Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Writing
Mortimer Adler writes: “The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks.” I always think I can understand an issue better than my explanation of it. Writing about it might be a better way. Starting from today, I am going to set aside at least 15 minutes for writing.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
perception! perception! perception!
i was eating a grapefruit near a trash can in my cubicle. i accidentally dropped a slice in the the can, and intuitively retrieved it back. having the grapefruit in my hands out of the trash can, i was asking myself how i should deal it with - dump it back to the can or eat it. eating it would give myself a perception of eating dirty or contaminated food. but if i dropped it on my desk, i would grab it back and eat it right away without much thinking. it's said that toilet bowl is cleaner than office desk per bacteria count. i only dumped tea leaves in it this morning and the trash can liner was recently replaced. so, it'd be more sterile and much much cleaner than the toilet bowl. by that rational, i ate my grapefruit from trash can. :-)
perception does bother people, including myself. something would bother someone more than others. i was reading a post on a hong kong discussion board. a young man was buying a HK$17 lunch from a restaurant which catered to school kids. for some reason he was ashamed he bought such a cheap lunch and was afraid of being seen by coworkers. that did happen. his coworker saw him; walked by; smiled and left. then he said he was ashamed and would feel better if he bought a HK$32 lunch just because it's expensive.
when i was a college student, i ate a 1-dollar whopper every meal without buying any drink. so, i only paid ~$1.05 with an ice water. sometimes i would have a moment to think that i should buy more because the burger place was expecting people would buy a drink and fries to go with it. that's how they might make a profit. by not doing so made me feel a bit awkward. was i taking advantage of the burger place? sometimes i would also ask myself if i was taken advantage of by their strategy - a strategy to entice u to come in and to make you feel guilty of not buying more.
similarly, tipping at restaurants in america would usually be 10-20%. we are conditioned to do so because this is how waiters/waitresses make their money; because restaurant owners only pay them minimum wages. but why do we need to pay them so much tips when it's the owners' responsibility to pay them? it's argued that customers can pay waiters/waitresses per their performance. that argument is only partially true. but some studies found out that tipping is more about how the person who does the tipping sees themselves in the mirror than how the person perceives the service that they got. in order words, it depends on the customer's personal image of themselves. it doesn't depend much on the quality of service by the servers.
the world is not strange; but inhibited by strange people with ever changing perception. in the old days, thrift is considered as a virtue. thrift now is considered as a 'sin'. giving is not about how much you appreciate other people. giving is about how you appreciate yourself or how much you want to tell the world that "i m rich". very strange indeed. perception! perception! perception! perception rules!
perception does bother people, including myself. something would bother someone more than others. i was reading a post on a hong kong discussion board. a young man was buying a HK$17 lunch from a restaurant which catered to school kids. for some reason he was ashamed he bought such a cheap lunch and was afraid of being seen by coworkers. that did happen. his coworker saw him; walked by; smiled and left. then he said he was ashamed and would feel better if he bought a HK$32 lunch just because it's expensive.
when i was a college student, i ate a 1-dollar whopper every meal without buying any drink. so, i only paid ~$1.05 with an ice water. sometimes i would have a moment to think that i should buy more because the burger place was expecting people would buy a drink and fries to go with it. that's how they might make a profit. by not doing so made me feel a bit awkward. was i taking advantage of the burger place? sometimes i would also ask myself if i was taken advantage of by their strategy - a strategy to entice u to come in and to make you feel guilty of not buying more.
similarly, tipping at restaurants in america would usually be 10-20%. we are conditioned to do so because this is how waiters/waitresses make their money; because restaurant owners only pay them minimum wages. but why do we need to pay them so much tips when it's the owners' responsibility to pay them? it's argued that customers can pay waiters/waitresses per their performance. that argument is only partially true. but some studies found out that tipping is more about how the person who does the tipping sees themselves in the mirror than how the person perceives the service that they got. in order words, it depends on the customer's personal image of themselves. it doesn't depend much on the quality of service by the servers.
the world is not strange; but inhibited by strange people with ever changing perception. in the old days, thrift is considered as a virtue. thrift now is considered as a 'sin'. giving is not about how much you appreciate other people. giving is about how you appreciate yourself or how much you want to tell the world that "i m rich". very strange indeed. perception! perception! perception! perception rules!
