Posted by HT on January 25th, 2009 in Presentation
For the ES2007S module, a special blog has been set up to discourse on issues related with Professional Communication as part of the class. The first posting is aimed at sharing about why effective communication is important to each one of us, and it can be found here. Do check the entry out and leave comments!
Help: Anyone has any idea how I can fuse the 2 feeds together and have them show up on the blog.wonghongting.com feed? Do leave a comment or pop me an email! Thanks!
On Wednesday, after helping NOC do a pitch to a lecture with many Sophomores, Juliana (NOC staff) asked me for my opinion on the following topic: “What makes Stanford special?” In summary, my response was that while in the graduate and post-graduate levels, there seem to be more opportunities for cutting edge research, in the undergraduate level, things are not all that different from other (good) universities. However, its alumni base, locality and special programs (such as STVP) provides a slight advantage that compounds over time to make it special.
A day ago, this was highlighted in a huge way on Techcrunch.
Before I go on, for those who don’t already know, let me explain what Techcrunch is. TechCrunch is a blog (mostly) about Web2.0 products & companies, started by Michael Arrington, who is one of Time’s Top 100 World’s Most Influential people in 2008. With over 1,808,000 web feed subscribers, mostly in the Web2.0 industry, the companies featured in Techcrunch often get a million users overnight just by being mentioned.
So yesterday, I saw a post titled “Stanford Students Release A Cool Batch Of iPhone Apps”, which was also had links to a prior post that I have seen before about the Facebook Apps released by Stanford students. Granted that the course is a year adrift from the posting about the Facebook Apps post, but seriously, the portfolio of the previous CS3216 course seems way way cooler, I mean, just look at it! There’s a collection of applications that might actually help you do something, instead of the super-poke-type applications.
However, here’s my point. The Stanford courses are featured on Techcrunch, which in turn is a guarantee for a instant jump in number of users. Talk about solving Cold Start strategies. (By the way I’ve heard Web2.0 entrepreneurs pitching to VCs with the marketing plan being “Get featured on Techcrunch”.) While head-starts do not necessarily make you more successful, but this, and other introductions and recommendations in the Valley, are the unfair advantages available exclusively to Stanford students. Leveraging on this to achieve greater successes, makes Stanford special.
Now that things are demystified, we can make NUS equally if not more special. Can’t we?
“I could have built Hotmail”, “I could have built Facebook”, were 2 key quotes from Ben that stuck with me through the night. When Hotmail came out, I was only 12 (but am proud to already have my own personal webpage, from which the nickname “wongoes” was first coined because the website is “where the Wongs go”), so I couldn’t have had anything to do with it. However, with Facebook, I have actually a project proposal written in 2004 which suggested the development of a social network for Cheers Connect International, with the idea to classify people by the school that they belong to (ask me if you want to see evidence). While retrospectively thinking, there is no way that anything we built could have had the success that Facebook did (I mean, a network that has Harvard, then Stanford and MIT students in it, is an instant attraction by itself without any additional features), but “IF ONLY IT WERE ME“!
Notes – Key Propositions from the Microsoft Talk: a. XBox Live Marketplace – Ian Tan
- with XNA Game Studios, you can be a game developer too
- MSFT generated ~US$1b from Xbox Live, so choose a big platform like this to develop on
- MDA is offering $50k for each project that has a good idea for a game on the platform
- From Ben > look out for the battle for “a foothold in your living room”
b. MSFT User Experience Technologies – Apurva Lawale
- Lots of cool technology Microsoft is working with (e.g. SmoothHD, Potosuru)
- (Wonder when would they finally incorporate Photosynth into an application though)
c. Microsoft Imagine Cup – Pratibha Kumar
- Dare to dream
- Imagine Cup is an excellent platform to showcase your ideas
Ben’s Wise Words (henceforth BWW): - Understand the world around you – it’ll show you possibilities you can’t imagine before
- Technology is only a facilitator of problem solving, create real value and SELL
- CS3216 is a community, not just a class – LEVERAGE on each other’s skills
Any Big Problem is a Big Opportunity
Nobody will pay you to solve a non-problem. This came to mind once again when we discussed about understanding the world and seeing opportunities all around us. Psychologically, coming back to Singapore from the Valley has proved to be a huge temptation to shift back into mediocrity, but with the rapidly growing entrepreneurial ecosystem in Singapore, the high level of creative discussion and talented individuals in CS3216, (and the pizza and soft drinks of course), I’m happy once more. It’s great to be back in the Valley – SG Edition.
