New blog site

New blog site: www.as-ideas-struck.com

Thanks for visiting.

New Blog Site

Due to the difficulty of accessing Blogger site within Mainland China, my blogging activity has moved to another site: as-ideas-struck.blog.sohu.com

Thank you for dropping by.

what do you do when the trust is broken?

You made a promise, you constantly delivered on time...until some day for some reason you failed to keep up the promise. You failed and disappointed your people...

Damn.

What next?

What do you do when the trust is broken?

You can simply go away; or you can tell the truth in your apology and seek forgiveness; or you can tell a convincing story to cover your mistake; or you can just roll up your sleeve and start it all over...

But building trust takes time. You know that.

You know you just lost something really precious.
You know this time round it'll take much longer and it'll be harder.
You know you have much to lose and sacrifice in the process.
Worse, you know you might never gain their trust again, ever.

It might be easier to just start something new somewhere else...though in your heart you know what's the right thing to do.

Do the right thing. Ignore the noise, just go work.

Yes it's painful, it's so damn hard, it's like bracing for the bullets...

...it's also a chance to prove you really care.

thoughts on humor...and more...

One thing i learnt, after slightly more than a year in a public speaking club, is anyone can be humorous. If you see people labeled "serious" or "boring" crack out witty remarks and funny jokes often enough, you'll come to this same conclusion.

Opposite to what most believe, humor is not a character trait, it's not a skill, it's a state, when you're totally relaxed and comfortable and trusting the people around you. Traditionally, we are so busy categorizing people, and trying so hard to fit ourselves into those categories (It's fun sometimes i must admit, but be careful, such efforts shape our reality). We then try to live up to those category descriptions, and expect others to do so.

Homo sapiens use intelligence to create beautiful, coherent, closed intellectual structures then let them shut out real-life possibilities.

Time and again when we find an engineer or lab scientist interesting, we treat her as an exception. It happens so often, and we are amused so often, yet seldom do we question the presumption itself. Why are there so many 'exceptions'? Maybe those theories of categorization and stereotypes aren't right in the first place? Maybe the reason those theories seem right is simply because we choose to aligning our action to them?

Everything exists for a reason, but not necessarily a right one.

Humor is a state, the so-called 'boring' people may just have less chance to experience it. Or they may have been told all their lives it's not something that fits their identity, that they should even try to experience...

Like many other things in life, we should stop intellectually cornering the possibilities, and start exploring.

"Do what you love, and the money will follow"

?

I deeply believe in this statement, with one condition though.

When you do dive in to do what you love, forget this statement.

I'm back - Lessons - Announcement

It's been 18 days since I last posted an entry. The original plan was to post one every day.

There are so many things going on in life, but there's no excuse. I learned a lot from different people and different experiences in the past 18 days. And here's a quick sharing some ideas that may be of value to you...

1. Don't Add, unless You Subtract.
Chrisandre's note: from John Naisbitt's book Mindset. e.g. don't add any new activity (e.g. learning to dance Tango) to your daily life unless you're very sure which existing activity (e.g. daily workout at the gym) you're ready to give up. Understood as opportunity cost in Economics. It helps you focus.

2. Consistency. Consistency!
I would argue it's more important than focus or specialization (yeah i'm aware these are different concepts). Some people advocate being a specialist, others a generalist, i believe you've met them both. Personally i believe in a mix that people in IDEO call T-person.

Whether you want to focus on perfecting your trade as the world's top specialist, or synergize your diverse exposures to success as a generalist, this dichotomy choice doesn't really matter. Don't let it bother you.

What really matters is your Consistent action. Be it focused, be it loose; be it a daily effort, or a monthly one, or hourly or yearly, just make sure it happens every time it's due. If the workload is too daunting, move the deadline forward, slice and spread the tasks, just don't stop, don't give up.

Work with Consistency, eventually you'll get there.


Also:
The minimum posting frequency of this blog now changes to weekly, entries will be posted during the weekend.

when September ends...

Have you ever considered this before going to bed?

That you have just survived another day on this lonely planet(since we haven't found another with such rich diversity of lives yet) without suffering from deadly diseases, starvation, violence, torture...

If not, you may want to think a bit about it today? Before September ends?

It can be just another normal day, or you can make it special. It's your choice.

Answer it with Action.

why normal people can become ruthless evil?

Below are the notes taken from a TED talk (sorry i forgot the speaker's name)...

7 social Processes that Grease the Slippery Slope of Evil

Mindlessly Taking the First Small Step
Dehumanization of Others
De-individuation of Self (anonymity)
Diffusion of Personal Responsibility
Blind Obedience to Authority
Uncritical Conformity to Group Norms
Passive Tolerance of Evil Through Inaction, or Indifference

communication at individual level seems to make more sense...

Talked with an acquaintance whose hometown has been in the news headlines lately for social unrest and racial issues...i was once told by another person (from this same place) that those 2 ethnic groups never really get along and they have separate neighbourhoods...

