It was a beautiful day. We woke up ready for breakfast in the award winning restaurant. This was the best breakfast so far. The cabin had a binocular, to help us to find animals, we found none, but it was so comfy to be sitting at the porch of the cabin, breathing the fresh air, and watching the mountains afar. It felt so good!
The ice trek tour took us into the Matanuska glacier. Matanuska is a glacier estimated to be 27 miles long, 4 miles wide and 4 miles deep.
We put on full gear including a hard hat, a well-worn hiking boot from the tour company, and carried a pair of clamping shoes. The tour guides were two young women, both flying in to work during the summer months. They told us that the glacier has been receding very quickly. What surprised us more though was that the glacier started with the “muddy” soil that we stood on; when one of them threw a rock into a narrow muddy poodle, we did not hear the rock landing, that was enough for us not to dip our hiking boots into any of the poodles or crevices through the tour. This was not a good idea to bring small kids who walked to dip into every poodle they saw. We did our own facial mask with the muddy glacier soil, it was very cooling and we took a bag of it home at the end ;).
As we trespassed from the muddy glacier to the icy glacier, we changed to our clamping gear and learned how to walk across, up and down with the clamping shoes. It was not strenuous but still tiring with the 3-hour non-stop hike on clamping shoes. There was no resting place once we were on the glacier, we kept walking, only stopping to observe crevices, observe new formations, refill our water bottles with glacier water, or to take pictures. The landscape changed so rapidly, on our return, we could no longer backrack on the same route. Along the way, we could see a few other tours.
Does the constant human footprint threaten the ice glacier more? Does our walking on the glacier accelerate its receding?
We learned to have a full stomach before any long drive in Alaska, and caught a late lunch back at the beautiful Sheep Mountain Lodge.
We headed south, and Seward was our next place to be.
The Bear Lake Lodging inn keeper greeted us as we arrived at the Bear Lake Lodging in the late hours. The innkeeper was a black woman, and we were a bit surprised. In our mind, Alaskans are mostly caucasians. We later found out that she was from Virginia and she took good care of us with her friendly demeanor, her delicious breakfast, and her thoughtfulness to cater for special diet needs. We were tired after the Matanuska glacier hike and the long drive, we wanted a quick check in and a simple room to rest, yet the lodge seemed to be a place in the middle of nowhere. We were thrilled to discover a spacious 2-floor suite, a fully equipped kitchen, a full bathroom, a half bathroom and 2 TVs at our discretion. On top of all these, we had a gorgeous view of Bear Lake with a dense forest in the background, a launch dock with scores of kayaks and canoes ready for use, and an airplane for our admiration. The Bear Lake Lodge became one of the best, if not the best, accommodation in this trip. We would stay here for 4 nights with the innkeeper serving us fresh-made breakfast every morning and the opportunities to meet with fellow travellers.
Alaska is so vast, that flying is a practical means of transportation. A much higher % of the population in Alaska knows how to fly than the lower states. Our flightseeing tour included an air taxi tour of glaciers around Denali National Park, and then a landing on the glaciers. Denali is the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of 20,310 feet above sea level. It used to be remembered as Mckinley, now renamed with the indigenous term.
At check-in, we were disappointed that the weather was not good enough to get to Denali ranges nor glacier landing, they offered us a shorter flightseeing, a refund or a rebook. We had a busy itinerary, and picked the shorter flightseeing and fair enough, they refunded half of the tour cost. This was not the only time that the weather affected our flightseeing plan.
The air taxi was a very small plane, to accommodate 8 travellers. Each seat was a window seat, equipped with a heavy head-phone for the pilot to communicate with us in the one hour of flight. The lady in front of me did not seem to quite enjoy it, and her hand was holding tightly onto the window sill throughout. Her husband went ahead to sit next to the pilot, busy talking to the pilot, leaving his wife sitting by herself. Behind us was a family of four, the two kids seemed to enjoy the few bumps during the ride, more so than the unparallelled beauty of nature. The pilot did a good job throughout for a pretty stable ride, so the kids were only excited a few times.
We first saw a myriad of narrow rivers down there, like some picasso impressions. The river is muddy, due to the glacial till, aka the erosion of materials as the ice moved. We saw forests of purple and green spruces, and we came to know later the purple was actually black spruces, killed by spruce beetles.
