Thang Nguyen 555

Cultures on Collision Course

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With some short-term relief work in Asia/Africa and long stint in Telecom, Thang also earned a B.A. at Pennsylvania State University. M.A. in Communication at Wheaton Graduate School, M.A. in Cross-Cultural Communication at Gordon-Conwell Seminary, Boston. In addition, he earned a CELTA – classes taken in Hanoi for cultural re-immersion.

  • Outside the bubble

    When you are inside, you are hard-presed and unable to think.

    But when you are out of the bubble, it’s illuminating.

    You are able to look back, to gain perspectives.

    Bubble by definition is that which encompasses those who subscribe to its rules (deposit here, withdraw there).

    We got the Tulip mania in Holland, Ponzi scheme in Florida, dot.con and most recently, housing.

    In fact, more are in the making (student loan, green tech etc…).

    High stakes and high rewards.

    But then, who would want to jump in to that which has already been proven 100%.

    There is always “acceptable loss” “sot and hard trend”.

    But what is acceptable to one is not acceptable to the other.

    So we could never really be outside of a bubble.

    We are inter-linked with others: friends, families, and co-workers.

    They will be the ones who whisper “it’s just between you and me”.

    Few  were able to foresee this past housing crisis.

    Now we all are on this side of it, with some residues and long tail effects.

    What lessons learned? Take-aways?

    Are we wiser while poorer?

    A friend’s Dad has just passed away.

    At my last visit, his words were “let me sleep a little bit”.

    The drug had taken its effect.

    When we are in a bubble, perhaps we “sleep a little bit”.

    Why think?

    Social proof ( the majority are always right).

    So we let down our guards, exercise not our survival instincts.

    We forgot to fight, the way gladiators used to each day.

    Our sense of “flight or fight” has been put to sleep.

    After all, it’s the bank, the rating agencies, the press.

    All well-regarded institutions, with huge marble lobbies and high ceilings.

    I heard of more lay-offs (Motorola under Google, Newsweek gone under for the second time etc..).

    Not a  good sign!

    To shake all off, takes some time.

    Just like healing and grief process, maybe all we need is time.

    The bubble crushed dreams. Just like Fukushima and earthquake.

    We just don’t see it in that “disastrous” light, but its tolls are the same, if not deeper.

    When we recover from a bubble, we lost that which made us successful in the first place: self-confidence.

    To restore that takes baby steps.

    One small win at a time.

    But those baby steps are outside the bubble, not huge strides we made inside.

    What an irony. Should have been the other way around. In hindsight!

    But with each baby step, the strength will come back, for the long journey ahead.

    Watch out for another bubble on the horizon. No risks no rewards.

  • Perceived message

    Message received often times is different from message intended.

    Wrong timing. Different context and stress level. Words that inadvertently trigger negative emotions.

    We live and learn.

    It’s not easy to get across, at both cognitive and emotive levels.

    Male are known for missing emotional signals more often than female.

    That’s why long distance relationships are hard. We can’t rely on non-verbal cues.

    Perfect communication doesn’t exist.

    Only when two frames of reference converge in a perfect eclipse.

    It’s as rare as the Moon and the Sun passing.

    Yet we try. We rely on objects to speak for us, on gifts and on symbolism.

    These days, people use chat, text and video calls. Yet Hallmarks cards are still thriving.

    Twitter is for bursting self-promotion.

    Facebook for social, more than two.

    LinkedIn for professional networking.

    That leaves the ubiquitous SMS and chat (which requires simultaneous typing).

    I know that fax and voice mail are on the way out.

    Just like pagers and answering machines.

    We move on. We change the way we communicate. With emoticons and acronyms..

    Languages that once belonged in OPs domain now drifted into our daily conversation.

    Machine-like language for a dehumanized world.

    Please get to the point ASAP.

    OK. I promise to get it done by COB.

    Can you hear me saying? All I intend to say is ….

    Please don’t get it all wrong. I meant well. Oh, that’s not enough?

    Sorry, I completely disregard your circumstances. Are your under stress? I see.