In 2008, Google was once again selected as the 100 Best Companies to Work For, which reflects results from a 57 question survey of employees in companies in US. So it was absolutely interesting to see this post on Techcrunch. In short, the general complains of the ex-Googlers as shown in the post were relatively lower pay, fringe benefits disappearing, and usual stuff like “too much bureaucracy, poor management, poor mentoring, and a hiring process that took months”.
While I think that these are the minority in Google, this brings up a conversation that I had with Ed a year back about Web2.0 companies. What is the optimal level of benefits that a company should give out to its employees and how much marketing (for the lack of a better word) should be done using these benefits to attract and retain talents?
The premise for the discussion: During the Dot com days, the remuneration packages and more observably, fringe benefits such as free food, free drinks, gaming rooms all around the office. Ignoring the “Home-run” companies for the reason that they are the outliers and not the norm, when the dot com bust happened, the companies that didn’t have the fringe benefits seemed to be more capable of retaining its employees while the “cool” companies that had to cut the fringe benefits due to cost cutting, had employees fleeting once they sensed that the company is not doing well.
From the emails and the various complaints that the ex-Googlers listed, it seems as though a similar thing is happening. People come in looking forward to being part of the “cool culture” in Google that is so well documented and advertised, but when it doesn’t happen as promised, employees start leaving and bitch about it.
Expectations Setting
This is nothing new, and I guess it boils down to the age old lesson of setting of expectations on a couple of fronts:
1. Manage Expectations of Employees: Instead of over-peppering potential employees and attract them with fringe benefits (which they assimilate to be necessities and forgetting that they’re just benefits), let them know about the reality from other employees.
1a. Set High Expectations, then Exceed Them: As an auxiliary to the previous point, it would yield you instant evangelists out of employees immediately when you exceed their expectations. So do this.
2. Manage Your Own Expectation: It is hard to do this, but seriously, when we choose a wrong company to work for, it is our own fault isn’t it? So instead of going in with too high an expectation and coming out complaining, won’t it be wiser to go in hoping to contribute (instead of them benefitting you), and let them sweep you off your feet with great HR plans?
As I close, I just realized that I unknowingly had a major headfake doing this post: Either be a HR expert, or hire one if you want to run a company. While there will be people that come out unhappy about the company, only then would a successful balancing act help you attract and retain your best talents. Like Google.
While writing the previous entry about Lessons Learnt from the Last Lecture, it hit me that the “real” last lecture was really relevant to the CS3216 class. To quote the notes, “Sure to have a lot of problems. ”, and to quote the teaching assistants, “the workload is really heavy”. However, doesn’t that just boil down to effective time management?
While I love Randy and the way he delivers his lectures, this particular one is not as spectacular, so instead, I have compiled a shortlist of the key lessons for those who do not have the time to watch the lecture.
1. Time = Money therefore:
a. Get more things done within the same amount of time
b. Exchange money for time – Outsource everything unimportant
c. Cut time wasters: – You are wasting money!
i. Kill Television
ii. Make up a fake class to force yourself to do some work during free period
iii. Cut short phone calls by standing up
iv. Hang up on yourself to cut off telemarketers
2. Do the RIGHT things > Doing THINGS right a. What will happen if I don’t do it?
b. List down items using Covey’s Four-Quadrant Todo List
c. Efficiency vs Effectiveness – *insert story here*
3. Plan & Analyze a. You can only CHANGE a plan when THERE IS A PLAN
b. Analyze Time Journals and discover more time waster
4. Delegate Effectively a. Delegate until people complain, but do the ugliest thing yourself
b. Delegation means empowering with authority, not hiring robots
c. Don’t clear the mess for your subordinates. Teach them to grow
d. Be specific in delegation, right up to the EXACT time of completion
5. Eliminate Procrastination a. Find out what is the psychological barrier from doing the task
b. Cut the task into little pieces and do the ugliest first
c. Doing things at the last minute is really expensive. Do it JUST before the last minute.
d. Make a fake deadline for things that don’t have them so that when push comes to shove it is less stressful
Overall, Randy has, through the lecture, represented the importance of LIVING instead of counting the seconds till we die. I too love how he demonstrated the importance of contributing back to the communities that have benefitted him (University of Virginia in this case), told the audience to honor promises even when people don’t expect you to, and most of all, re-emphasized how staying healthy and being close to the ones that matter to us, is the real way to spend the only commodity that matters. Time.
When I received an email from the Facebook@NUS module teaching team saying that we should all watch Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture before attending the first week of class, it hit me that I really should write down some lessons learnt from the lecture, having watched it 2 times prior to this. (My 2nd thought was, hey, how come it didn’t occur to me that CS3216 was pretty similar in spirit to the Building Virtual Worlds class?) These are what I jotted down while going through the lecture a 3rd time:
1. Dream Big and Celebrate Brick Walls
If only the world celebrated brick walls more. Innovation and entrepreneurship would have progressed in leaps and bounds through the years, but I guess, that’s what make innovators and entrepreneurs special. My corollary to this would be that if an ecosystem were formed to support one another in our quests to break down brick walls, it would seem so much easier. Glad to see that Singapore is finally moving towards this direction through various initiatives and cool modules like CS3216.
2. Educators should learn from Randy
Good teaching imparts knowledge. Great teaching inspires students to have an inquisitive mind towards topics and facilitate their imagination to pursue greater knowledge themselves. Becoming a model of learning and pursuing excellent for the students is one of the best things a teacher could do for students. For me, this seems key in my quest to help others achieve success.
3. “Wait, and people will surprise and impress you.”
Most, if not all of us will have stories from one part of our lives or another that has someone, come out of nowhere to amaze us with what they can do. And this usually happens on 2 fronts, “evil” people doing good things, and people we have written off showing us greater potential than we expected. Jumping to conclusions, especially when it is about people, creates a glass ceiling in our hearts, which should be shattered so that we leave room for these people to impress us.
Last Comments
While my list of quotes that I wrote down and took from the last lecture far exceeds the above 3, I guess the key lesson is to live life passionately, help everyone else around you succeed, and your own dreams and aspirations will be achieved.
You always know a geek when you meet one. And to meet a geek who is cool, forward looking and interesting, that’s good news because he or she will likely inspire another generation of geeks. Try meeting a whole room full of them, and of course, led by the head geek, Prof Ben. Call me nostalgic for missing the creative, supportive environment, but the 2 hours of CS3216 felt like Silicon Valley all over again… Well almost. 2 big reasons why.
1. Star Wars, Highlander
Since I first watched Episode V, “There is no Try” has been a key motto. (Watch it here if you don’t know what I’m talking about.)When Prof Tom Kosnik first mentioned about him aspiring to be our Yoda during E145, the Stanford High Tech Entrepreneurship module that we took for NOC, it resounded immediately. It was a pleasant surprise to have this analogy brought up again. And not only that, through Highlander and the other quotes and movie/show analogies mentioned in the class, this was geek talk at its best, but it somehow made my headache (from having had 6+ hours of class already before the lesson) go away, and “headfake” my mind into thinking that I’m hanging out with friends.
2. Making a Difference, and Having fun doing it
I have been, since starting Cheers Connect International, a leadership training company, been preaching about being a person who adds value to the lives of the people around us. This was why I loved Silicon Valley so much, seeing a virtuous cycle of people helping one another achieve their goals every single day. While I have been involved with, and have seen movements by organizations (E27, TDM, ASES, etc.) that have tried to do this, I have always thought that embedding these activities within core curriculum, would have a must more significant effect.
