Lazy Kids --- Relax but Be Fresh

For lazy parents with lazy kids

In boxing, the boxer with 10,00-hour practice beats your lazy son. In MMA (mixed martial arts), the fighter with 10,00-hour practice has no such guarantee. In battle mode, even Nai Khanomtom can be captured alive by the very weak Burmese soldiers. (In kick boxing, 1 on 1, Nai Khanomtom easily beat 10 Burmese boxers in a row).

So, creativity also counts.

Only in silly exams, work-hard folks beat work-less folks.

In good exams and in real life or real battles, trickiness/ creativity pays ... very handsomely.

(1) 1.5 x 1.6 - 1.78 678 = ....

(2) How many golf courses in China? Guesstimate.

Small Knowledge and Sophisticated Goals(a phrase from Peter Small's writings)

Your English is lame, your level is something like, "My father is U Hla, He's about 40 years old. He is kind and helpful. He works hard for our family."

And you know a few silly individual sentences like, "This is the House that Jack built," etc.

Some of your school mates have even better English.

You refuse to spend less time on FUN and more time on studying English.

You insist on scoring well on English essays.

Impossible kid?

Software be a lot cheaper, a lot , a lot faster and a lot, a lot ,a lot better. Impossible guy?

This is what happened with English essay.

1. It takes no brain to use "and," "or," "but," "so," "therefore,"? 
2. No brains to use "if," "when," "until," "as long as," "because," "since," etc? 
3. No brains to reformat "This is the House that Jack built" into "Father is the man who provides leadership for us." 
4. No brains to extend "Mather is the woman who provides management for us."

After reading my distinction between "leadership" and "management," now the teacher gets into a dilemma

First, if I did read something originally in English, I deserve 10% more marks AUTOMATICALLY. Second, if, most likely, I got the idea in Myanmar, but translate the idea into English, I deserve 10% more marks AUTOMATICALLY, too.

S/he has no ideas all this come from "This is the House that Jack built."

Now about better, faster, cheaper software! I am too lazy and too fun-loving to think up "original" ideas. But they say a lot of companies have done just that repeatedly. Why not us?

I refuse to learn. I insist on winning. I promise wins. Join me if you can!

Principle of Least Work | Jose Mourinho

on June 5, 2010

In a previous post, Jose Mourinho as the Journalists See Him , I wrote " He [Jose Mourinho] is a winner, a champion many times over. He is efficient -- in my view -- super lazy . His teams do the least work : defend least, attack least, score least, and even train least." Here I elaborate on each point. The ideas themselves are nice and beautiful and so I won't embellish them any more.

In Competition

Defend Least
Some teams defend at the front.
Some teams defend high.
Some teams defend deep.
Mourinho's teams defend deepest, nearest their own goal.

Attack Least
In recent UEFA Championship League final match against Bayern Munich, Inter Milan won 2-0 with 33% of possession of the ball.
Fewer touches per goal. Does this echo "Speed, Simplicity and Confidence"?

In Non-Competitive Circumstances

I'm relating Mourinho's press conference at Real Madrid as their newly-appointed coach. I read a lot of books on PR training for CEO's. Some key ideas: (1) Lump all possible questions from the floor under 4 or 5 broad themes. (2) Always make your point, tell your story, bridge everything to your theme. This way, CEO can stay free of details and relaxed. That is just what Mourinho demonstrated in that press conference.

He had just 3 key things to say. So he can afford to be fluent and relaxed, saying these 3 things in many ways (even in a few langauges) and mixing them with sweet generalities.

The key things Mourinho had to say

1. He won't promise any trophies. (defense) 
2. He needed 3 or 4 new players to have more options, what he called "more possibilities." Not "a lot of changes" for the squad. 
3. Team above individuals. And the team should subscribe to his way of winning. (attack)

Sweet Generalities and Soundbites

1. "I am Jose Mourinho and I don't change."
2. "I am a coach that has a lot of self-esteem ... "
3. "It's too early tospeak about changes ... "

There are many things he could have said but didn't. And all the 3 things he emphasized are necessary, relevant, reasonable and beneficial to himself.
A minimalist, indeed.