Carl Pei

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Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:07:25 +0100

We are in the beginning of the greatest change that humanity has ever undergone. There is no shock,...

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:49:40 +0100

We are in the beginning of the greatest change that humanity has ever undergone. There is no shock, no epoch-making incident-but then there is no shock at a cloudy daybreak. At no point can we say, here it commences, now, last minute was night and this is morning. But insensibly we are in the day. If we care to look we can foresee growing knowledge, growing order, and presently a deliberate improvement of the blood and character of the race. And what we can see and imagine gives us a. measure and gives us faith for what surpasses the imagination.

It is possible to believe that all the past is but the beginning of a beginning, and that all that is and has been is but the twilight of the dawn. It is possible to believe that all that the human mind has ever accomplished is but the dream before the awakening. We cannot see, there is no need for us to see, what this world will be like when the day has fully come. We are creatures of the twilight. But it is out of our race and lineage that minds will spring, that will reach back to us in our littleness to know us better than we know ourselves, and that will reach forward fearlessly to comprehend this future that defeats our eyes. All this world is heavy with the promise of greater things, and a day will come, one day in the unending succession of days, when beings, beings who are now latent in our thoughts and hidden in our loins, shall stand upon this earth as one stands upon a footstool, and shall laugh and reach out their hands amidst the stars.

H. G. Wells, 1902, The Discovery of the Future, Nature, 65, p. 326-331.

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 05:14:32 +0100

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

- Mohandas Gandhi

Cheap Willl Be Smart. Expensive Will Be Dumb.

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 19:03:04 +0100

Cheap Willl Be Smart. Expensive Will Be Dumb.

"…skill is often necessary, but always insufficient"

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:54:54 +0100

“…skill is often necessary, but always insufficient”

- neilk on Hacker News

ROBOTS OR DINOSAURS?

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 23:59:50 +0100

I AM A ROBOT

ericanishio: It’s very easy to be different, but very difficult...

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 11:32:06 +0200

ericanishio:

It’s very easy to be different, but very difficult to be better. - Jonathan Ive (Senior VP, Apple)

The best productivity hack ever

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 22:58:27 +0200

The best productivity hack ever

I lost a hero today.

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 08:06:02 +0200

I lost a hero today.

Narayanan Krishnan

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 01:07:15 +0200

Narayanan Krishnan

"Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll..."

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:08:00 +0200

“Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.”

- Bruce Lee

The best birthday present ever

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 00:50:28 +0200

The best birthday present ever

Relentlessly resourceful

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 20:24:47 +0200

Relentlessly resourceful

How Bad Do You Want It?

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 21:17:48 +0200

How Bad Do You Want It?

Summer reading list

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 19:13:20 +0200

Read some books while traveling this summer. Here’s a list along with short comments.

A Brief History of Time - A book about all the big questions. Where do we come from? What will happen? What is time? Etc.. Very well written.
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People - Gives you an insight on how it’s like to work at a magazine like Vanity Fair. The book got boring at times.
The Man Who Loved China - Interesting biography about a British scientist who discovered and proved to the world that China invented lots and lots of things.
Foreign Babes in Beijing - American girl stars in Chinese TV show. Insightful reflections on ordinary people living extraordinary lives in Beijing during the start of this millenia.
Ich Bin Ein Beijinger - More like a collection of short essays than a book. Witty, fun & accurately reflects on life as a Beijinger.
The 1 Minute Manager - Short & concise management book. Offers a good lesson.
Freakonomics - I read Superfreakonomics before reading this. Both are great books written by smart authors.

Still reading:

What the Dog Saw
This is a Book
Speak, Memory
7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel..."

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 15:08:00 +0200

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.”

- Steve Jobs

"Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we might oft win, by fearing to attempt."

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 01:42:45 +0200

“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we might oft win, by fearing to attempt.”

- Shakespeare

"Be like a duck. Remain calm on the surface and paddle like hell underneath."

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 11:11:37 +0200

“Be like a duck. Remain calm on the surface and paddle like hell underneath.”

- Michael Caine

Market research sucks

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 16:38:00 +0200

I’m not a big fan of market research, but understand that it can be useful in less volatile industries (i.e. FMCG) and also to gauge indications of sentiment change over time in less mature markets (i.e. consumer electronics).

Previously, I’ve helped do market research for a few large Swedish and multinational companies. Last month, however, I had a chance to experience how it was to be on the other side when I participated in a Nielsen survey in China. After participating in the survey, I promised myself to be very careful of spending money on market research if ever faced with the decision in the future.

While walking on the street, a mid-aged lady calls on me, asks me how old I am and then tells me to help her with something. It turns out that she works for Nielsen, the world’s biggest marketing research company. They were helping a Chinese pharmaceutical company launch a new drug. I saw this as an excellent opportunity to gain an insider’s view of how market research really works, and when I heard it was a reputable company like Nielsen my interest spiked further.

Here’s what happened next:

I was taken into a room where she told me that I was going to be recorded, and that I had to remember what she was about to tell me, namely that I was 30 years old (I’m 21), married, with a household salary of 3,000-4,999 RMB a month. Despite being there on vacation, I also had to say that I’ve lived in Beijing for 3 years. I tell her that I’ve remembered the details.
Another employee comes forth with a tape recorder and asks me the corresponding questions. When I’m hesitant of what to answer, my faithful mid-aged lady friend whispers it to me. The funniest part was the end of the recording, where they ask me if my answers have been affected by anyone. Naturally, I say no.
I’m taken up stairs, and realize that we are in an internet café. The marketing research team had booked a few computers in the corner, where I was taken. I first had to call a staff mobile, so that they could get my phone number. After writing it down, they sent it over QQ (Chinese IM) to someone else.
Another staff member leads me to a computer a few rows back, where I see that a Nielsen survey is loaded up in Internet Explorer, in Chinese. I tell him that I don’t read Chinese, and after explaining my situation to him he tells me that he’ll help me translate.
The first questions were about my sociodemographics, where I had to answer as I was told by the lady before. I also had to state that I was in charge of the household’s purchase decisions.
Then I was shown pictures and a description of the product, which I had to rate on different factors. After a while, my buddy got tired of translating and told me to “just tick this row, and add a little bit of randomness,” to which I gladly obliged. Towards the end of the survey where there were many textual questions, he filled them in for me.
Before leaving, I was presented with a complimentary 40 RMB (approx. $6 USD) voucher for Holiland (a Chinese bakery chain). I accepted it with a big smirk on my face. As I left, I heard the mid-aged lady saying “What a nice kid!” to her colleague.

Nielsen most likely outsourced the survey work to a partner, but that doesn’t extenuate what happened at all. Sure, this was China, and marketing research is most likely handled better in more developed economies. However, I can not easily let go of this due to 2 things. First, this was conducted by the world’s largest market research company, Nielsen who’ve been doing this for 90 years. This was a huge letdown to their customer who commissioned the survey. Secondly, in our ever globalizing world, the most lucrative business opportunities will be found in markets that are on par with, or even less developed than China’s. What will happen with market research there?

TL;DR: I participated in a survey done by the world’s largest market research company (Nielsen) and was rewarded for it. However, (a) I wasn’t even supposed to be in the survey sample due to totally mismatched sociodemographics, and (b) I didn’t really answer the questions, as I couldn’t read the language they were presented in.

"Writing desktop software has become a lot less fun. If you want to write desktop software now you do..."

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 13:20:45 +0200

“Writing desktop software has become a lot less fun. If you want to write desktop software now you do it on their terms, calling their APIs and working around their buggy OS. And if you manage to write something that takes off, you may find that you were merely doing market research for them.”

- Paul Graham