Tag: Japan

Summer Sadness

Some kids revisited their Summer 1942. Coming of age.

Others, say in Vietnam, are ready for bigger stage.

A Linkedin connect started her SQUAR in emerging Myanma, just core viable product, to be perfected as time goes along.

Summer separation and sadness. Summer also brings reunion and reassessment.

It’s Q3 for business people.

Abenomics or any-omics, as long as Japan gets out its deflationary state. Egyptian want their first-year President out.

They have gotten used to protest and counter-protest.

Summer blockbusters range from the Great Gatsby to  Now You See Me (Now You Don’t). Abracadabra!

Or as our own Alan Phan, “say a prayer”, like a virgin.

I remember when California elected Arnold. The commentary back then was, “it doesn’t matter which monkey is in charge”.

The budget was way out of balance then.

Now, Gov Brown has imposed strictest order on the fiscal affairs of the State, used to be called, Golden State.

Surprisingly, Arnold was quoted in one of the beer consumption studies, which shows Vietnam at the top of the list.

Praying and drinking. Drown out our sadness and sorrow. Sharing our moments.

And never give up hope that our best days are yet behind us.

Summer Sadness. It brings understanding and perspective

In Norwegian Wood, our Toru Watanabe looked back at his last year in college, and suddenly, understood the deep pain college girl friends feel (two suicides, male and female to be fair).

We all had our 1942’s and 69’s.

Of eating dorm food and from vending machine.

Of all-nighter and crammed for finals.

Then, what’s next?

Be an entrepreneur or employed?

Looking forward or backward?

There will always be next summer.

But this summer is a hot one. An inconvenient truth.

Of torrential rain and perpetual austerity.

Of not much hope for an improved GDP anywhere.

Tourism is up as the temperature heats up.

Can’t find a decent paperback to pack along.

Be sure to wade the water and if things come along, as they always do, live your 1942 so you have something to think back in old age.

Best way to live life is to pretend to look back to the present from the vantage of the future, then live it to no regret.

No regret, no sorrow. No sorrow, no sadness. Summer or not. One’s happiness cannot be conveniently measured by a thermometer. But if there were such thing as Global Warming measurable from the outside, it should also affect what’s inside. Now, that’s something we can do something about. And it’s the most inconvenient truth about ourselves we often refuse to admit.

Expired Empires

The Distributed Model has enabled the Rise of the Rest.

Capital, talent and market flow where the chips may fall. Apple courting China, China Africa, Japan Rest of Asia etc…

Everyone is out on the dancing floor.

Dance anyone?

The combinations are endless. Permutation and exponential.

Hard and soft powers, hard and soft currencies.

Exert that influence. Assert that strength. Differentiate.

Nations, like people, will have their 15-minutes of fame.

Advertisement section (like ones in the Economist) paints beautiful, picturesque locations, from Japan to Jamaica.

In reality, no one wants to remember Fukushima and Sandy.

Amnesia and amnesty.

Shelters from the storm.

America got its own set of problems e.g. FOR LEASE and FORECLOSURE.

There was a sign in Los Angeles that says it all. It was NOW HIRING, but the W has been whited out to be read: NO_  HIRING.

I got all sorts of CV’s (binders full of men). I feel the weak pulse of a declining empire.

We have squandered the opportunities this side of the Cold War (the US fared much better on this side of World Wars). Peace time problems e.g. Petro State (Dutch disease) to Penn State (low morale).

Meanwhile, the C in BRIC keeps growing stronger by the day. Scrapped metal scavenging, refined and remade into finished products, which got shipped back. In the process, this turns America into a Third-World nation by industrial standard.

China on the hunt for raw material, for petro, for talent, for know-how, for creativity. It has Soviet, US and Japan lessons to learn from. And it has Hong Kong and Taiwan as matchmakers. When a Taiwanese University came to Alhambra, CA to recruit students, we know the Rest is Rising.

And this foreshadows an expired Empire. Wake up Ivy League. Start at Little League. Math, Science, and English. 10,000 hours.

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.

Social boosters

We stand on the shoulders of giants: wheel, movable types, steam engines, electricity and the internet.

