小国的悲哀

读中东战争史后，不由感叹：小国的命运真是操纵于大国的股掌之间，不过是世界政治博弈中的棋子，除了在被利用的时候能多少谋取一点可怜的价值以外，只有被捉弄被出卖的命运等待着。生于此的人，是天生的不幸。

 

于是可以进一步问，人的命运也是如此吗？不尽然！寻常人中，不乏性善者。而操纵国际政治者，善是伪善，恶是真恶。

思想的价值

读了几个年轻人的博客，每个都有立场有见解，一副颇有思想的样子，但总不及根本处，只是某种程度上的自说自话。

 

思想的价值无非是：分辨事实，厘清主次，找到办法，注意局限，不断反思。任何思想，都是一时一地的产物，受一时一地的局限。凡把个人的思想太当真的，不是无知，就是愚蠢。

 

也许，这时他们的认真，是成长的必经阶段。但愿他们能在思想上长大。

A few take-aways

From the book "What I wish I knew when I was 20":

* Change the frame to broaden your scope of search. When presented the problem of using $5 to earn more money, the most successful one didn't use the $5 at all.

* Creativity or creative ideas worth has unlimited potential coupled with unwavering courage to break loose old behaviors and beliefs.

* Opportunities are abundant

* regardless of the size of the problem, there are usually creative ways to use the resources already at your disposal to solve them

* an entrepreneur is someone who is always on the lookout for problems that can be turned into opportunities and finds creative ways to leverage limited resources to reach their goals.

* In school, students are evaluated against each other and curved. when they win someone else must lose. Outside school, collaborative within team and outside of team, win-win is the norm to be successful. 

* In school, closed problems are presented. In real life, problems are always open-end and you only impose the boundary on yourself.

* In school, questions are often multiple choices and there is a right answer. In real life, there are many answers and each is correct in some way. And most importantly, it is acceptable to fail. And failure is an important part of life's learning experience. The key is to draw valuable lessons from past experiences.

* Attitude: Embrace problems as opportunities. Don't wait to be assigned the task. Seek out the task yourself.

* First step to solve big problems is to identify them

* A good definition of problem is a frame, and already suggest its solution. So framing the problem is the most important part.

* "Problem-Blindness": Those who experience the problem everyday usually don't see them, or can't imagine radical approaches to solving them. They are framed in the current reality.

* break the assumptions of current solutions and create new combinations.

* Take a hard look at the RULES, imposed upon us, and break free (mentally) from those inhabinate us.

* We are defeated only after we accept defeat

* Don't go too quicly abandoning your so called "bad" ideas. Hash with others who have a different set of perspectives, it may indeed turn into really good ones.

* Cooliris: solving hiring difficulty: create the buzz of being the place to be, and get people on board as interns,

* it is good to know there are a few of things of absolute than countless detailed rules

* breaking away from preset expectations

* Tiltle: Give or Being given. Appoint yourself or get promoted by someone else. Wait for permission or grant permission themselves. motivated by themselves or pushed by outside forces.

* Portable skills: find the similarity, compare and expand

* People at the top: work harder, more energy, mord driven to get there, most get there on their own (not inherited), primary barriers to success are self-imposed.

* if you want a leadership role, then take on leadership roles. Just give yourself permission to do so. Instead of waiting to be asked and tiptoeing around an opportunity, seize it.

* failure resume: facing failures is the necessary step to learn from them and avoid them later. Failure is the secret sauce of Silicon Valley.

* Never be afraid of failing but be afraid of not doing

* Balance between "never quit" and "sunk cost".

* Quitting is empowering.

* When he asked every attractive woman he met for a data, and some of them said yes. He was willing to take his share of rejections in return for a handful of successes.

* Responding to failure is often attributed to the most important time of life, for example, by Steve Jobs

* Inaction is worst kind of failure

* Tour de France, the winners and losers are apart only by a few seconds or miilliseconds

* Five primary types of risks: physical, social, emotional, financial and intellectual. Map out your own risk profile.

* it makes sense to take the high risk/high reward path if you're willing to live with all the potential consequences. You should fully prepared for the downside and have a backup plan.

* Making decision with incomplete information

* If you aren't failing sometimes, you probably aren't taking enough risks

* abandon sterotypes.

* Passion is just the starting point, you need to find the cross point where your passion, your talent/skills and market meet.

* welcome the unexpected and don't plan to detailed for the next fifty years. It is sadly limiting

* successes of enourmous proportion are all unexpected occurrances.

* Randy Komisar suggests you build your career in such a way that you optimize the quality of people you work with, which ends up increasing the quality of the opportunities that flow your way. The ecosystems in which you live and work is a huge factor in predicting the types of opportunities that will present themselves.

* It is important to reassess your life and career relatively frequently.

* We are lucky when we work hard to put ourselves in that position

* Lucky people tend to be extraverted. They try to connect with people known or strangers, create positive encounters.