Some 15 minutes into the air, we were surrounded by glaciers and mountains so close to us that we could see the waterfalls, the glacier tracks, the water amidst the glaciers (moving ices) that just looked like bluish crystals among the ices of pure white. We also saw a few tents down there. It felt like we were back to the ice ages. Even though we missed the glacier landing, I ran out of words to describe the beauty and the power of the glaciers. This one-hour flightseeing features the most beautiful scenery and humbling experience I have ever experienced on a plane. If this is the only thing we did in Alaska, it would be a good trip by itself. It is better to let the photos speak about the scenery.
After the flightseeing, we got some delicious Spinach bread from a food truck on the main street, and got some Birch syrup as a souvenir before leaving Talkeetna. From Talkeetna to Denali, it was 2 and a half hours drive on a well-paved highway, with spruces lining the highway, and often a 360 degree view of mountain ranges. It was mostly wilderness, until we got close to Denali. We checked in to the Denali Park village, which was an upgrade from the Talkeetna inn the day before.
Sitting in the Denali Park Village restaurant, enjoying food, chatting with the waitresses coming from afar to do a summer job, and some live music, life felt very good.
It has been a month since coming back from Alaska. My pixel phone was damaged during the salmon catching at the Kasilof river, and stayed in the Alaska time zone for another few weeks until it finally recovered itself.
Writing about Alaska travel is a luxury when the covid-19 pandemic is still rampaging a good part of the world. In Alaska, social distancing means that the Alaskans get out of their homes. Such is the vastness and the wilderness of land in Alaska; and at the time of our travelling, most people hardly wear masks in restaurants.
This trip has been made special not only because this made our first flight since the onset of the pandemic, but also the unusual effort put in to make it happen. We can forgive Alaska being so much more expensive than the lower states, given its tourism is squeezed in mere three summer months. Little did we know that many other Americans were thinking of travelling to Alaska at the same time as us; little did we understand the airline and rental challenges to resume the operations; little did we know about so many other things.
Day 1 Arriving Anchorage
It was a direct flight between San Francisco and Anchorage, with less than 5 hours flight time. Since we booked the air ticket, there were various types of changes by the airline. We ended up with a 5:30am flight via Denver, and by the time we arrived in Anchorage, it was 10 hours later. Denver was a busy and lively airport, everyone was wearing masks and business seemed to have resumed, there were long lines to get coffee, to get food, most restaurant tables were taken.
The car rental business has been so hard hit by the pandemic, they have been forced to sell most of the fleet, and the resumption has been hindered by major shortages of chips that affect cars, computers, phones. It was so bad that I even got a rental quote as $5000 dollars per day. That was as crazy as it could get. After thousands of clicks on the computer, and after seeing the message “sold out in all locations” hundreds of times, we finally found a car rental from Dollar, which seemed to have merged with Hertz. The rental was at a hefty price of over $300 per day. With the reservation, we still worried about our rental – would the car show up? There were lots of scary stories that renters had to wait for hours. Fortunately, we were not among the scary stories. The rental pick up was smooth, we took the smart move to join the express club to cut short our queuing time. We got a Nissan Versa 2018 model, quite some miles on it already; the wear and tear was easy to see. The car came with a CD player, it did not read our USB device, nor did it come with any smart auto setup. In other times, it would be considered as a total rip-off; this time, we were happy to get going.
The Internet has become as essential as electricity. Our mobile plan works for 48 lower states, but not in Alaska, so we had to swing by a GCI store for a SIM card. At dinner time, we learned good restaurants in Anchorage mean either a reservation or an hour of waiting. We fell back to minimizing our spend and filled our belly with KFC chickens. That Nashville style KFC chicken was still pretty bad.
Anchorage is a modest city beautifully surrounded by mountain ranges. The mountains were no longer snow-capped, the unmelted snow painted interesting patterns over the mountains, which added variations to the ranges. In our drive from Anchorage to Talkeetna, we were treated with the grandeur of the mountain ranges through and through.
Talkeetna is a nice little town and has been a popular stop for climbers to the Denali range. The main street is lined with restaurants, gift shops and galleries. In Alaska standard, the main street can be considered as a busy place. We stayed in the Talkeetna Inn. The inn has an unbeatable location, and a nice view of a flowing river. The room was new, but quite costly in terms of what it offered.
Flightseeing awaited us the next day. We went to bed at usual bedtime, when the sky was still very bright.
In this second year of the pandemic, I resign to the fact that staring at our computer screen for many hours is going to kill the eyes. No matter how the new normal becomes, the pandemic has taken a toll. It takes a break to realize we need a break, there you go for a break at South Lake Tahoe.
South Tahoe is about a 4-hour drive and made a perfect destination for our first Tesla 3 “road trip”.
Day 1
We resume our subscription to Tesla entertainment which gives hundreds of radio stations plus many other things. We found all the Indian radio stations not working and half of the Taiwan stations not working, but there are still enough to keep us entertained and we get used to the modern day standard of product testing in the high tech world. We charged our Tesla 3 to 100% for the first time but still need to fit in a charging stop. The 4-hour trip became a 5-hour trip. Along the way, we could see more traffic along the way compared to the year 2020.
We arrived at Marriott Timber Lodge. The resort area was unexpectedly crowded and it was touristy; we were also surprised that the outdoor swimming pool was open. Located just a block from the Nevada stateline, the whole area felt a bit like the Las Vegas Casino Strip: touristy and busy. It was a cool thing to go back and forth between California and Nevada many times over the next few days – a reminiscence of the Istanbul ferry ride that went between Asia and Europe all day long.
We checked out the Gordon RamsayHell’s Kitchen, a restaurant with the same name as the TV show located inside a casino, about 10 minutes walk from the Lodge. We were fortunate to get a table without reservation and there were about 90% of diner occupancy. Even inside a casino, Gordon Ramsay name brand supports its premium pricing. We ordered a few appetizers including scallops, lobster risotto and the foie gras on shortbread followed by the main course of Beef Wellington. It came with a dessert which tasted like a pumpkin sponge cake with a bit too much sugar. These dishes do not seem to be designed to complement, so it left me with a lot of different tastes but no single dish stood out that I would come back again for. My husband enjoyed the beef wellington the most. Overall it has been a worthy one-time experience but was overpriced in the casino ambience.
Day 2
The very friendly concierge told us that most water activities are not yet open: the water is cold and the weather is cool, kayaking is out of the question.
We spent the day hiking the Eagle fall trail and the Cascade fall trail. The Cascade fall trail is quite rocky, which makes it challenging for the knee and the ankle. After hiking about 5 miles, we rewarded ourselves with a super late lunch at the Himmel Haus German restaurant. The restaurant has both the outdoor setting as well as the indoor setting. The indoor was sparsely filled at this odd hour for lunch and we felt comfortable to sit on a bench table far away from the other diners. We followed the waiter’s recommendation and had no regret. The German beer came in no time, and the food followed quickly. The pretzel together with the dips made one of the most delicious pretzels I’ve ever had in my life. I would definitely go back just for the pretzel. The sausage and the pork shank were really good too. The pork shank was tenderly cooked and super yummy together with the potato paste and cabbage gravy.
Day 3
Our Tesla 3 has been telling us that our tire pressure was not totally balanced. Fixing the tire pressure was a tedious trial-and-error effort. Fortunately, we were not in a rush. After the nth time at the air station, the tires were balanced with the right amount of air pressure.
We rented a surrey at the bike shop, at 35 dollars per hour. We enjoyed nice scenery along the lakefront and some beaches. Riding surrey was more strenuous than riding a bike to go uphill and it made a good 2-hour exercise. What better than having a good meal after the exercise? We settled in Macduff’s Pub which has an outdoor booth that was like a tiny greenhouse with a table inside; and the servers were super friendly. We had an authentic Scottish meal, with Scottish beer together with shepherd pie plus fish and chips.
We decided to check out the Tahoe Keys Marina. To our surprise, we could rent a boat, at a hefty rate of $200+ per hour to go out to the lake, without a boat license. It made an adventure on Mother’s Day. We got a 10 minutes orientation on how to drive a boat and were reminded of the costly penalty should we damage any part of the boat. The orientation did its trick to intimidate; and to add to that, it could be life threatening if either got overboard into the cold Lake Tahoe water. We started the boat at a super slow speed of 5 mph. Once we got out of the marina, there was absolutely no traffic, and most of the time, we could not even see any other moving bodies. I love screaming in the wide open where nobody hears nor cares. We had no clue how long it would take to get to the Emerald Bay within our eyesight, and ended up taking a very long time. We barely arrived, and had to immediately head back. We worried that we could miss our marina closing hours, so we doubled down on the speed and took only half of the time on the way back. The boat trip was a lot of fun mixed with excitement and a tiny bit anxiety in the middle of the lake, worrying about getting lost and getting late. If driving a boat is comfortable and relaxing at low speed, driving a boat at a higher speed is uncomfortable, tiring and stressed. I would love to do it again, but maybe when the weather is warmer and with a bigger party.
Day 4
We checked out Camp Richardson, a nice resort for families and our neighbor went there often when their kids were young. We hiked on the Rubicon trail, a 16 Mile hike round trip around the Emerald Bay. It was one of the most beautiful hiking trails I remember, very well paved. The Rubicon overlook area gave a fantastic panoramic view of the Emerald Bay and Lake Tahoe. After the overlook, the trail led us all the way down to the lake and we were able to dip into the water. The sand was colorful, the rocks were shining like granite. The weather was warmer and so was the water. It was nice and quiet in this desolate area. We did a good hike of ~5 miles. On our way back we stopped at the Riva Grill for another late lunch. The outdoor swimming pool at our hotel was open, and we could not miss the chance to use it.
Day 5
It has been a lovely trip and we enjoyed all the outdoor activities much needed for both our mind and our body.
The Biden government and the vaccine situation have shown us some light towards the end of the Pandemic tunnel. This month, My husband and I visited the downtown of Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, Los Gatos, San Mateo and Menlo Park to experience the different outdoor dinings in each city.
During the pandemic, I have been able to read a few all-time classics used to be on the reading list during my retirement years.
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
In my high school years in Hong Kong, the high school had roughly half of students studying science (aka STEM) subjects, and another half studying art subjects. There was, and probably remains, a hierarchy in subjects where science subjects have often been ranked higher in the overall curriculum. Often considered among the greatest literature of all time, the novels by (Leo) Tolstoy were squarely reserved for those studying English literature, a subject for the art students.
Married to a powerful man Alexy, Anna was beautiful, charming, tactful to almost manipulative, and lived a perfect life until she met Vronsky. Vronsky lived his glamorous life until he desperately fell in love with Anna. Levin, an idealist and an intellectual who preferred living a real life in his farms and with the peasants, was devastated when his proposal to Kitty was not accepted. Kitty, the ex-lover of Vronsky, recovered herself in a sanatorium, and re-discovered her love for Levin. The pursuit of love, by these protagonists, changed everything for them; and reflected how the disparity of the society in the treatment of Anna and Vronsky in their affair. The plot acted as a conduit to write about the society and the protagonists. The power of “Anna Karenina” is in how well Tolstoy wrote about their emotions and how well the characters brought you to the society of the time. Reading the book is getting to know these characters – their inner thoughts, their expression of their thoughts which often were contradictory to their inner thoughts, and the doubts in their pursuit of love and purpose of life. It transported the reader to the society and witnessed the lives and the life events of the people from peasants, landlords, soldiers, public servants, and politicians. The pain, anguish and terror of Levin, in enduring the long labor process of Kitty, was arguably the best ever description of father-to-be experience, that dark side has been so seldom told. The visceral tortune in living through the long hours towards the inevitable death of Levin’s brother was powerful, vivid and absorbing. Anna’s heart-wrenching struggle, in her hopeless affair, could only lead to one inevitable outcome in her once perfect life.
The book leaves me wondering if science represents a certain understanding of nature and species, then literature gives us a multidimensional view of our beings from the past to the future.
The Element by Sir Ken Robinson
Often considered as the most watched Ted Talk, Sir Ken Robinson has been a strong advocate of education reform to cultivate curriculum diversity, ignite students’ curiosity and awaken learners’ creativity. His Ted Talk “Do schools kill creativity” is both entertaining and educational, and I could not recommend more.
The element is that intersection of the things(s) we enjoy doing and the thing(s) we naturally do well. Many run through their lives without discovering their elements. In his discourse, Sir Robinson believes finding the elements are both possible and crucial. It is never too late, just like Julia Childs discovered her element in French cooking in her fifties. To discover our element, we need to rethink the possibility, find our zone in things we enjoy doing so much that we lose track of time, meet others with similar passion, and open for help.
Full of examples, ideas and inspirational stories, this is a great book for all parents and educators.
I learn first hand even if we, parents, put in our best effort to help our children to discover their elements in the most personalized setting, there is no guarantee for success.
Educated, a memoir by Tara Westover
Born and raised in Idaho in a large family, the author has been isolated from the society. Her parents do not trust the government, do not go to medical facilities, do not allow children to go to school and her father believes himself to be the Mormon prophet and has the strictest code of conduct for his children . He dominates the family with his long lectures, and his religious doctrines to the level of abuse. He loves his children in his own distorted way, and tolerates abusive behavior of his sons. Her family has been the whole world for the author, until she miraculously found her way to attend BYU. Through her hard work, her intelligence and her persistence, she was awarded scholarships to Cambridge and Harvard, and earned her PhD from Cambridge. The more she got into the mainstream society, the more her parents saw her as being possessed and became a disgrace for the family. Would she compromise to remain in the distorted worldview of her father and have a family to go back to? Would she stand up to the values she acquires through education? This is a memoir of her struggle, her courage, and how she makes different choices as she becomes educated.