Yet this guy has a neighbour who's from another ethnic group, and they formed good relationship.

On individual level, it seems like we can easily connect with each other.

Collectively, however, we are more likely to fall prey to irrational dehumanization and various prejudices...

Somehow.

Consistency

It's the answer to the question: what's the common quality needed for living both i) a healthy life and ii) your calling?

These are not one off projects, thus it's a bit more difficult to set concrete goals for them. But they can be done.

The challenge is to consistently take care of these aspects in life. To put in the efforts, to pay the price. These are important, long term benefits, requiring you to consistently work on them without an exciting picture in mind and only occasional emotional stimulants.

So? the conclusion?

Habits.

Hit!

When asked: of all the things that he had learnt in public speaking clubs, what's the one that proved to be most useful in other areas of life...

This author & presenter answered without hesitation: the ability to Hit the Point Quickly.

we as a species...

I got a weird feeling that, with the progress of technology, evolution of culture, and breakthroughs in various medical treatments, we have been putting more and more artificial stuff into our body...from plastic surgery to metal used in operations to artificial organs to some kind of micro chip...

These are not necessarily bad things...we should not fall trap to the popular "natural" label and blindly believe everything that's natural is the best choice...

...only that we may soon reach a point where we'll need to redefine what we are, or what we believe we are...

Boy, it's gonna change everything...

Tony Robbins vs. those who only talk the talk...

if tony robbins said sth and he failed (divorced guy with a book called Perfect Marriage), many will still think he's respectable. He's not saint, he's just a human being who's not perfect, but he taught us really powerful and useful stuff...

...what if he started teaching us these powerful stuff after his divorce (but before his fame)?

Watch out, the next person who only knows to "talk the talk", whom you are very likely to frown upon, may carry exactly the same powerful stuff that Tony's got.

technology technology...

Our relationships with technology is a bit like relationships with our close friends or family members, sometimes...

...when we get more and more used to each other's company in our lives, we may gradually take things for granted...when we become so (inter)dependent we can't even live on our own (whether we realize it or not), we start complaining...somehow...

Doesn't this happen to our relationship with technology too...?

pain

Went to fix a long-delayed problem with my tooth...

During the process, experienced several real acute pain that lasted one and a half second...

Suddenly realized, it's been such a long time in life that I had not experienced any severe physical suffering (and those coughs and fever were nothing)...not that I'm sick enough to ask for it...

But if you have similar feeling, you know we have one more thing to appreciate.

p.s. the dentist's skills were good, without narcotics those pain was inevitable...or so i believe...

division of labour...

...is not just about productivity and economic well-being for everybody.

It's about trust.

Whether you are a teacher or beer brewer or banker or dentist, whenever you are chosen to provide your service, your client is giving you their trust that you won't abuse the information asymmetry...

With trust comes responsbility. Take good care of both, play your little role with the big picture in mind.

And don't forget to be proud.

Yeah somebody must have said this before, but somehow we seem to have forgotten it...

it's Now.

another story in another public speaking club from a young lady...

You got the message, it's all in the title.

Stop hoping, waiting, planning, thinking, considering...

...whatever it is, ask yourself: does it really matter?

Then make a decision.

Drop it; or got Get It.

he went bankrupt when he was 25...

Went to a public speaking club several weeks ago. It was a weekend.

A young man was giving his first ever speech in the club, telling story of his first ever business venture, which went bankrupt when he was 25...

The lessons? He said...

1. Business models that worked in the past doesnt't necessarily work now.
2. You should always think outside of the box

Don't seem to be something really new or exciting or record-worthy right?

You won't think so if you Really listen to that Person telling his story, not just the ideas...

confession of your humble blogger...

This post is being posted on 29th...after a long long delay...

There are many reasons I can provide, but they're not important...what's important is this reminder I wish to present to you, my dear reader...

Don't Let a Day Slip by without Really Living It.


No matter how tight a schedule you've got, how stressed-out you are, how your time is beyong your own control...be mindful of what's happening between your Self and your surrounding...

You will discover something worthy.

By the way, I'm gonna backdate this post, and some following posts...don't mean to cheat, just that it looks better...

the argument in philosophy primer...

We can't really understand this world because we are part of it.

I first learnt about this idea in a novel-form philosophy primer. Then a quote by Hayek (or some social scientist I can't remember). Then in George Soros' book.

We can't really understand this world because we are part of it + our belief/understanding actually affects the reality.

It seems so obvious it should be common sense...but it never prevail in our mainstream education or decision makers' offices.

When it comes to shaping reality, too many forces are at play. Too many variables, mainly human factors.

So I have to agree with Mr Soros when he attributes the financial armageddon to the prevalence of such fundamental mistakes among elites in our society.

... ...

To simplify and inaccurately put it, collectively we as a species are stupid.