“JUST WORK HARD : IT’S NOT HARD WORK Kids these days. They want it all. That’s fine, that’s how we taught them. Dream big! Shoot for the stars!! You can do anything if you put your mind to it!!! But the reality of the matter is that dreams are nothing without hard work. Goals are zero without diligence. And everyone has a vision, but what have you done in the past 24 hours to achieve it? There’s this theory of the “millenial generation”: Gen Y, which refers to pretty much everyone reading this blog, especially us degenerates from the ’80s and ’90s. According to the brainy ones (who get paid a lot of money to compartmentalize us), we are apparently lost – the most educated but also most unemployed generation: 85% of college graduates this year are jobless. That means we have the smartest, most capable set of minds in the history of human civilization, and we’re droning out on Black Ops slumber parties, celebrity Twitter feeds, and Music Television shows about pregnant teenagers (Team Maci). But we all know what we want, and for the most part, we even know how to get there. The gnarly part is that 99.9% of us will just never ever do it. We’ve bred a culture of visionaries who can’t see beyond their next dream. I’ve heard it all, from the motivated and inspired youth around the world who seek higher ground. They approach me at the shops, lectures and parties. Bright-eyed and enthusiastic, bubbling with passion and avarice. They’re gonna start a clothing company! Not like any other clothing company! Or they’re gonna be the next “IT” rapper, on the cover of XXL in 6 months flat. At first, I was stoked – so many young kids dreaming big, following this notion that the world was theirs, that they could do anything. Do you know how many e-mails we get to our website everyday from another kid starting a t-shirt brand? How many I responded to over the years? And do you know how many people actually followed through? About as many that understand how Google+ works. I guess I can’t blame them. It’s people like me who tell the youth that the sky’s the limit, and that inspiration and passion are enough fuel to cross the desert. We sit here and preach that all things are possible, that they too can dive into Scrooge McDuck moneypits filled with best wishes and high hopes. Then these romantic wanderers go out into the virtual world and watch neighborhood kids get plucked by record labels waving million-dollar contracts and the aforementioned teenage moms plastered on Us Weekly covers. It can happen to anybody, just like that. All you have to do is dream. The problem with dreaming is that at some point, you have to wake up. (See: Inception) But even when some of us do, we’re still daydreaming in a haze. I was born in the ’80s and like many in my generation, we understood that there were certain universal goals in life. For some, it was big houses and fancy cars. For others, it was going on a date with Elizabeth Shue (maybe that was just me), but the main idea was to make money, take care of your loved ones, and achieve happiness. (See: Buddhism, Richard Gere) But the millenials? Perfectly content with glory, fame, and all the nothingness that comes with it. That’s all they’re gunning for nowadays – the Instagram hearts, Tumblr reblogs, Yelp badges and Swag! Swag! Swag! A million-dollar contract isn’t about investing, or funding a future business, or diversifying your portfolio. It’s just a faster route to notoriety and celebrity. Most will get some modicum of glory (it’s not that hard, if you really think about it), and then what? And then it’s back to watching from the bleachers, admiring, sighing, and wishing. We’re like a buncha forlorn nerds in the lunchroom, clawing for an invite to the cool kids’ table and a second look from our schoolyard crush. When we should be studying for the exam to graduate and get onto our careers. And that’s the key word: career. Longevity. The long haul. What’s really good with building a career, leaving a legacy, and making a substantial mark on this world? All the millenials want (and see) is point Z. They don’t want to sit through and listen to B or C, or work Saturday nights on J or K, or wake up early on Sunday for P and Q. They just want Z. And when they can’t endure the pains, struggle, and valuable life lessons that a few years of Ds and Es take, they’re onto the next one. Unfortunately, they’re missing the point. It’s not about Z, it’s never been (C’mon Z’s a crappy letter anyways, all it’s good for is Zebra and Pizza). A truly invaluable life is comprised of the journey: achieving and appreciating the entire alphabet. The hard work is the trophy. Work hard. It’s that simple, guys. Just work hard and you’ve already one-upped the rest. It’s an unsung art, and it’s the answer. And unlike money or connections or all the other excuses people make as to why someone else has the advantage, hard work is something that everyone has access to. Now give yourselves an Instagram heart for reading through that entire thing. That looked like hard work.”
Nice food for thought. Eventually, Internet TV will normalize. Competitive markets will drive down TV prices. TVs will antiquate frames. And people will decorate their walls with masterpieces via the Internet. All for a reasonable cost. Then, history will repeat itself. Maybe, with 3DTV or telepresence. Holographic sculptures sitting in your living room. notanotherpaperjam: The “Thinking Factory” has done it again. As Google continues to take over the interwebs and influence all sectors of lifeonlineasweknowit, I find it wonderful and somewhat relieving that despite how much power they hold, they always seem to create something truly revolutionary. Yesterday, Google officially launched Art Project, which essentially takes their unique Maps Street View 360 technology into the most prestigious art museums around the world, giving any person with internet connection the simulation of being halfway around the world viewing hundreds of masterpieces in extreme zoom detail without ever leaving home. What’s more, Google also lets you curate and save your own “collection” too, just to make it even more accessible for you. No big deal. Google Art Project
Break from studying The value of time has increased exponentially within the last decade. We are now in a time where the margin between when we want something (i.e. information) to when we get something (i.e. via google) is so microscopically small - that if that margin was any larger, we’d go ballistic (or at least I would anyway). Ten years ago, I waited 10-15 minutes, sometimes up to 30, for a single download off napster. I was on a 56k modem, downloading from another 56k modem. That - in that day in time - was a treat. A gift! In comparison to going to Sam Goodie’s. In today’s terms, that’s like two turtles meeting each other half way. Now, I can interchange between shifting gears and downloading music and podcasts while commuting (not that I do, or anything). I subconciously *expect* my music to upload to my mobile device immediately. And you know what. Immediately today will be turtle tomorrow. Which gets me to the point of where we are now in this economy. We are in an information rich age, where knowledge dominates - yet is highly accessible. At the same time, as I mentioned in the beginning, time is clearly more valuable now than it has ever been. Which means what? That the standard of efficiency has skyrocketed. In effect, it has decrease the amount of jobs available in the market. Our economy is contracting (though there are signs of gradual improvement). What’s even tougher to realize is this contraction of educational opportunities; tuition is up, number of students is up, yet the class availability has scaled back, programs have scaled down. Wasn’t the economy on the political agenda two years ago? Where are we now. Well - we now have cash for clunkers. Home buyer credit plan was side-stepped by a socioeconomic shift toward renting vs. home-owning. They were fix-its. But now game-plans. (But hey, I can’t blame ‘em myself; for every idea I have, I can make an argument against it). You’ve heard it before, but - we need a long-term, sustainable road-map to recovery coupled with sound fiscal policies. But not all is doom-and-gloom (or, bah-hum-bug, for seasonality). The govn’t seems to show more enthusiasm about domestic profitability and developing/expanding  international trade relations. (Off topic, but. It’s unfortunate how we feel sympathetic to other countries who work terrible wages - by a global standard - but once their economies start improving, they start accessing wealth and education, they end up “stealing” our jobs. Their prosperity somehow translates to our impairment. Not true. They had a generation that worked hard, long hours to drive their economies incrementally higher and “keep their engine running” so to speak. We American multinationals independently decided to invest in their countries - through simple services. Those simple services increased salary and made a whole market. Their economic growth story is testament to their hard work. I aspire to match their work ethic with the cards that I have been dealt - come to think of it… it’s time to study again. Thankfully. Btw - in terms of long term outlook - maybe we should start teaching Mandarin in elementary/HS. ‘Cause guess whose the next US…) Interesting to read my stream of conscious. It started from a thesis and it transpired into a Thanksgiving note. Well, wish I could write more. but.. back to studying. 再见!

