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• pierre 4.07pm on April 25, 2008 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Friedman, Gladwell, Naish, Nisbett   

  a bunch of books 

  4 in 1! but don’t worry, some of them won’t take long.

  

  Blink, Malcom Gladwell’s second book. Malcom is a storyteller, that’s what he does best. Blink is about human intuition; when to trust your intuition, when not to. It is insightful and I enjoyed reading it. His previous book, The Tipping Point, is more elaborate. My advice: we only have time to read so many books, and I strongly recommend you favor his first book over the second. (3/5)

  .

  

  The Geography of Thought, or Eastern Vs. Western perception of the world. Loved it. I bought this book in Cambodia and it enlightened the rest of my stay in Singapore. It’s an introduction (pros will be bored) to East/West differences in terms of thought processes. If you are going to work within East/West environment (and by East, the author means China/Taiwan/HK/Singapore), you should read this book. The first part is a recap of major philosophical differences. The rest, the core of the book, is comprised of rigorous, practical, yet somewhat redundant, scientific studies. You’ll learn how and why we think differently. Who focuses on internal/external causality? and other questions such as this one will help you in team work. I enjoyed daily examples and applications of the book’s take-aways when working with my Singaporean Chinese team mates. (3.5/5)

  Free to choose, a classic by the late Milton Friedman, icon advocate of economic freedom (and personal hero of mine). I won’t elaborate on this piece, other to say you should read it. Whether you see yourself as liberal, conservative or even socialist, this book offers a direct, clear-cut and passionate description of the benefits of free markets and limited government intervention. (4/5)

  

  Last, but not least, Enough by John Naish. It’s probably the best book I read since the Paradox of Choice, back in November. It has 8 parts: enough information, food, stuff, work, options, happiness growth and never-enoughs. Each chapter is a balanced mix of essay, research findings and real-life implications. The unifying theme is the criticism of our ever-more culture, burning up both our natural ecology (e.g. climate change) and personal ecology (e.g. obesity). As for all my favourite books, it is available to whoever wants it. (4.25/5)

  Bonus: Gladwell on Genius (Video, New Yorker Conference)

   

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• pierre 2.46am on April 20, 2008 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Branding   

  We live in Financial Times 

  Beauty!

  

  

  

  FT advertising campaign when re branding last year.

   

• pierre 12.24am on April 19, 2008 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Al Gore, Climate change, Global warming   

  (Green) Leadership 

  I believe we have the capacity at moments of great challenge to set aside the causes of distraction and rise to the historic challenges. Sometimes I hear people respond to the disturbing facts of the climate crisis by saying “this is so terrible, what a burden”. Let’s reframe that: how many generations in all of human history have had the opportunity to rise to a challenge that is worthy of our best efforts, a challenge that can pull from us more that we knew we could do. We ought to approach this challenge with a sense of profound joy and gratitude that we are the generational about which 1000 years from now orchestras and poets and singers will celebrate by saying: they were the ones that found within themselves to solve this crisis and lay the basis for a bright and optimistic human future. Let’s do that.

  Al Gore

  
  

  The New Al Gore slideshow.

  And yet at the same time, 75% of the food price increase is due to shifting production towards biofuels (World Bank). We need priorities.

  Spookie! is discussing. Toggle Comments

   

  • Spookie! 2.11pm on June 23, 2008 Permalink

    Yaye Al Gore… so inspiring… He’s my hero!!He’s done so much for the planet

• pierre 3.00pm on April 17, 2008 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Essays   

  CEO ergo sum 

  Here’s an essay I wrote for a management class. The question was “What would a CEO want to stay in power when disapproved by its employees?”. It is flawed and incomplete, but since I enjoyed writing it, I wanted to share it with you.
  

  CEOs and politicians alike enjoy a high level of power and status. They are highly looked upon by their subordinates. Many are surrounded by yes-men. Over the years, human beings are corrupted by power, and regard ‘normal life’ as both boring and scary. Those two forces, power addiction and disregard for casual life, are a powerful motive to stay in office.

  CEO ergo sum

  Closely related are the notion of the ego and the sense of ownership. The CEO who has been in charge of a company for several years develops a sense of ownership, a contradiction given its position as an agent, managing the corporation on behalf of the actual owners, the shareholders. His achievements come from the corporate world. In dinner parties, networking cocktails and other social gatherings, he is invariably referred to as Mr. John Smith, CEO of Big Bucks Inc. This corporate identity he built for himself is now part of his very social fabric. Letting go of his job is to let go of his self.

  Letting go when things go wrong… is not quite the definition of bravery. More than pride, it is refusal to acknowledge failure that the CEO expresses. He either denies his mistakes or wants to “fix it” himself.

  Not ready yet

  The final argument for staying in power is that “the company is not ready”. Nice try, really. This tells us something about someone who is not ready…. It highlights a failure of many successful CEOs: failing to prepare their succession. The company depends on them; it doesn’t have an entrepreneurial spirit of itself. If “followed” a “leader”. It doesn’t have a path of its own. One of the mottos in an organization I used to be part of is that your success is measured by the success of your successor.

  Ego, pride, denial, dependence: the very mix that propels you all the way up the corporate ladder makes the hangover of moving on unbearable.

  This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

  Spookie! is discussing. Toggle Comments

   

  • Spookie! 2.15pm on June 23, 2008 Permalink

    interesting essay! I particularly like the ending! Very nicely put!

• pierre 11.29pm on April 5, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

  Stuff White People Like 

  Here’s a blog ‘devoted to stuff that white people like’. It is extremly funny and put into perspective our uniqueness, freedom from peer pressure (and other forms of social formatting).

  I, white person, like religions my parents don’t belong to, organic food, diversity, Barack Obama, tea, gifted children, awareness, traveling, having two last names, breakfast places, Apple products, sushi, art degrees, Japan, being the only person around, study abroad, threatening to move to Canada (which I did!), multilingual children and graduate school. (Full list)

  It works for westernized non-whites, too. Non-western non-whites can test their level of whiteness.

  Who’s special now?

  h/t Aggie

  See also: ABC news on Stuff white people like.

  K., Max, and Henri are discussing. Toggle Comments

   

  • Henri 6.05am on April 7, 2008 Permalink

    Ahah, I guess the only things that makes me special is my taste for red-haired girls…

  • Max 10.01pm on April 7, 2008 Permalink

    LOL at this comment on the “Threatening to Move to Canada” post:

    Along with the Internet, Al Gore invented Canada. Or so I read on the Internet.

  • K. 5.19pm on April 11, 2008 Permalink

    Sighh… I’m so white…