Enter CS3216, and the core objective was presented as “Making a Difference”. As I had hoped after being told to watch Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture, this course was, in part or in full, motivated somewhat by the VR class that Randy had establish. This was what I have been waiting for to happen at NUS, and I’m glad to be part of it.
All in all…
Well this is the beginning, and as proven by the contact exchange exercise, where we had to find people with various skill sets in the class, there are brilliant people in the class, and I will learn from and contribute to the entire learning process in more ways than one. There is no Try.
Some photos taken with my iPhone during class. Will do better next time with a proper camera.
Renaissance [ren'i-säns']: A revival of intellectual or artistic achievement and vigor
The Renaissance that all of us are familiar with, which is the cultural movement towards or humanistic revival of classical art, architecture, literature, and learning that happened between the 14th and 17th century, was something that could not be specifically explained why or how it originated. Theories of its origin included the assimilation of Greek and Arabic knowledge, changes in social political structures in Italy, and the devastation that Black Death brought about. Every movement, though years in the making, needs a trigger point which inspired the people involved to do something about it.
Well people around me know that I have been wanting to revive WongHongTing.com for the longest of times, and it definitely seems reasonable to expect a well maintained website from someone who does social media consultancy, but it has yet to happen thus far. Having assisted organizations to successfully launch corporate blogs, and having come up with tons of materials (mainly entrepreneurship and leadership related), I have both the skills and the content to begin my journey online, but it just didn’t happen.
However, on 12th January 2009, everything changed. It was supposed to be the start of Semester 2 of the 2008/2009 academic year, and just another day in school. It was supposed to be the Monday where I would try to see which of the 2 classes (will not drop CS3216 for the world, and ES2007S won’t start till next week) I would decide to drop, having planned a Monday schedule that looks like this:
At the end of the day, I have to quote Prof Ben and say, “What doesn’t kill you will make you stronger!” While many will probably think that I’m stretching my limits doing this, I would say that it is entirely worth it. Let me explain:
1. The Choice is Mine
A University student in Singapore has a pretty strict curriculum to follow no matter which major you might be in. (NUS is actually the best place to be in Singapore given the relative flexibility in being able to take a wide variety of courses in Science, Engineering, Business, etc. as compared to NTU and SMU students who are pretty much stuck to their own course.) Having fortunately/unfortunately having to extend graduation by one semester, I have the pleasure of having additional bandwidth to choose modules that I enjoyed, since I have to do the extra semester anyway. So for the Monday modules, I had all 4 modules being none core modules: Investment Analysis, Professional Communication, Game Theory and Strategic Analysis, and of course, the Facebook module. Well obviously, since they’re none core, I chose these because they seemed interesting.
2. Exciting Content
A major complain being a QF student that I am is that, while I insist on the importance of the theoretical financial mathematics, I find most joy in more human-centric and creative fields of study (perhaps that’s why Stanford seemed exciting to me). So it seems obvious that Investment Analysis, Game Theory in Business setting, and of course, Facebook would possess contents that offer much room for creativity and new ideas to roam.
3. Yodas
“Do or do not, there is no try” This has always been a motto of mine since watching Episode V of Star Wars, and was pleasantly surprised when it appeared in class. I have met my fair shares of Yodas (aka trainer of the Master Jedis) who have led me in my path towards the “Force”, but to find 3 excellent lecturers (who will likely attain the status of Yoda in my heart during the course of the semester) in one semester in the first day of the semester, this has never happened before.
Be it engaging in countless attacks towards the Banking sector and attempting to convince us not to take up Investment Analysis or Finance itself, or dabbling in captivating games for 3 entire hours, or simply connecting to students at a frequency which set the tone for defining who belongs to the class, the day was without a doubt – The Best Day I have ever had in NUS. After a good 9 hours of class, (would be 11 next week! *gasp*), it is amazing how my mind is still wide awake, and how I stayed up to begin renovation on this piece of property called WongHongTing.com.
This not inline with MOE’s campaign to hire more teachers within the next few years, but to end off this post, I must say that having been on the receiving end of such excellent teaching, we all must, in our own ways, continue to inspire a next generation of thinkers and propel them towards their goals.
