A friend of mine had a surgery today and I was the one giving his ride back home. The surgery wouldn't start until 4pm and would take about 1-1.5 hours. The plan was to have my friend staying in the hospital until 5:30pm and then I would drive to pick him up (after work).
While I was very focus at work, I got a call from a nurse and that was about 4:25pm. She needed me to get to the hospital before 5pm. Why? Because, otherwise, I wouldn't be able to get into the building as the elevator will be locked. If that was the case, couldn't she call me up earlier? Otherwise, why didn't she just let me in when I get there at around 6pm since I wouldn't be able to make it at 5pm? Maybe the nurse would be too busy to let me in. Anyway, I thought the surgery must have been done early so I just went.
After about 30 minutes of commute time, I got to the hospital at 5:15pm and I thought I would need to call her to let me in. Well, to my surprise, the elevators worked just fine. So I got to the reception and asked for my friend and it turned out that he's still in the operation room and still needed at least 30 mins! I was like WTF. You asked me to get to the hospital early to wait so that you don't have to get down to let me in. I understand that the nurse is just doing her job and she's probably very busy. However, from a customer's perspective (a friend reminded me that I am not really a customer and most users of the hospital are patients and patients' family members, so they don't really have a choice), that's a very bad experience. You know what, if the hospital allows operations to happen past 5pm, they have to figure out a way to let people into it after then. That's just simple customer service.
Anyway, hope I don't have to go there anytime soon.
Trip to HK - confirmed!
My friend and I were talking about making a trip to HK earlier this year since I go back to HK once every two years and this year is "the" year. As with any thought, it was just an idea and we hadn't actually done anything about it until last week. My friend initiated the conversation last Wednesday and we spent about 20 mins discussing about the trip over the weekends. I then confirmed it with various folks (family, boss etc) yesterday, and then we got our tickets today! All this happened within a week for a trip that isn't going to happen until 4 months later. I thought it was pretty amazing especially for someone like me who has a commitment problem - I don't like to commit to any trip until the very last minute.
Anyhow, so I'll be back in HK this December if you would like to meet up, shoot me an email. I think I'll actually be in HK for only a few days and I'll be in Malaysia, Japan, and mainland China for the rest. I am very excited about it. Now that the HK trip is booked, we need to look into the Malaysia trip.
Anyhow, so I'll be back in HK this December if you would like to meet up, shoot me an email. I think I'll actually be in HK for only a few days and I'll be in Malaysia, Japan, and mainland China for the rest. I am very excited about it. Now that the HK trip is booked, we need to look into the Malaysia trip.
Labels:
Trip
Snow Leopard is coming this Friday
I have been a Mac user since 2005 and have been paying attention to all-things Mac since. I guess I am somewhat of a fan boy since I have a Mac Mini, a Macbook, and an iPhone. Anyway, in the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (held in SF in Jun 2009), Apple announced that the new version of Mac OS X (10.6 codename Snow Leopard) would be shipped in September 2009 for $29 [1]. I was very excited about it. By the way, there is only ONE version of OS in Mac as opposed to many in the Windows world (like Home Basic, Premium, Ultimate, and a lot more). Everyone in the Mac community always makes fun of Windows because of all these version.
Today, Apple announced that the new OS will be shipped this Friday (August 28, 2009) [2]. That's at least a few days earlier than the promised delivery day (they could have planned to release it at the end of September and that means it's a whole month earlier than expected). As a customer, I am happy and impressed with their ability to deliver software (as compared to the other OS company). Of course, I haven't tried out the new OS and don't know if it would be just a piece of sh!t but given Apple's track record, I am rather confident that it would be a fine piece of software.
Lesson learned: Set a lower expectation for your customers (under promise) and as long as you beat that expectation even just by a little bit (over delivery), people will think that you are awesome. It applies to your work too. However, you shouldn't do that when you set goals for yourself. You should always set a far-fetch goal and even if you don't get it, you would have achieved more than you could.
Today, Apple announced that the new OS will be shipped this Friday (August 28, 2009) [2]. That's at least a few days earlier than the promised delivery day (they could have planned to release it at the end of September and that means it's a whole month earlier than expected). As a customer, I am happy and impressed with their ability to deliver software (as compared to the other OS company). Of course, I haven't tried out the new OS and don't know if it would be just a piece of sh!t but given Apple's track record, I am rather confident that it would be a fine piece of software.
Lesson learned: Set a lower expectation for your customers (under promise) and as long as you beat that expectation even just by a little bit (over delivery), people will think that you are awesome. It applies to your work too. However, you shouldn't do that when you set goals for yourself. You should always set a far-fetch goal and even if you don't get it, you would have achieved more than you could.
Labels:
Technology
Depth or Breadth
Do you consider yourself as a Jack of all trades (aka master of none) or a specialist? If you are a specialist and if you are best in that field, you can command big bucks but then if that field is going downhill, you could be the same too. If you are a jack of all trades, it may be easier for you to adapt but then it may be harder for you to compete against all the specialists. Is it possible to be a jack of all trades and at the same time the very good in all these areas?
Labels:
Life
Homeless Running a Business
If you visit Seattle downtown, you would see quite a few homeless folks trolling through the streets. Some would just ask "Sir, do you have 50c? Could you help me out?". Some would actually do something to earn the money, like selling a newspaper called "Real Change" for $1. I came across one such person yesterday.