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
john robbins & industrial farming
i didn't know how ignorant i was about industrial farming till i listened to john robbins. john robbins was the son of the founder of basket robbins. he could have all the wealth; yet he walked away from it.
he wanted to live in a world of sufficiency instead of scarcity. by being sufficient, you don't need to have everything. you don't need to have a lot of things. it's actually those who feel they don't have enough need to have a lot of possessions - money and food. it's the insecure feeling that drives us to have more. at the end we are consumed by our insecurity. the more money we have, the more scared we are if we lose them all.
when it comes down the food, we want to have good delicious food and cheap food. we do not get educated of how food (esp meat) is produced. industrial farming is a word that i learned about only in the last 10 years of my life. i previously thought that meat was produced in a pasture where happy california cows came from. then, i learned a little bit about industrial farming of animal.
farming was never a word that i would use for animal. i always thought it's a word only associated to plants. it shocked me. then came veals. i loved it for its tenderness and its taste. when i listened to john robbins, i was shocked even more. i was shocked to learn that calves are separated from their mother at birth. they are kept in a confined stall as wide as their shoulder. they are chained to their neck. they are kept in such a way that movement is restricted as much as possible. it's where the tender and the lighter color meat comes from.
the industry changes a little per wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veal). however, that method of raising calves for veal is only outlawed in 5 states with california being one of the them. however, the law is not effective 2013 in california.
it's depressing to know how we treat those animals for our consumption. everybody wants to save a few dollars here and there for something we think it's more important. i m having the same struggle. as a middle class american, i m richer than 95% of the people in the world. yet my greed and my insecurity still push me to want more. i want everything. yet i might lose the most important thing of my life - conscience.
he wanted to live in a world of sufficiency instead of scarcity. by being sufficient, you don't need to have everything. you don't need to have a lot of things. it's actually those who feel they don't have enough need to have a lot of possessions - money and food. it's the insecure feeling that drives us to have more. at the end we are consumed by our insecurity. the more money we have, the more scared we are if we lose them all.
when it comes down the food, we want to have good delicious food and cheap food. we do not get educated of how food (esp meat) is produced. industrial farming is a word that i learned about only in the last 10 years of my life. i previously thought that meat was produced in a pasture where happy california cows came from. then, i learned a little bit about industrial farming of animal.
farming was never a word that i would use for animal. i always thought it's a word only associated to plants. it shocked me. then came veals. i loved it for its tenderness and its taste. when i listened to john robbins, i was shocked even more. i was shocked to learn that calves are separated from their mother at birth. they are kept in a confined stall as wide as their shoulder. they are chained to their neck. they are kept in such a way that movement is restricted as much as possible. it's where the tender and the lighter color meat comes from.
the industry changes a little per wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veal). however, that method of raising calves for veal is only outlawed in 5 states with california being one of the them. however, the law is not effective 2013 in california.
it's depressing to know how we treat those animals for our consumption. everybody wants to save a few dollars here and there for something we think it's more important. i m having the same struggle. as a middle class american, i m richer than 95% of the people in the world. yet my greed and my insecurity still push me to want more. i want everything. yet i might lose the most important thing of my life - conscience.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
how pathetic have we become?
people say action tells. but the reason behind the action tells more about the person.
why would we go to war in iraq at all cost? now, we are going to leave at all cost. ain't we becoming a pathetic nation with irresponsible citizens?
going to war is controversial. pullout just seems, relatively speaking, convenient. i am not against the pullout. but what i am against is how people would justify. some people justified pullout because they were tired of it. they claimed that they don't care. this is what i have problem. how can we be tired of it? how can we not care when it's a mess that we created? u can't just walk away from a mess with your moral intact. claiming be tired of the war was a justification was irresponsible. claiming moral superiority at the same time is utterly pathetic.
why would we go to war in iraq at all cost? now, we are going to leave at all cost. ain't we becoming a pathetic nation with irresponsible citizens?
going to war is controversial. pullout just seems, relatively speaking, convenient. i am not against the pullout. but what i am against is how people would justify. some people justified pullout because they were tired of it. they claimed that they don't care. this is what i have problem. how can we be tired of it? how can we not care when it's a mess that we created? u can't just walk away from a mess with your moral intact. claiming be tired of the war was a justification was irresponsible. claiming moral superiority at the same time is utterly pathetic.
Monday, March 2, 2009
How much is DJ going to fall
My friend and I just talked about how much lower dow jones is going to fall. It is interesting how our modern economy is going to manifest in front of us. Every economy has its up and down. Could we really have an economy which could withstand the test of time? Could the American economy be the one? Everyone would try to believe so.