    Let me start over again. Since you are this and that….. I just want to say this ….and that. Now we acknowledge the other ‘s level of communication, we begin to factor in empathy. I often feel the same way. People read me wrong most of the time etc…But I found that ….

    One of the best conversation on race took place in a(imaginary) trench, between a Princeton Lieutenant (white) and a career sergeant (black) in Matterhorn. Since they both were going to die, the Lieutenant asks the Sergeant to teach him the “hand dance”. After a few times, he still did not feel right. The retort ” that is because you are not Black”.

    Even when you meant well, still it’s not enough. Perceived message.

  • Tech talk

    NYT‘s David Brooks zoomed out to reveal the evolution of our social philosophy, from care for the Soul, to Personality then eventually to Decision-making (data deluge).

    This is the age of the intelligent machine. Massaging data. Algorithm and Analytic.

    No wonder, machine language also creeps into our daily speech.

    Let’s try to pin them down.
    First we google it.

    Terms like cramming, cookies, cache . Technology trumps  theology.

    A friend tries to ramp up her business. But she needs to retool herself with business and soft skills.

    Let’s get cranked up. You are running low on bandwith.

    He gunned the engine, but given high gas price of late, he ended up running on empty.

    He hardly processes the information before pulling the plug on the project.

    One needs to fast-track the program. Otherwise, we call it pre-empt.

    EV Battery company runs out of juice, but us human runs low on battery.

    With the advent of social media, we are inundated with invitations from strangers whom we don’t want to interface with.

    He goes about his day on auto-pilot.

    We are analog creatures using digital devices.

    Just pop the TV dinner into the microwave.

    You look stressed. You need to press “reset”.

    Please scan your right index finger for identification, raise and stretch both arms (let everything drop) for the metal-detector.

    The class doesn’t tune in to the lecture tonight.

    I am exhausted; I need to reboot.

    If you rushed to market , you might crash.

    As far as this relationship goes, it’s been on screen-saving mode.

    Exhausted, I feel I need a massage to recharge.

    There was a time in the 60’s when terms like “groovy”, “swell” etc.. appeared then disappeared.

    It is to show as a species, we do move on to better “versions”. In social psychology, we concentrate on WE (60’s), then ME (70’s) and now IT (the machine). Someday, it will be MIT (me and machine – Ipod, Iphone, Ipad going to bed together. My nephew sleeps with the I-pad on, to listen to audio-books).

    Issues like interoperability, integration and convergence were dealt with in the Bicentennial Man.

    In the end, Robin Williams who  played the Machine, asked to be terminated. He regret not being able to cry, like us.

    Life is like peeling the onion, one layer at a time. Sometimes, it makes us cry. I would rather die a man than to live in eternity as a machine, quoted Andrew Martin. In other words, please “unplug” me when it’s time to go. Someone quoted aptly that “Jesus wept”. Crying has been a privilege.

    It also makes us human. It even makes God human. Empathic we are. I feel for the machine, who no matter at what speed of processing, cannot shed tears. Maybe David Brooks can write a code to teach the machine to evolve, from data and decision matrix to have some personality, and eventually to care for the Soul. Man and Machine can then meet half-way.

  • SWOT and ROI

    We do millions of those calculations a day (the reptilian brain). Threat? Opportunity? Fight and flight.

    Yet we also learn to trust, to take risks.

    In business or in life.

    Situations and circumstances, problems and people (who often times become problems).

    Some of us are more reflexive than others.

    But at long last, we will have arrived at the same conclusion to validate that initial BLINK (first impressions, first 6-seconds).

    Without that instinct for survival, we wouldn’t still be here.

    No matter what color we put on outside.

    Underneath it all, lays our human nature: ambitious and ambivalent.

    We initially employed SWOT and ROI analyses in business.

    Then, work doesn’t stop after 5PM. So we start doing that in social and academic context (study for a career that is most promising, she is a good match i.e. suitability measured in socio-economic fit).

    So there is no  point in denying it.

    Still cavemen-like. Still operating reflexively with the reptilian brain (WIIFM = what’s in it for me).

    Keep that in mind. When two or more get together, there will be collision of self-interests.

    Group leaders know this and thrive on it. 2+2=5 when it is handled well. It’s called synergy.