Now Iphone 5.

Larger screen, one extra row of icons, aerial and panoramic view.

Information on the go.

I can rattle on.

We are at a point when our ways (technology) are growing faster than our use (apps).

Because of the Iphone 5  panoramic view, am I to travel to the Grand Canyon to take advantage of this new feature?

With Google Earth, do I keep looking at my ex’s house from out-of-state?

After a few trials, we will get bored and move pass new-toy stage.  Not that I am ungrateful.

I do, however, appreciate all the help I have got, as once said, “it took a village”.

My Acknowledgement page should be exhaustive: from parents to people I don’t get to see any more. But also the coffee vendor whose son I befriended during my last months in Vietnam.

People who day in and day out got up early, and get the coffee  hot and ready.

Social boosters.

I appreciate the invisible bakers and dishwashers. People who are portrayed in “Nickel and Dime”.

Soon, we will have fewer of those: milkman and mailman, paper boy and cable guy.

All the jobs seem to have been shipped somewhere else. End of  men.

The US retains high-touch high-value jobs while off-shoring its manufacturing base  (thus rendered irrelevant many civil-rights accomplishments such as EOE).

Latest indicators show Switzerland and Singapore in the top-tier, while the US and Japan trailing in  World Economy (competitiveness).

Still I miss and am grateful for social support, social interaction and yes, occasional social friction.

Now, we order things online, self-serve at the pump, mix our own soda drinks or ice cream flavors and even design our own T-shirts. We have morphed from being a Con-sumer to being a Pro-sumer (even the IT admin will soon be packing because of the iCloud, gas-station attendants because of the EV charging stations or cash-only kiosks. JetBlue, SouthWest both let passengers book their flights and self-checkin).

I  miss those social boosters. Where would I be today without them.

We stand on shoulders of giants, inventors of the past, but also on “nickel and dime” folks. Soon, we will have to say thanks to the machine, which seems to have beaten us to the punch.

Uncharted waters

When Henry Ford first put together 2 and 2 (wheels) to make 4 (wheels), he was probably laughed at.  Then his policy to increase worker’s wages, so they could afford buying the very same cars they had helped assembled was probably viewed as radical.

Today, the same thing with Nissan Leaf‘s buyer’s incentive, and Diamond-Lane privilege (even just one driver) that comes with driving an EV are looked at with envy and intrigue.

Early adopters only.

Going to uncharted territories.

No what if!

Without entrepreneurial spirits, we wouldn’t get Netflix, Amazon, Zappos, Yahoo and Google.

Names that did not exist a few decades ago. Uncharted waters.

Broadband-enabled companies. Google Fiber?

To the tune of Billions and employing big pipes, but not fat payroll.

They were probably laughed at too in early stage. What do you mean customers can send back the shoes free of charge? (Zappos)

Convenient online check-out? Customers recommended purchase? Perhaps you would like to check this out (Cross-selling and up-selling).

With fat pipe, we can expect more apps and new business models i.e. 24/7, easy shipping and hassle-free return,  self-improving algorithm that knows its customers better than they would themselves.

In short, business will get smarter as machine processes transactions faster.

Machine will help both sides of the equation: Business and Consumers, selling and buying.

Entrepreneurs can strike out without too much sunk costs.

Software can be tested off-shored, and while being overseas, companies might as well let the public sneak peak at  their proofs of concept (Japan has a Sample Store).

The irony of this whole process is: while off-shoring centers were viewed as cost centers, they ended up as profit-centers, for BRIC countries are now the ones with relatively strong purchasing power (after years of doing someone else’s dirty work). When traversing uncharted waters, one will never know what perils and possibilities are waiting at each turn. The pre-req is an open mind and a brave heart to deal with those unexpected turns of event.

Algorithmic social

People who connect with so and so, tend to be interested in so and so….

Once you clicked down that path, you entered a maze that leads you further down the path of algorithmic and formulaic social links. No backing out, no return.

