Brain Power is the fuel for the next economy?

Recently, I am reading the new book by Thomas L. Friedman, The World is Flat. As the subtitle of the book says, it is about the next stage of globalization. With only reading 30 over pages, I come to realize that the next economy or at least for the developed economy to survive, knowledge and creativity would be the next key to growth.

From the book, it was stated that most parts of the service process can be commoditized (why do I say that is because computers seem to have found their way into most of these process) and shipped to developing countries for work to be done. This means that most routine work would be packed and shipped to countries like India to be done by the relative cheaper labor there.

And since most of these routine works would be outsourced, the more complicated works would be done in the home countries. This actually benefits customers now because more personalized work could be done since time and resources are released by these routine works to offer the personalized services. But from here we can see that since it is complicated work, more skills, knowledge and brain power would be the key to providing added value in the next economy.

This means that now, at least to survive in this type of economy, there must be constant learning, which greatly increase the paper chase that everyone is running. Education and training would definitely grow into a big industry in developed countries. Now the problem is that in most of these developed countries, there is a widening income gap between the low, medium and high. Most of these routine jobs that were done in the home countries would be outsourced to other relatively cheaper countries, thus impacting the lower income level group. As globalization or outsourcing moves to higher level work, commoditizing them, the next level of people that would be impacted would be the middle income group. So now would this trend move on to the next level which is the higher income group? I am afraid not because this high income group would have the resources to at least avoid such trend hitting them hard or in some better scenario, actually able to tap these trends to their advantage.

As I propose and complained in some of my blog entries. Governments should try to help the lower and middle income people by subsidizing their source of knowledge or attaining more skills. Make attainment of knowledge and skills as cheap as possible for these groups of people. Like I said before, with the overall increase in the knowledge and skills, more sparks would fly generating more ideas and one of these ideas could be the next spurt of growth for the economy.

Although the education system is and will be difficult to make it a perfect system but I still believe it is the key to help people make up the social ladder or jump over the gap. Streaming is important, but I wish people would not use it as a form of discrimination but use it to determine who the people that need more resources for learning are. And guess what; learning does not stop when we leave the polytechnics and universities. If you do not start moving forward, you are definitely left behind. Start moving forward or people from India, China and developing countries are going to eat up your jobs because for them, it is definitely easier for them to eat up your job then you trying to maintain it. This is besides the fact that they command a lower wage than you. They can obtain their skills cheaper relatively and their governments has to spend money to build up the infrastructures needed to eat up your jobs and we all know that if a problem can be solved by money, it is not a problem at all.

Hope this would help people who are contemplating about their future.

Cheers!

What really need fixing here?

A few months ago, my working place’s printer needs fixing. According to the guarantee, we have to send it to the service center for, yes you guess it, haha, servicing of course.
When I was there, I realize that the service center is such a posh place. And we have to take a NUMBER and wait for our turn. Wow, feels as though I have gone to the hospital. Hmmmm… actually come to think of it, it is a hospital of another form. Haha!

Well at the service center, there is a coffee machine and a refrigerator full of ice cream. (Cheap ones, of course) There are terminals for you to catch up on your business and emails as well. I was overwhelmed by what I see. This is my first time going to such a posh service center. Talk about wholesome customer experience.

Another time, I needed to contact another big electronic company. While calling up the company, I told them I had to wait a long time just to speak with an operator. They say, that they could not help it because there were a lot of calls coming in. No wonder they call it a “Hotline” Hahahaha!

But if you look at such thing from another point of view, you mean these big companies do not have any quality control or management? I was like, wow, you mean the quality of your products is poor until there are a lot of people coming in to get their products fixed? Haha! And for a customer phone line that is available for those who need to fix their products, to be labeled as HOTLINE???? What has happened? I thought the teaching of Six Sigma has been going on for some time and big companies should have adapted to a large extent right?

