Think Week

It was reported that Bill Gates, once every year, spent a week in confinement. I would imagine that he probably locks himself in a 16th century castle built on the bank of Rhines river, with mobile phone on silent mode, door shut, and he expects to see dinners prepared on the table, but not anyone preparing it. Then he settles down, and starts to read hundreds of proposals, or buisness ideas collected from Microsoft employees and he would digest them, go through a very deep thinking process, before coming up with some crucial decision, which would set the tone for the company's direction. Such process is infamously named "Think Week".

For the past few days, I have been staying in Butterworth, where my wife's family lives. I'm faraway from KL, and since their home provides no Astro or Streamyx, it's an excellent opportunity for me to do the Bill's thingy. I spent some time with their family, and by noon, I carried my laptop to the only Star Bucks available in Butterworth. I ordered a cup of hot chocolate, and started to surf the net, to ponder over the next generation architecture for Genting eBusiness, b2c, b2b, crossling, multi-currency, multilingual, fulfillment integration, bla bla bla.

While I'm going through a complex problem of aggregating multiple catalogs from different systems to enble one unified shopping cart, a fortune teller from china sitting right infront of me caught my eyes. He was trying to remove a mole from a middle-aged lady. That lady appeared to be calm. He applied some white creams on her face and asked her to wait. I'm just curious. Isn't this kind of mole removal requiring a surgery? If you can remove a mole in five minutes in some shopping mall, what else can you do? Can you fix my small eyes? Can you replace my kidney by the way?

I didn't wait to see the result of mole removal. I was determined that I cannot let a fortune teller distract my "think week" and I continue to do concentrate on my problem-solving. It's quite difficult to concentrate. A 16-th century castle facing the sea or river definitely helps.

A good christian

Among all the top-10 wealthiest guys in Malaysia, Francis Yeoh of YTL appears to be the most religious. He would seize every opportunity to preach the fact that he is a Christian. I remember at one time he even brought in Pavarotti to sing in the name of God.

During the recent event of hosting George Soros, Francis Yeoh made the following remark

I sponsor tonight's dinner for everyone so I think I deserve to speak. I am a Christian-Malaysian. Let me tell you, Mr Soros, in Malaysia we all stand in unity for the country. And thank God, our country has progressed very well as you can see for yourself... There's only relative truth. Relative truth is for us, absolute truth is for God. So, let's not waste tome to seek truth, because..." [Extracted from Jeff Oooi’s blog]

First of all, I am not going to get into the argument of whether the truth is relative or absolute, because let’s not pretend that we are suddenly Albert Einstein or Bertrand Russell. The discussion of this topic will only be meaningful in an academic context. But it would be fun if someone can ask Francis whether “Relative Truth is for us, Absolute Truth is for God” is a relative truth or absolute truth. Either way, contradiction will occur.

Now, I don’t know how guys feel about this, but does it make you sound more right if you introduce yourself as a Christian? Does it carry any weight? It doesn’t work for me, personally. There is simply no evidence to suggest that being a Christian would make you morally more superior than non-christians, You would sound much more convincing if you say “I’m a PHD”, or “I have been through the Vietnam War”, or “I have donated 5 billions”. It’s completely meaningless for Francis to introduce himself that way.

And this is most disgusting: In an attempt to please the government, Francis remarked that we all stand in unity for the country and that our country has progressed very well. Let me just make one minor correction : YTL stands in unity with the government and YTL has progressed very well.

-Bill Gates donated billions to fight Aids, Malaria,
-Warren Buffet helped out Gates Foundation.
-Li Kah Sing helped pay for the salary of outstanding professors in mainland China.
-George Soros paid a lot of money to try to bring down George Bush to end the Iraq occupation.
-Francis Yeoh brought in Pavarotti to sing in the name of God.

In comparison, Francis has done the best job in sharing joy with the world. This, my friend, is how a true Christian could contribute to the world.

mumbling

the most "negative sentence" i've ever built.

Not a single day has passed by that I have not regretted not buying Genting Shares at RM14.5 just a year ago.

Defining moment

At 5:44pm, I received an email with a title "Genting Wins".