So, my machine-led social graph has taken on new twists and turns as I went back and forth between Vietnam and the US. During the downturn, I have followed the advice “Go East, Old Man”. So most of my Linkedin connections turned out to be friends of friends and associates in Vietnam. Now, back to the US, I hardly get any algorithmic recommendations for “white folks”.

Should I stay with machine-recommended linkage? Ignore it altogether? Go out and hustle for new connections in the US?

It’s a perfect storm: new apps, new austerity and new attitude (cash only).

All happened within the span of 4 years.

I  value friendships made during the downturn.

For everyone realizes we need one another more than ever.

A bit of self-advertisement, not self-aggrandizement.

Just nudging, swaying. Just in case. For the next job.

Friends in both high and low places. Need them both. The former to lift us up, the later for mutual support and empathy.

In the Strong and the Weak, Paul Tournier talks about how we need both (just look at Japan‘s aging population).

Virtual friendship is even more delicate than platonic. It’s out there, in the ozone (like pics sent from the Curiosity Rover in Mars), unreachable, but real nevertheless.

How impactful can it be? To what extent can we help one another online? What are the measures of a man/woman? Glowing recommendations? List of degrees and accomplishments? Or just his/her smile, transparency and potential?

Perhaps all of the above. For we start relying on machine-matched relationships. We are developing relational skills that have never existed nor been taught in school. Welcome to 21st-century network effect. Now go, shake hands (virtually) and introduce yourself.

From Co-worker to Co-llaborator

Some workplace didn’t even get to that phase.

People just share a parking lot, a refrigerator and maybe a Christmas Party.

Meanwhile, you can collaborate with  people miles apart, in different languages and time zones.

Welcome to the new work place. MNC’s have gone through this phase. From relocation to repatriation.

Employees got shifted around, to cross-pollinate and get cross-trained.

Management just hope for collaboration. They can organize people into teams, build them and encourage cohesiveness. But ultimately, the decision lies in each member. To help one another as fellow sojourners.

Times are hard.

I guess companies are hoarding cash, and get the most productivity from their employees.

The next and last step is to optimize team work and output.

Managers will need to turn themselves into leaders of team. Resolving those conflicts, working with diversity in cultures and expectations, and reward both strong and not-so-strong personalities. Teams need both the weak and the strong.

Just as society does.

For the period between WWII and  these past 2 wars, we in the US have lived off the glory of the past: GI bills and Dollar bills.

Now, with a stronger China and Japan sliding (though still an industrial power might), we need to acknowledge to ourselves that the playing field has been unleveled (this past Olympic screamed this message loud and clear).

Need to teach our next generation how to do things, fix things, and not jut buying things ( often times from the credits China and the Oil-rich countries extended to us).

In fact, some of the most basic life skills such as being courteous, being kind, paying it forward, saving, eating healthy, basic math and science and geography-history, need to be taught. Other digital skills such as texting, playing games, computer operation and programming, will come as given.

In short, new combination of skills are required for survival in this new age.

I am thinking of SMS contest vs hot-dog-eating contest. The former stays with us for quite a while, and the latter can be let go (nice and fun tradition, but it encourages gluttony).

Back to collaboration. People who work together need to make teams work.

And when team works, companies reap the benefits of happy collaborators.

You will be amazed how one creative idea sparks another one, and another one. 3M’s Post-It notes, HTML are just a couple of examples how creativity and collaboration really make our lives easier.

Look at your co-worker again. See if he or she needs more nutrition, exercise, or just encouragement. Be the collaborator you have always wished you run into at work.

Lost art of typing

The BBC has a piece on Japan Love Affair with the Fax Machine. Older population has gotten used to that technology (which allows for hand-writing). For years, I have used email except for  Thank-you notes in writing. I can reasonably predict that even typing (as we know it) will be a lost art (speech recognition will be in) I-pad, I-phone replacing IBM Selectric.

The late Andy Rooney was seen inseparable with his typewriter. So was American literary giant, Norman Mailer.

Something about the man and his tools. We think as we type. The neurons are hard at work, one character at a time. The sound of those banging keys is rhythm to our ears, which then reflects each thought. A feedback loop. We know you are out there in the ether. And that you are lonely. We, writers, are too. Awake at night, half-sleep during the day. We are commanded by sudden thoughts. We are mere instruments and Irises.