But from another point of view from someone who is sending your product back to the company for servicing, if you come across such a company whose service center is very run down, dark and dilapidated. I guess that may be the last time you would buy any product from such a company. The hardware of a service center is also as important as the software of a service center. The hardware would instill a certain amount of confidence that your product would be fixed and the software of it makes the whole experience wholesome and good. Both hardware and software would actually make the customer feel better after the possible inconvenience that could be caused by the breakdown of the machine. But I think, a company should try not to clutter its service center with a lot of people. To me it instills an impression that the quality of products generated by this company SUCKS. So many people are here sending their machine for servicing. Haha! Hope this is good information for would-be and current entrepreneurs.

Cheers! (I hope never to call another hotline again! The time, money and inconveniences caused can be huge. Haha!)

How you treat your books?

As you have seen throughout my blogs, most people would know that I am a book lover. Since I am a book lover, my social circle definitely will have some book lovers as well. But although ‘lover’ is a term that is used to describe people who love reading books but it does not describe how these people treat their books.

Here I shall write how some of my friends treat their book.

For me, I treat my books very well. I make sure there are no dog ears meaning folds on the cover page. I always use bookmarks and never fold the page to mark out where I have stop. I try not to have any creases on the spine and keep it as clean as possible. I try not to write on them and I never ever use highlighter to mark out important points on my books be it for leisure or study. But I do not mind placing my books on the floor and using my feet to gently move it though. I do worship books but not to the extent of placing them on altars. Another thing is I have no hesitation to bring books to the toilet to make my call of nature as interesting as possible. I have a strong belief, although not proven, that if I treat my books well, they would impart me more knowledge although the words are the same no matter what. Haha!

Another friend of mine is the same as me but he really worship book, or treat them as gods. He would not place it on the floor and would never kick it, even if it is gently. To him a book is a god that is imparting him knowledge. But he does not buy covers for his book although insist on buying hardcover though. And he will not bring the book to the toilet at all.

A close friend of mine, who does not buy a lot of books because of his family background, would always try to get or make a cover for his books. The way he treat his books is almost the same as me except for the fact that he does write on the book where need to but write on it in pencil only. And he does bring his book to the toilet to add some color also.

A friend of mine is different from the above three examples. He does a lot of leisure reading but he has no hesitation having ‘dog ears’ or folded pages on his books at all so most of his books are actually in deplorable state. No idea why he does not use a bookmark. No need to buy nice ones, anything will do to mark out a page. Urgh, cannot stand books with a lot of dog ears. Haha.

I was wondering is anyone out there who is a psychologist, interested in doing an analysis on how people treat their books and the characters that it show. It would be nice to look at the results.

So in the end, there are a lot of book lovers out there, but how they treat their books, it is totally different from each other. Cheers!

Book Smart VS Street Smart

As anyone who is in Singapore would know they are finally showing Season Three of The Apprentice. (Yes, in Singapore it is very slow.) So the main theme of the show is as the title stated, a team of people who are Book Smart, means they have achieve a high level in academics but not much business experience. The other group of people is Street Smart. They have tremendous experience in real business but did not attain much in academics.

In my opinion, there is no absolute. I feel both of them are as important as each other. We need knowledge from the book to prevent us from making predictions or decision too far off the actual response to a solution. For example, a rival decide to offer the same service as what you are offering but at a lower price. Knowledge from book would let you know that starting a price war, what type of pros and cons it bring to the table or if you practice differentiation what are the types of pros and cons it bring then and so on.

What is needed here is then Street Smart or actual experience doing it to make sure, you are able to get the precise measurement (like timing and exact resources needed) to get the desired response you want from your solution. Continuing from the above example, your decide to differentiate instead of a price war because you can effectively segment the market into two different group and each of you can serve them each profitably, but you must pick the correct timing to push your services and effectively separate the market.

This is the reason why I said both Smarts are as important. Not one is more important than the other.

Another comment I want to make here is that out of the two, the easiest to have would be Book Smarts because all you have to do is to buy books and study it, making mental notes where possible.

Street Smart would be difficult to get because one thing, we have to be in the thick of the action which would require our own resources like time, the stakes are high if we make the wrong decision (most of the time, our mind would focus on failure so much that we do not carry out the strategy or solution we have formulated) and it requires a large investment to be in a position to attain it.

