein's work 1-2 years back when I first read his first book "Sources of Power". I was intrigued by his research which concluded that people doing dangerous or critical jobs like fire commanders, pilots and nurses could make split-second decisions on life-threatening situations and yet have a successful outcome.

Malcom Gladwell's book "Blink" probably drew some of his material from him.

Anyway, we can all learn a thing about decision making. Sometimes, we are too preoccupied with doing a thorough analysis of a issue or problem, that we have forgotten to place our subconcious mind of intuition to solving it. I would think that using too much of either left or right side of our brains would be counterproductive. A balance of both good rational analysis tempered by a dose of gut feelings might just be solution to all problems......

Meus Primoris Stipes - My First Posting

Meus Primoris Stipes means "My First Posting" in Latin. I used the website tranexp to translate what most people would say is a dead language. Well, for me it is a language that I had always wanted to learn, but never got about doing so. Why you may ask? Maybe its because I have always been student of ancient history and the Roman Empire is definitely one of my favourites.

I have always to start a blog, and finally tonight I have done it!
It seems that I am a late bloomer after all as I read that blogs are reaching their peak in this Business Week article.

This blog will serve as a medium for my thoughts, reflections, and ideas. Hopefully, I can also put to pen my thoughts of the many books that I read. Some may argue that reading of traditional books has become cumbersome and old-world as compared the light-speed of searching information and knowledge in the internet.

The lines has somewhat blurred with Google scanning collections of books from the major university libraries . It seems likely that this would become a reality some day, but for most major publishers, they see this as a major threat to their businesses.

If searching through the internet can bring about far better and greater access to the knowledge stored in the books I would welcome it totally. It will make the internet the greatest Knowledge Management system in the world!