Open book

Paul McCartney started the song with “when we were young, our lives were an open book”.

Red Square, 2003. And the fans there ate it up. They had been buying bootlegged Beatles albums on the black market for years before that. Now he was appearing in person. Of course, they hummed along, with welling tears in their eyes.

I can relate to it. After all, early this year, I was allowed on stage in formerly Saigon to sang along with the live band (not karaoke) at a 70’s bar. It was a catharsis. In one’s life time, one can only count on a few moments which marked one’s journey: first day of school, high school graduation, first kiss, and wedding day. Some of us managed to pack in more: life-changing evacuation (no one was prepared for it, so they put us in the Army barracks, where if you would

like to come in today, you will need special clearance or invading them with a tank), repatriation and Recession.

I hate to have my life shaped by outside events. It shattered my illusion of control. Determinism or randomness?

Predictably irrational? Lately, there have been some wins in the circle of “bottom up” (open source) vs their counterparts (top down, i.e. Microsoft O/S). It must be hard for coders to toil day and night, just to see their brain child given away for free. Neil Gaiman gave free download of his American Gods, just to see his other books increase in sales.

Are we living in an abundant era, or shortage era? what happen if the third billion join us in the global economy?

Even Walmart can not be prepared for that contingency. It will have to be bottom-up, because the opportunities will be abound. Moore intersects with Metcalfe. E commerce and M commerce. More pollution, more clean tech opportunities. The possibilities are frightening, but the potential also inviting. And I think it’s already here,

at each person’s fingertips. When the third-world kids who are now playing games on the Net find something else to do, they might be inventors of more than just games. They will take over Infosys or Wipro. I understand the dare-devil of not having legacy and precedence. In fact, it’s a prerequisite for exploration and innovation: being fearless, especially when it comes to being wrong. So? When we were young, our lives are an open book, sings Paul in Red Square.