So in my opinion, for those who are interested in being their own boss but do not have the resource as yet to attain Street Smarts, why not read voraciously and attain as much Book Smarts as possible so that you are able to reduce the mistakes you may make when you are in the process of attaining Street Smarts.

Cheers!

Shameless or shameful?? Shame shame

A few days ago, one of my friends asked me this question, “In the world we are in, is it better to be shameful or to be shameless?”

Well I answer immediately that I would choose to be shameless. But after much though I think there is a place for both of them depending on the area we are talking about. To be a successful man in terms of wealth, you definitely have to be shameless in order to earn a lot of money. I have never seen a businessman or a salesperson who is shameful and at the same time earning a lot of money. If a salesperson is shameful, he would not be able to close any sales since he is not aggressive enough and have to consciousness to close the sale as fast as possible. He would not be cold calling to get new leads or approach strangers to make a sale.

For a businessman, especially when he is just starting out, he too has to be shameless. Because he is one man show and it is of vital importance that a new business must close as many deals as possible to provide the new company to have enough cashflow to resuscitate on its own. So in terms of business and career success, I think one must be shameless. So what about normal employees? Haha. They must be shameless to show the boss that he is working. He must be shameless to fight for opportunities to make himself prominent in the eyes of the boss so that if there is any promotion, the boss would think of him first. Even the simple tasks of asking for a raise also need the employee to be shameless.

Beside career, what about love life? Well what more can I say? Of course the answer is shameless again. Haha. One must be shameless and not scared of embarrassment when chasing the woman of his dreams. If he is scared of this and that and the embarrassment that would be caused if he failed in wooing the girl, he would be paralysed and his chance of getting the dream girl would be zero. And most of the time, romantic gestures call for the guy to be shameless also. Need I say more? Well look at the drama both local and overseas. The romantic gestures by the male lead do take a lot of courage, and money sometimes. Haha!

So is there a place for shameful then? Of course, there is. If not, we would be the same as animals. We have to be shameful and cannot tolerate immorality like committing crime and adultery and so on. Shameful has a place in human when we are talking about morals and values like filial piety and faithfulness to spouse.

So there you have it. In order to be successful, we have to shameless but in order to be different from animals, we should be shameful when we are not acting according to moral codes.

Cheers!

Being green and culture shock

Last Sunday, I was reading the Sunday Times when I chanced upon an article on how Taipei went green and it was made compulsory that all consumers will be provided with paper bags but will be charged for plastic bags.

I wish I had read this before I went to Taipei. It was a culture shock because in Singapore, plastic bags are taken for granted and paper bags are totally unheard of. I had only brought a few plastic bags for my dirty laundry and my sandals and that is it. So when we realize we were running low on plastic bags we have no idea what to do. Haha. I guess it is always good to travel and broaden our horizons. But I think while we are broadening our horizons, it is good that we take in what is good and can be implemented in the environment we live in. For example, the plastic versus paper bag that I was talking about. The reading culture in Taiwan should be cultivated here as well, since we see that Taiwan, although the political system is quite messy has produce a lot of innovations, be it low value added or not. The entrepreneur drive of the people over there is great as well. But of course there are some things in Singapore that could be implemented to make Taiwan a better place, like the hygiene level of road side stall or the night markets, the good urban planning of Singapore and others.

Moreover, I kind of like the night scene in Taiwan and those of Hong Kong which I have seen in TVB drama. It gives people a picture of vibrancy because of the many neon lights from advertisement and buildings. In Singapore, the night scene is still nice with the lights but there is certain “coldness” to it, it does not portray “vibrancy” at all.

If Singapore is to become a city with X Factors, I think a slow opening up of certain rules and regulation is a must. Cheers!

Love is Irrational???

Ok for someone who does not have a lot of experience in such stuff, why should he be talking about Love? What insight can he provide to this subject that is so complex, not a lot of academics are studying it?

Haha! Well I am giving it an economist light this time. A lot of people cannot comprehend the actions taken by people especially when that particular person is in love.
I would like to shed some light into it so people can comprehend it a little better.

