National Identity, Product Identity, Personal Identity

First I read an article titled "It's Over" in Psychology Today issue of May/June 2015. It is about breakup recovery and contains a sidebar titled "Rejection Relief"  on page 85. Here are the first two, or most important suggestions:

1. Reconnect with yourself: Who am I? ... How should I spend my time?
2. Cultivate Self-love: ... being compassionate and gentle with yourself ... kind and forgiving ...

Second, I read about building a national identity. These two readings remind me of what I have kept reading in psychology and branding/positioning.

It's all the same.

When you know who you are, and you are proud of it and you want to continue with it, you get a strong sense of identity.

Such an identity,whether national, organizational or personal ,come from what you stand for (your values), what you want to accomplish (your aspirations) and from how you overcome obstacles.

Soul-searching and identity-seeking always do us good.

When the chips are down, when you are against the wall, as in the breakup article, you only have yourselves to rely upon to re-build your lives. Know yourself, your values and your aspirations to lead a worthwhile life.

Who are you?

What do you stand for?

What do you want to achieve? How do you want to be perceived / remembered?

We at EssayKKN are also thinking about our product identity.

Too Stubborn to Fail

Some legendary businessmen are just too stubborn to fail.

Once the Daewoo founder needed to give bribes to a Japanese official. Just to see the official he had to wait at that officials gate every morning  for a month.

The same thing happened during the Genting founder's trip to Japan to sell his mines. The Japanese simply refused to take him seriously at first.


The same thing repeated when Matsushita/Panasonic tried  to work with Phillips in the 50's. In Matsushita's words, the Dutch company with more advanced technology tried to "throw its weight."

Are you stubborn enough to succeed?

Cheer up. You are either talented or inventive!

We all should cheer up because we are either talented or inventive.

If talented, then you can copy and clone the past and present successes and prosper.

If you lack that talent, then whatever you make will be a bit different, a bit unique. In other words, you are original and inventive!

You can be both, but you cannot be neither. Isn't it a bit cheerful thought?

If you are brave, what will you see

If you are brave, what will you see, and what will you do?

If you are discerning, what will you see, and what will you do?

If you are disciplined, what will you see, and what will you do?

Above all, if you are virtuous, what will you see, and what will you do?
Oh, beloved country, beloved world, what do you see, and what will you do?

Bono and Karma and B-Karma

I read this in a nice book, "Beyond Willpower"

“It’s a mind-blowing concept that the God who created the Universe might be looking for company, a real relationship with people, but the thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between Grace and Karma…

You see, at the centre of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you; an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics – in physical laws – every action is met by an equal or opposite one.  Its clear to me that Karma is at the very heart of the universe.  I’m absolutely sure of it.

And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that “As you reap, so will you sow” stuff.  Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I’ve done a lot of stupid stuff.

That’s between me and God. But I’d be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge. I’d be in deep shit. It doesn’t excuse my mistakes, but I’m holding out for Grace

I am glad that Bono is conceptually right 100%. I am a bit sad that he seems not to know Buddhism at all.

What he calls karma is untreated, uncultured, undeveloped karma.
What he calls grace is treated, cultured, developed karma.
Let's call this B-Karma to honor Buddha and also to honor Bono who has popularized this distinction.

Karma is never "an eye for an eye." Even the Myanmar culture has a saying: "Donate what amounts to a banyan seed and get what amounts to a banyan tree. Or donate what amounts to a banyan tree and get what amounts to a banyan seed."

My Parting Gift to the English Department

(1) When Chomsky and Halliday show up, ask them to build a working model or a prototype. If they refuse or if they can't, laugh in their faces or roll your eyes.

(2) When Sylvia Plath and co show up, ask them to write without a formula, If they refuse or if they can't, laugh in their faces.

(3) When fake ESP(English for specific purposes), EAP(English for academic purposes), EPP(English for professional purposes) experts show up, ask them how many hotel staffs, business people, geologists, chemical engineers, doctors, nurses, sailors, insurance people, software engineers have found their stuffs useful. If they don't have a specific number/figure, laugh in their faces.

As this lovely book illustrates, keep this in mind: Sophisticated elaborate ruses can be easily countered with very simple moves. Be simple, be even stupid.

Simplicity : Be Stupid --- 3

Even the book title is arresting: "Piercing the Fog of War: Recognizing Change on the Battlefield: Lessons from Military History, 216 BC Through Today."

Full of case studies. Comprehensive analyses.

As usual, I retain only the key points truly relevant for me.

The book says, the battle field is full of black swans, surprises, what he calls "extraordinary," "aberrations," the unknown-unknowns, etc.

I am nervous about even the known-unknowns. I am so more worried about the unknown-unknowns. What to do amidst these abnormal, totally unexpected aberrations?