Break from studying

The value of time has increased exponentially within the last decade. We are now in a time where the margin between when we want something (i.e. information) to when we get something (i.e. via google) is so microscopically small - that if that margin was any larger, we’d go ballistic (or at least I would anyway).

Ten years ago, I waited 10-15 minutes, sometimes up to 30, for a single download off napster. I was on a 56k modem, downloading from another 56k modem. That - in that day in time - was a treat. A gift! In comparison to going to Sam Goodie’s.

In today’s terms, that’s like two turtles meeting each other half way. Now, I can interchange between shifting gears and downloading music and podcasts while commuting (not that I do, or anything). I subconciously *expect* my music to upload to my mobile device immediately. And you know what. Immediately today will be turtle tomorrow.

Which gets me to the point of where we are now in this economy. We are in an information rich age, where knowledge dominates - yet is highly accessible. At the same time, as I mentioned in the beginning, time is clearly more valuable now than it has ever been. Which means what? That the standard of efficiency has skyrocketed. In effect, it has decrease the amount of jobs available in the market. Our economy is contracting (though there are signs of gradual improvement). What’s even tougher to realize is this contraction of educational opportunities; tuition is up, number of students is up, yet the class availability has scaled back, programs have scaled down.

Wasn’t the economy on the political agenda two years ago? Where are we now. Well - we now have cash for clunkers. Home buyer credit plan was side-stepped by a socioeconomic shift toward renting vs. home-owning. They were fix-its. But now game-plans. (But hey, I can’t blame ‘em myself; for every idea I have, I can make an argument against it). You’ve heard it before, but - we need a long-term, sustainable road-map to recovery coupled with sound fiscal policies.