    Hunt in pack. Celebrate together. Burning men and bushmen. Boardroom or bedroom. We need one another if we were to live a ROI life. It’s worth a try. Despite all the threats. We are still here, together, working for the common goods.

  • Fit for Future

    Some live behind their times. Others ahead of them.

    Tesla was definitely of the latter.

    Wireless was his thing. Lincoln was another forward-thinker, enabler and en-actor  of abolition.

    Our next hero is poised to deliver us from oil dependency.

    That day will come, as surely as the sun rises in the East and set in the West.

    The Earth will heal itself and the penguins will have kept their playground.

    Just zoom out from history and take a look.

    Unintended consequences happened. Columbus got lost on his way to India.

    Mr Watson, come here (first phone call).

    Last Saturday, at BALQON, we heard from the owner himself how he had made history: EV tow-trucks.

    It could be done. And being done (freeing up the National transport fleet from oil dependency, at least 75%).

    To prepare for the future, one sacrifices the present.

    Think of SEAL or SAT  training etc…

    One goal, one mind.

    Fit for the future.

    Nobody can beat the man whose mind was made up.

    This is how he/she envisions the future.

    And work backward from there.

    What missing ingredients? What help to be solicited? Where would the resources be to make it happen?

    Essentially, change agents are artists themselves: creating something out of nothing, ex-nihilo.

    One main reason some of us don’t “fit in”, is because we are supposed to fit for other times.

    We and they just don’t realize it.

    When it’s time to go (die), these people are glad to depart, because their playground isn’t primarily Earth-bound.

    Just passing through.

    Meanwhile, we are beneficiaries of others’ invention, reformation and creation (a kid in China today enjoys playing Cityville on his/her I-pad, unaware of how many versions of fast computing prototypes the company went through to get there).

    He or she simply builds on this baseline.

    The rise of the rest.

    It will never be enough. Never completely satisfied. This triggers a new wave of progress.

    Fear of the Boogie Man or Dracula, for instance will be replaced by fear of the alien, life from outer space etc… From children’s fantasy to futuristic breakthrough. We will leave the past behind, the seen for the unseen. Be fit for the future.

  • Memoir yet to be written

    The 70’s was coined the ME decade (Tom Wolfe).

    I am OK, you’re OK. By now, we should see the ME products on the shelves: from Shirley MacLaine to her brother Warren Beatty, from Rock Hudson to Ron Reagan.

    Last of the hardback memoirs. Last of generation ME.

    We now join the world, for WE ARE THE WORLD, to the tune of 1 billion faces on Facebook.

    An oil refinery went wrong somewhere up North, all of Southern California suffered (last week, gas price hit $5.00 per gallon).

    I am an ardent fan of the future. The presence of the future is shown in each child’s eyes. Potential and possibilities.

    No politics.

    Their experience are mediated through a parental “firewall”. But the rest of reality out there to a child , who is holding an I-pad, is full of promises.

    Why, why, why?

    Adults can come up with 10 “why nots”, before we can come up with one “why” we should pursue a course of action (change).

    Life has dragged us down.

    So much that it would be more appropriate for us to wear “handicapped” T-shirts (instead of Superman).

    I admire people who show up at the gym. At least, there are a handful of people who know their priorities.

    Then, we should be paying attention to legacy.

    It’s likely that we will be remembered for one thing, the way Presidents could not live down that one war they presided over.

    Will yours be the innovator? The enabler? The leader? The thinker? The Creator? The Peace Maker?

    We got that spark of divinity. Just that it got buried deep or blurred along the way.

    No one has encouraged us to strive for more, strike for gold, or reach out to the stars.

    They want to catch us speeding (they mean the machine, the hidden cameras etc…).

    In other words, we live in a society predisposed to punishment instead of rewards.

    Yet we pay lip service to employee of the month parking spot (next to handicapped’s).

    I have noticed a detrimental trend during the Recession: those who don’t have jobs have gotten used to their second-class citizenry.

    And those who hold a job, have also been deflated and resigned to becoming machine-like, which ironically, makes them vulnerable and replaceable by automation.

