Tag: Business and Economy

Shore this!

It’s not good enough with automation.

They need to combine that with outsourcing, off-shoring, in-shoring and now, near-shoring.  The idea is to line up the  Filippino call-center workers at mid-night (to go to work, not in line for next-day Black Friday sales) to make a go at scripted greetings like “Have I done everything to your satisfaction”.

Now Google wants to be unique: back to using the shop down the street so Googlers don’t have to fly to China.

Meanwhile, Africa is buying in to the Chinese Dream.

What happened to California Dreaming? To the Mamas and the Papas.

Aren’t all the leaves brown any more?

(I definitely need to “walk into a church, and sit down and pray”).

Industrial might. Pressures of automation and legislation.

If one can get the right mix of technology prowess, regulatory compliance  and market demand, he/she  rules.  The kids are playing with the I-pads instead of cabbage dolls.

All the powers to them.

More information, hopefully leads to smarter and more compliant kids.

Not so sure on that last point!

When honeymoon is over for off-shoring, and inflation takes its toll in wage-pressured China, we will see a sad wave of unemployment and unrest there.

Of course, they can then “sub-shore” to Africa, to be evangelists of the new Chinese Dream.

Sort of Chinese Peace Corps. Know-how in exchange for rare earth. Fair trade.

Trinh Cong Son (Vietnamese Bob Dylan) had a line “Why travel to and fro so much, to tire your life out”.

The thing about companies and market is that they often don’t know what they want. A few years back,  focus groups said they wouldn’t buy a notebook (today’s I-pad). Go figure!

Saigon Tech Talent

It could have been a waiting scene at Acoustics, Saigon Rock Alley. Except for the instruments and the bands.

They were CEO’, CTO and Venture Capitalist. Not Bar Camp, nor Web Wednesday. It’s Mobile Monday, held on Thursday night.

The cool, the calm and the co-ed. They were all there. Web to Mobile and back to Web (the mother of all).

Bruce Lee clip was shown: “to hell with obstacles, I create my own opportunities.”

So they created, collaborated and commented.

The eagerness and hunger was there, for the next big thing, even in BioTech.

When I was looking that good, I wasn’t into tech. Now another young guy, by the same first name, sat there and told us to “build an ecosystem” etc….

Back then, all I knew was sound system and we were all hair.

Features phones vs smart phones had not even been in the horizon.

Yes, Vietnam is facing an e-payment problem; its e-commerce is consequently slow to take off. But what about those who come to Vietnam from an ecosystem that doesn’t have that problem? Should we make them walk around, pay by cash? How about  Tech Support…..

So the arguments tail-spinned in a different direction.

But the thought flow and thought form were there, punctuated by occassional nods of agreement.

Tech talent got it.

They just need a jump-start, like the eagle that needs a push.

Jump, said Jesus, to the invalid who complained that every time he tried (to get himself healed) , someone else had already jumped into the pool first.

Instead of getting to the water, Bruce Lee’s advice for us  to become water.

“Water in a cup becomes the cup….”

Saigon Tech talent will need to morph and move through window in between mobility and mortality.

It was good to see 160 show up after only a few days of SMS and flash mop.  Unlike at Acoustics, I went home hungry, but not drunk.

I still remember some if not all the challenges, comments and consolation.

It’s good to have attended Mobile Monday, in T-shirt and jeans.

Less is more

In reading Steve Jobs, a theme keeps emerge: less is more.

He cut out the fat and all its distraction.

(being a veggie, he stayed true to form).

His closet was full of the same long-sleeve stretch shirt that defined his personal brand.

His take on wealth and money was also consistent with his 60’s philosophy.

Steve could be nice when he chose to, but working for him must have been a nightmare.

His current replacement was quoted as saying “someone must take charge and fix the problem in China i.e. suppliers”. Half an hour later, he turned to see the man in charge still sitting there “why are you still here?”. That man drove to SF airport and bought a ticket flying East.

It’s true that our world is better and certainly more beautiful with technologists like Steve who also doubled as art lovers (I-pod).

If life consists of only 0’s and 1’s, we would all be automatons.

Lucky for us, we got both Bohr and Beethoven, Newton and Nicholas Cage.

Simplify, simplify, simplify.

Yet people keep acquiring, acquiring, acquiring.

And the longer I live, the more I see this isn’t going to end.

The pursuit of happiness has meant the pursuit of things (think of exercising equipment for home you saw on night TV).

All I can recall from a Hermeneutic class was “a priori “(we read into a text what we had already thought it would say).  We have consitently misinterpreted the meaning of happiness. In fact, advertisers have done this for us (driving a Cadillac is cool. Hence, to be cool, you must own a Cadillac).

Those text-book writers managed to make complex something very simple.