And a few minutes later, the CEO walked out from his room, shook hands with some VIP, and he cheerfully said "Let's go up there. They have prepared some chaimpaign".

Tommorrow Genting wakes up to a new era.

Farewell speech

Over the years, I have listened to quite a few farewell speeches, which were mostly unmemorable.

Most chinese just like to say a lot of thank-you, to a lot of people.

But I think Bill Gate's recent press conference was quite impressive, and it was almost touching.

"I want to say that one of the hardest things about my decision is that a couple years from now I'll miss working with Steve every day as I have for the past 26 years. I couldn't ask for a better business partner, or a better friend."

"Yeah, I've never taken more than a two-week vacation, and this time it will actually be about seven weeks, so that is very long. A little bit of that will be in Africa. Actually, I'll be doing some Microsoft stuff while I'm there, but we have a Government Leaders Forum that's the first couple of days that I'm over there, and then actually a fair bit of it I'll be here in Seattle enjoying the Seattle summer."

"I don't know what it's going to feel like not to come in here every day and work 10 hours and just have that as a simple decision thing, okay, what am I doing today, oh, get over there and work my 10, 11 hours, and do my best, send a lot of e-mail, meet with some of the best engineers."

I think most americans would do their farewell speech this way, with a vivid recount of their daily activities, and to demonstrate a mixed feeling of anxiety and nostalgia. In contrast, chinese people are always full of meaningless "thank-you" shit, to a long list of people, and that usually makes the speech unbearably boring and somewhat faked.

If I were to give a farewell speech at Genting someday, I would model my speech after Bill's. And I would probably make a cheap joke of this kind- "And finally, I could place my bets on the table"

康 人 - KangXian

想 象 一下， 如 果吉 隆 坡 皇 宫 内 某 某 楼 宇发生火灾， 一 把 火 烧 了， 政 府 会 有 何 反 应 呢? 皇 宫， 这 是 皇 权 的 象 征， 何 等 的 大 事 ， 必 定 立 即 重 修， 并 且日 夜 赶 工， 务 求 在 两 三 个 月 内 完 工。 新 楼 宇 更 高， 更 大， 辉 煌 碧 目， 更 胜 从 前。

1679 年, 紫 禁 城 内 发 生 了 大火 ， 把 最 重 要 的 殿 堂 太 和 殿 毁 了。 康 熙 皇 帝 忍 着， 先不 把 它 当 一 会 事 。 在 以 后 的 十 八 年 里， 太 和 殿 始 终 废 墟 一 片。 后 来康 熙 收 复 了 台 湾， 击 败 了 沙 俄， 收 复 黑 龙 江， 至 康 熙34 年， 才 腾 出 时 间 来 修 太 和 殿。 他 也 不 乱 修， 费 尽 心 思 把 一 个 当 年 建 太 和 殿 的 一 个老 工 匠 找 来， 叫 他 造了 一 个 十 比 一 的 模 型， 原 样 重 建， 只 在 防 火 的 功 能 上， 作 了 加 强。 为 了 方 便 后 世 可 以 整 修 太 和 殿， 康 熙 勒 令 把 重 修 太 和 殿 的 种 种 细 节 记 录 在<< 太 和 殿 纪 事 >> 一 书。

就 在 重 修太 和 殿 的 小 事 情 里， 充 分 地 体 现 了 康 熙 一 种 古 今 中 外 都 少 见 的 务 实 精 神。 或 许 说， 他 更 想 一 个 现 代 的 一 个 大 企 业 的CEO， 做 事 情 先 后 有 序， 具 有 危 机 意 识， 不 乱 花 钱。 他 也 注 重process & documentation， 因 为 企 业 的 管 理 不 应 该 因 为 人 的 去 留， 而 受 到 影 响。

