You Never Know Who's Gonna Change Your Life; and You Never Know Whose Life You Are Gonna Change.
..it could be just a casual sentence, it could be an one-line scribble, it could be a show, it could be a true story, it could be a narrative, it could be silent melodies, it could be a moment of tranquility in ruthless hectic, it could be an unexpected harshness...it could be a shared song or a shared donut, or simply a special angle to look at your kid's pencil...
...any given day, any location, any moment, anyone, ANYONE, might make a difference in your life. Difference, big or small. A reminder at critical moment, a life-changing mind-blower, a recall of forgotten dreams or missions, or simply a recollection of happiness...
A variation: You Never Know What's Gonna Change Your Life...
...maybe an old comedy drama called Ally McBeal?
This scene came to my mind, somehow, in this really cold night (when I could not sleep because of zero blog entry). It was the end of an episode, in a New Year (or X'mas, who cares) party, a conversation between Ally & her colleague...(not exact wording but the content's roughly there)
"...my grandma used to tell me...if you look back on the year...and there was nothing that makes you cry...you have wasted it..."
Saturday 17 January 2009
Thursday 15 January 2009
"general" questions
forewarning: There is a roughly 97.8% probability that this entry is not for you (will show you the calculation some time later).
“Are you having fun?”
“Well...hmm...I think so...”
“Then think harder”
- a classic remark, that started a quest, a discovery, and a blog entry.
"How are you?","Do you like this city?", "Are you enjoying this party?", "How do you find working here?"...
What are your replies to these "general" questions? ...while there's not enough excitement built up to justify a confirmed "yes",yet insufficient negativity to uphold a confirmed "no"...you see feel smell appreciate both the beauty & the imperfections...and you're thankful for this experience...yet unable to decide on a simple yes/no summary...
"I’m not sure."
It’s not a polite answer. It’s not the answer you expected. It’s not a good way to continue the small talk...yet I can’t lie. Or at least in a way that won’t make me hate myself later on.
Somehow such a casual question became a struggle each and every time...
Yeah it doesn’t really matter how I answer, it doesn’t matter whatsoever. But I just can’t lie, I just have to figure out what I really feel, before I could give you my answer(or does it matter?)...I just can't help feeling it deserves a sincere reply. And I just need a little bit more time to figure it out...
Forgive me, stranger, you must be bored, please feel free to go talk to the pretty lady at the other side.
“Are you having fun?”
“Well...hmm...I think so...”
“Then think harder”
- a classic remark, that started a quest, a discovery, and a blog entry.
"How are you?","Do you like this city?", "Are you enjoying this party?", "How do you find working here?"...
What are your replies to these "general" questions? ...while there's not enough excitement built up to justify a confirmed "yes",yet insufficient negativity to uphold a confirmed "no"...you see feel smell appreciate both the beauty & the imperfections...and you're thankful for this experience...yet unable to decide on a simple yes/no summary...
"I’m not sure."
It’s not a polite answer. It’s not the answer you expected. It’s not a good way to continue the small talk...yet I can’t lie. Or at least in a way that won’t make me hate myself later on.
Somehow such a casual question became a struggle each and every time...
Yeah it doesn’t really matter how I answer, it doesn’t matter whatsoever. But I just can’t lie, I just have to figure out what I really feel, before I could give you my answer(or does it matter?)...I just can't help feeling it deserves a sincere reply. And I just need a little bit more time to figure it out...
Forgive me, stranger, you must be bored, please feel free to go talk to the pretty lady at the other side.
if you have been a star all your life...
If you have been a star all your life, from a naughty kid through your adulthood...the class & club presidents, the lead singer or dancer or actress, the rookie of the year award holder, the team & project leader, the founder of experience design department, the youngest in the top management, etc, etc...
Beware.
Chances are, being the lead actor/actress under the spotlight all your life, you never ever knew, felt, experienced, understood and identified with the feelings of your teammates who wear funny costumes and play ‘tree roles’ off the limelight...or exhausting themselves arranging wardrobe/props/drinks for you behind the scene...or watching you having lots of fun from a dark corner feeling like outsiders...