For example, maybe a female graduate married a male non-graduate.

So why such things happen in this society? Especially in this part of the world where women are more financial independent and do not have to marry a man to secure its future like the past. Many people attribute this to the fact that LOVE IS IRRATIONAL. Well I have a second opinion to that.

First a few points to make. We all know that woman is relatively more emotional than man. Secondly, rationality means that human make decision by reducing opportunity costs.

Ok, from this point I shall attempt to explain that love is rational. Here goes.

When we make any decisions, we compare the value of taking the decision or not. And most of the time, the value associated to these decisions are emotional based.

For example, why would you want to buy an apple rather than an orange although apple cost more? Because the emotional value per dollar you attached to the apple is greater than the emotional value per dollar of an orange. In simple words? It means that you prefer apple to orange.

Now let us look at the woman graduate that chooses to marry a male non-graduate. When the woman is in love with the man, she suddenly attached a higher emotional value to the decision of marrying such a man. And so since her value per costs is now higher if she marries him than if she does not marry him.

Same thing for woman that does not leave married man although they know it is immorally correct. The feeling of guilt does take away the value of the decision of staying with the man but love for the married man attached a higher value to the same decision, compensating adequately to the negative value of guilt.

Same thing, a guy can give up a fortune for a woman he loves is because he has attached a huge value to the decision of staying with the woman. It also means that the value he attached to be with the woman is larger than the fortune.

In conclusion, love makes human rational, it is just that it has the power of attaching a very large value to certain decision thus reversing the decision in a snap of a finger. And in ‘rational’ people’s mind, thinks such people are irrational.

Cheers!

Why Commencement?

Well I was writing this because I think some time people do not know the embedded values in words and just make a change at its whim and fancy without consultation.

Many people would have known that NUS has changed its “Graduation Ceremony” into “Commencement Ceremony” The excuse given for such a change is because the undergraduates turn graduates are now commencing on a new part of their journey.

The problem here is that, do I need a grim reminder that I am moving to the next part of my life, having to fret whether I have enough money to retire, pay my loans, get married, worried about children, living a life of drudgery constantly working and upgrading myself and so on and on and on. Anyone need a reminder of that?

Any high level who read this, please change the name back to Graduation. “Graduation” have an embedded feeling of achievement because you have spend so much effort to get your degree and finally that effort has paid off and you have your degree to show. All people want a sense of achievement rather than a grim reminder of what the world has for him/her. The worse thing is they change it during my year when there is recession and fresh graduates are having great problem looking for a job and even most have to end up fighting for job with diploma students.

Ok, I have to admit that even when they change it to “Commencement”, I would not attend the ceremony anyway, because where is the sense of achievement when almost everyone is obtaining the basic degree. And only those that have the family background can immediately pursue a local or overseas Master’s degree.

But it is a fact that if Singapore is to be a knowledge driven economy, its human resource which is the population has to have higher education level.

Anyway, Commencement or Graduation, what the heck, I would not be going through it anymore and if I have a kid going to University, I want him/her to attend Graduation and not Commencement Ceremony if possible. Haha!

Cheers!

Selfish or sell fish?

2 days ago, there is an article in the Straits Times. The content of the article is that NUS is going to send letters to its Alumni appealing for donations so that the University can provide more bursaries to needy students.

In the article, it was claimed that overseas universities also has the same practice. Well firstly, I think these alumni wanted to be associated with the university because it is famous, for NUS case, I serious do not think that is the case. My whole University life especially during my Honors year was screwed up by NUS and I am sure I can find a handful of people who share the same sentiment as me.

Secondly, not like in other countries where a job position is pursued by several graduates from at least more than 2 universities, in Singapore, each position is usually pursued by the two oldest universities here, NUS or NTU. In this day and age where a job position is pursued by several graduates, would it not be better to eliminate as much competition as possible? Especially with the rising costs of obtaining a degree and the rapid reduction of the value-added of the degree, more and more people are desperate to get hold of a job especially a permanent position. All must note that there are still undergraduates who are not poor enough to get a bursary but not rich enough to pay off the tuition fee without taking a loan. Who is going to help these guys? Can we count on those whose bursary is made possible because of donations?

