Author: stlplace

Categories
China

Reality show

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I missed most of US open tennis because of this trip. I watched Andre Agassi’s 3.5 hrs fight agaist No. 8 seed Baghdatis the night before leaving. His perseverance prevailed. I have a lot of respect for him. I hope I can have some more perseverance too.

Back to TV programs. I watched one reality show on the CCTV, “Winning in China”, sponsored by Yahoo China etc. The partipants presents their business plans, answer questions from three judges: the Alibaba Chairman Ma Yun, UTStarcom China CEO Wu Ying, and a VC guy Mr. Xiong. I think most of the questions are good ones, except one lame question from Wu Ying. At one time he used English to ask a Haigui about his personal life: it seems to me Mr. Wu was just trying to show off his English and the question is definitely impropriate in western customs (the question was how come the participant got married 3 years while his kid is only a few months old). Maybe Mr. Wu has been back for too long.

I also saw another TV reality show “Quest USA” advertisement being shown on the TV screen in Metro stations. I have a few pictures at Yupoo.  Here is one:

It was more like the “Apprentice” or “Amazing race”, basically the team work together to accomplish some tasks. The team are made of Chinese from China, Hongkong, Taiwan and the US. I thought about applying for this last year, but the show was canceled due to lack of sponsorship. Obviously this year they made it work.

I also watched some talk show, which to some extent is similar to the Jay Leno or David Letterman’s late night show. It seems to me the TV program in China is closer to the US.  

Categories
China

More pictures from Shanghai

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This time I post it at Yupoo, the China’s flickr. Here is the link. And here is the view from my company’s office on Nanjing Xi Road (West Nanjing Road), Shanghai Center (Ritz Carlton Hotel), and J.C. Mandarin Hotel. No, I have not stayed at those hotels yet. 

 

Categories
China

Pictures about Shanghai

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I posted some pictures (I took at Shanghai during the past week) at flickr, you can get it from the right side bar (my flickr) or the link here.  

Categories
China

Home Inn Rujia

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I have stayed in the Home Inn (Rujia) for a while. My hometown friend, who is a small business owner, recommended it to me in 2004. Since then I would stay at this motel for my China trip, because it’s clean and fit my budget. Not supersingly, Wang Jianshuo also recommended it in his blog. I stayed at Jin Jiang Star too. The main difference is Rujia has free Internet access (Jin Jiang charges a fee based on usage).

But I had some problems with the mattress at Rujia, both during my last trip and this one. I felt the mattress is too hard. I know I am a little spoiled after being in the States for a long time, but my body seems only like the mattress made in the US (more soft). Last time, I tried different rooms in the Rujia, without any luck. I believe they bought the mattress from the same place. So this time, I have to do something else. I asked them give me some comforter (quilt). They came back with a small comforter. It helps but it’s like “using a cup of water to put out a fire”. So I decided to called up my old buddy in SUFE, took the taxi, and got the quilt from his home.

Now I feel more at home at “Home Inn”.

Categories
Business China

Comfortable zone

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I came back to Shanghai last Saturday. To be honest, after stayed in Midwest US for long time, I felt not very comfortable at Shanghai. The most obvious thing is the physical distance between people is much closer. The traffic and the (need to) walk instead of driving. I am not complaining here. I think similar thing will happen to me if I move to New York or LA.

On the other hand, getting out of my comfortable zone gives me new perspective about the “boringness” of life in Midwest. I guess a lot of times, we just can not get the best of the both the world. It all depends on what you treasure/appreciate most.

This applies to work place too. If we do the same thing for a long time, we are good at doing it and will feel very comfortable. Sometimes we are afraid to try new things. This way we may not grow much and achieve the full potential in our career.

Categories
Career Software development

Working with gurus

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From time to time I had the oppertunity to work with gurus, I mean, the expert, or the genius in the field. I think I enjoyed my time spent with them from time to time. Although I had to admit those days were not easy 🙁

In the second year of my graduate school, I took a course from a very well known professor (known for his toughness). He will assign homework as he lectures. Because at that time my English and course knowledge were not very good, I had to pay close attention to his lecture so that I won’t misunderstand the homework. His homework is not easy, to say the least. First I had to spend time to figure out the questions being asked. I think I went to his office almost every time. Besides understanding his problem, the solution is not straightforward either. I remembered sometime I had to work on the solutions until his class begins (which is the deadline for the homework). The most scary part is his test: stuffed with questions with long answers, lots of math. I remember I got a 30s score in the first test, partly due to my misunderstanding of the question: I started working on it before fully understand the question because of time constraint. To my surprise, one of my classmate, who got my help for almost every assignment, got a better score. But I worked hard. At the end of semester I did got “A” for that class. I think my attitude (not my score) impressed the professor.

In the same semester I also had an oppertunity to work with another guru for research. This was the beginning of my graduate research. We had a few short deadlines to meet. I worked hard during that time, sometimes sleep in the office, to make the computation results available before each group meeting, during which the guru will take a quick look, determines what makes sense, what does not, and giving a few encouraging words. I admired both his technical and business skills.

Nowadays in my work place I also meet gurus from time to time, sometimes even work with them. It is always a pleasure to work with gurus, because they know the stuff and can explain difficult things in simple terms. They are also inspirational most times.

Categories
Business Career

Start the career I

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Recently a few friends completed graduate study, and got full time positions. They asked me the question: how to start in the new company? Or put in another way, how to win the trust from the boss/coworkers, and do well in the new company?

While I don’t think I am expert on all these, I do believe I have learned a great deal in my past six years. So here are my experience and lessons (some are learned from the hard way).  

First, business is very different from the school. While in school a student is measured by scores or GPA; in business an individual contributor is measured by performance (or contribution, or results). In school a student can simply do the homework, read the text book, work on the projects, prepare/take the test and get “A”. Note all these tasks are assigned by the instructors. The only thing a student can show some creativity is the project, in that case he/she can get some bonus points if he/she do really well. In the company the boss (manager, project leader) will typically give some guidance for the work, they may even give detailed instructions for the new hire, but in my mind, if a guy/girl really want to do well, he/she should be more proactive. This means working closely with the boss and coworkers, define what needs to be done, and deliver it.

Let me emphasize this again, what matters is the “results”, not how hard you  work, not how funny your joke is during lunch break, or how many common hobbies you and your boss share. The reason is simple, business is for profit, ultimately everyone in the company should strive for that goal. I remember Jack Welch once said, a company without profit can not give back to the share holders, the employees and the community. Very much true.

OK, back to the topic. To be successful, I believe two things are equally important: work hard (the real work) and make the work known to others (marketing, communication, customer relations). When I first started, I put lots of emphasis on the first portion and did not take the second portion seriously. As I gained more exprience, I began to appreciate the importance of “speak up” or get “buy in” from the management or customers. The reason is also simple: if one doesn’t speak up during a few meetings, people will not ask his/her opinions later on; without the management’s “buy in” your work and effort could be wasted because the results may not be what the customer wants.

Categories
Business Fun

Cell phone problem

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I did not realized my cell phone did not ring until yesterday. I was suspicious of my missing calls in past a few days. But as I normally set it to “vibrate” mode and it did vibrate when I wear it, it disguised the real problem. Basically my Motorola V600 did not ring and the speaker phone is broken.

I decided to get a new phone. I don’t need a fancy phone, as long as it works, I mean, it rings when somebody calls. But soon I found out I need to either sign up for a two years plan or pay high fees for a new phone. That sucks. So what did I do? eBay. I went to eBay and bought this Nokia 6010 phone for $54.00.

Nokia 6010

Meanwhile, while I am anxious waiting for my new phone, I have to wear the phone more often now.

PS (Aug 29): got the phone for a few days now and loved it. I remember my first cell phone is also a Nokia (candy bar style). I liked its simple user interface. The sound quality is also good. There are many fancy cell phones on the market these days, but do I really need those features?

Categories
China

Li Jia Jun

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Li Jia Jun, the legend Chinese short track speed skater, announced his retirement today. Here is the news (in Chinese). And here is his picture. The thing I like him is he never quits. Let’s wish him well upon retirement.

Li Jia Jun 

Categories
Saint Louis

The ideal house

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Buying a house is probablly the biggest investment most people make during their life time. In past few years, as I was looking for my first house, and accompanying my friends for their house hunting, I have seen lots of houses in St. Louis area. The price ranged from 100 K to 800 K; the square feet from under 1000 to 5000; stylewise from condo, to townhouse, villa to Single Family House; agewise from more than 50 years old to brand new. So which one impressed me the most?     

It’s not the 800 K mansion, although I liked the size (2 stories plus basement), the atrium, the family (game) room, etc. Here is a picture of the luxury home:

Spring Mill at St. Charles

 

Besides I can not afford it (the house itself and utility bills), I think the house is too big for me. It is designed for a family of five I think.

My favorite place, is a townhouse I saw recently. It’s a decent size town house with lots of light (San Francisco style). Here is a link. And here is a picture from inside.

Town house

That’s about the right size for me. I can imagine I will be very happy just sit on that sofa and look out of the windows, doing nothing.