Persuasion

Real persuasion should not only occur when you persuade someone you like but should also occur when you are able to persuade someone you don't like.

New Life

A new life is going to begin. That is great.

Be Oneself

To be myself is the most important issue to me recently.

Actually "to just be oneself" has been a trouble to me. I don't seem to be able to see clearly what kind of person I want to be and what kind of path I want to choose most. It may be because I have had too many chances to try many different possibilities. And I always can see the good development of myself in these different paths. Those developemt also bring me much benefit.

When I was young, the issue of "Be oneself" didn't even become an issue because I still have time and space to change. But as I grow older, the return and cost of choosing each path becomes more significant. The issue finally becomes very important.

What do I really want? I think much about this question when I consider career plan change recently. I can do a good research job. But do I like it really? Most important of all, do I want to commit myself into such path? A firm invited me to interview about a research job several days before. I can feel that I want to make the best performance in the interview. I also have done much study about this industry and job. Truely my understanding of this industry could stun the interviewers. But my passion and the sense of direction just don't seem to fit the tone. Something is just not right. I can feel that myself, not to metion the interviewers. A simple question: Why you choose this? becomes not so simple to me. I just can't help express the behavior or sense of a sales in the interview, not a researcher. But this sales seems to sell something that he doesn't believe in so much.

"To be oneself" is very important to me. I will continue this issue later.

Combination

There is a famous quote: "In the factory, we make cosmetics; in the store, we sell hope."

This is a classic description of the essence of marketing.

I would like to add something to this quote: "In the factory, we make classic cosmetics; in the store, we sell fascinating hope." The combination of craftsmanship and salesmanship is the real business success.

Passive Communication

Sometimes when I get a phone call or a kind of communication delivered by some person, the passive communication happens. The passive communication happens when I receive a message that I don't feel like receiving at that time. Such kind of communication lacks my passion and commitment to make a good communication. And it causes some suffer to me.

I don't know how this situation begins. It seems that I never had such feeling when I was a kid. Maybe it is because there is far less consideration when we communicated as a kid? We expressed what we think directly. If we don't feel like talking, we just shut our mouths. But when we are adults, things don't seem to be so simple. We have to consider other people's position. We have to consider the mutual benefit. We have to consider the outcome of some of our action. So we don't necessarily have genuine passion for each communication. That's why passive communication happens.

There are two ways to face this situation: One is just shut down every communication channel when we don't feel like communicating at all. Another is always prepare our minds and change our minds when we have the negative feelings. As to which way should we choose, it definitely is the issue of objective we choose. What kind of objective we want from the situation? Do we just long for a little bit of tranquillity? Or do we encourage ourselves to keep an exploring and open mind? There is no standard answer or choice. There is no best objective.

For me, I would try to encourage myself to walk the second way.

Review on Ashkenazy's Bach Well-Tempered Clavier

When this CD was just released, I thought much about whether I should buy this work. There are already so many master interpretations, including those played by Glenn Gould, Richter, Tureck, Nikolayeva, and Schiff. And there were quite few reviews about this new work by Ashkenazy when it was just released.

But I still gave it a try. And, WOW!, I am glad that I have made the purchase decision. As a pianist, Ashkenazy seldom dissatisfies his audiences recently. His Shostakovich Preludes & Fugues is a good example. And this Bach Well-Tempered Clavier is no exception. The style of the whole work is a little like Sviatoslav Richter PLUS Glenn Gould. The rhythm is rich, fresh and colorful with the spiritual sound produced by Ashkenazy's beautifully using the pedals. If someone wonders whether it is bland, I can tell you it definitely is not. Ashkenazy possesses the animation of Glenn Gould but proceeds without GG's sometimes eccentricity. Ashkenazy expresses the beautiful sound and smooth rhythm of Sviatoslav Richter but bounces and rocks more! However, in addition to all the above features, you can still feel and appreciate Ashkenazy's unique understanding of this classic. And his uniqueness is pretty.

This is a masterwork played by a master. Take it, and put it among those previous interpretations. We have a new classic.

Note

There is a common phenomena that people usually buy more books than what they read. The speed of their buying books exceeds that of their reading books. Such kind of phenomena happens to me. Making a little counting, I find that I have bought ten books recently but still have not finished reading any one of them. Is such condition terrible? Maybe it is if you just keep telling yourself: Well, this is definitely the last one! while there is always the next one. But how could you just ignore a book when you find that it is so attractive and that it might contribute some breakthrough changes to your life? Of course there is always a sound over there: Well, you don't have to buy it immediately. It will still be there waiting for you. However, there is still another sound: Oh my, do you forget that last time you would have said forever goodbye to XXX book if you had not picked it up again accidently after such a long time? Maybe it is not books but human mind that causes the real trouble.

Another issues related to this phenomena of buying more books than you read is the way you read them. I find myself seldom read them one by one. If you buy books after finishing all the existing books you have, there is no such issue. I proceed with almost all of the books at the same time. Maybe A book today, B book tomorrow, and C book the day after tomorrow. D book in the morning, E book right after the lunch, F book in the afternoon, and G book before going to bed at midnight. There is one advantage in this way: you don't get stuck in some tiny section of some book. Reading a book is sometimes like conversing with someone. You are conversing with the author when you are reading a book. There is always some moment at which you just could not continue the conversation. So we could just change the conversation partner. We could just change the book and start another fresh exploration. And everything goes smoothly again. Another advantage of reading many books simutaneously is that you could integrate different concepts of different systems of different books. Take the books about "Decision Making" for example, if you are reading both the book which is mainly about gathering effective information before making decisions and the book which is mainly about "blink", you can think of the integration of such different systems. Different systems reflect authors' different ways of viewing the world. Knowing different viewpoints is just great. It broadens our mind. It helps integration. It makes us stand on the shoulders of the giants.

However, as some old wise guys have mentioned, money always counts. If the phenomena happens to you you'd better take the budget into consideration. It would be perfect that not only the greatness of books and the boundedness of monetary resources consolidate, but also the greatness of books consolidates the richness of monetary resources. Cash is life blood to life. But cash should not lead. It should follow.

About Schmidt

I watched this film just for Jack Nicholson. I know this film has got polarized reaction. So I didn't expect a very good work before watching it.

Now I have watched it. I don't know. It just seems like several other movies that I have watched recently. They just could not stir something deep in my heart. Maybe it is my problem. After watching each film recently, I think, "So"? I can not feel the conflict, the pain, or even the struggle in these films. Are the situations in these films really so hard to face? Are the problems in those situations so hard to solve?

Is "About Schmidt" just another story of American failure? As Mr Schmidt says in the film, "I am the weak, the failure,..." And that's why his life looks like that. There are several points that I can not fully realize. As is mentioned in the film, Mr Schmidt joined the insurance company at the beginning stage of that company. And? I always think that those who could help build an organization right in the beginning stage should enjoy some kind of passion related to the whole process. It is not easy to make an organization prosper. You must devote not only your intelligence, but also your emotion and energy. You must devote the passion. If it is so, how could Mr Schmidt's life become so boring with such sorrow? Did he really succeed in the organization? Did he really contribute profound influences to everything related to the organization? Watching his life after retirement just reminds me the life of some man of routine, man without passion, man without ambition for the prosper of an organization and all the people in that organization.

The essence of this film is about the African boy. I am glad to see that Mr Schmidt gains some pleasure from his relationship with that boy. But an question still occurs to me. Why Africa? Why African helpless boy? The world is huge. Africa is part of the world, so is the United States of America. There are still many aspects of life to which you could contribute to make the difference. If Mr Schmidt really want to do it, he could still live actively with his community, his friend Ray, or even his daughter. He could make lives around himself better. And he could live a meaningful life without regret. In the film, Mr Schmidt still fails to make the relationship with his daughter and community better. And I don't think it is positive enough.

Well, I don't know. I am afraid that now there are seldom movies that could move me, shock me, or spark me like before. Is it a good thing or not?

Some Script Of The Film "Serendipity"

You know the Greeks didn't write obituaries. They only ask one question after a man died: "Did he have passion?"