Family Independence

I met a taxi driver today who had just completed his masters of accounting in Adelaide. His parents (from Pakistan) sent him here to do his degree. What struck me was that his family is very well off in Pakistan, doing that import/export business (one day, I'll do that and get rich!) and had offered to pay for all his expenses here. But this guy was very adamant that he would make his own way here, that he wouldn't ask his parents for money. And so he works nights as a taxi driver, and studies during the day. It makes for some hard hours, and I asked him about his grades, but he believes (barring one subject) he's doing pretty good in general.

That rite of passage, to prove that one can live independently of one's family, is something most young adults do during those uni years. I remember my own episode in those uni years where I felt I had to prove to my dad that I was financially independent, that I didn't need his car or his place to live, that I could find my own way. It was a foolish quest, and it failed spectacularly (I didn't move out nor give up the car :)) but it must have somehow laid the foundations for my belief that my parents don't owe me anything, nor for me to be stuck in a position where I continue to depend on my parents.

I'm glad that I got a scholarship during uni, as it meant that I was able to spend my own money, and do what I wanted to do. I think that Asian families don't quite have that Western mentality of "you're 18 now, you're on your own", but some of that Western upbringing must have rubbed off on me.
Having moved out about 5 years ago, and now about to move overseas, I definitely feel that I am an independent young adult, making my own way in the world.

There may be a time when I will see my parents as equals, but not yet. I may have passed my rite of passage, but I'm still a kid in the family.

Africa & China

There has been significant investments from China to the African nations. In this article outlining the effects and impacts that Chinese investments have had, it has struck me that China is taking a much more global role. Whilst the majority of the efforts are for profit, much like the United States, it seeks to influence in other geographical and political areas outside of its direct control.

Where the difference lies is the lack of transparency and lack of accountability in the way these things are done, on both sides of the world. In China, the driving motive of profit has led to a very "no meddling" policy for the money that China provides, in return for the raw materials. This in turn has allowed many African rulers to funnel this money for their own uses, or to ignore rules placed on them from other Western donors.

It is like colonialism, but a much more hands-off model. Will China be able to influence the direction and course of Africa this way? In the global arena, having allies in the form of African nation votes would definitely balance out the US and European voting block.

But will this new type of "colonialism" be workable? I think the memories of previous colonists are still there in the minds of those people. Nothing comes for free...

It would be surprising if the African nations let it happen again.

The Art Of Negotiation

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a confrontational kind of guy. And hence it's always with trepidation that I went into my negotiations for the US transfer. What they had given me as the first offer was a bit light on the transfer allowance...actually super light on the transfer allowance.

I was planning to talk to my financial controller (who is the one arranging this transfer and he was the one who gave me the initial offer) but was pulled aside by my CIO to ask what's wrong with it.

The funny thing was that I had prepared all these answers, but in front of the CIO, they just didn't come out! What came out was putting numbers on the table, discussion of things that I was training myself not to talk about ie Bec's transfer. I'm just glad I didn't sign anything!

Still, all is not lost, and I subsequently had my meeting with the financial controller and have made my requests (without giving away all my numbers yet). Fingers crossed!

The things that I have learnt from this experience:

• It definitely takes practice. Things have the potential to get heated, and it takes a calm mind to argue logically through it and emphasise the points that I want to.
• I may not have been 100% with the arguments they were going to raise, but it was good to have gone through and thought out what objections I needed to be able to reply to.
• I suck in terms of standing up or not divulging information to my boss! I don't know if others have the same issue, but when he says "name the number", or "tell me what your partner will most likely get" it's very hard to not say anything concrete. Much like when he says "jump", I would say "how high?"
  
• The less numbers the better. Or rather, don't name a number until the other side has named one. Even then they may name another one first before you have to say anything.
• Clarify assumptions that they have made, or else they may be basing their offer on information that is incorrect.
• Silence is golden whilst looking people in the eye. It shows you mean business.
• Have a laugh once in a while! Negotiating should be an enjoyable exercise, because in the end, both parties should be happy.

And a point that was told to me: leave something at the table, because there is no doubt that you will have to deal with the other party again in the future.

Beauty And The Geek

It's been too long since i have watched Fox 8! There was this show called "Beauty and the Geek" that features 8 hot chicks paired up with 8 nerds. It's some quasi-Survivor type show, with people winning immunity from challenges.

But the main thrust of the show is to demonstrate the "other side of the coin" for those people who have not encountered such hotness/geekness before.

By far the best one from my intensive research (ie it was the only one I watched) was the first season. It was a strange thing, but I felt a certain sense of pride for those "geeks" that were willing to have a go at some reality TV show. They made it to the end, and from what I saw, they seemed like better people for it.

