Tag: Fukushima Prefecture

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.

Nature as reminder

Scientists just found out that Earth is much older than previously thought. It certainly has a way to maintain itself.  Remember Tsunami and Fukushima? or the Louisiana oil spill and Katrina? At the time, we thought we couldn’t bear the grunt, but one by one, they are now behind us.

Same thing with this summer ‘s drought and consumer sentiment dip.

Yet, it is known that many companies are hoarding cash e.g. Apple .

In NYC, Chinese got in line to buy a few phones, just to hand-carry them back to Main Land.

Those phones were made by FoxConn, Taiwanese who contracted out to Main Land to begin with.

When users need tech support or help from customer service, the calls got routed to India or Philippines. To be cool and hip, one buys clothes that go with the phone.

Again, those clothes are now Made in Vietnam.

There are signs every where to remind us of a wider world out there unlike the man who ” while life goes on around him everywhere he’s playing solitaire” courtesy the Carpenter’s Solitaire.

When we say our bedtime prayer, people in the Far East are off to action. It’s like the story of a hare and a turtle. In a race.

When do we turn around to learn from others, from nature and its permanence?

The best gift we can offer the world and others is being ourselves. By being authentic, we allow them to be themselves as well. Break the ice. Break the silence. Break the barriers.

We are not marketers who try to segment our customer base.

We are people who need people (who make our I phones and our Nike shoes).

Remember, tonight, when we go to sleep, others in the Far East are getting up to punch in, at factories and farms (server) to maintain our data base or make our footwear. Be mindful and thankful that nature and evolution are both working in our favors. BTW, they are talking about I-phone 5 already. It’s a dry summer here, but it rains elsewhere in the world. The machine is off here, but they are humming 24/7 around the world. It’s a different world now but nature stands to bear witness to those changes, as always.

Hello Darkness

my ole friend, I come to talk with you again.

We all know the tune. That which resonates and recalls of years past.

The familiarity against the unknown.

Familiar darkness, receding into that comfort zone, the cocoon.

Farthest corner would be that mother’s womb: where it all began.

Rocking motion, complete safety and insulation.

That’s what etched in our earliest memories: maternal voice and the rocking movement.

Even those earlier tastes.

Some prefered eating chilis.

Others thought highly of themselves, too highly. The chosen and the others.

All got that same start, from the dark chamber. Hello Darkness my ole friend.

When vacationing, people choose the beach, to experience the ocean.

To swim, to rock back and forth, to float and feel pampered. Feel enveloped and gloved.

A brand in California put it aptly: Body Glove (for swimwear).

Even people who live in the Mountain like to wear something from California. Reminds them of sandy beach, of eternal youth and innocence.

Yet after sunset, the beach says Hello Darkness.

Water everywhere, in and outside of us.

When too much, it’s called flood. When too fast, it’s called tsunami.

In New Orleans, Bali and Fukushima.

How can we not be flexible.

Maybe Bruce Lee was onto something: Be like water, shaped according to its container.

Flexibility and fluidity.

To survive the times, one needs to tap into this hidden corner, where darkness and water lie. Like it was when we first began and believed. P.S. As of this edit, Sound of Silence was to be preserved as one of the most important American pieces.

Son Tinh Thuy Tinh

According to Vietnamese legend, the Mountain God showed up early to ask for the Princess’ hand.  The Sea God was half a step late.  Hence, anger turned tsunami, Katrina, Fukushima etc….

Vietnam Central region always stands in the way of major storms.

To endure and overcome natural disasters, people fabricated tales to assuage their own pain.

Kids, show up early. Life consists of 90 per cent perspiration, 10 per cent inspiration.

I have had a chance to be down in Houston right after Katrina. To donate calling cards.

To see and visit serial refugees (North-South Vietnam,  S Vietnam – New Orleans, N Orleans Houston).

Di Ha, as known around town, is the owner of Hong Kong Mall, Vietnamese enclave in Bellaire.

Her mall and food court instantly turned relief and refugee center.

I saw younger faces, Red-Cross types. Activists and community workers.

The future of America is in good hands.

All Son Tinh: showing up early right at the crest of disaster.

I read somewhere that on the Last Day, same bed might see one taken up in the air, while the other left behind.

50-50 odd.

Natural selection.

A set of twin might not even turn out the same.

Something about nature and nurture.

Hard to put a finger on.

I just know I need to try harder: one more push-up, another minute earlier, straighten up that strand of hair.

The moral of the story: early to bed, early to rise. Luckily, the older we get, the less sleep we need.

In today’s 24/7 always-on digital world, we need to be vigilant against insomnia.

(Ariana Huffington of Huffington Post is known as Sleep Evangelist).

Technology itself is a double-edged sword. For good and evil.

I like seeing people’s comments right after an article or an advertisement.

Keep them honest and challenged. Two-way communication. Many to many.

Try smarter and harder.

Be Son Tinh, and not Thuy Tinh.

And be a cheerful loser, if late.

People might come around and give you a second chance.

Thuy Tinh could have reacted nicer, with grace in defeat.

Good for Vietnam Central Region.

Good for humanity, natural or man made, Fukushima  vs Hiroshima.

More on Vietnamese tales and take-aways on our next bed time.

Vietnam’s outsourcing factory

I have heard about TMA Solutions new building in Quang Trung Software Park, but I have never got a chance to stop by, until yesterday.

1,200-strong, TMA begins to look like an army of engineers (my friend and guide showed me a beehive behind the building, after we had toured their lobby where Vietnam‘s historical artifacts were on display, next to the museum of telephony).

“It is to show the stream of history, culturally and technologically, so our engineers could get a sense of where things might be going” said my friend.

I could relate to that.

Users and programmers don’t exist in a vacuum.

We live and breathe the same air as everyone else.

Honda got hit not once but twice last year, both in Fukushima and in Thailand.

While incubators and laboratories are necessary for concentration and collaboration, they still function within a larger ecosystem.

Users tend to move on to the next big thing more quickly than companies.

Two great benefits TMA could offer to prospective clients:

– its time-tested know-how

– young work force who can stay on for however long the project requires (end-to-end outsourcing).

Yes, we had a sort of working lunch and then marketing presentation.

But it’s the spirit of the group, the speed of execution and the spread of product (cloud computing) that will work in TMA’s favor.

If they grew  (at least no lay-off)  in hard times, how much more in good times.

I am afraid this is counter-intuitive. But organizations need to secure talent just as much as they secure property and product.

When all boats rise, talent can then command higher salary leveraging supply vs demand.

As engineers huddle in conference rooms and cubicles,  consumers are shopping for the greatest and latest.

In turn, these technologies (cloud, social media apps) enable new applications (e.g. Google + Search) which in turn reshape consumer expectations.

It’s the loop, of empathy, of hits and misses (Betamax) and the drive for perfection (Apple).

Outsourcing is just a phenomenon, but man’s search for meaning and connection has been around much longer.

Get to the bottom of this, you will get to the bottom line.

I like my guide’s side comment “look at Napoleon! he was so short, yet so imperial”.

I just know from seeing the beehives behind the building that worker bees are busy at work, coding and collaborating, and  in the process saving tons of money for clients. Clients who now can sit back and choose from a score of outsourcing factories. Let the game begin. Stay hungry, stay curious (Jobs’ commencement address at Standford).  Vietnamese engineers at TMA can discount the first advice and focus on being curious. This, their shrewd leader had already anticipated. He wanted to leave his legacy via the museum of  ethnology (past), and technology  (future).