Wind in my Hair

The ships at the distance, blinking and dancing in the dawn light of East Coast is a very pretty sight. I wished I have blade to the other end of East Coast, that will make a good workout.

People traffic is minimal and most important of all is there no children running about. Today is a different Wednesday. :)

ps: I must get myself a pair of hand guards.

Life is series of script

In my last post, I talked about life is not a series of scripts, like
the movies, to follow. I needs to be corrected. Life IS a series of
scripts that people follows, it is whether a person see/knows the
script. To be precise, it is whether a person have the experience to
sense/detect/read the script (i.e. situation) and responds in a way
such that the other party follows without knowing.

My change of mind came from conversation I have with a friend over
coffee and a article I read today (see below).

(# is the original questions, apologies for the original question as
they are more IT related, my attempt at a non-IT version are written
below.):

--------------
Taken from <a href="http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2007/06/interviewing-strategy-for-outsourcing.html">Interviewing
Strategy for Outsourcing </a>

# Which do you prefer: manifest or latent types? Why?
Which do you prefer, clear instruction or general guideline? Why?

# What commenting style do you think is appropriate? Why?
What speaking style do you think is appropriate? Why?

# What sort of documentation artifacts do you like to produce? Why?
What sort of drawings do you like to produce? Why?

# Do you think exceptions are good, or bad? Why?
Do you think not following the law is good, or bad? Why?

These questions will tell you a lot. A fresher won't understand many
of the questions. A bullshit artist will answer "It depends," and grin
"knowingly". Another kind of bad prospect will be opinionated but
can't defend their arguments cogently. A good prospect might say, "It
depends," and then set up contrasting scenarios.

--------------------

The answer tells me a lot about the person knowledge and life
experiences. Taking the principle further, the manner of asking can
be used in variety of situation and scenarios other than IT.

Movies, TVs....

In my youth, I read somewhere about how our current Prime Minster, LHL, do not allows his children to watch TVs but ask them to read the newspaper only. I forgot the reason and logic behind his rule but I understand why he does it now.

This recall came to my mind when I realized what I watched in movies and TV are not true representation of real life. They should be taken as a suspension of reality that does not depicts accurately real life in them.

I am not talking about the plot and how everyone knows movies/TV are just not real. I talking about but of the way the actor/actress played and interact with each other in the depiction of the story. The seduction is that their lines and interaction is a mirror of real life, by its very nature allows everyone to follows the script, which here lies the fallacy that it can be believed because it is so familiar. Familiar because the essence and theme is found in very every movie. For movies follows a stereotype script that everyone been "trained" to know how a start reached the end, all within that 2hr of movie magic time.

I am saying all this because I am starting to realized how dynamic and fluid is the complex world of middle and upper managements. Of how a simple sentence of spoken words can convey tons of meaning to the opposite party for interpretation, using it to influences and take advantage. Of why my current boss tell me that I am young.

Getting interviewed

I was interviewed back-to-back by 3 persons yesterday for one position. The position will be working with the 3 persons. A second round will be held with the hiring manager after the 1st round.

I look forward to the experience as it will give a good idea of what the work will be like and more about the people the position will be working with.

However, it was a tiring experience, the interviewers were not sharing information about the position and was trying hard to get into my head. There was no exchange of how the position will be working with them. They did not give me good vibes about how they want to work with the position.

Next time if I have the opportunity to do it for another company, if the interviewers repeat what I experienced, I will ask them how the questions help to develop the potential working relationship. Their answers will give them a chance to tell me if they are really political or not.

Good advise

Given a good advise today, "It is my responsibility to say out that I am being ignored". To take action for getting the other party to response to me and I will not quietly take being ignored.

Life Values

I realized now that it is very true that my life values will determine whether I am happy at work. Looking back at my days in a SI environment, my values of delighting the customer with superior solution conflicts with need to deliver the project on time at cost by delivering a just workable solution.

Now I understand it was not problem of me not suitable for PM role but that the role is in a environment that does not matches my values. It is not just government projects that disinterest me but any projects in an SI environment.

G helped me to arrived at the conclusion that I am not interested in government projects. It is only now that I realized it is really SI projects that is the problem.

It is obvious to me that I am much more capable for the current role in Chubb. So it is now a question whether I stay to savour the work/life balance or move on. Again, I need to think more and discover what I want.

Erasure - A Little Respect

New Office Location

Last week was my first week in the new office location. Traveling time is shorten to 20 min from 45 min. The office space is bigger and the ceiling is higher but my desk space got smaller. :(

Somehow, i missed the homely feeling of the old office. At the new place, I can go about the whole week without meeting any colleagues from the other end of the office.

The new location is painted bright with cheerful colors and I think the meetings room are decorated using inspiration from the different rooms at Ministry of Sound. All ideas cames from the BIG boss. :)

My front view



The quote at the far ends says: "The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow." Rupert Murdoch CEO News corporation

Main Conference room
Taken from the left side

Taken from the entrance


The meeting room near at the entrance:


Discussion room: