November 2002 Archives

This is a bit embarrassing. No, a lot.

This newspaper article (in Korean) talks about a Korean language instruction booklet that has been circulating on the Internet. This Korean language book was made about two years ago by a Vietnamese company who exports labor outside Vietnam. Almost all the Vietnamese workers in Korea are supposedly carrying this instruction book.

Some other phrases found in the book:

"We must get a written promise from him." "We can't forgive such behaviors." "How can a man like you hit a woman like me?" "I will go work for another company if you hit me again."

I don't know what to say. I mean, I've heard that there are human rights violations going on in Korea (and I must say similar things happen in the U.S., Japan and wherever there are workers who are under compromised positions, usually in a illegal status), but the fact that some actually have instructions on how to say such things in Korean, goes to show that how frustrating and serious the situation is.

Is it inevitable that one human will take advantage of another whenever possible? What makes us regard another human being and think they are not the same as I (or we)?

I wonder how big the human rights organizations are in Korea (or whether one exists). We, Koreans have been, for so long, regarded themselves as victims that maybe, it's hard to imagine that we have gained such a powerful position these days after so much hard-work over the past several decades. I guess we need to grow up.

Well, that's what I feel like shouting when I visit Amazon.com oftentimes. I sometimes go to their "My Recommendation" page and see what they think would interests me. And most of the times, I end up wasting half an hour giving negative feedback to their recommendations so that that feature might be remotely useful.

I guess I wasn't the only person who felt frustrated at the recent trend in this type of machine profiling. The Wall Street Journal has an article titled "If TiVo Thinks You Are Gay, Here's How to Set It Straight". From the article, here is a quote about tasting one's own medicine.

For a live demonstration before an audience of 500 people, Mr. Bezos once logged onto Amazon.com (amazon.com) to show how it caters to his interests. The top recommendation it gave him? The DVD for "Slave Girls From Beyond Infinity." That popped up because he had previously ordered "Barbarella," starring Jane Fonda, a spokesman explains.

I guess, I can ignore this, and move on. But still, I, just like many other people, get urges to get approval from some other entities albeit being a machine. :p

[This is something I noticed a while back. I don't think I am the only one with this obsession. However, I haven't seen anyone explicitly mentioning it.]

My favorite way to listen to a CD is in the car, while driving, usually by myself. I believe it came from my past experience that I couldn't turn up the volume as much as I'd like at home because I was living in an apartment of some sorts. Although I now live in a house, this still seems to be true.

Another thing is that there is no distraction. Well, of course, you need to watch out for the roads and drive safely. But this is mostly hand-eye coordination, and you will be sitting in that sedentary position for a while. So there is nothing much to do except for listening to something.

And if you are by yourself, nobody cares whether you are ruining perfectly fine songs with your voice or butchering the beautiful poetic works of art with your mumbled gibberish. :p I can sing my lungs out, and that's the way I like.

So, having a CD in my car's CD changer for a long time means that I like the CD. Some CDs end up being there for a month or two even. Usually, by the end of the week, I would learn most of the words even without looking up the lyric sheets (or so I think...).

I hardly skip the tracks. I mean, to begin with, I am a bit too lazy to do such an extraneous work, and further more, I usually value the CDs' worth by the whole tracks and overall quality of them and not by one or two singles being exceptional. If it's just have one or two good ones, it doesn't deserve to be in my car. :)

So, for me, the ultimate indication that I really dig a CD is when I can predict the following track and sing it in the correct key before it starts. I mean, if you listen to a CD over and over, from beginning to end, you know what's coming next as if the whole CD is a single work of music. For me, knowing that isn't good enough. I need to be able to sing the next track a few seconds earlier and it should be in the right key. Then, I will know I finally got it.

Ben Folds is a kind of my idol. If I were to make music, I want to do what he's been doing. Unfortunately (or fortunately to the world, I guess), I don't attempt to write music. :p

After I bought his live CD a month ago, I learn that he would be touring and will be in San Francisco on November 15th. I was so excited.

I was initially very disappointed when Ben Folds Five broke up. I thought we would never hear the great music and straight-forward, yet funny lyrics. But, boy, was I wrong! Although Ben's two post-BFF albums had band-arrangement, but the true magic of his music, Ben's piano playing with his theatrical sense, was all there. And his current tour is done with just a Baldwin grand and nothing else (well, there is one drum-set prop, but...). He just is amazing (I want to play piano like Ben!).

Maybe the West Coast does not have as avid Ben Folds fans as on the Mid-West or the East Coast. I subscribe to Frank Maynard's Magical Armchair mailing list, and I hardly see anyone mentioning the West Coast concerts. Maybe that's why I felt it wasn't as crowded as I worried at Warfield (was it sold out? I don't know).

Surprisingly (should I be?) the show started on time. The opening was done by Duncan Sheik. His on-stage set-up was simple, which he seems to be following the Ben's setup. He only had Gerry Leonard backing up with what seems to be a guitar synth. Actually there seem to have been quite a few Duncan Sheik fans. I didn't know him, and his music wasn't really my taste, but it wasn't too bad. He played about 8 songs for about 45 minutes (which I thought was pretty long for an opening band).

And then there was Ben. I think everyone should see him in action at least once. His piano playing was amazing. Sure, his rare "Jazzy" phrases are not that smooth, but he can surely pound out that Baldwin! His over-expressed facial gestures add to his theatrical sense. He is indeed performing and entertaining the crowd.

He ended up playing about 20 or so songs for 2 hours. I think his repertoire is quite similar between different cities, except for the order of the some songs and a couple of the numbers. I know I like to sing along Ben's CDs, but the one of the most remarkable things about his concert was that most of the crowd knows most (if not all) of his lyrics. Almost all of us sang along, some adding harmony and chorus as well.

And then there is this famous, Ben's conducting of three-part chorus of the crowd. I felt it didn't sound as good as it could have (not much of the loudness from the lowest part), but still it was fun. It seems to confirm my suspicion that most of the Ben's fans are very musically inclined.

The thing was, I actually took out Ben's old CDs and have been listening to and singing along them in my car for the past two weeks. I wanted to be prepared! :) Anyway, it was a great experience.

Good to Great is the follow-up to Jim Collins' excellent book Built to Last. The previous one was an inspection of what makes a lasting great ("visionary") company. This time, he and his dedicated researchers were looking for what it takes to change an average company into a great one, starting a long journey to becoming a visionary company.

I think the overall findings between the two books are very similar. You need a great focus and dedication to lay the foundation and keep at it to finally break through for greatness.

Mr. Collins makes it as if the Level 5 leader requirement for Good to Great was somehow contradictory to Built to Last, but I didn't feel it was a surprising at all. I think both cases had strong driving forces that were focused on the company. I feel he just identified the role of a very driven, but self-effacing leadership in this research.

Another interesting point his group recognized was that just putting the right people in place isn't enough. You need to get the wrong people (or any wrong elements within the company) out. I truly believe this is important. It's tough, for sure, but still it is important.

As with the previous book, I feel that the findings Mr. Collins found apply not only to companies, but to individuals and any level of human society. Of course, this is not the only way for the "greatness" because the greatness can by measured in many different ways by all kind of criteria. But I feel that at least this can be used as a basis for a starting point for an exceptional life.