Chances are, you may never discover that the best comrades you can find are often among these people, people who Can and Will change the world together with you...
(Note: with you, not for you)
When the corporate world realized it could no longer expect the employees to commit one decade or two (or 3 or 4) to corporate ladder climbing, it invented management trainee programs. What are management trainee programs for? To help future managers, we all know, understand the company and its business better, faster.
But is that all? Really?
Assigning ambitious college graduates to work as underwear promoters for 3 or 6 months just to know the "business" of a department store chain? Really?
Think about it. Especially if you have been a star all your life.
Beware.
Chances are, being the lead actor/actress under the spotlight all your life, you never ever knew, felt, experienced, understood and identified with the feelings of your teammates who wear funny costumes and play ‘tree roles’ off the limelight...or exhausting themselves arranging wardrobe/props/drinks for you behind the scene...or watching you having lots of fun from a dark corner feeling like outsiders...
Chances are, you may never discover that the best comrades you can find are often among these people, people who Can and Will change the world together with you...
(Note: with you, not for you)
When the corporate world realized it could no longer expect the employees to commit one decade or two (or 3 or 4) to corporate ladder climbing, it invented management trainee programs. What are management trainee programs for? To help future managers, we all know, understand the company and its business better, faster.
But is that all? Really?
Assigning ambitious college graduates to work as underwear promoters for 3 or 6 months just to know the "business" of a department store chain? Really?
Think about it. Especially if you have been a star all your life.
“what’d you do if you have only one year left?”– my take
Don’t spend too much time trying to find the answer. Don’t discuss with your friends. Don’t make it an ice breaker. Don’t press your loved ones for too serious a quest. Don’t even try to come up with a ‘good’ answer. Don’t make it a writing exercise. Don’t put your answer neatly on a paper and lock it away. Don’t prioritize or make a plan for it, be it a 12-mth plan or 50-yr plan. Don’t.
Change the question to: “what’d you do if your life ends when the sun goes down tomorrow?”
Don’t write your answer down (as you always do), and don’t struggle with choices. Trust your instinct, whatever that comes to your mind now, just Do it.
Change the question to: “what’d you do if your life ends when the sun goes down tomorrow?”
Don’t write your answer down (as you always do), and don’t struggle with choices. Trust your instinct, whatever that comes to your mind now, just Do it.
3 superb quotes that deserve 3 individual posts #3
If you want to build a ship, don’t gather people together to collect wood, and don’t assign them tasks and work, but instead teach them to long for the sea.
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery (Le Petit Prince)
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery (Le Petit Prince)
3 superb quotes that deserve 3 individual posts #2
Don't get stuck in the middle. It's painful.
--Seth Godin
--Seth Godin
Big Picturers
I myself have a little trouble practicing the Move-on idea. There’s something so tenaciously lingering in my mind, so let me get it over with right here right now (and I won’t go back to search through those ‘drafts’…)
Seth Godin posted a great blog about “how to deal with ‘No’” a while back. Great. You can read it here, because you most likely won’t be satisfied with my one-line summary below:
Focus on the BIG Picture (it’s not just about you).
It’s just that easy. All we have to do is forget ourselves for a moment and think from the Big-picture perspective. Think not of the big paycheck or sense of accomplishments or praise or envy from others, but of the future of the company. By the way, would you give a damn, truly give a damn, if you are not trying to get in?
Easy principles are often the hardest to practice. However, for true big picturers, such ‘against-selfish-human-nature’, hard-to-implement advice/action is just natural reflection of their big-picture thinking (because they give a damn and it’s not just them!).
The sad thing, the thing that worries me, is the whole culture that’s skewed towards the obsession with ‘skills’ that ‘gets you in’. People are encouraged/enticed to learn, practice, sharpen (and pay for) the ‘skills’ that make you look like a perfect match for whichever company you’re trying to get in. it doesn’t matter if you really are passionate or suitable, you just have to look like it. So you pay for the skills to make yourselves look really passionate and ‘qualified’.