Education changes who we are and what we would become; so do our family, our upbringing and our culture. It pains to read the struggle the author has to suffer between the evangelical view of her parents and the values that she learned through education.
It is a story of self definition and self belief through the power of education.
The Intelligent Investor By Benjamin Graham
Warren Buffett, one of the most successful investors, if not the most, said it all: By far the best book on investing ever written.
First published in 1950, the book has been a must read for anyone who cares about making good decisions on their finances. Mr. Graham wrote: “an investment operation is one, which upon thorough analysis promises safety of principal and an adequate return. Operations not meeting these requirements are speculative”; and “The speculative public is incorrigible. In financial terms it cannot count beyond 3. It will buy anything, at any price , if there seems to be some “action” in progress. It will fall for any company identified with “franchising”,computers , electronics, science, technology, or what have you, when the particular fashion is raging. Our readers, sensible investors all, are of course above such foolishness.”.
Reading his investment advice is like reading the answers to the questions that would come up in the final for the subject of “investment”. Yet so many continue to make the same mistakes, and (choose to) behave as speculators than investors.
My friends and I used to do same-day trips to Lake Tahoe for skiing quite often. Lake Tahoe was 4 hours drive one way. As I got older, the same-day trip was no longer exciting, thinking of the long drive in the car became tiring. I miss the energy and the spontaneity associated with same-day trips but hardly find enough of the momentum.
Each February, when the weather is right, the sunset is at the right angle, the Horsetail Fall in the Yosemite National Park has the scene of a firefall at sunset. The firefall is a fitting description of the waterfall turning to lava-like fall down the El Capitan. We tried to catch the scene last year without success.
Feb 26 Friday, the weather was great, the sky was blue, it was a no-meeting week at work, it was almost the last day to try this year, and I had a day use entry ticket to Yosemite National Park. Moments after waking up, we made the spontaneous decision to go seek the firefall. Within two hours, our Volkswagen Jetta rental was on the freeway. We went by miles and miles of trees with beautiful tiny flowers : the almond trees, the pistachio trees.
Yosemite is a 4-hour drive one way. The roads seem to be much better paved than before, whether it is due to lesser use or active work. If there is a silver lining with the pandemic, it is the traffic.
On that day, the traffic was smooth, there were no lines at the entrance, and we did not have problems finding parking space. The park was neither quiet nor crowded. People followed the social distancing protocol and had masks. A 45-minute stroll took us to the horsetail fall. People were chatting within their group. There was quite a bit of snow along the way, which gave us hope that the waterfall has enough water to reflect the sunset. When we got to the vista point, there were already hundreds of people waiting. We barely found a spot to fit in our two low-back chairs, while maintaining some social distance with others. With our beanie, gloves, and ski jacket, there was time before sunset for books, snacks and pictures. We could hear people reminiscing about their firefall watching experiences in different years. After over an hour of waiting in the cold, the photographers started fidgeting their cameras, the amateurs were staring, with undivided attention, at the El Capitan horsetail fall. We could feel the ambience changing and it was quiet. The sunset lasted about 15 minutes, as the angle of the light changed, the firefall and its mist had a different look all the time. There were “a”s and “o”s It felt a bit like watching the fireworks in the crowd. It was spectacular and totally worth it. The pandemic has made this all the more unique. The firefall is like a scene out of the world.
We were tired and hungry as we arrived home. I checked off this item on my bucket list. The year-long shelter-in-place and extended work-from-home have not only grounded the body, but at times made us feel stuck. It is refreshing to reacquaint the spontaneity in life.
If John Brooks were still alive, he would be the perfect writer to add an engaging narrative around the recent GameStop battle in his classic book “Business Adventures” . The title could be “Armchair investor beats up Wall Street cartel”, or simply “RobinhoodReddit”. I like the latter better for its metaphor in Robinhood as the Legendary Heroic Outlaw.
My family is not into games, and is not a fan of online games. We are hardly a customer of GameStop, and are no help to GameStop declining business. Years ago, my daughter wanted a Nintendo as a birthday gift. We got her one, and we went to a nearby GameStop shop a handful of times to get games and some accessories. My memory of the shop was pretty placid and unimpressive. There may be one or two times with a handful of customers and we waited for a minute or so to finish our transaction. The layout and the ambience of the shop were equally unimpressive. Together with the fact that I am just a parent of a lukewarm gamer, the store was pretty forgettable. My latest interaction with GameStop was an online pre-order of Roger Federer Pop Funko last year. The experience was slightly memorable just because the Amazon pre order of my husband on the same product got cancelled by Amazon. When I noticed the nearby GameStop store closing, I felt a tinge sorry similar to receiving a notice from a coworker, who I hardly talk to, that he is leaving the company and leaving the city.
I may have the most vivid memory of GameStop for what happened last week. Amidst the pandemic, and the everyday inequity, the Robinhood Reddit short squeeze is almost a feel good Cinderella story. We all know Cinderella ends at midnight. Still, who would have thought a band of armchair investors gossiping on some social platform could beat up badly the Wall Street cartel on some unfortunate companies? Even more intriguing, the online platform, named so fittingly as Rohinhóod, has played a big role. Maybe, like my daughter, I could put up a few hundred dollars as an entry fee to watch how the squeeze would unfold.
The real world is getting into traumatic times of pandemic, the unthinkable Washington DC Capital insurrection , and now the Robinhood Reddit tale of GameStop. It feels more and more like we are all part of an epic movie in the making.
Xmas 2020 has come and gone. 3.8 millions people passed through US airports from December 23 to 26, down from 9.5 millions in 2019 for the same days. Doing what we can, my daughter decided not to come home.
Thank you to the technology of online meeting . We managed some zoom meetings with friends. We did a Marathon family chat on Christmas Day. On Boxing Day, we got together online to unwrap our gifts together. “Santa” would normally have gifts for children; and this year, that “Santa” donated the gifts to the needy.
Business Adventures By John Brooks
The book has twelve classic tales from the world of wall street. Published in 1969, John has this gift to turn all kinds of complex happenings into engaging narratives with interesting characters and sustained implication to modern worlds. In doing so, each tale is memorable. The tales of “Xerox” and “the fate of (Ford) Edsel” are insightful for anyone developing a new product. The tale of taxation is super educational for taxpayers esp. how few of us ponder how we get into this mess of complexity. As an amateur investor, I thoroughly enjoyed the tale on insider trading and the devaluation of British pounds. The judicial ruling in the “One Free Bite” tale in 1963 on intellectual property and employment change is still relevant for the millions who are working in technology, innovation and research.
This book is among the best reads for the year. Bill Gates once said, “Business Adventures remains the best business book I’ve ever read.”
Creativity, Inc. By Ed Catmull
My senior leader(s) at work is reading this book, so am I. Creativity is important in new product development, it is difficult to cultivate and possibly harder to sustain. Steve Jobs acquired Lucasfilms in 1986 and created Pixar, and the journey of Pixar is one of sustained creativity and excellence.
Picking from his presidency at Pixar and later also Disney Animation, Ed Catmull is no doubt a savant in the world of creativity. Drawn from decades of learning and experience, he shared an abundance of wisdom towards sustained creativity and excellence.
Unleashing creativity requires leaders to loosen control, accept some risk, trust colleagues to own/solve problems, to clear path, to discover hidden items, and to pay attention to anything that creates fear.
Sustained creativity is a very complex, active and ongoing process. This book does not offer short-cut or ten set steps to get there. The last chapter “starting points” offers some prompts. As the author said, “the trick is to think of each as a starting point, as a prompt toward deeper inquiry, and not as a conclusion”. I benefit and would like to experiment some ideas, and you would too.
The book would not be complete without this chapter “the Steve we knew” whose vision and sponsorship is arguably the single most important factor for the success of Pixar.
The Diamond Age By Neal Stephenson
I recently joined a product group to democratize education and inspire learners.
This book has an interesting spin on personalized learning through a super intelligent device based on the environment and experience of the device owner. Through the device, the main character acquired a tremendous level of knowledge on her own, and has become a “heroine” to change the world. That part is interesting and promising.
There are quite a few futurist speculations such as nanodevices for everyday life, material replicators that could fulfil our daily needs, the floating skyscrapers, the exchange of minds and the world organization around like-culture, like-minded “tribes” more so than countries. There could have been potential to develop an amazing story. Yet the plot is rather a mixed pot of many things going on, but not neatly tied together. Together with weak character formation, it is hard to relate to the story nor the characters. Then the plot carries an undertone of tribes stereotypes , such as tribes similar to “high class british”; and some undertone of disrespect to tribes which are more like “the Chinese in the early twenty century”.