I for one would not donate when the letter comes. For the reason is, what if I am forced to look for a new job in the future and among the people who are also vying for the job is one who obtained the bursary that is partially donated by me? Would that not tantamount to grabbing a stone to throw at my feet? Or what if I am hit by retrenchment and the person whom the company hires to replace me is a fresh graduate who obtained a bursary that is partially donated by me?

Would that particular graduate help me when I am in my dire straits?

Well a lot of you would say that my thinking is very selfish. But between selfish and sell fish (Apologies, to those fishmongers, it is just an expression only), I think I would rather be called selfish.

Cheers!

Fairy Tales, Anyone?

Recently, there was a ‘crazy’ drama show, where a ‘dull’ person is obsessed with a normal lady. And if fairy tales are to go by, the ‘dull’ person will get her lady, the fairy tale ending.

Fairy tales is something most of us fantasize and like during our childhood days. In the story most of the time the woman will get the man or vice versa. LIARS!!! Haha!

I think they are there just to paint a good picture of lives ahead of these young lives so that they would ‘love’ life. The prince and Snow White was able to live happily ever after because the prince and Snow White are rich mah! Whoever heard of a poor prince? No need to think too much about financial problems of course can live happily ever after.

In the end of Three Little Pigs, the wolf was killed because he was stupid enough to fall into the boiling cauldron below the chimney. You think the other wolves that are interested in the pigs will be stupid to fall for that? The pigs will be under the mercy of constant threats.

Beauty and the beast, The Princess and The Frog, all these are just too fictitious and only believed by children because children does not have a lot of constraints that was put to us as we move from childhood to adulthood.

At least the girl that is selling matches is more realistic. Haha! Who believe in fairy tales ending anymore, I think most adults would not. And the best thing is, they tell it to their children. Oh well what to do? It will keep them quiet, I guess.

I am not being negative here. I am always a positive and rational thinker, too rational sometimes. It is just that I am wondering what is the function of fairy tales anymore? Too raise our expectation of lives and in the end most of us found out that it actually fall below our expectations? If that is the case, telling our children fairy tales seem to harm them. Any opposing opinion? Hehe!

So how many of you like fairy tales ending? And how many of you who do, believe such ending will happen in life? If they do, they are usually called miracles which should happen only once in a blue moon. Haha!

Cheers!

Assumptions can be dangerous

Coming from an economist mouth, this can be serious. Haha.

Just a test question here to start the blog rolling:

Two Men Played 5 Games of Checkers.
Each Won 3 Games.
How is it possible?

Solution: Think about it for a while. I will let you know later on.

In economics, economists have to make a lot of assumptions first before a model or a theory can be proven or made. Of course, most of these assumptions have to be reasonably made base on the information that we have. So a good model is one where there are few assumptions and can produce very close or accurate results. Which seem quite impossible or all economists would have gone to make a living in predicting other people’s lives which I think would be more lucrative. Haha.

Ok, back to the solution to the above problem. The clue to solving this question is “What assumptions have you make here?” Did you assume that they are playing against each other? What make you made that assumption? It is because when playing checkers, it takes two players and straightaway your brain makes the assumption that they are playing against each other.

In life, we also make a lot of assumption when we are doing our work or going about in our daily lives. These assumptions are based on the rules and experience that we have and heard of. We have to make some assumptions in life or work or else it would take up a lot of time which means drop in efficiency. But in the Saturday’s edition of Straits Times, we have seen how assumption made could be very damaging.

Being on a one-way street, a woman was about to cross the road so she only look in the direction where the traffic would be flowing from. She assumed that traffic would definitely come from one direction since she is on a one-way street. Little did she expect someone who is reversing his vehicle to grab a parking lot that he would miss if he is to go with the flow of the traffic. In the end, a traffic accident occurred and it resulted in the woman being in a coma for two years. She still has not waked up yet.