Seth’s advices in the blog post, originally a display of big picturers’ natural action, could i) become a catalyst to re-invent the culture, or they could ii) be squeezed into the category of “latest skills” that “get you in”. We’ll see.
If ii) would be the result, unfortunately, those advices would be like obsolete technology that loses competitive advantage in a few years time (or shorter). And sadly, it might even crowd out some real big picturers in certain markets.
Or, by then, with all the passion & care & infinite innovativeness, you big picturers may have already developed some even more brilliant next-generation best-practices that blow our minds (including Seth’s) away.
Seth Godin posted a great blog about “how to deal with ‘No’” a while back. Great. You can read it here, because you most likely won’t be satisfied with my one-line summary below:
Focus on the BIG Picture (it’s not just about you).
It’s just that easy. All we have to do is forget ourselves for a moment and think from the Big-picture perspective. Think not of the big paycheck or sense of accomplishments or praise or envy from others, but of the future of the company. By the way, would you give a damn, truly give a damn, if you are not trying to get in?
Easy principles are often the hardest to practice. However, for true big picturers, such ‘against-selfish-human-nature’, hard-to-implement advice/action is just natural reflection of their big-picture thinking (because they give a damn and it’s not just them!).
The sad thing, the thing that worries me, is the whole culture that’s skewed towards the obsession with ‘skills’ that ‘gets you in’. People are encouraged/enticed to learn, practice, sharpen (and pay for) the ‘skills’ that make you look like a perfect match for whichever company you’re trying to get in. it doesn’t matter if you really are passionate or suitable, you just have to look like it. So you pay for the skills to make yourselves look really passionate and ‘qualified’.
Seth’s advices in the blog post, originally a display of big picturers’ natural action, could i) become a catalyst to re-invent the culture, or they could ii) be squeezed into the category of “latest skills” that “get you in”. We’ll see.
If ii) would be the result, unfortunately, those advices would be like obsolete technology that loses competitive advantage in a few years time (or shorter). And sadly, it might even crowd out some real big picturers in certain markets.
Or, by then, with all the passion & care & infinite innovativeness, you big picturers may have already developed some even more brilliant next-generation best-practices that blow our minds (including Seth’s) away.
Move On
Do it today, or just forget it and Move On.
Move on. It’s more important than ever today, while the highly connected system (called modern civilization) is flooding your mind with tons of flashes & noises...
Share that quote, tidy up that shelf, read that book, publish that post, write that mail, send that postcard, deliver that thank-you note, give that hug, say De 4-letter word (I mean ‘love’) to those you care about, and another for those who deserve it, reach out & connect & asking for no returns...TODAY.
Sunset, sunrise, another day in the life. Move On.
Move on. It’s more important than ever today, while the highly connected system (called modern civilization) is flooding your mind with tons of flashes & noises...
Share that quote, tidy up that shelf, read that book, publish that post, write that mail, send that postcard, deliver that thank-you note, give that hug, say De 4-letter word (I mean ‘love’) to those you care about, and another for those who deserve it, reach out & connect & asking for no returns...TODAY.
Sunset, sunrise, another day in the life. Move On.
Wednesday 14 January 2009
Ruthless Markets vs. State-led Miracles?
People like categorization, people like simple labeling. So we got introvert vs. extrovert, scientific vs. artistic, and in economy, government vs. market. Seemingly the time has come for government advocates, but before you go along with the mainstream-media-headline trend, no harm to take a look at what Mr. Yasheng Huang, associate Prof. at MIT, has to say in his article Private Ownership: The Real Source of China’s Economic Miracle.
Highlights:
- rural entrepreneurism, instead of state-led urban infrastructure investments, is the true driver of Chinese economic miracles.