更 可 贵 的 是， 他 重 用 人 才， 也 不 管 肤 色， 国 籍， 只 看 本 事。 比 如， 他 任 命 比 利 时 的 南 怀 仁 为 Minister of Calendar，全 权 主 管 钦 天 监，把 掌 管 天 文 历 法 方 面 的 大 权 完 全 交 给 了 这 个 外 国 人 的 手 里。 这 种 胸 襟，是MNC 大 财 团 的 作 风. 这 种 胸 襟, 别 说 马 来 西 亚 的 政 府 不 会 有， 在 今 天 的 中 国， 也 是 不 可 想 象 的。

康 熙 有 后 宫 三 千 佳 丽 可 以 寻 欢 作 乐， 他 却 可 以 控 制 自 己， 腾 出 时 间 来 学 习 欧 式 几 何， 意 大 利 文, 天 文 地 理，这 对 我 来 说， 是 非 常 震 憾 的。 他 并 没 有 老 板， 不 需 要 对 任 何 人 交 代.

现 在 华 人 普 遍 上 有 几 种 自 称 : 龙 的 传 人， 炎 黄 子 孙， 或 者 汉 人。 这 些 称 呼 有 点 模 糊， 有 点 遥 远， 代 表 性 不 强。 我 觉 得 我 们 不 妨 称 自 己 为 康 人， 因 为 我 们 在 康 熙 这 一 个 人 身 上， 最 能 够 找 到 一 个 平 实， 聪 明， 勤 奋 的 中 国 人 形 象。

拉 拉 杂 杂 地 交 代 了 此Blog 命 名 的 含 义。

My advice to Kuen Cheng alumni

The recent decision by the board of Kuen Cheng Independent high school to open up the admission for all gender has caused quite a stir. It seems the majority of the alumni have objected to this idea. They have launched an all-out war against the board, by issuing various attacks through media.

After going through many comments posted in the newspaper, I can conclude that the alumni have no case, and their defense can be summarized as the followings.


1. Single-sex is the unique feature of Kuen Cheng. And if you take that away, Kuen Cheng will loose its identity.
2. According to Kuen Cheng Alumni Association President Li Shuz hen, studies show that students from single-sex schools often perform better academically, and are more disciplined, than students from co-ed schools
3. If you mix around boys and girls, the boys will dominate certain areas, making girls less confident.

On Point 1, I do not see much merit. What’s more important? The school’s identity or the students’ well being? There is no point of talking about identity, if the students' well-being is sacrificed in some ways. If you are so concerned about identity, why not remain all of the policies previously adopted, including using traditional chinese instead of simplified chinese ?

On Point 2, don’t fucking bullshit me. I’m wary of this kind of “quoting a study” without explaining in full the context or pretext. And besides, you can almost find a report that supports any position you desire. If you like smoking, you can find a report that concludes smoking does not lead to illness. The fact is, you will find outstanding students everywhere, both in co-ed and single-sex school.

Point 3 is interesting, because it concerns the well-being of the student, and at first glance, it sounds perfectly logical. However, it's deeply flawed.

My argument is this : If you need to build an environment that allows girls to be convinced that they can do almost everything, why just stop at recruiting only female students? Go all out. Hire only female teachers. Hire only female headmaster. Hire only female bus drivers. Hire only female basketball coach. Hire only female construction workers that do the renovation work for the school. Allow the girls to see and feel that the entire school operates on its own without male. If you can do that, I’m sure your girls will have pretty high level of confidence.

If you find the above scenario impractical, and that real life does not operate this way, you are being inconsistent in your thinking. Inside classroom, girls-only is ok for you, and outside classroom, girls-only is not ok for you. Do you honestly think that a female student will get convinced about the “girl power” this way?

Sure, boys are more dominant in nature, and in a typical laboratory, boys will be holding the test tube, or in a computer lab, they will be typing the codes. The right solution is to let the teachers mediate and ensure equivalent opportunities be given to the girls. The wrong solution is to exclude boys, because by doing that, you are create an illusion to fool the girls. You are fooling the girls to believe that they can take their own sweet time to do their exercises, without knowing that in real life, boys will fight to do it, and they will do it fast, so that they can move on to play games. The girls need to be exposed to competition, head-on, to mature.

Kuen Cheng Alumni, time to grow up. It’s a cruel world out there, dominated by men. Give your juniors a chance to learn to compete in the future!