I remember doing a self assessment and one of my traits is "includer", and part of the descriptions was as follows:

Your accepting nature does not necessarily rest on the belief that each of us is different and that one should respect those differences. Rather, it rests on your conviction that fundamentally we are all the same.

In the interviews afterwards, the contestants were saying "oh, we had nothing to say when we first met, but we built up a rapport as we got to know each other". It has been my sincere belief that everyone can relate to each other, if you make the effort. There are no people out that that you cannot find some commonality with. It's good to see a show that demonstrates that (and have some random hot tub scenes with the 'beauties' :))

Is Technology A Saviour?

I'm a big fan of technology and am always amazed at how far we have come as a human race to rely on technology. Sadly that "digital divide" exists as much as the monetary divide in our world today.

Hence I've wanted to know how technology can help those people who need help the most.
Would providing computers such as those $100 laptops be what developing societies need to improve their standard of living?

Having pulled out an old Economist magazine (2005!) and reading one of its Technology Quarterly sections, it pointed out that for some really poor people, computers do not even rate on their radar of things. The sad part is that it is not that they are rejecting technology, it is that they are oblivious to it. They are more concerned with sanitation, land, health, things that matter to their very survival.
Of course, technology does help those who have that basic level of literacy, to assist them with crop prices, exam results (for the school kids) etc. This does mean that it is helping those that are well off become more well off.

It just seems that there is a cut-off from where it cannot directly assist. In those cases, the investments in technology may be better used in health. Other low cost options such as radios may already provide that communication link that many developing communities lack.

It could be in this area of communication that technology may be able to radically assist. Wireless communication could reduce the costs of transactions for all sorts of people. From this question and answer on what factors will affect developing countries using mobile phones as point of sales devices seems to have a bright future.

I am sure that going forward, there will be many more advances in technology to help developing countries, but until we get some of the basics worked out, it won't help those that really need it.

Money In A Brave New (Virtual) World

I admit that I enjoy the odd Guild Wars game once a week. It's a good chance to meet up with some overseas friends, take out some monsters and generally have a good time.

I earn Guild Wars gold from killing monsters and such, and use this gold to buy goodies such as better armour, better weapons, more skills, and other things. For me, though, I don't place any real-world value to this gold, except to get more stuff.

However, it seems that for others, a real world value can be found. Search Ebay for "World of Warcraft Gold", and there's a ton of guides. However, there are sites where you can see that the they list an exchange rate (currently it is $0.50 USD per 100 Gold)

There are now people who classify their "job" as making virtual money. They log in to World of Warcraft, and "earn" virtual money to exchange. Are they, in the words of Peter Drucker, just a new type of information worker? Do they do what we do in the real world ie transform information and add value?

Take a look at Second Life. It is a virtual world, where people can create and charge for their own creations. Last year there was $20m worth of transactions on the game itself, and $3m in currencies. Yes, this is a miniscule amount compared to the trillions that are traded on the normal currency exchange, but the mind boggles!

So what is the difference? Our current monetary system is not backed by gold anymore, so both Linden Labs (who own Second Life) and Zimbabwe can print as much money as they like (often with disastrous consequences). Our currencies are backed by the country's economic growth, inflation and productivity, as well as cross-border trading of actual financial assets. Can these be related to a game such as Second Life?

Will there be a day that people will hedge their currencies against a virtual one? Will traders work the arbitration between the virtual currencies to make a profit?

How regulated will these virtual currencies become? I think that the more people start getting into these until they sort out these other things such as intellectual rights, user rights within the system and ownership, it will continue to be something that is a anomaly, rather than a norm.

Getting Things Done

A while back (about 2 months), I bought the Getting Things Done book, and attempted to do some cleanup of my life. The book's aim in on teaching how to make sure that all the things that are inside your head are written down somewhere, so that when you do need to focus, you can, without having the "psychic stress" of keeping track of all these different things.

So has it worked? I would say yes. My email inbox last year had 500 odd emails in it, and I had this bad feeling that there were things in there that I had missed. Nowadays I make it a daily ritual to make sure that I have got ZERO emails in my inbox. All the emails are now either filed away for reference or put into an action list. It is a great feeling for me to be able to leave work with a clean inbox.

My filing system has been simplified. What used to be many subfolders under generic folders such as "Personal", "Work", "Projects" have now all been consolidated into one flat heirarchy. Every folder is by topic. Same for my physical filing as well. It was put under the test and I got the relevant document out in 20 sec. Not too shabby :)

Things to note: it is sometimes overwhelming to see how many "to-do" action items there are, but the feeling that you know just about everything you need to do at a certain time brings forth a calmness. There is no more of that "oh no, have I forgotten something that will bite me in the ass later?" feeling.
The book emphasises a weekly review to make sure that the stuff in the folders remains fresh. This is something that I've been a bit lax on. Need to keep doing that, or else I won't trust the system.

So for anyone that feels the need to get their house into order, I recommend this book. Get it and see if it helps!