The answer echoes my last two posts: Be simple, be stupid.

Aberrational actions do not necessarily aberrational re-actions. We can simply answer them with responses from our personal repertoire, personal experience.

Isn't that delightful?

Simplicity : Be Stupid

A section of the book is titled "Be Stupid."

The author insists that the more the investment schemes or products look complex, the more stupid you should remain.

Don't be intimidated by the complexity. Untangle and expose it just by asking  very simple,  basic questions one after another.

Isn't it encouraging?

Quality or Type of Drive

We all need drives, just like cars need batteries and fuel.

No drive, no energy, no progress, and you may even say, no life at all.

Then, in history, I see repeatedly that

(1) Drives driven by cleverness don't work.
(2) Drive driven by disdain/contempt  don't work.

(3) Drives driven by fear, anger, or revenge don't work.

(4) Drives driven by greed without empathy or sympathy don't work.
(5) Drives driven by lust don't work.

Then  what kind of drives work?


Drives arising out of virtues only, can be sustainable. Other types are even self-defeating.

One Proven Way to Build Confidence

True confidence comes from accepting your total and ever-present failure to be like anybody else, and from building your life from there.

1. Specialize. But don't specialize out of fear of competition. The competition will find its way into your home turf anyway.
   
2. Feel free to compare. It is both natural and good for learning.
   
3. Accept that you have already failed and that you will never do things the way the stars in your chosen field have done or are doing.

You don't play football like Maradona?

No problem.

Do you make that 10-meter pass today better than you did yesterday?

Will you make it better tomorrow?

You may not be a second Maradona, but you may make bigger contributions to football than the first and only Maradona!

Good luck!

One More Way Not to Build Confidence

Another common advice to build confidence goes, 'Stop comparing with others. Just work hard.' This advice is both impossible to follow and also harmful to do so.

Impossible

How can we stop comparing?

1. We do not live alone, in total isolation, in the universe.
2. We do not live in sensory deprivation chambers, with eyes seeing nothing, with ears hearing nothing, and so on.

Harmful

Why should we stop comparing? In matters of learning, comparison comes even before imitation and copycatting!

Say, I am a young swimmer. How much arrogance or blindness would it take for me not to know and learn from Thorpe , Phelps and other greats.

Say, I am a young golfer. How much arrogance or blindness would it take for me not to know and learn from Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Gary Player and other greats.

Say, I am a young footballer. How much arrogance or blindness would it take for me not to know and learn from Ronaldo (Brazil), Romario, Maradona and other greats.

There must be a better way. Let's see.

One Way Not to Build Confidence

Looking for your core competence, sticking to your strengths, staying true to your essence are commendable life strategies. But they will never build you true confidence. They encourage you to live inside a cocoon, to avoid real threats and real opportunities.

 Orcas cannot climb trees. Monkeys cannot fly. Eagles cannot swim.

So orcas should keep themselves to seas, monkeys to trees, and eagles to the sky?

1. So a budding poet should not study math because he will never be able to do math as well as his classmates? 
2. So a budding mathematician should not touch literature and arts because he will never do them as well as his classmates? 
3. So a promising engineer should never dabble in enterprise because he will never do business as well as her classmates?

All sound and sensible and sham and fake and lame!


If you avoid competition and comparison, the universe is never wide enough for you.


If you choose math out of your fear to compete in other fields, you shall find lots and lots of competition in your own field. What about famous mathematicians in history?

If you choose poetry out of your fear to compete in other fields, you shall find lots and lots of competition in your own field. What about famous poets in history?

If you choose business and enterprise out of your fear to compete in other fields, you shall find lots and lots of competition in your own field. What about famous entrepreneurs in history?

There is a better way. See the next post.

Cao Cao's Assurance

Cao Cao was a famous warlord during the Three Kingdoms Period in Chinese history. At one time, hist troops were camping uneasily, there were alarms throughout the day and the soldiers were too fearful to sleep as the night came.

Cao Cao told them that he knew there were enemy troops nearby far outnumbering them, that they had seen him outwit the enemy many times before in similar situations.

Finally he suggested that they "put their hearts at peace and have a good night's sleep" for the coming battles.

This is the voice of True Hope. This how Andrew Carnegie added meters to his rather diminutive stature.

This is how I intend to sell my vision, my ideas, and my products.

Vision Flanking

Are you feeling a lot of pain?

Often I instinctively use what I call "vision flanking." "Flanking" is a military term, meaning avoiding the other side and going around it. In vision flanking, you stop seeing the other side, and they do not even belong in your sphere of existence.

For example, in 20 hours after I got the transfer order to move from Yangon to Maw La Myaing, the English Department or the English Major not longer exists in my Universe. The Dept/Major can no longer help me or harm me, it felt very cool! It still feels cool.