    So, the ME decade in the 70’s gradually dies out (as shown in Memoirs and Biography shelves). In its place, we got the rise of the machine, a mindset (resignation to fate) and even the “end of men” as recently emerged in gender discussions. In twenty years, we expect to see more memoirs by accomplished women executives (HP, IBM, xerox, Facebook, yahoo, Pepsi…) and those who broke the glass ceiling, whether occupational or social (Oprah, Melinda Gates, Merkel, Rice, Hillary). Memoirs yet to be written. Could be yours and mine. With extended life expectancy, you do have time to sort and sift through those raw materials for your memoir. Just make sure to use the word WE  often. So We can share it, re-tweet it, and Like it.

    P.S. As of this edit, Lean-In by Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg, has just been released and moved to top spot on USA Today book list, just to prove my point.

  • Your story

    During the 60’s, when computers were too limited for personal use, Andy Warhol had already predicted that in the future (which is NOW) each of us would have 15 minutes of fame (just like his signature Campbell soup ).

    Naturally, he couldn’t have predicted the rise of social media  which upend traditional broadcast media, turning it around from one-to-many (old) to many-to-many (new) forever and free (Cloud computing + mobile + social media).

    Unrestricted and unleashed i.e. texting while driving (we have yet come up with an acronym similar to DUI).

    We “Like”.  We “tag”. We “tweet”. Yahoo now bets big on Mobile.

    We prepare to lay ourselves exposed: photos (even pictures when we were babies), home-recorded songs and secret sauce.

    We learn the art of filmography and biography e.g. story board and story line, scripting and screen playing (Youtube).

    We share lessons on sewing and  selling.

    It’s quite an open world and open society.

    It used to be that the only time someone asked “tell us about yourself” was at a job interview.

    Now, we tell them about ourselves even when not asked. “They” here means the World Wide Web:

    Facebook, Google + and more.

    A narrative was supposed to have a beginning, middle and end. Since we keep discovering and reinventing ourselves, our personal narrative evolves. Every day, we put on make-ups off line and  make-over on line. Some even called this “the start-up of you”.

    The more interaction on-line, the more detailed our social graph, the richer our narrative. Fresh content generates higher Search Engine Optimization. This process also creates Digital Addicts or DigitAl-holics  who cross-comment  and follow each other. A band of brothers, only more inclusive and extensive (coincides with austerity).

    This domain used to be exclusive for professionals e.g. product improvement and placement now laid bare for all (design your T-shirt contest etc…).

    Now, people are the product (sold to advertisers). Their tweet or post could go viral, to the tune of a million hits.

    Self-branding.

    Self-aggrandizement is in. Self-effacing is out.

    The modesty of Asian mystique faces serious challenges, perhaps more so than last century’s cultural invasion of the West e.g. China and Japan with men eventually do away with braided hair or Samurai tradition. This time around, the invasion is technology-enabled, a spontaneous explosion of personal freedom and expression second to none (including the 60’s Flower Power. This time, it’s trans-cultural and trans-continental in nature.)

    As a result, we need to put up personal “firewalls” to protect our privacy and safeguard our brand.

    To trade ourselves up. Tier-One (as in Premium LinkedIn accounts etc..).

    Sort of like LV who refused to offshore the manufacturing of its handbags. Planned scarcity.

    We first expand, then contract our circle over time.

    This retrenching was mentioned in The Tipping Point (maximum 120 in your circle to have a meaningful conversation and community).

    In the early days of Social Media,, we enjoyed new-toy stage (friending everyone).

    Then Google + came out. By then, we became social-media fatigue.

    Once  you lost that first-mover’s advantage, it’s hard to play catch-up,

    Good luck yahoo, with revamping.

    Yahoo was late in Search, and Social.

    I wonder whatever else it could do to innovate and leapfrog competition. Perhaps with the yCloud? or Ymobile.

    Meanwhile, we still want to find new ways to connect, to share and to show off.

    We are members of a digital country club, where strangers suddenly become intimate i.e. know more about our personal stories, or at least, more quickly, than family members . These are our intimate strangers.