Let me give you another example. You see a door with a door knob, those that you can open with a key. What do you do to open it? Twist the knob and push it out or pull it in right? What assumption have you made? What if I tell you, the door is actually a sliding door and not one with hinges? The knob is to enable one to slide the door to the side easily. Some people call it a psychological blindspot (this information is not verified yet).

So be careful what assumption you have made when you are solving a problem. Maybe it is time to question them and see if they are relevant or not.

Cheers!

Superstars or Shooting Stars? Which do we want?

Continuing on my previous blog on the Chinese Program that is shown in Channel U, Superstar contest.

Anyway, I would like to extend my congratulations to Wei Lian on winning the Superstar contest. He has shown us with great courage one can achieve the unimaginable. But the following comments I am making is not talking about him but to improve the contest and the quality of the stars they scouted (and the society as well)

Most people would know that the format of the competition is that the judges’ score would take up 30% of the overall score while viewer’s votes would take out the rest.
So in this contest, there is chance where the viewers can topple the professional judgment of the judges.

But I was thinking, I know a superstar definitely has a good and big crowd of fans to support him. This is undeniable. But how long can a superstar stand on a stage to perform for his fans if he does not have the capabilities and good voice to belt out very good songs? What I would like to suggest to the producers of this judge is that to eliminate those that does not have the capabilities to become superstar early so that those that have will have a longer exposure and able to build a longer lasting fan base.

In my opinion, a superstar not only has a large fan base but he should be able to last long in his performing career. So in order to produce such a Superstar for this contest, the weight on professional judges’ scores should be high initially to seek out capable singers, and gradually reduce the weight and increase the weight of viewers’ voting. This will definitely create the Superstar we want for our country. Revenues for the phone companies and TV station would still be more or less the same.

Another thing is the amount of revenue these phone companies received from this contest are really shocking. A few ten thousands dollar a night. That is still a lot of money after covering for administration expenses, I think. I want to make a suggestion here that the phone companies use this money to subsidies calls that are make during charity shows instead.
With the call charges for charity show subsidies and thus reduced, this may encourage people to pick up the phone to donate. More people donate ,in turn that would mean more fund for these organization.

Cheers! And the mid-autumn festival is coming soon! Yeah! Love mooncakes!

Who is the real IDOL?

To join in the SUPERSTAR fever, I am writing this into my blog to mark the day of the Grand Final, the Battle of the Sexes! A bit of background here.

Recently, the only TV station in Singapore held a Chinese Edition of the IDOL franchise but with a slightly different competition format (Where is the intellectual property rights protection??? Haha!)

So I was watching to the prelude to the big Finale where they pit the girl champion against the guy champion, thus providing a good story to catch a bigger audience, guys vs gals. So in these two shows, they brought back the “William Hungs” of the show.

Well some of them lack in the looks department and some of them lack in the singing department actually most of them lack in two departments but I found them to have been plentiful in one department that most of us people do not have and that is the COURAGE department.

Well how many of us dare to pursue our dreams although we know we may be far, far away. Most of us do not dare because we think too much? Analyse too much? Too comfortable in our comfort zone? Well, I think it is basically one word. FEAR!

The recent Baghdad Stampede that happened causing hundreds of people to be dead show how much damage fear can do damage. Not only a loss of lives but also loss of dreams.

Fear too much change in your life, fear the repercussion if you appear on TV and embarrassed yourself. Most of us have let fear paralyse us from pursuing our dreams.

When I was watching the show, I feel pity for them because it seems that the TV station brought them, letting audience to laugh and make fun of them, embarrassing them in the process to boost ratings. I also felt happy because they realize their dreams of performing on the big stage. I admire them because they have the courage to pursue their dreams although the opportunity came when they are not prepared to present their potential. I do not like the TV station because they make use of them for commercial purposes, but I also would like to thank the TV station for giving these people a chance to realize their dreams although the opportunity came too early for most of them.

Well back to the question? Who should be our real idol? For teenagers, it would be the champions that won. But for most of us, I think it should be those “William Hungs” in the show. They show us that we can pursue our dreams if we have the courage to take the first step! So do you have the courage to pursue your dreams? Think about it.

Cheers!