But not all is doom-and-gloom (or, bah-hum-bug, for seasonality). The govn’t seems to show more enthusiasm about domestic profitability and developing/expanding  international trade relations.

(Off topic, but. It’s unfortunate how we feel sympathetic to other countries who work terrible wages - by a global standard - but once their economies start improving, they start accessing wealth and education, they end up “stealing” our jobs. Their prosperity somehow translates to our impairment. Not true. They had a generation that worked hard, long hours to drive their economies incrementally higher and “keep their engine running” so to speak. We American multinationals independently decided to invest in their countries - through simple services. Those simple services increased salary and made a whole market. Their economic growth story is testament to their hard work. I aspire to match their work ethic with the cards that I have been dealt - come to think of it… it’s time to study again. Thankfully.

Btw - in terms of long term outlook - maybe we should start teaching Mandarin in elementary/HS. ‘Cause guess whose the next US…)

Interesting to read my stream of conscious. It started from a thesis and it transpired into a Thanksgiving note. Well, wish I could write more. but.. back to studying. 再见!

(Written yesterday. Didn’t intend on posting, but it’s interesting to read my thoughts before and after mid-term elections and the FOMC announcement) Bottom of the third, Bernanke on the mound. How much money will he pitch into the US economy through quantitative easing? Maybe he’ll pitch a fastball, of $500B - the average estimate. Or, he’ll probably pitch a changeup of $200B, to avoid the (inevitable, if not already prevalent) currency war/crisis. He may even pitch a curveball - a whopping $800B in asset purchases (causing high rates of inflation, low interest rates - hoping there’d be an increase in consumer/biz spending, or a comparative trade advantage). Oh, the uncertainty; just makes the US - small investors, institutional investors, hedge funds, etc. - want to rage. Right now. #fearthebeard This is the World Series I’m currently watching. The US is the largest economy in the world, yet we are facing one our most troubling times. We’re still damaged by the mortgage crisis, further pained by faulty housing foreclosures (er’hem, BoA) . Low unemployment. Low spending (consumer and business). Why blog about this? Our economy is crazy; markets are whipsawing. Perceived bubbles are forming across tons of commodities. People are incredibly cautious; uncertainty is growing faster than gold prices. Plus, it’s interesting and relevant. Think of it this way. If you wanted to save your money for a house, car, grad school, etc. - where would you put it? Let’s see: If you leave it in the bank (“risk-free” investments), your investment will wither away with inflation (govn’t pumping more money into the economy, devaluing the dollar). Put it in bonds and watch your investment rocket down as prices are the highest they have been in decades, due for a correction (shorting bonds, btw). Put it in stocks and ride the volatility; if QE2 doesn’t work, it won’t be too long before the honeymoon effect of monetary stimulus nosedives into a hangover effect. Anyways, in the short term, I think equities (stocks) will rally. Sentiment and momentum seems to lean this way; “buy the rumor, buy the news”. But even if we hit a home-run, so to speak, I think we have done it under the use of “anabolic steroids” - monetary policy - and not through pure “pain-and-gain” methods, fiscal policy. Speaking of fiscal policy, if Senate and House achieve gridlock, divided by Dems/Rep, I wonder what fiscal stimulus they’ll implement. Import levies? Extend Bush Tax cuts? Create, essentially, a “phantom” tax? We, the US, are a $13.6 trillion in debt. Wonder how these two teams will collabo to fix that one. Btw, wow. Meg Whitman spent $142M on her failed campaign? That’s nearly 1% of California’s budget.. Ssstrike.
Job creation In some early, random tweet I said something like this… the biggest job creator of the decade: Mark Zuckerberg. His “gift” to the nation was Facebook, which i believe has translated in job creation similar to WWII, the inception of the internet, and possible this multi-billion dollar job/economic stimulus created by Obama (infrastructure improvement). [Disclaimer: this is not a post to glorify Zuckerberg; this is more about the facebook effect that has created a cultural, economic revolution] Facebook is a dynamic invention, creating jobs (and it’s own markets) in both the public and private sector, and in several dimensions. What I mean is, jobs have been expanded in the areas of HR, Communications, Marketing, IT, Web Development. People can now blog for a living because enough people are online and the internet is now more integrated than it has ever been. There are now enterprise applications that are employee-exclusive and/or customer-facing (CRM applications, work-collaboration platforms) and whole market dedicated to web developers of those applications (think developing apps for an iPhone or Android OS, but only certain platforms). There’s even plenty of professors who dedicate their research to this sociological shift. (And yes, I understand the argument against it. There have been many jobs/sectors that also have unfortunately been eradicated — like newspapers — but I believe that’s more of a technological shift (and economic [$ and competition], political [sustainabile practice]) that serves as the umbrella that encompassing the social-cultural shift I’m talking about.)  The reason why fb is more revolutionary than it’s web 2.0 predecessors it its vast global adoption and retention rates — not only composed of university students, high school kids, their parents and their grandparents. But of companies, of groups, of artists. It’s a virtual world; with virtual sub-worlds (Farmville and Mafia Wars). Zuckerberg proved that it wasn’t just a fun thing to do online; he proved that social networking sites plays an integral role in how we live our lives, and there’s plenty of safe ways to monetize that way of living. Public sector: Like I mentioned earlier, web 2.0 is transforming current jobs. Even the way we find jobs is done via e-socially. There is a fascinating growth in social media manager positions today with the job description often plenty different from the next. One position could be building and maintaing a fb, twitter presence for a granola bar  company; another position could be promoting and creating products in a global ecosystem of partners, clients, innovators, and developers for a tech-company. The possibilities are growing. Private sector (private, non-profit): I was reading an article that was created today about two NYU seniors who were “inspired by Mark Zuckerberg” to create their own company. http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/oct2010/bs20101015_395013.htm. I can name a ton of websites that were created by the influx of “believers” of social sites: Gilte groupe, groupon, woot.  Non-profits also use social sites to share their stories or to promote for their next seasonal invitation for donations. One of my good friends (who’s an ops manager at a local food bank) hires specifically people to maintain their online presence. It makes sense as it builds awareness where people are at; it’s cheap; and the photos/videos can be much more effective than a print ad or the like. Ok, well, you get the picture. I have nothing cool to end this with, but wanted to jot down my thoughts. So……. back to studying.