Via fax, chat, text, tweet and type, we send out an SOS. That we were once here, alive and breathing, waiting for validation. Each, with love, hope and fears.

Love unceasingly. Hope never fails and fear as basis for survival.

We invent, reinvent and reshape this known universe in our likeness (while we are byproducts of earlier version).

Confined, reduced and restricted, we try to liberate ourselves by any means we can. We imitate others, read their works, copy their findings and their maps.

From Magellan to Mandela, we know they are out there, not taking injustice sitting down.

Yes, some did not play by the rules. But most do.

In the end, humanity benefits and makes progress as a whole.

Rilke advises the young poet that he should dig deep inside, where it’s dark and vulnerable.

We each carry that river of doubt. About our tomorrow, about the unknown and unfamiliar.

We want change and continuity at the same time. We are paradoxical.

A little progress, yes. But not too much. Because new pieces of hardware displace old ones, we end up making frequent trips to the Salvation Army or Goodwill, where their electronic section kept piling up with industrial waste. Among those, the fax machine.  Somewhere along the way, I hope to run into an IBM Selectric. CSI of the future will learn that our civilization once have a love affair with bulky stuff, fax machines made in Japan, and used in Japan.

Taking chances

Peter’s Principle states that line managers are often promoted “beyond their level of competency”.

In other words, a technical guy, best at his job, ends up being the boss who has to crawl his way through business dilemma and personnel issues.

In life, however, some problems cannot be solved at the same level where they had first occurred. Bully problems at school, for instance, need intervention. Or as recently as this morning, Sandusky‘s sin exposed and dealt with in public.

It’s a call to take chances, to take risks if we were to make any progress.

This Recession has drawn out both the best and the worst in us.

Some of us rose to the occasion. Diversify ourselves. Or take the high road (going after our passion or non-profit work).

Others just checked out. Drifted.

I have met a bunch of expats who kept staying in-country indefinitely.

Extended vacation.

Or permanent student.

Profitable venues i.e. financial and housing sectors are hitting bottom.

We are left with the “sure things”: food, clothing and shelter (renting).

Even families once so close now seem so far. Recession pull them apart, that was.

My friend reminded me how long it took Japan to get through its V-shaped recovery. 18 years.

Ouch! I will be dead by then.

Still there are things that need risks: crossing the street, eating one more bite of that greasy foods or banking on the elusive thing called love.

Friends went into fields which are quite different from their academic and career backgrounds. That’s risk-taking.

I spotted excitement and adrenaline.

For VC‘s, they need to hit 20% of the time, to cover the other 80% failures.

Still it’s worth it.

Still taking that chance.

Still go for it. Or else it wouldn’t be solving the problem at a higher level.

Because after all, many of those problems cannot be solved if left where it started.

But beware of over-promotion (beyond one’s level of competency). Peter’s Principle.

Summer in mind

Coming of age. Summer 42. Sandy beach.

Surf. Dream. Instant memories.

Something humbling about the vast expanse.

Men  and women, hard and soft bodies, clothed and nude.

All have walked those beaches.

All have pondered and projected toward the unknown.

Will i turn out alright!

How much time do I have left to live?

What then should be on the must-do list?

Summer time.

It draws out the soft side of a person.

Past relationships. Faces that we once thought we could never live without.

Then those camping trips. Beach volleyball.

Rarely worn and loosely fit bathing suit.

Those extra pounds from those extra cheese.

Summer time.

Transition.

New role, new relationship.

Students upon graduation now return home.

Might as well sleep on the beach, surfing the wave during the day, and surfing the net at night.

Japan-style “no sun” generation. They came of age during the Recession there, and rose with the Digital era.

Something to learn from.

Nothing is new under the Sun.

Just new actors for the same script.

So it’s Summer time.

When we appreciate its breeze.

and record its memories.

Hope yours are as warm as mine.

Summer in itself can do no wrong.

1942 forever, even if the calendar says its 2012.