- grand infrastructure projects and FDI-backed investments (e.g. factories), often regarded as the main engines of Chinese economy, “assumed huge proportions in China until the late 1990s-long after the relaxed financial controls and rural entrepreneurship prompted the initial growth surge, during the 1980s”
- “From 1978 to 1988, the number of rural people living below China’s poverty line fell by more than 150 million. In the 1990s, their number fell by only 60 million, despite almost double-digit increases in GDP growth and massive infrastructural construction”
[John here, statistics of people living below poverty line from 1978 through 2000 may give us a clearer picture before we agree or dispute the above (sorry I haven’t got it yet either)]
- GDP per capita of Shanghai (where state-led projects play the main role in economic growth) is twice that of Zhejiang province (in which Wenzhou City is located; Wenzhou developed and thrives mainly based on private entrepreneurship); but “…if the measure is household income-the actual spending power of average residents-the two regions are equally prosperous”
“township and village enterprise” ?
- “Western economists erred because they assumed the term referred to ownership. But Chinese officials understood it in geographic sense-businesses located in townships and villages…from 1985 to 2002, the number of collectively owned ones peaked in 1986 at 1.73 million entities, while the number of private ones soared to more than 20 million, from about 10.5million…the increase in number of these enterprises during the reform era was due entirely to the private sector”
Highlights:
- rural entrepreneurism, instead of state-led urban infrastructure investments, is the true driver of Chinese economic miracles.
- grand infrastructure projects and FDI-backed investments (e.g. factories), often regarded as the main engines of Chinese economy, “assumed huge proportions in China until the late 1990s-long after the relaxed financial controls and rural entrepreneurship prompted the initial growth surge, during the 1980s”
- “From 1978 to 1988, the number of rural people living below China’s poverty line fell by more than 150 million. In the 1990s, their number fell by only 60 million, despite almost double-digit increases in GDP growth and massive infrastructural construction”
[John here, statistics of people living below poverty line from 1978 through 2000 may give us a clearer picture before we agree or dispute the above (sorry I haven’t got it yet either)]
- GDP per capita of Shanghai (where state-led projects play the main role in economic growth) is twice that of Zhejiang province (in which Wenzhou City is located; Wenzhou developed and thrives mainly based on private entrepreneurship); but “…if the measure is household income-the actual spending power of average residents-the two regions are equally prosperous”
“township and village enterprise” ?
- “Western economists erred because they assumed the term referred to ownership. But Chinese officials understood it in geographic sense-businesses located in townships and villages…from 1985 to 2002, the number of collectively owned ones peaked in 1986 at 1.73 million entities, while the number of private ones soared to more than 20 million, from about 10.5million…the increase in number of these enterprises during the reform era was due entirely to the private sector”
Some more Ammunition: Scribbles on A Bullet
a. “Mean”
Why people can be so mean to each other? Is it sth we are born with or sth we learn? Why people want to be mean? How do we deal with mean people? How a society creates mean people? Why some environment creates less mean people?
Maybe, something mean and ugly may look pretty & thrilling & exciting from another perspective...It doesn’t matter we learnt it or we were born with it. It’s just there. It does matter, however, what & how we are gonna do with it...
b. Conflicting emotions
Conflicting emotions: emotions that make people tough & successful v.s. emotions that make people soft & amicable. Economic territory v.s. social territory. How do we deal with it? Instant switching is ‘ugly’, but seems like survival skills very often are ugly. What should we do? What can we do? Or should we ask this question in the first place?
c. Game
The endless ‘games’ between regulators & financiers...at the end, rules are simply something people try to circumvent...what we need then, could be better mechanism designs for the systems, in which following the rules is beneficial to participants (both psychologically and materially)...
* Note: there is no single perfect mechanism in any given case, we can achieve better mechanism only through continual small-scale experiments that consistently brace for failures and crack comfort zones.
d.
A story of how Wall street’s mechanism dragged us into this damn crisis here.
Why people can be so mean to each other? Is it sth we are born with or sth we learn? Why people want to be mean? How do we deal with mean people? How a society creates mean people? Why some environment creates less mean people?