She told me that they actually have to pay 35c to get a copy of the newspaper. I am not sure if it's true as I can't verify it. Let's assume it's true for the sake of this post. Basically, the Real Change organization is trying to help the homeless people become self-sustained by encouraging them buying and selling products. That's good intention but I think the product, newspaper, is a bad one. Think about it, how many people read physical newspapers today? How many newspapers have closed down due to the competition on the web? News stands are having hard time selling newspapers and I think the homeless people will have a even harder time.
I don't think people would spend money on a crappy product (even with the intention to help the homeless); I think they would rather donate the money to charity (at least I would). So if charities want to help these homeless people become more self-sustained, they seriously need to offer a product that people actually want and would buy. What could that product be? I don't know but I don't think it's newspaper. I actually wonder if they have metrics to track how they are done.
She told me that they actually have to pay 35c to get a copy of the newspaper. I am not sure if it's true as I can't verify it. Let's assume it's true for the sake of this post. Basically, the Real Change organization is trying to help the homeless people become self-sustained by encouraging them buying and selling products. That's good intention but I think the product, newspaper, is a bad one. Think about it, how many people read physical newspapers today? How many newspapers have closed down due to the competition on the web? News stands are having hard time selling newspapers and I think the homeless people will have a even harder time.
I don't think people would spend money on a crappy product (even with the intention to help the homeless); I think they would rather donate the money to charity (at least I would). So if charities want to help these homeless people become more self-sustained, they seriously need to offer a product that people actually want and would buy. What could that product be? I don't know but I don't think it's newspaper. I actually wonder if they have metrics to track how they are done.
Labels:
Business
Population Control
The population is increasing rapidly and the world would be out of resources sooner or later. What can people do to solve or at least slow down the problem? It's either making people die faster or making people born slower (or somehow find another planet in the galaxy). Given that we are getting more and more advanced in medicine, it's unlikely that we can make people die faster (unless there is a huge natural disaster or a massive war among many nations). The only solution is really to make people born slower.
According to Wikipedia[1], the two most populous countries are China (1.33 billion) and India(1.15 billion); they account for almost 40% of the world population. In order to slow down the rapid population growth, China introduced the one-child policy in 1979[2]. Under this policy, each family can only have one child or they will have to pay a heft fine. Since a majority of families in China are poor, this policy really forced them to have only one kid, which really helps in slowing down the population growth in China. Of course, this policy caused a bunch of other problems, e.g. family would kill their newborns if they don't get the gender they want (mostly boys), but I am not going to talk about them today.
As for India, they don't really have any drastic policy like the one China has (please correct me if I am wrong) and analysts are saying that India will become the most populous country within 50 years (overtaking China) if the Indian government doesn't do anything. Well, the Indian government listens and they are actually doing something. So what is it? "Bring electricity to every Indian village so that people would watch television until late at night and therefore be too tired to make babies." [3]. Not sure if it'll really work but it's an interesting idea. If you look at some very busy countries/cities, the birth rate is so much lower. So I suppose if you can get people busy enough, they will really slow down in producing babies.
Source:
[1]: Wikipedia: World Population
[2]: Wikipedia: One-child policy
[3]: CNN International
According to Wikipedia[1], the two most populous countries are China (1.33 billion) and India(1.15 billion); they account for almost 40% of the world population. In order to slow down the rapid population growth, China introduced the one-child policy in 1979[2]. Under this policy, each family can only have one child or they will have to pay a heft fine. Since a majority of families in China are poor, this policy really forced them to have only one kid, which really helps in slowing down the population growth in China. Of course, this policy caused a bunch of other problems, e.g. family would kill their newborns if they don't get the gender they want (mostly boys), but I am not going to talk about them today.
As for India, they don't really have any drastic policy like the one China has (please correct me if I am wrong) and analysts are saying that India will become the most populous country within 50 years (overtaking China) if the Indian government doesn't do anything. Well, the Indian government listens and they are actually doing something. So what is it? "Bring electricity to every Indian village so that people would watch television until late at night and therefore be too tired to make babies." [3]. Not sure if it'll really work but it's an interesting idea. If you look at some very busy countries/cities, the birth rate is so much lower. So I suppose if you can get people busy enough, they will really slow down in producing babies.
Source:
[1]: Wikipedia: World Population
[2]: Wikipedia: One-child policy
[3]: CNN International
Labels:
News
Do you really want it?
Have you ever wanted something really badly but have never been able to get it? How does it feel? Isn't it a great feeling? I mean, most of the time, you really want that something because you have exceptional expectation about it and it serves great when you need something for day-dreaming. For example, you may have always wanted to go out with that girl you met in college, you may have always wanted to work for this awesome manager, or you may have always wanted to move to this exotic country to live for a few years.
Now, think about the times when you have got something you really wanted. How did you feel? Was there any disappointment? I would say, you have mostly like experienced some and the reason is that you had such a high expectation about that something to begin with so any minor glitches will make it a disappointment for you. Isn't it interesting how human brains work? It's all about expectations.
So next time, when you are about to be able to get what you have always wanted, think twice. It may be better to keep that ideal dream than to face reality.
Now, think about the times when you have got something you really wanted. How did you feel? Was there any disappointment? I would say, you have mostly like experienced some and the reason is that you had such a high expectation about that something to begin with so any minor glitches will make it a disappointment for you. Isn't it interesting how human brains work? It's all about expectations.
So next time, when you are about to be able to get what you have always wanted, think twice. It may be better to keep that ideal dream than to face reality.
Labels:
Life
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