What makes our economy special, apart from those of the old great dynasties/kingdoms/nations? Look at the Roman, and the Chinese. They were the biggest economy of their times; yet people of their time, with their limited horizon, would never imagine their kingdoms would ever end. Or, their economy would deteriorate and their government be overthrown. For those with longer horizon of time would know that great economies did exist and fall. As a human nature, we evoluted to be optimistic. They, at that time, would think they were different. They thought they could withstand the test of time. Yet, they all failed.
Did we, Americans, think the same way? In the last century, we became the most powerful country in the world. We have the greatest military with the most advanced technology. We have advanced our understand so much that we can prevent the next biggest Depression; or collapse of our economy by tweaking the economy as it is a machine.
Obviously, we did not. In previous centuries, we studied the astromony and managed to predict how celestial objects behave. They were governed by Physics. Yet, human behavior is not. It might be predictable. But obviously, we have not be able to predict it well enough to understand it. We might be able to foresee many different scenarioes. Yet, we won't have enough political will to act onto it until the very end.
I hope the American is not going to collapse into chaos. However, we are definitely going to suffer a lot of pain. Unfortunately, we are developing a global economy. What has been happening is already have a ripple effect in China and Eastern Europe.
So, back to my friend's question - "How much more is it going to drop"? I don't think anybody in the world would know for the following reasons:
1) global asset inflation in the last decade is rapidly deflating, and is still deflating.
2) deleveraging is everywhere; seeing no sign of stopping.
3) everyone - corporations and consumers alike - is repairing their own balance sheet because of the the asset deflation and leverage that they waged.
4) consumption is weak; and export driven economy was suffering. China is already experiencing significant contraction at their manufacturing sectors. How can they still maintain the tight grip of the people and control the unrest due to the deteriorationg of their living standards?
5) how can the people in Eastern European countries could afford their dollar-dominated loans when their currencies have been depreciated?
6) how much would social unrest in developing countries develop?
7) how many government could survive?
I don't think we are getting the point that social unrest would become the focal point of our lives. I definitely don't hope it would get down to that point. But I seriously think it's where we might be heading. If we are actually destined to get there, DJ 7000 would be by any standard.
What makes our economy special, apart from those of the old great dynasties/kingdoms/nations? Look at the Roman, and the Chinese. They were the biggest economy of their times; yet people of their time, with their limited horizon, would never imagine their kingdoms would ever end. Or, their economy would deteriorate and their government be overthrown. For those with longer horizon of time would know that great economies did exist and fall. As a human nature, we evoluted to be optimistic. They, at that time, would think they were different. They thought they could withstand the test of time. Yet, they all failed.
Did we, Americans, think the same way? In the last century, we became the most powerful country in the world. We have the greatest military with the most advanced technology. We have advanced our understand so much that we can prevent the next biggest Depression; or collapse of our economy by tweaking the economy as it is a machine.
Obviously, we did not. In previous centuries, we studied the astromony and managed to predict how celestial objects behave. They were governed by Physics. Yet, human behavior is not. It might be predictable. But obviously, we have not be able to predict it well enough to understand it. We might be able to foresee many different scenarioes. Yet, we won't have enough political will to act onto it until the very end.
I hope the American is not going to collapse into chaos. However, we are definitely going to suffer a lot of pain. Unfortunately, we are developing a global economy. What has been happening is already have a ripple effect in China and Eastern Europe.
So, back to my friend's question - "How much more is it going to drop"? I don't think anybody in the world would know for the following reasons:
1) global asset inflation in the last decade is rapidly deflating, and is still deflating.
2) deleveraging is everywhere; seeing no sign of stopping.
3) everyone - corporations and consumers alike - is repairing their own balance sheet because of the the asset deflation and leverage that they waged.
4) consumption is weak; and export driven economy was suffering. China is already experiencing significant contraction at their manufacturing sectors. How can they still maintain the tight grip of the people and control the unrest due to the deteriorationg of their living standards?
5) how can the people in Eastern European countries could afford their dollar-dominated loans when their currencies have been depreciated?
6) how much would social unrest in developing countries develop?
7) how many government could survive?
I don't think we are getting the point that social unrest would become the focal point of our lives. I definitely don't hope it would get down to that point. But I seriously think it's where we might be heading. If we are actually destined to get there, DJ 7000 would be by any standard.
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