    So, if you share, learn to show and tell properly. Learn the 2-minute summary like our presidential candidates just did tonight. Tell them what you are all about, your hopes, fears and dreams, all scripted and rehearsed (elevator speech). And maybe, someone out there, can identify with your vulnerability, your shortcomings and your humanity. Maybe they will endorse you, adopt you as family member, and you then become  “famous” for 15 minutes. Warhol would have never guessed someday (today) we would be showing off our secret sauce, while he, could only photocopy the (Campbell) Soup he touted as arts.

  • je pense

    Have you ever looked back at those goals you had set right out of college?

    Marriage? Career? Health?

    Then and Now. Perhaps they still remain the same or in reverse order.

    No one set out with a goal of multiple marriages.

    Or multiple careers.

    Yet it has happened, taken most of us by surprise. On a macro scale, the same speed of change has occurred,  right after a State Visit of Chinese Leaders to a Texas range ( Deng wearing a cowboy hat), then the Soviet Leader advertised for Pizza Hut, sitting in the back of a limousine.

    Bang! No more Cold War. Only hot food.

    Berlin Walls down. Firewalls up.  Mainframe on Main Street, albeit smaller and smarter.

    Our expectations have gone through multiple adjustments: fast food and fast divorce, financing and financial rescue (individual and institutional level; fiscal cliff?)

    Nuclear families melt down, just as nuclear reactors did (Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima).

    Neil Young now grows old (Old Man Looks at my Life…) but Bob Seger is Still The Same.

    Yoko Ono exhibits  John Lennon’s Art Works, instead of hers.

    So we adapted. Bob Dylan said we always reinvented the past, because the Present and Future are both unknown.

    Shirley Maclaine would vehemently disagree. She went all the way, claiming to have married with the Roman Emperor himself, albeit in his  reincarnated version as a Swedish prime minister.

    What do I make of all these forward/backward worldviews? I have been told to keep my head down (slurping my cup-a-noodle?). Don’t think much. Then I heard the music “Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow”.

    Then I start being futuristic: electric vehicles, solar energy and stem cells.

    Those unknowns are fascinating. They bring new designs to auto and home building industries. They bring new jobs.

    New hope.

    America in the late 50’s had its mojo.

    For those who are not afraid to set high goals, beyond just marriage, career and health, the future belongs to them.

    Stay hungry, stay foolish. Think different. Je pense. Rodin’s statue of the Thinker could use some imagination ( sitting on a newly designed toilet seat, for instance)

    Bill Gates is trying to do just that. Now, he starts to pick up from his friend Steve Jobs, some diversion thinking. The future belongs to those who are not completely satisfied with what now exists. Contentment or progress? Keep your head down or look up to the stars? Busy with Moon walk (Michael Jackson) or Mars Rover?

    Your choice. I was just thinking out loud. It would be nice to have you join us. Imagine. And the world will be one.

  • Imponderables

    Dead Valley is known to be the hottest place on Earth.

    Yet millions have traveled pass there on their way to Las Vegas.

    Venture Capitalists are also well versed in what’s so called “valley of death” i.e. when a start-up moved pass its honey-moon stage, and simply cannot sustain the burnt rate.

    Yet people keep trying.

    Then, aside from “death” rate, we got divorce rate.

    Yet people keep falling in love, and getting married.

    Hint: more shopping and spending for a family of two and more.

    In America, there is no shortage of imponderables.

    I am starting to read Paterno bio. I could barely get through the first few pages.

    Something quite imponderable there (despite the lucid prose).

    After all, what happened in America, stayed in America.

    Sex shops, butcher shops.

    Churches and strip clubs, sometimes near each other.

    Schools and parks (for homeless people) near fast-food and donuts joints.

    Dental office next to candy shop.

    And 24-hr gym (all you can lift)  near Hometown Buffet (all you can eat). Go figure.

    America spends a large chunk of change on incarceration, pornography (hard and soft e.g. NYT best-seller list, top 3 are taken by the same author who caters to women taste for escapism), guns and amos (especially amos, modeled after HP cartridge business model), medical marijuana and spirits (that get you on a downward spiral).

