Mind mapping

During the week, I attended a luncheon for what's called mind mapping. The main purpose is learning how to use a different method of note taking for better memorization and to stimulate creativitiy. A lot of people follow the traditional methods for taking notes, writing lines by lines for every details that came out of the other person's mouth, using numbering or bullet points to try to differientiate each line, at the end of the days the notes got filed away and the messiness made re-reading difficult. So the most efficient way is to organize thoughts by drawing pictures and writing keywords, using a linkage system to help memorize information..

Aside from that, the lecturer told us a story of a Holland banker. She asked him to do an exercise with his kid on how he was being protrayed out of his kids' eyes, so the banker went back home that night and asked "what do you think about daddy?". Kid said "away", and then he asked "what else?" Kid said "busy.", and he asked again "what else?", kid said "work", and then "money". The banker was heart broken from the responses and went to his wife trying to figure out how come he had such a bad image in front of his kid. She then revealed "every morning when son got up he asked where did daddy go, she said daddy was away, busy working trying to make money." Are you dare to do the same exercise with your kids as well? Small kids wouldn't lie since they will say whatever that comes to their minds, but you gotta be ready for some heartbreaking comments if you are busy parents.  

One of the scariest thing that the lecturer prompted us to do is to prioritize things in our lives. It turned out, for the majority of the people, we have not been spending enough time for what we believed the most important. Work surely should rank pretty low in our priority, but we apparently are spending way too much time on it. And ironically, people are praised for how hard working they are, how devoted they are at work, the fortune they made, the title they have achieved. Not a whole lot of attention is given to non-material achievement i.e. spiritual bonding with friends and family, devotion to the society etc. Again, the publicity doesn't fully reflect the right value system.

I was watching a tv series: "don't take no for an answer, sometimes a girl just wants a guy to push, that makes her feel pretty." right on, yes, aggressive men are particularly attractive.

Recap

I was randomly browsing my old posts, I found this from my july 08 edition..

http://josweetsenses.blogspot.com/2008/07/rush-to-finance.html

Apparently everything has turned the corner in the month of Oct and Nov, with all firms fanatically trying to stay in business and cutting staffs to reduce operational costs. Yes I do feel sorry for new finance joiners who got laid off (and hopefully I wouldn't be one of them), but No, I don't feel sorry for those who were being laid off because they made xx million of USD p.a. for the past xx numbers of years. Considering those who are new joiners to finance they wouldn't be able to get back to the game again, not to mention they haven't really made the colossal sum of bonus at the peak of the cycle, changing fields become inevitable but they will not be hired again when the cycle is coming back. For those who were able to take advantage of the upcycle and made enough money to sustain 2 years of sabbatical leave, they have all the time in their hands to enjoy life and come back again when the market recover.. 

Flushing out the frustration.. I feel sorry for small homeowners who lost money in the property market, but I don't feel sorry for big corporates in HK who are facing headwinds in the new property launches, considering all the non-developers type of companies in HK are entrapped and profits being eaten up by high rental costs.. the developers really didn't do much, just bribing government, building ridiculously small and inefficient housing, cutting corners by using cheap materials but package into high end housing, hiking rental costs whenever they see slightest sign of economic recovery.. Say I am a witch, losing billions of dollars in accumulators is actually the best thing we've seen among the wealthy high society.. I am sooo looking forward to the wealthy segment to reshuffle and the rise of ethical entrepreneurs who make their fortune by their true dedication to the society.

Optimism vs. Pessimism

Many people say I am a pessimist, they categorize me as one of the doomsayers and always add a negative point of view when it comes to analyzing a situation..ex. when someone told me so and so still didn't have worries about their job security, I said let's check again 3 months later whether they're still doing fine; when two persons formed an awkward relationship I questioned how long would it last; when an event or a project is running smoothly I'd like to question what if it fails. I admit that I am a bit pessimistic on certain things, but aren't we supposed to possess some skepticism and not to believe that we live in the best of all possible worlds? 

When someone who is fresh in the industry and able to land with a 2mn package, we can smell that's the peak of the cycle. When money comes so easily and a junior banker can buy three properties with last year's bonus, you know that the market is overheated. When you feel like you need to chase after the market rally you should know this is a selling signal. Does being a contraian mean pessimism? I thought this is called precaution. 

There are three phases that I heard most often recently..: "it will get worse better it gets better!"; "don't catch a falling knife!"; "the share price is falling, it is telling you something!!" It doesn't seem like the rest of the world is echoing the anxiety exists in finance. Even the local property market starts to pick up some transaction volume after hitting all time low a few months ago. Seems like people are still feeling sanguine about the tsunami that's heading towards us? I really don't know how much worse can it gets but the market doens't seem to have fully digested the negativities yet.

However I do think there're opportunities emerging..... stocks trading at deep discount we can start to bottom fish for quality companies to invest in; property prices will continue to slide but fixed asset in hk will still be an important asset class to hedge against usd depreciation; although there're tones of warehouse sale flyers I think we should wait for the deeper discount of the current season fashion. Hopefully next year is the time we can turn to be more optimistic and come up with a better strategy to deploy our cash.

We all need a cheer up from the down market. 2001 Lynch and Bagel - my favorite bottle of wine, not an everyday indulgence though.

BB chu LOVES to eat... he will open his mouth wheneve he sees food.. That's very courageous of him to try new things and his tolerance level is getting higher and higher. That's him chowing down the black seasame dessert.
Countryled - my new favorite at TM. the picture doesn't do him justice he is actually a really big horse.

Still in China

If you are a consumer analyst, companies will give you skin care and cosmetic products for sampling, track suits and jeans to try out the fits and design, drinks and snacks for you to munch on....it is the best out of all because the gifts are all consumables and everyday necessities that you wouldn't throw away..

Tech analysts usually get the computer peripheral, usb flash memory, small electronic items, nothing fancy but sure they are practical and useful.

Guess what I got from my site visit?... a disposable IV catheter! How do I test out the product? Who want to be punched by me?


Told you BJ is getting modernized! I found these Bourgie table lamps at a food court in a not so chic mall. Of course these are copycats, but the make is actually quite nice, I wouldn't mind getting a fake one for my apt.


I stayed at a new hotel in weihai, which pretty much cost very little money since the company, which almost owns the city, got us a steep discount, what amazed me is the size of the bed. It even looks larger than a king size, think of it as four pillows lining across that's pretty much the width of the bed.


weihai shoreline. for those who will not go there.. since there's really nothing fun to do.

Came back to BJ in the same day.. remind me of my earlier conversation with g of how spoiled we are from living in hk where everywhere is super convenient...the extent of that is to have a private van transporting from the plane to the luggage claim and through the secret press tunnel to the car which then took us to the hotel..so tired and glad that I am staying in a super nice hotel.. for at least a couple of days..

Modern BJ

It's been more than 3 years since I last visit to BJ. My last visit was the conference for my hk office and i was trying to convince my cio why he should relocate me to hk....time flied and it just reminded me how much i have achieved within these 3 years.

Came a day earlier to walk around in BJ, i ended up not being to walk around as much as I wanted because I basically didn't know where am i going. Everything is freakingly big, and every block takes 10 min to walk across by the time you realize you have taken a wrong direction you feel so tired not wanting to go to the original destination anymore...

I am quite impressed by how modernized the city became. Buildings are turning into avante garde, chic and hip interior design for both shops and restaurants, the younger generation dresses the same way as the hk people, and things are becoming so expensive now...

I stayed at a hip hotel in bj, love the free internet access and cable tv (hbo, cnn, bbc, anything you can think of) and super convenient location.