The beginning of the Renaissance of this site, begins now.
“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”
- Albert Einstein
Renaissance [ren'i-säns']: A revival of intellectual or artistic achievement and vigor
The Renaissance that all of us are familiar with, which is the cultural movement towards or humanistic revival of classical art, architecture, literature, and learning that happened between the 14th and 17th century, was something that could not be specifically explained why or how it originated. Theories of its origin included the assimilation of Greek and Arabic knowledge, changes in social political structures in Italy, and the devastation that Black Death brought about. Every movement, though years in the making, needs a trigger point which inspired the people involved to do something about it.
Well people around me know that I have been wanting to revive WongHongTing.com for the longest of times, and it definitely seems reasonable to expect a well maintained website from someone who does social media consultancy, but it has yet to happen thus far. Having assisted organizations to successfully launch corporate blogs, and having come up with tons of materials (mainly entrepreneurship and leadership related), I have both the skills and the content to begin my journey online, but it just didn’t happen.
However, on 12th January 2009, everything changed. It was supposed to be the start of Semester 2 of the 2008/2009 academic year, and just another day in school. It was supposed to be the Monday where I would try to see which of the 2 classes (will not drop CS3216 for the world, and ES2007S won’t start till next week) I would decide to drop, having planned a Monday schedule that looks like this:
At the end of the day, I have to quote Prof Ben and say, “What doesn’t kill you will make you stronger!” While many will probably think that I’m stretching my limits doing this, I would say that it is entirely worth it. Let me explain:
1. The Choice is Mine
A University student in Singapore has a pretty strict curriculum to follow no matter which major you might be in. (NUS is actually the best place to be in Singapore given the relative flexibility in being able to take a wide variety of courses in Science, Engineering, Business, etc. as compared to NTU and SMU students who are pretty much stuck to their own course.) Having fortunately/unfortunately having to extend graduation by one semester, I have the pleasure of having additional bandwidth to choose modules that I enjoyed, since I have to do the extra semester anyway. So for the Monday modules, I had all 4 modules being none core modules: Investment Analysis, Professional Communication, Game Theory and Strategic Analysis, and of course, the Facebook module. Well obviously, since they’re none core, I chose these because they seemed interesting.
2. Exciting Content
A major complain being a QF student that I am is that, while I insist on the importance of the theoretical financial mathematics, I find most joy in more human-centric and creative fields of study (perhaps that’s why Stanford seemed exciting to me). So it seems obvious that Investment Analysis, Game Theory in Business setting, and of course, Facebook would possess contents that offer much room for creativity and new ideas to roam.
3. Yodas
“Do or do not, there is no try” This has always been a motto of mine since watching Episode V of Star Wars, and was pleasantly surprised when it appeared in class. I have met my fair shares of Yodas (aka trainer of the Master Jedis) who have led me in my path towards the “Force”, but to find 3 excellent lecturers (who will likely attain the status of Yoda in my heart during the course of the semester) in one semester in the first day of the semester, this has never happened before.
Be it engaging in countless attacks towards the Banking sector and attempting to convince us not to take up Investment Analysis or Finance itself, or dabbling in captivating games for 3 entire hours, or simply connecting to students at a frequency which set the tone for defining who belongs to the class, the day was without a doubt – The Best Day I have ever had in NUS. After a good 9 hours of class, (would be 11 next week! *gasp*), it is amazing how my mind is still wide awake, and how I stayed up to begin renovation on this piece of property called WongHongTing.com.
This not inline with MOE’s campaign to hire more teachers within the next few years, but to end off this post, I must say that having been on the receiving end of such excellent teaching, we all must, in our own ways, continue to inspire a next generation of thinkers and propel them towards their goals.
The beginning of the Renaissance of this site, begins now.
“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”
For the ES2007S module, a special blog has been set up to discourse on issues related with Professional Communication as part of the class. The first posting is aimed at sharing about why effective communication is important to each one of us, and it can be found here. Do check the entry out and leave comments!
