History is being made!
Taken from the Economist (http://www.economist.com/node/16441543?story_id=16441543):
IMPROVING relations between China and Taiwan will get another boost with the signing of a groundbreaking free-trade pact by the end of June. Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwan’s president, was elected in 2008 on a platform that called for better ties with China. A free-trade pact with the mainland is the cornerstone of his cross-strait policies. Taiwan, already isolated diplomatically, feared commercial marginalisation when the effects of a free-trade agreement between China and the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) begins to be felt later this year. Mr Ma has already overseen the establishment of direct flights and shipping routes across the 110-mile-wide Taiwan Strait.
This is a pretty old song that I dug up recently from karaoke, hope you enjoy 🙂
Onto the actual post….
Have you ever felt that most of the time, when you talk to strangers, it’s almost the same few lines being used?
Like in chess, we almost always start off with the book moves (king or queen pawn up), and the response is almost always the same for many players. Similar to a simple interaction, we always start off with ‘how are you’ or ‘hey what’s up?’ and receive similar responses like ‘im good’ or ‘im fine’. Without these book moves, people would just feel out of place. The best thing about them is that they work on ALMOST everybody. It’s just a polite way to start.
Thing is, how far can you take these book moves?
There’s always the old ‘pat on the back’ trick to make the other person feel closer to you. If not that, there’s the ‘listening for similarities’ and high fiving the other person whenever he mentions something you both have in common to penetrate through their barriers. We all make such book moves in hopes that it can further develop some sort of bond. A new and not fully recognized book move is to simply identify the small subconscious gestures of who you’re talking to, and to imitate them naturally.
The point of these book moves is to create likability for yourself, and to instantly gain the other person’s trust. But how well do they work? We could probably high five the other person EVERY SINGLE TIME he says something similar that we do, and follow it up with something like ‘we’re so similar! why didn’t I meet you earlier?’
To be honest, they do indeed work pretty well, or else they wouldn’t be recognized as book moves in the first place. I have to say that some people have won me over with the exact same book moves just because they were executed so well and done in such a subtle and natural manner.
However, the problem with book moves is that the same closeness just isn’t there. When I first met my high school friends, we didn’t have any book moves. It was that spontaneous interaction which grabbed me and rendered me loyal to them up to this point and beyond. In the longer scale of things, book moves appear to work in the short run because it stimulates our endorphins, but it doesn’t appear to create the same attachment you might feel when you encounter a person who you met without these moves.
I’m not exactly the best poet, but this poem seemed to flow right out of me as I woke up today.
Two strangers meet
They talk dynamically,
starting to connect
Mutual interests are discovered,
Laughter and respect glues them
They can’t be separated
Communication is thoughtless
An irresistible drug
Hours become mere minutes
Each word flowing so smoothly
Each move made in sync
A symphony perfectly orchestrated
But suddenly, one wrong note is made
Doubts arise, suspicions spread,
an irreversible process has begun,
My eyes go left, his eyes to the right.
The same music will never be played again.
Honestly this movie is total shit.
I hate to not share common opinion with others who love it (afterall, I did spend $14 CND just to watch this crap), but honestly it is not as good as everyone says it is.
Fair enough, there were some nice concepts and pretty awesome graphics, but there were too many loopholes in the movie for it to be anywhere near ‘exciting’. Also fair enough is that I might be being ignorant, and that this movie actually had everything covered which is beautifully laid out if I took time to explore deep enough, but until someone can explain the entire thing to me I’ll stick to my belief that the ticket was money down the drain.
Anyways, what are these ‘loopholes’?
First of all, the ending is NOT interpretable. The totem is stopping, which wouldn’t happen if this were a dream anyways. Yes yes it seems to perfect to be true, his kids seem exactly same age, everything seems like a dream. But then again, we’re talking about a movie, and when have movies with happy endings ever had anything relating to the harshness of reality? It reminds me of shutter island where everyone keeps saying there are two different endings, but there really isn’t because the end clip showed a lifehouse and that suggests that lobotomy DID in fact take place in the island. I feel that directors often leave a semi-ambiguous ending and hypes all the fans up because they think they can see two sides of the coin, but really I bet the director is just laughing at them.
Second of all; whose dream were they when they had a dream of a dream of a dream? Honestly it got a bit retarded for me when they were saying how the subconscious is trained on some levels but not on other dream layers. The architect thing was even more retarded. To build a maze so that people’s subconscious doesn’t find you? And then to kill off the subconscious minions as to make an adventurous plot? Seriously?