Maybe, something mean and ugly may look pretty & thrilling & exciting from another perspective...It doesn’t matter we learnt it or we were born with it. It’s just there. It does matter, however, what & how we are gonna do with it...
b. Conflicting emotions
Conflicting emotions: emotions that make people tough & successful v.s. emotions that make people soft & amicable. Economic territory v.s. social territory. How do we deal with it? Instant switching is ‘ugly’, but seems like survival skills very often are ugly. What should we do? What can we do? Or should we ask this question in the first place?
c. Game
The endless ‘games’ between regulators & financiers...at the end, rules are simply something people try to circumvent...what we need then, could be better mechanism designs for the systems, in which following the rules is beneficial to participants (both psychologically and materially)...
* Note: there is no single perfect mechanism in any given case, we can achieve better mechanism only through continual small-scale experiments that consistently brace for failures and crack comfort zones.
d.
A story of how Wall street’s mechanism dragged us into this damn crisis here.
Thus Spoke the Restless Wandering Souls
Having realized we could not provide any answer to anybody, we decided instead to throw about our wild crazy guesses to make you dudes think...
Why?
...why do we expect those so-called leaders (politicians or whoever), to possess nobler personalities (or we say or argue or write so)? Haven’t we in this system already implicitly agreed that it’s acceptable for them to work for their self-interests as long as that doesn’t cause serious harm to all of us? The trick is, behaviour that may create catastrophe to all of us doesn’t seem dangerous at the beginning, especially to those ‘corrupt’ beneficiaries...so let’s drop the false expectations & ideals, stop unrealistic assumptions & arguments & education that often lead to subsequent disappointment & resentment...and focus our energy on the efforts to innovate & re-invent the system into a more incentive-compatible one...
one more thing to leave behind
Password to your mailbox (not business mailbox, but the one that you connect and interact with friends and important people in life) can be a precious bequest to your posterity. It may be a key for your grandson’s grandson to see your genuine insights & wit & sincerity & spontaneous humor & creativity. It may be a piece of gem that inspires people for generations to come. If possible, consider it.
"Put Your Life into The Speech"
I don’t know from whom this line originally is; I don’t know how many people really noticed or believe in it, but it struck my mind when a fellow public speaking club member mentioned it. He quoted this when giving suggestions to another fellow member. This sentence pretty much summed up what I believe a great speech preparation/execution should be.
Speech. Greatness. It’s not about awards; not about showcase of skills. It’s about something from your heart & soul. It could be your life.
And greatest lessons come often not from known prominent figures, but ‘average’ people (precisely, people whose passion & potential not yet fully discovered & displayed) who care and give a damn.
Thank you, Ger.
Again, You never know who’s going to change your life; and you never know whose life you are going to change.
Speech. Greatness. It’s not about awards; not about showcase of skills. It’s about something from your heart & soul. It could be your life.
And greatest lessons come often not from known prominent figures, but ‘average’ people (precisely, people whose passion & potential not yet fully discovered & displayed) who care and give a damn.
Thank you, Ger.
Again, You never know who’s going to change your life; and you never know whose life you are going to change.
Mission: Attack!
Now, launch an Attack on your mission.
For many, mission is nothing but dead dull statement (with unnecessary twists & turns for accuracy/embellishment) lying lifeless in ‘formal’ documents.
And many organizations (and people) are doing pretty good with it. But if your goal (or the goal of your org) is beyond ‘doing ok’ and ‘pretty comfortable’, you’ve got to do something about your mission.
You either live it, or you dump it.
For a real-life example of living the mission, read the story of Middelfart Sparekasse at Mavericks at Work blog.
If an organization can do ‘pretty ok’ with a lifeless mission statement (which no employee, including the managers, take seriously), it may even do better with no mission at all.
Erase the lifeless mission statement; clear some space for today’s exploration and soul searching, for a true mission that matters. For a mission of today and tomorrow that gets your team excited, that makes your team proud, that makes you larger than yourself (ves).
You may not even know what it is yet, but before you do, clear the lifeless corpse. At least you may save some paper for the mother earth, or some space for the growing internet community.
What do you do with your mission? Attack!
For many, mission is nothing but dead dull statement (with unnecessary twists & turns for accuracy/embellishment) lying lifeless in ‘formal’ documents.
And many organizations (and people) are doing pretty good with it. But if your goal (or the goal of your org) is beyond ‘doing ok’ and ‘pretty comfortable’, you’ve got to do something about your mission.