* Lucky people tend to be optimistic and expect good things to happen to them. This is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

* Being observant, open-minded, friendly and optimistic invites luck your way

* Be acutely aware of our environment. We often go through our path with blinders on.

* Showing appreciation for things others do for you

* Don't burn the bridges. It's a small world

* Your reputation is the most valuable asset

* Know how to apologize

* Know how to negotiate. Don't make undue assumptions before negotiations.

* Walk away for situations that can't produce win-win solutions.

* Offer the willingness to help when you don't know how to help when help is needed. "Are you alright? Is there anything I can do for you?"

* Short-term benefit of not helping others in competing situations can't overweigh the long-term benefit of helping others and seed the positive momentum.

* Use the talents and strengths of people, like painting the target around the arrow

* know the difference between the smart thing and right thing. Smart benefits you in short term, right is good for both sides and it reaps the benefit at long term. You can tell others in the future.

* Life like eating a buffet of enticing platters of possibilities. Try more than you can handle will hurt you. So know your limitations and resist the temptation of wanting more.

* Dismantle tendency of "OR", Embrace "AND"

* Never miss an opportunity to be fabulous

* life isn't a dress rehearsal, and you only get one chance to do the best job

* To be successful in an entrepeneurial environment, it's more productive to be driven than to be competitive. Think abou what the real value you can bring than how to be better off than the guy next to you.

* Give yourself the permission to challenge assumptions, to look at the world with fresh eyes, to experiment, to fail, to plot your own course, and to test the limits of your abilities.

* Don't take yourself too seriously nor judge others too harshly

*

Turn disappointment around

My daughter excitedly told me that she and her mom got a great deal, when I just arrived home last night, that she would won a prize of 1000 dollars if she got all answers correct on her next test.

 

I frowned not because of the amount of prize was too large but it was almost impossible to get no wrong answers. "That's going to be really hard". My tone of response betrayed me instantly and her initial enthusiasm depleted quickly and said to herself, "Yeah, I'll never get all the answers right".

 

Inadvertently, I had disappointed her, squishing her dreams and aspirations to excel at the test and win a unbelievable large sum to her. I felt sorry and I promise that I'll make a new deal that make her feel inspired again.

有用与无用

有用是工具性的，无用是超越性的、精神性的，最终工具要服务于精神，也就注定有用还是要为无用服务，为无用所主导。这就是为什么实用品的价格和艺术品的价格无法相比。

有用是针对某项目的而言的，而无用是摆脱规定性的，是目的的前提和预设。

有用之间可以比较效率，而无用则否定和质疑所谓的标尺。

以有用规定自我，则失其道旨；以无用标致自我，则失其根基。无用是月，有用是梯。凭梯能近月，不能登月。要登月还要飞升才行。

A spring day

Eliminating Choices

In the book "The Paradox of Choice", it is persuasively demonstrated that more choices could be enabler or disabler in different situations.

There is always a valid reason for more choices for certain demographic groups.  But in aggregate, it may be detrimental to the whole once a threshold has crossed. So when analyzing a situation, we need to ask whether the threshold of effectiveness has passed. If so, then an automatic elimination or recommendation will be of great offer to people who don't in the field and just want to get what good enough quickly.

知的层次

真知灼见是对某种说法的一种很高的评语，由此可见，真知是人所追求的。这里的真知还是表达出来的，也应该是准确的，分寸和层次合理的。因为在不同尺度，有不同的认知模式和不同的表述框架，就像在不同的高度看地球上的一点，入眼的景象和观感就会相应地不同。

 

即使是在同样的高度，用同样的设备，由于关注点的不同，也会有同样有效的不同的真知。我这里所要谈的知的层次，是针对人的行为影响，以及对后果的准确估计而言的。

 

蒙昧期：不知有之。他人提及之，则不知所云，或比物失类，失其本旨。

懵懂期：知有之，不知其详。道听途说，或疑或信。

听闻期：知其然，不知其故。事实上有所加减，如证人言。读书不求甚解者，多听闻，而少知见。

知因期：知其所由，能举一反三，引附比类，参考异同。

明变期：知其将来，了通变化，趋避得当，从利得权。

入微期：通达体微，化而行之，从容自由，无不中道。

Why web browsing is more tempting than book reading

Reasons:

* shorter content removes long time commitment, thus eliminates the first mental hurdle. You can stop and continue as short or as long as you want 

* lure of unknown, serendipity

* diversity of topics, when you feel like it, you can always select something lighter or entertaining and you can select the pieces that fit your mode and pace

* inertia of browsing habit

* lack of sustained continuation to enjoy the pleasure of reading

* links and search enabling further discovery and wandering

Conspiracy or Secret History

I happened to catch a book tv programming that the author of "The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War" talked about the book.

 

It provided so many eye-opened historical facts that fundamentally challenge the well-held belief of the benevolent nature of US foreign policy.