    My name is Thang. And I am not an alcoholic. So help me God.

    Somewhere somehow, the line has been moved: the incarcerated are better cared for than the non-incarcerated.

    The top 1% refuses to pick up golf balls, while the rest can’t afford meat balls.

    Kids aren’t learning (slipped in ranking), while workers need to but can’t get it paid for by the employers or government.

    Politicians are talking, but leaders aren’t leading.

    We are bidding for time, for election, for miracles, and are freezed like deers in front of approaching head lights.

    Actors are either making quiet retreat (Sundance Festival), or gone overboard (Eastwood and Samuel Jackson).

    It’s the best time to be in  late-night comedy.

    But SNL fans can’t stay up late (wrong demographic for that time slot).

    Voting booths seem to always have problems in Florida. (Voters should be required to have an eye-exam). We are enjoying our time on the deck, but forgot to check the ship’s name. ( Titanic ?).

    Even if it’s free, no ride lasts forever.

    Every once in a while, we need to check the navigating instrument. No such thing as auto-piloting (Google unmanned car?).

    Not in this age of post-innocence. Not at this time of austerity. Not now. Not ever. We need to be vigilant against those who quack like a leader, walk like a leader, but in fact, are not leaders at all. Leadership comes with a price. They come to take credits. This is the root of all imponderables: those who can’t lead, lead. Those who can, refuse to stay in the game.

  • Trash or Treasure

    With 50% youth unemployment in Spain, front-page news showed dumpster diving photos.

    It shouldn’t be. But it is. Life is difficult, says Scott Peck.

    And since when was it easy?

    For years, I put myself in a selfless orbit which , at times, has done much damage to myself (self-sabotage).

    My appetite for risks and adventure, for sacrifice and heroism, got me in a bit of trouble.

    In short, I have been addicted to adrenaline. Life on the edge, hanging and dangling on the cliff,  literally, on the last day of  a Wilderness Survival course in the White Mountain of New Hampshire.

    Now, seeing men in Spain,  not in white and red bandanas having fun at the running of the bulls (which I would like to be doing, adrenaline and all), but dumpster-diving (which I definitely can’t see myself doing), I prefer being chased by the  bulls than the bears.

    Are we in a battle against modernity itself? How come I-phone 5 is in short supply, but workers in Spain are not?

    What is the real benefits of globalization and modernization in its present form?

    Who dare to pose the real and hard questions and to whom?

    Democratizing unemployment?

    The rhetoric has been to “flatten” the process of wealth distribution via technology and globalization. But hard data point to a much different conclusion: the  top 1% got richer by the day, and more are joining their ranks.

    Go figure!

    We will soon reach 9-Billion (2050). Will there be enough energy and food for consumption?

    Enough I-phone and whatever comes after “I” for everyone? Malthus revival.

    The Third wave of civilization is descending on us so quickly (as described aptly via Moore’s Law) that we can’t handle the truth (agricultural and industrial waves took off not as quickly as the information age’s hockey-stick growth).

    I remember discussions in some circles that one day, we would all have a bar code imprinted on our foreheads.

    Scan me. Zap me.

    Brand me. The Who would have to change their  “See me, Feel me” anthem.

    But for now, you can’t seem to get through a day without some guy (even gal) asking for a hand out.

    Brother, can you spare a dollar (used to be a dime) “Anh cho xin mot dong” (in multi-language).

    Inflation hit everyone, from Seoul to Spain, Singapore to Shanghai.

    At least, in collective societies of the East, people can squeeze in around the table (round) for a dip in the rice bowl. The strength of Western individualism (Robinson Crusoe) has finally faced its logical conclusion: I can find food, as long as you help keep the trash bin cool and clean. Why all the post-industrial brains cannot come up with solar-powered refrigeration for the mass, where spare foods can be deposited there for those who are in desperate need (I have seen used clothing bins, but not food).

    Combo number 1 or 2? They have always tried to sell you and I more fries than our bodies can take.

    Meanwhile, the rain doesn’t stay mainly in Spain. Anyone with fresh eyes can see something is not going according to plan . Your trash, their treasure. Be grateful, but then be outrageous. We need your rage.