You either live it, or you dump it.
For a real-life example of living the mission, read the story of Middelfart Sparekasse at Mavericks at Work blog.
If an organization can do ‘pretty ok’ with a lifeless mission statement (which no employee, including the managers, take seriously), it may even do better with no mission at all.
Erase the lifeless mission statement; clear some space for today’s exploration and soul searching, for a true mission that matters. For a mission of today and tomorrow that gets your team excited, that makes your team proud, that makes you larger than yourself (ves).
You may not even know what it is yet, but before you do, clear the lifeless corpse. At least you may save some paper for the mother earth, or some space for the growing internet community.
What do you do with your mission? Attack!
Friday 9 January 2009
Some More Ammunition...
A. 2 Ideas abt Innovation
Include to Innovate
Does this require explanation? No. We all know people often can surprise us with what they can do while given an opportunity. This cliche requires lots of practices, labor to weed out our ego and vanity.
cognitive diversity
What is diversity? Different skin colors different background different nationality? How about people in the same neighborhood in the same company but spending weekends reading different stuff & interacting with different people behind computer screens? Internet is changing everything (yeah another cliche), including the definition of diversity. Think about it.
B. Why changes just don't happen in our world?
1. People are lazy;
2. People think others ("they" or "??? NGO") will/should take care of the world for them;
3. People are willing to give 150% & sacrifice Only for things they have strong emotional connections to.
Forget about 1 & 2, it's 3 that makes a difference.
C. another perspective on "How to maximize efficient usage of talents (to change our world)?"
Do Not burden Devoted Baby Seal Rescuers with Guilt and Obligation to save war victims.
D. in search for ideas abt Next-generation Markets
Selling ideas like selling peanuts just won't work anymore, but we human beings are good at dragging...delaying changes...we make do with status quo until we have to innovate or die...
Why people can make a living selling ideas? Because they attach ideas to tangible things like books or CDs (whose markets are as tangible as markets for peanuts). Because they attach ideas to "live" experience (confined by time & space) like a concert or seminar. However it's not news that we no longer need to pay for the copyright to read about your brilliant ideas, we no longer have to buy the tickets to see you from 150 meters to get motivated...
Copyright laws just increase social costs,especially in an era of the Web. It's not incentive compatible (many things are not,by the way), how long into the future can it work?
We human beings have been buying and selling intangibles using the market concept based on tangible goods for a long long time...can we do it for another century or will we be thrown into total confusion in 10 years and forced to innovate + create a Next-generation Market for ideas?
There's no answer yet at this moment, but we do have a box to jump and think out of...
Will you be part of the innovation?
Include to Innovate
Does this require explanation? No. We all know people often can surprise us with what they can do while given an opportunity. This cliche requires lots of practices, labor to weed out our ego and vanity.
cognitive diversity
What is diversity? Different skin colors different background different nationality? How about people in the same neighborhood in the same company but spending weekends reading different stuff & interacting with different people behind computer screens? Internet is changing everything (yeah another cliche), including the definition of diversity. Think about it.
B. Why changes just don't happen in our world?
1. People are lazy;
2. People think others ("they" or "??? NGO") will/should take care of the world for them;
3. People are willing to give 150% & sacrifice Only for things they have strong emotional connections to.
Forget about 1 & 2, it's 3 that makes a difference.
C. another perspective on "How to maximize efficient usage of talents (to change our world)?"
Do Not burden Devoted Baby Seal Rescuers with Guilt and Obligation to save war victims.
D. in search for ideas abt Next-generation Markets
Selling ideas like selling peanuts just won't work anymore, but we human beings are good at dragging...delaying changes...we make do with status quo until we have to innovate or die...
Why people can make a living selling ideas? Because they attach ideas to tangible things like books or CDs (whose markets are as tangible as markets for peanuts). Because they attach ideas to "live" experience (confined by time & space) like a concert or seminar. However it's not news that we no longer need to pay for the copyright to read about your brilliant ideas, we no longer have to buy the tickets to see you from 150 meters to get motivated...