All these have left me a dose of bad taste for the book.
I have no strong yea or nah regarding the universal suffrage in Hong Kong. The argument, citing the people are not ready for direct election, sounds lame. Similarly, it seems naive to think a new election system will create hope and solutions for its deep-rooted challenges.
SCMP is a Hong Kong English-language newspaper founded in 1903, with a daily circulation of around 100,000. SCMP has made some minor publishing edits and add some related pictures/links.
Here is the original version.
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The beauty of living in different cities is living to witness different cultures and systems.
I am both a Hongkonger and a Californian. I have voted in every election in the States since 2000. After a few contentious presidential elections, namely Gore Vs Bush and the most recent Hilary vs Trump, I accept painstakingly that my vote and many millions of votes have zero impact on who becomes the next US president. I want to share this with my beloved HongKongers who dream that the universal suffrage can address the deep-rooted challenges facing the millions in Hong Kong.
The presidential election system in the States has apparent flaws.
First, the majority could lose. The majority did not win in the Gore Vs Bush election. The majority did not win in the most recent Hilary vs Trump election when Hilary got almost 3 millions more votes than Trump.
Secondly, with the electoral college, the winner-take-all, there is no difference whether the republican wins by a large margin or just one vote in most states. Only the swing states, which could go to Republican or Democratic party, matter. These swing states (Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida, Arizona, North Carolina, Georgia) are not well known to HongKongers. These swing states represent less than a third of the US GDP and its population. Yet the presidential candidates spend most time visiting to influence the voters. Every four years, lots of resources are spared to seek the votes in these swing states. If California were a sovereign nation, it would rank as the world’s fifth largest economy. Yet in the US presidential election, Californians, being a strong Democrat’s base, have little impact on the outcome.
Last but not least, social networks are amplifiers for idiots and fake news. Voters are so easily influenced by fake news in social media.
In summary, each system has its own limitations. The US is drastically different from the situations in Hong Kong and we cannot compare. By sharing experience and observation as a US voter, I hope it shows that idealizing the universal suffrage would not lead to a solution for Hong Kong. The future of the city relies more on Hongkongers to respect, appreciate and take advantage of the differences between Hong Kong and the mainland cities.
Big Sur has no Wi-Fi nor internet service providers. It was annoying and the lack of connectivity took some getting used to. I would remember this Big Sur trip as a memorable social media retreat.
Day 1 November 5
Two days after the Presidential election day, many states were still counting votes. I cared about the results and had election stress. Watching the news all the time did not get me the news faster, nor would it change any results. The true winner could well be the media as the election day dragged into the election week.
Carmel-by-the-sea is a 90-minute drive from home, through the highway 85, 17 and 1. It was a Thursday, and the place lacked the usual touristy feel. We had an outdoor lunch at an Italian restaurant. It served a scorching hot wild mushroom risotto that I had to wait some time before I could ingest the Arborio rice. The risotto was super creamy, mixed well with the mushroom, truffle and Parmigiano Reggiano; it was absolutely delicious. The portion was large and heavy with the cream, so we ended up enjoying the leftover in the next couple of days.
Big Sur is about a 40-minute drive from Carmel-by-the-sea on the winding highway 1. As we entered the Big Sur, we could smell the fresh redwood scent in the humid ocean air. Our cabin was a lovely cottage among the redwoods. It delighted us with its internal decor and made a super comfortable home. We explored a number of grocery stores in the 5-mile radius, there were basic supplies and household items, but little fresh produce nor meat. I used four quarters at a payphone to call our daughter who just got back from a trip in Cuenca, Educador. This was like going back a decade when we called each other by phone, rather than the messaging app.
We lit up some firewood outside of our cabin, had a super early dinner before retiring for the night.
The only thing that gave us updates about the election news was the poorly-received AM radio station on our car. Time has a different rhythm without the attention grabbing internet technology.
Day 2, November 6
After a home-made breakfast in the well equipped cabin kitchen, we went to the nearby Pfeiffer Beach, for its pacific ocean view and its purple-colored sand. There were few travellers in the early morning, we brought along our own beach chairs and enjoyed the whole Pacific Ocean View. The close-up ocean waves, the rhythmic wave sounds, the splashing attack of the waves to the rocks were such reminders of the power and greatness of the Pacific Ocean, and of the Nature. The strong winds from the Pacific stirred up the sand, it was a rough beach, we enjoyed the ocean with nothing between us and the ocean.