Yes, I still love it and its people, I still owe lots of gratitude, I still keep fond memories. Still we live in different Universes.

For example, some online programmers' groups in Singapore were full of hostile souls. It was hard for me to participate there. Their method seemed to be to subscribe to Google Alert, then post those links back to their Groups. No serious, substantial discussions or collaborations were possible, at least during my time there.

And the programmers still owe me something for my "serious" posts ;-) I can patiently wait for the pay back ;-)

For a non-attacking type, it is lucky that I was born with this "vision flanking." I'll flank to better universes whenever I was made to feel whatever pain.

Facebook Rants --- Black Strategies and Futility

Black strategies are self-defeating and so we need not study them.

Black Strageties and Futility

Cao Cao, Sima Yi, Sima Yan, Wu Qi, Sun Tzu, Sun Bin,Unrestricted Warfare, Mao Guerrilla warfare and protracted wars,

Bar Me Sayadaw, Maha Thiha Thuya,  Bayint Naung, Bandoola, Alaung Phaya, Sin Byu Shin,

Grant, Sherman, RMA, Network Warfare, General Rdigeway, Geoege Patton,Gen Marshall

Sumerian wars, Biblical wars, Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Scipio, Fabius,

 Machiavelli, Han Fei Tzu, Chanakya the so-called Indian Machiavelli, Clausewitz, Napoleon, Gen Manstein, General Guderian, General Rommel

Georgie Zukov, Prince Kutosov,

Nobugana, Hideyoshi, Admiral Togo,

Duke of Wellington,  Lawrence of Arabia,  Liddell Hart, General William Slim, Gen Montgomery, General Templer,

Moshe Dayan, Vo Nguyen Giap ....

And on business side ... I don't want to carry on.

Don't read them.

Just have love. Just have faith. Even be naive and innocent. You'll be alright.

Product Strategy : Military History Emphasizes its Importance

Reading "Agile Experience Design," I noticed the following quote on page-52.

"Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat."

The source is Sun Tzu's "The Art of War":

I've read different versions of and addendums to Sun Tzu. But I've never seen this before. However, the concepts are in line with his spirit and philosophy. So, I'll regard them as authentically put down by the Master himself.

We're taking our own medicine. Our strategy&UX  campaign may be just a mere noise before it dies out. However, we are attempting in  some other fronts, too.

Role of Good Habits in Learning English, Maths and Software Business

Can I learn software business the way my son has learned his English and the way I did my Maths?

Why not?

The Way My Son Learned English

In his first year in Singapore, he was very lonely. I was at home in his sight all the time but busy and absorbed in my programming tasks. No friends, no siblings, not even another Myanmar near us.

We relieved his loneliness with books.

One book is about 10 pages, 1 page is about 1 picture and 1 or 2 words. The story makes sense even without words. Like Bee Smart, "Bee Happy" etc. After a few weeks, he got to Nate the Great, Cam Jensen etc.

There were no grammar, no vocab, no phonetics teaching. No idiom, no teaching, no discussion, no Q and A, either.

Maybe he showed us what he liked, he retold some stories to us.

After 1 or 2 years, he got to "The Red Badge of Courage," "The Burmese Harp," Roald Dahl etc.

After 1 or 2 years, he got to Sun Tzu at Gettysburg,  Judo Strategy, "Psycho-Cybernetics," Paul Krugman, David Brooks, The Ethics of Belief,  "Calculus Demystified," "Python for Beginners," "jQuery Animation Techniques," and a few other technical books.

He can read whatever he needs to read.

Now we don't bother what he's reading, except that I quote the first English quote I learned by heart, "At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet -- Plato," and tell him he'll like Shakespeare's sonnets and Keats's odes. He's going to be a poet very soon like every teen boy! (I wish him luck.)

The Way I Did Maths

I read Maths like we usually read newspapers.

1. If I understand something, fine. If I don't, forget it.
2. If a chapter looks very complicated, forget it.
3. If an explanation, or an example looks very complicated, forget it.
4. If an exercise looks tough, read the key.
5. If the key looks tough, forget it.

It's a lot like shopping every day with a small amount of cash. If I can buy, buy. If it's out of my range, forget it. When the price comes down, buy.

Silly?Childish? Irresponsible?

1. Tell that to Aristotle, who extols the virtues of daily actions and good habits.
2. Tell that to Warren Buffet.
3. Tell that to InGenius 's author. What I was doing was what she calls "Expedition." I was touring and shopping the Maths land.

In most life-changing exams in my days, my Math score averaged around 99 . No homework, no tuition, no extra class, a lot of football, a lot of hormone-driven touring, a lot of fooling around, and so on.