Copyright laws just increase social costs,especially in an era of the Web. It's not incentive compatible (many things are not,by the way), how long into the future can it work?
We human beings have been buying and selling intangibles using the market concept based on tangible goods for a long long time...can we do it for another century or will we be thrown into total confusion in 10 years and forced to innovate + create a Next-generation Market for ideas?
There's no answer yet at this moment, but we do have a box to jump and think out of...
Will you be part of the innovation?
stuff I should have posted long time ago
stuff I should have posted long time ago...are they related? I forgot.
1. Let’s admit, we are all arrogant farts, we are all racists (google Implicit Association Test, try it, and find out why)...so if we want to continue to fake it (till we make it, hopefully), there’s work to do and things to bear in mind...
2. Read John Kay’s article Kudos for The Contrarian here
highlight:
…when people said, “We really want you to challenge our ideas,” they mostly did not. They wanted instead to be congratulated on their wisdom. Similarly, when they ask, “What is going to happen?” they seek reaffirmation and reassurance rather than insight into the future.
…people preferred to be told they were right than to be told what would happen.
…a good story is more compelling than the search for truth. The American political scientist, Philip Tetlock, has studied the prognostications of pundits over several decades. He finds that the better known the forecaster, the less accurate the forecast...
…Business people, politicians and journalists value clarity and certainty of view more highly than acknowledgement of the uncertainty of a complex world. But it is mostly people who appreciate that complexity who have worthwhile things to say about the future.
3. Do you remember?
The last time you felt humiliated because one person insensitively harshly sarcastically pointed out your stupidity or the hole on your integrity?
Write a note to thank him/her. Now.
4. There was a quote...by Friedrich Hayek if my memory's right (but couldn't find it anymore)...roughly means: "...the problem with social sciences...is that human beings who propose theories also have the ability to change the reality/results..." It seems to me then, there's no right or wrong theory, only theories that are made reality and those that are not.
1. Let’s admit, we are all arrogant farts, we are all racists (google Implicit Association Test, try it, and find out why)...so if we want to continue to fake it (till we make it, hopefully), there’s work to do and things to bear in mind...
2. Read John Kay’s article Kudos for The Contrarian here
highlight:
…when people said, “We really want you to challenge our ideas,” they mostly did not. They wanted instead to be congratulated on their wisdom. Similarly, when they ask, “What is going to happen?” they seek reaffirmation and reassurance rather than insight into the future.
…people preferred to be told they were right than to be told what would happen.
…a good story is more compelling than the search for truth. The American political scientist, Philip Tetlock, has studied the prognostications of pundits over several decades. He finds that the better known the forecaster, the less accurate the forecast...
…Business people, politicians and journalists value clarity and certainty of view more highly than acknowledgement of the uncertainty of a complex world. But it is mostly people who appreciate that complexity who have worthwhile things to say about the future.
3. Do you remember?
The last time you felt humiliated because one person insensitively harshly sarcastically pointed out your stupidity or the hole on your integrity?
Write a note to thank him/her. Now.
4. There was a quote...by Friedrich Hayek if my memory's right (but couldn't find it anymore)...roughly means: "...the problem with social sciences...is that human beings who propose theories also have the ability to change the reality/results..." It seems to me then, there's no right or wrong theory, only theories that are made reality and those that are not.
Thursday 1 January 2009
My New Year Wish
Every World Changer realizes her/his potential and Mission, and get together to Make Changes Happen.
Yours?
Wish you a Meaningful 2009.
Also: click here to see SG's "Greeting"
Highlight:
The opportunity this year is bigger than ever: to lead change, to create a movement in a direction you want to go. While the rest of your world huddles and holds back, here's a golden chance to use cheap media, available attention and great talent to make something that matters.
Yours?
Wish you a Meaningful 2009.
Also: click here to see SG's "Greeting"
Highlight:
The opportunity this year is bigger than ever: to lead change, to create a movement in a direction you want to go. While the rest of your world huddles and holds back, here's a golden chance to use cheap media, available attention and great talent to make something that matters.
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