We continued driving south on Highway 1 and arrived at Nepenthe for an early out-door lunch. Sipping a spicy bloody Mary and an after-meal Coffee with Brandy, with a hard-to-beat ocean view, life was good amidst the pandemic.
We drove further south only to find the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park close to the public due to recent fire. Disappointed, we went for a short hike down to another Oceanfront and were rewarded with the scenic pampas grass blossoming over the hill.
On our way back to the cabin, we stopped by the Henry Miller library, it was an interesting detour.
We continued our early dinner and retired to bed much earlier than usual.
Day 3, November 7
After another home-made breakfast, we went for a hike. Just when we felt that there were less animals and birds chirping among the redwoods, we were lucky to see a deer and a fawn which seemed to be as curious about us as we were about them. We went for a 4-mile moderate hike up the Buzzard Roost Trail, through the redwoods and tackled the gradual elevation up the hill. It ended up with a rather mediocre view of the Pacific Ocean far in the distance. It was a good hike and the hikers were all disciplined about wearing masks and social distancing.
We had lunch at Carmel Crossroads, with an absolutely enjoyable outdoor scallop-fish-and-chip meal, as well as fresh oysters. Our spirits were lifted with the updates on the presidential election. On the way back to the cabin, we stopped to take pictures at the famous Bixby Bridge, we were far enough to see the grand view of the bridge above the rocky Pacific Ocean and the cliff above the water. My acrophobia was getting the better of me and left me in awe.
Back to the campgrounds, we shot some hoops and even had fun climbing the cargo net, only to find that we were no longer the age to get to its top.
We cooked T-bone steak and squash for dinner at the well equipped kitchen.
Day 4, November 8
Another short hike to the Pacific Ocean at the Andrew Molera State Park concluded our Big Sur trip. We stopped by Monterey for lunch, there was no crowd and it reminded us of the cold weather and the impact of the pandemic.
As we headed back to internet civilization, I made a pledge to not let my mobile phone take away that much of my time.
75 hours of Chinese history on Youtube make for great learning. In this 100-episode series, the first episode has attracted 1.4M views, while the last episode only earns 87K views. I highly recommend the series to anyone who wants to know more about the Chinese history. If you do not have time for the whole thing, there may be a few that could interest you.
The 1918 – 1920 Influenza killed tens of millions, and there was panic everywhere when very few were spared from its impact.
The Influenza happened at a time that US doctors were far less respected than their peers in Europe when Europe was consumed with the World War I. John chronicled the Great Influenza; and gave us a great account how some colossal figures transformed the US medical training and profession; and how the political climate profoundly affected the communication and the responses to the Pandemic.
It feels strange the book reads like the current Coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Is history repeating itself? We seem to be not any better in addressing the situation. Just like the Great Influenza, the political climate has overshadowed the medical judgement for a pandemic; just like the Great Influenza, the government cannot be trusted to put our health at the top priority; just like the Great Influenza, the politicians put blame on others regardless of evidence and is lack of.
This book tells you everything to know about the 1918 Pandemic and humbles us that we have yet to learn our lessons from it.
The Matchmakers: The new economics of multisided platforms By David S. Evans
I recently joined a product development group with the goal to build an ecosystem for voice computing platforms. Building a multi-sided platform is among the hardest challenges. The book explains the different considerations for a multi-sided platform from a regular product business and raises good questions to increase the chance of a multi-sided platform.
This book would be useful to those who are in the position to lead the development of a multi-sided platform.
Good economics for hard times By Abhijit v. Banerjee and Esther duflo
Written by the 2019 Nobel prize winners in economics, the book gave an in depth look on a fairly broad set of topics: the social impact of global trade , the inertia of people to move for the better life , the unequal impact of global trade, the appropriateness of government intervention, the bias of society towards economic growth, the challenge of class mobility, the argument for universal basic income, the importance of any social welfare program to keep people’s dignity and respect in mind.
The broad brush on these economics leaves me dazzled with the impression there is just so much to be done to better the society.
Little Fires everywhere By Celeste Ng
The story portrays distinct characters in two families, with contrasting ways of living & drastic differences in their approaches to lives: the so-called fit-ins and the outcasts. It provokes thoughts on hard choices between choosing a poor biological mother and an adoption promising a better life; the hard choices between a comfortable life and an uncertain life following the passion; the fear of losing someone vs the actual loss of someone. The novel has since been adopted into an American drama TV series. I enjoyed this book.
oliviatamccue 