This shopping expedition method may not work for every situation ... Horses for courses ...

But if you are over-working, working less may be the cure. If you lack routine and daily exposure, structure may be the answer.

And good habits are foundations of every good maths, good English, good software, good business.

Jataka Tales for Our Times

Reference

The Jataka, Volume I, tr. by Robert Chalmers, [1895], at sacred-texts.com
THE JATAKA OR STORIES OF THE BUDDHA'S FORMER BIRTHS.
TRANSLATED FROM THE PALI BY VARIOUS HANDS UNDER THE EDITORSHIP OF PROFESSOR E. B. COWELL. 

Leading Humans in 6 Stories

Vol I 1- 150
1 --- caravan merchant/ keep water ( page 1, pdf 26)
2 --- caravan merchant/ digging ( page 9, pdf 34)
54 --- whatnot tree ( page 135, pdf 160)

Vol II  151-300
265 --- chief forest guide fights alone. ( page 231, pdf 251)

Vol IV  439-510
463 --- blind skipper/mariner ( page 86, pdf 98)
466 --- carpenters on island ( page 98, pdf 110)

Leading Animals in 11 Stories

Vol I 1- 150
11 --- Luckie travels night, away from villagers. Blackie loses all followers. ( page 34, pdf 59)
20 ---  monkey king drinks through hollow cane/reed ( page 54, pdf 79)

 22 --- dog king exposes palace dogs' mischief ( page 58, pdf 83)

 33 --- united quails escape the net, quarrelsome suffer. ( page 85, pdf 110)
 36 --- wise quails escape fire, foolish suffer. ( page 91, pdf 116)

128 --- rat king kills hypocrite jackal ( page 281, pdf 306)
140 --- crow king explains we have no fat ( page 300, pdf 325)

Vol II  151-300
177 --- monkey king's nephew started a fire to disperse villagers ( page 53, pdf 73)
283 --- carpenter's boar king ( page 275, pdf 295)


Vol III  301-438
407 --- monkey king's bridge ( page 225, pdf 243)

Vol IV  439-510
484 --- parrot king ( page 175, pdf 187)

Just General Knowledge

Vol II
257 --- features of Buddha's Wisdom

Vol III
388 --- fear of death and pig brothers

Vol IV
459 --- small sins caused Pacceka Buddhahood

Vol V 511-537
515 --- ( page 37, pdf 48)

1. Seize the occasion promptly
2. Shun evil ways.

Vol VI 538-547
546 --- Ma Haw Thadha ( page 156, pdf 160 )
(Johnny English said Dialog is the best weapon for MI7 spies. The characters in this story foreshadow him nearly 3000 years ago!)

Leadership : Timeless Basics

1. What is leadership?
   
   James Kilts, former CEO of Gillette, answers: seeing targets and mobilizing people to hit them. It is no wonder that Warren Buffet said of him as one of the businessmen who gave him "No baloney."
   
   
2. What if your targets are wrong?
   
   What if you didn't see so clearly when you set up those targets? Deng Xiaoping suggests ad hoc solutions and "groping for stones to cross the river."
   
   
3. Caring
   
   Mao Zedong when he was still good, was caring. He said good-humoredly of his troops that The Red Army soldiers are good at running.
   

Myanmar history has also taught us that leadership is all about clarity, options and risk management.

Above all, keep in mind the 6 qualities of a Leader ('Na Ya Ka') expounded by Lord Buddha:

1. 'hta-kywa' = energetic, energizing
2. 'noe-kyar' = vigilance
3. 'tha-nar' = mercy
4. 'thee-khan' = tolerate, forgive
5. 'way-phan' = feedback, comment
6. 'htaut-shu' = support, provide, take care

Leadership needs to be developed and exercised at all levels in our time. I hope my short list of just 3 items has helped you in your leadership journey.

What Do You Want to Be Remembered For?

This is the late Peter Druckers' famous question.

I want to be remembered as someone who successfully digitized several aspects of teaching and learning, who has reduced wasteful learning of all kinds at all stages of life-long learning journey.

As Bill Gates once remarked, many people before us had tried and failed: radio, TV, CD, elearning, ecourses. A few years down the road, we may also add the recent phenomenon MOOCs(massive open online courses) to the list.

They were perhaps too ambitious.

If we aim for partial but useful solutions, focused micro-solutions, we can have a better chance.

Perhaps, we can find out many a sweet spot along the spectrum of teaching and learning. Perhaps, we just need a better business model, where incentives are better aligned.

As ever, I am optimistic. We may not come up with a Silver Bullet. Yet, small incremental improvements, when they compile, can make a real difference for all concerned: teachers. students, trainers, trainees, learners, parents and the society as a whole.