Urban gangs could say “yo man, m..f…is a racist”. That would say it all.

In the age of Wikipedia, if we want to go in-depth about a topic, just click it and scroll down. The spread of information will multiply even more quickly than Gordon Moore had anticipated (IBM has found a way to save space in transistors, call it magnetization, as opposed to polarization as traditionally used). Devices will get smaller with longer battery life (Acer’s thinnest laptop).

But convenience and comfort don’t equate to happiness. Life has gone on for centuries unassisted by today’s accessories. A tribe in India (island) is still functioning without modern amenities. (Tourists tried to bribe them to “pole dance” for YouTube , raising the issue of “human zoo”.)

The happy countries index often lists Costa Rica and other S American countries.

Yes, quality of life index listed Scandanavian countries such as Norway and Finland. They got the oil, but equally distributed unlike Lybia. But happiness doesn’t confine to just Costa Rica as opposed to Costa Mesa (where South Coast Plaza Mall is located). Perhaps Steve saw something while living in India (My Sweet Lord).

Perhaps we too should reexamine what are the core things that make us happy.

Beauty is found in wild lilies and the grandest scene recurs at every sunset.

Sometimes we missed those moments of happiness, only to recognize them after the fact. Would it be simpler to give happiness the initiative to seek us out. I bet you it work out better that way.

Unintended use

Charlie Chaplin uses lamp post for support, ladder for weapon and shoes for breakfast.

When it comes to everyday use of common objects, there is no end.

Here is my Top Ten:

– shopping cart as walker

– golf cart as janitorial vehicle

– hand dryer as hair dryer

– food freezer as mortuary (Libya)

– ammunition case as tool box

– garage as start-up lab

– drawer handle as beer-bottle opener

– shopping bag as rain gear

– milk carton as Halloween helmet (Missing Person)

– nature as ash tray

In Thailand, we saw crocodiles crawling in the streets.

Quite an unintended use of surface street. My condolences to the 506 flood victims’ families.

Vietnam still loves reading

Huffington Post picks up a piece from Vietnam news, featuring used book shops in present day HCMC.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/13/used-bookstores-vietnam_n_714522.html

If you don’t know, you would think the city was on wheels. But in some quiet corners, you still find students and researchers actually reading and browsing

just as you would find at a B&N here.

The piece did not mention the rise of e-books, which is very similar to the rise of wikipedia when it overtook Britannica  i.e. used book shops will soon follow the way of Tower Records or note pad when I pad overtook it.

In the piece, we learn that used bookshop owners know their stocks. They serve as knowledge curators.  A prisoner wrote and asked for a list of books to self-reform.

Or some Vietnamese, before resettling abroad, sell all their books to these shops.

The stacks sit there, waiting to be discovered, to come alive.

The joy of reading will never be overtaken by web surfing or DVD watching.

One reads in order not to be alone.

Linearity triggers other parts of the brain, perhaps makes all sorts of connection and link.

Fragments of information finally joined in and mashed up to help one connect the dots.

The same way wiki contributors are helping to shape world’s evolving knowledge.

So used book stores in Saigon stood the test of time: war, post-war, and pre-industrialization.

All sorts of novels translated directly from Japanese, German, East European languages and of course, French.

They are there, dusted everyday, like ancient swords awaiting  for our heroes/warriors.

In this case, peace time has turned swords into plowshares.

It’s time to read, learn, and self-cultivate.

It’s time to build knowledge, to catch up with ROW (rest of the world).

I love old book shops. I happened to be born just a block away from them.

But now the journey for me to get to those shops takes  24 hours.

Still I know they are there, awaiting my next visit.

That’s the thing about books: wisdom that stood the test of time. A loyal friend.

 

First love

First day of  my kid’s summer. First day of  being a FT Mr Mom.

It happens! I reflect on Summer 75 when I was looking forward to resettling in Central Pennsylvania.

America, Land of the Free. Back then, I was sure the nation was still in a state of shock, and perhaps was relieved that

I wish I could hang on to that  first-love moment for this country.

Everything at the time smelled strange and was hard to categorize: from the Pennsylvania meadow to Fall foliage, and onto snow flakes and snow frosts,

the perpetuating soft rock music on the radio. American should learn to love its land and ideals all over again.

From the kindness of strangers for a foreign student potluck dinner to a  coffee refill at the Corner Room.

How about just a “hello”, because we are all here today, gone tomorrow: American or Amish.

Let’s make this ride a memorable one. Long or short, it matters who you are riding with and how you enjoy his/her presence. Even the De Niro character  (a bounty hunter) could finally appreciate his apprehended accountant at the end of Midnight Train. First love was special because it came around once, and graced us with lasting memories. BTW, the perpetual song on the radio those days that sticks out was “I will never fall in love again.”