Damn! four cheap calls already:

are you just moving your emails to another folder so you can't see it :) i started doing this after my inbox got to 1092 (unread) messages but they just sat unread in other folders instead!
mushiejc (link) - 20 March '07 - 13:10

Haha, it does feel like that once in a while :) That review thing seems to help, though. 1092 messages is very impressive :P
jookboy - 24 March '07 - 04:19

Good stuff mate! I follow a similar system and it works a treat ... except for the fact that I find there are some actions that continue to get transferred from one list to another (usually the medium to high importance, but not urgent variety) ... have you found a system to avoid this issue?
Scraps - 09 April '07 - 19:43

The key seems to be to write the action in a way where it is DEFINITELY the next action. That seems to make it easier to do.
Jookboy - 16 April '07 - 09:25

Career Learning 101

I got through a confrontation today. I was told that I was going behind someone’s back by reporting that they were holding up their section of the project. I was told that I was lying, but I said the facts as they stood to me. She asked for my apology, but I said “not yet”, not until it was proven that there were no issues with what she had written down.

After the workshop, it was clear that there was a lot more work that needed to be done to get the requirements into some form of specifications. Even she said so. So at that point, I felt it was a good time to apologise, for giving the impression that I was going behind her back.

The aim here is to get things done. Not backing down in the morning was a good move, as she’s the type of person who would get focussed when challenged. However, it’s always a good move to apologise, it smoothes the way for more positive interactions.

I’m proud of myself for being strong in that situation. Always stay professional.

Damn! two cheap calls already:

I'm proud of you babe! That was one ballsy, smart and very effective move. See how exciting confrontation can be?! :)
beckster (link) - 06 February '07 - 19:14

People don't apologise enough these days.

The key is making sure you are specific about what it is you are apologising for. Scope.

I've probably gone a little too far in the direction of apologising. Over here, it often becomes a competition to see who can apologise and show the most humility. Except with your manager. They tell you you're doing something the "wrong" way, and then teach you how to do something, which is always the most inefficient way possible. So you just say "yep, understood!" and then go back to doing it your own way, taking more care this time not to get caught. Repeat as necessary.

RC
randomcow (email) (link) - 16 February '07 - 10:17

Does Rachiness Equal Feminism?

As if I am an expert on feminism! But now that I am exposed to more literary works (thanks Bec!) my perspectives have widened, at least.

It was an interesting book, Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy. Quite articulate, well written. with the argument that raunchiness is not liberating in the feminist movement sense of the word, and that there actually isn't any real power and freedom in having an asipiration to be a sex object. Interviews with teenage girls who are all into being the skankiest dressed, and having sex but not really knowing what was pleasurable for them was quite sad. I totally agree that abstinence as an educational tool seems a bit out of whack with what is going on in teenagers these days.

One part of the book that I did find very interesting was the part about lesbians that had assumed a dominant (or even the expected man-like) role in their relationships, previously known as "butch" but now also known as "bois". The fact that they were turned off with having relationships with other lesbians who were also butch or bois, referring to them as "faggots", was strange when I read it. Now that I think about a bit more, is it similar to me saying someone likes cutey women, but not really aggressive women?

Women have to know what they themselves want before they can push for it. Raunchiness turns men on, more so than women, and that's a big problem if women are espousing that as the answer. But who am I to complain? :)

Another Melbourne Trip

Melbourne has become just another work city for me, which is sad cause I do quite like the place. From a tourist's perspective, the infrastructure, choice of foods, variety of events is quite good. All I seem to see is the hotel, the car and the training rooms on the project sites.

However, one good story to emerge was a gambling one. My workmate came with me to the casino. Now I was trying out some new craps method (betting against the dice, for the more advanced gamblers amongst us) and it just wasn't happening. My workmate (who was away from the table on a phone call) comes back to see me down to $9. I get offered the dice, but didn't want to roll. The dice are offered to my workmate, who declined as she had no money.

This old guy next to her then offers $5 for her to roll.....45 minutes later, she sevens out on what was the longest craps roll I have ever seen. I got all my money back (and more!), and my workmate has turned her $5 into $230! The funniest thing was that at the end of the roll, she was given an ovation, and two business guys gave her a $25 each for her part in making them (and everyone else on the table) a ton of money.

So from now on, craps is my game!

Damn! two cheap calls already:

...or your colleague's! I believe the moral of the story is take that girlie with you or you'll be going home with 9 bucks matey.

Oh, and I may be about 10 years late but nice blog - we just stumbled on it accidentally at work...we were googling my friend's new man......and low and behold....an entire parallel universe of blogs written by people I know! Crazy times!
Aives (email) - 18 December '06 - 05:22

haha, thanks for visiting! My entries are a lot tamer these days :)
JookBoy - 19 December '06 - 06:31