Job creation

In some early, random tweet I said something like this… the biggest job creator of the decade: Mark Zuckerberg. His “gift” to the nation was Facebook, which i believe has translated in job creation similar to WWII, the inception of the internet, and possible this multi-billion dollar job/economic stimulus created by Obama (infrastructure improvement). [Disclaimer: this is not a post to glorify Zuckerberg; this is more about the facebook effect that has created a cultural, economic revolution]

Facebook is a dynamic invention, creating jobs (and it’s own markets) in both the public and private sector, and in several dimensions. What I mean is, jobs have been expanded in the areas of HR, Communications, Marketing, IT, Web Development. People can now blog for a living because enough people are online and the internet is now more integrated than it has ever been. There are now enterprise applications that are employee-exclusive and/or customer-facing (CRM applications, work-collaboration platforms) and whole market dedicated to web developers of those applications (think developing apps for an iPhone or Android OS, but only certain platforms). There’s even plenty of professors who dedicate their research to this sociological shift.

(And yes, I understand the argument against it. There have been many jobs/sectors that also have unfortunately been eradicated — like newspapers — but I believe that’s more of a technological shift (and economic [$ and competition], political [sustainabile practice]) that serves as the umbrella that encompassing the social-cultural shift I’m talking about.) 

The reason why fb is more revolutionary than it’s web 2.0 predecessors it its vast global adoption and retention rates — not only composed of university students, high school kids, their parents and their grandparents. But of companies, of groups, of artists. It’s a virtual world; with virtual sub-worlds (Farmville and Mafia Wars). Zuckerberg proved that it wasn’t just a fun thing to do online; he proved that social networking sites plays an integral role in how we live our lives, and there’s plenty of safe ways to monetize that way of living.

Public sector: Like I mentioned earlier, web 2.0 is transforming current jobs. Even the way we find jobs is done via e-socially. There is a fascinating growth in social media manager positions today with the job description often plenty different from the next. One position could be building and maintaing a fb, twitter presence for a granola bar  company; another position could be promoting and creating products in a global ecosystem of partners, clients, innovators, and developers for a tech-company. The possibilities are growing.

Private sector (private, non-profit): I was reading an article that was created today about two NYU seniors who were “inspired by Mark Zuckerberg” to create their own company. http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/oct2010/bs20101015_395013.htm. I can name a ton of websites that were created by the influx of “believers” of social sites: Gilte groupe, groupon, woot. 

Non-profits also use social sites to share their stories or to promote for their next seasonal invitation for donations. One of my good friends (who’s an ops manager at a local food bank) hires specifically people to maintain their online presence. It makes sense as it builds awareness where people are at; it’s cheap; and the photos/videos can be much more effective than a print ad or the like.

Ok, well, you get the picture. I have nothing cool to end this with, but wanted to jot down my thoughts. So……. back to studying.

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