Third, that Japanese guy was supposedly stuck in the realms of dreamality. Why didn’t he escape? How did he meet De Caprio? Did he shoot himself or De Caprio? Given the ending, how did they escape the dream world? I’m guessing most people say that they’re in dream world because of this part, but seriously the ending suggests that this is not the case.
Fourth, why the hell was the wife trying to kill Leonardo? So apparently she’s this memory living inside of him, and she has the power to come and fuck his dream adventures up whenever she pleases….
Okay maybe I am being a bit harsh. I guess the sound effects and graphics were great, but the plot made no sense. If a movie so complex is to be created, and the concepts are difficult to understand, I think the plot writers should focus more on making it more understandable at least…
But oh well, that doesn’t seem to matter, half the world thinks this is a great movie simply because they DON’T understand it. If someone does understand it and can explain to me in full I am willing to listen and remove this post.
I fell asleep 5 times in the cinema watching this.
A pretty interesting video, but sort of what the world is already seeing nowadays anyway
…why big corporations just HAVE TO release something years ahead of its time?
On the one hand, it creates suspense, but on another hand, it prevents us a consumers from buying other products since we’re waiting for that particular product.
For example, Apple starts marketing the iPad half a year before it is actually released, and thus we as loyal consumers will wait for the iPad and refrain ourselves from buying other products.
I don’t really see how applicable this is in the movie industry though….you release a movie 4 months before it’s released, but that’s not really going to stop me from watching other movies. I am speculating that with one-time products, the aim really IS to build up suspense rather than to prevent competitors from profiting.
Which reminds me….
it DOES look pretty good
Ever look on facebook and see people sharing their thoughts such as: ‘omg so pumped for my exam’?
Ever feel a feeling of adrenaline rush right before your exam?
In the past, cavemen used to get adrenaline rushes because they needed to focus on hunting. Adrenaline pumped their bodies up, allowing them to run faster and have faster reflexes.
Nowadays, we use don’t adrenaline to hunt food, but to focus during our exams.
It’s a strange concept, but I think on a very subconscious level, we tend to correlate doing well on such exams to money, and therefore our physiological needs.
Even stranger is the fact that people think about ‘FREEDOM’ when they finish their exams. Back in the old days, ‘freedom’ was linked to being able to do whatever we pleased. For example slaves would lack ‘freedom’ because if they wanted to stop working, they weren’t allowed to. Having an exam can’t really stop us from going on youtube; but it can influence us to study. Yet we think about that as a restriction on our freedom, even though logically it isn’t.
It goes to show how much we prioritize examinations in our lives on both a biological and psychological level.
No, I have not taken any of these courses yet. But from what I gathered, this is what each course is roughly about, in my opinion about each major:
Before we start, I am generally assuming that each major requires knowledge about that particular field for success.
Accounting
I tend to think of this topic like legal studies. It’s never about knowing the rules, it’s always about knowing how to bend them. Accountants are not number crackers, they are mathematical strategists. It could be a fun career, but a tough one to get into since understanding all the rules in the first place is so difficult. Trait required: adaptability.
Finance
Financial experts are people who watch their investments grow and grow and grow. Is it fun? It could be. It’s sort of like gambling, but with a reasonable degree of precision. Have you ever gambled before? You need to hit big, and you need to know you’re going to lose. Finance is definitely not for those who always shy away from failures. Just imagine tonnes of money you’re investing, and you not being able to lose that money. Of course, you don’t want to lose it stupidly and make it on some crappy investment, but it’s hard to forecast the future right? You need to be able to deal with the pressure of taking risks, along with the ability to deal with failure when it actually hits you. Not suitable for typical Asians.
Marketing
This major is about creating value out of nothing. In today’s society, I think marketing is the biggest thing ever. But I don’t think that marketing majors are necessarily the best at their job. i find that the best marketers tend to work backwards, they don’t add value into their product without knowing how to add value. In other words, they first tap into consumer psychology, and then they start their marketing campaign. Most important skill – ability to understand the subconscious mind. (very different from understanding a conscious rational mind)
Logistics
I don’t think logistics is a good major to be honest. This is one of those things which is A LOT better done on the field. It takes a lot of business sense to get logistics, because most of this I think is things you think about conceptually. In practice, it might work different from your concept. But overall, this is to increase efficiency on supply chain management. Main requirement skill: strategic, conceptual mind
Human Resources
Knowing what people want, knowing how to talk to them, knowing how to make them do what you want them to do – that’s what a real HR director should be able to do. Influence and understanding is the key here.
Real Estate
I think these guys are actually the safest out of every single profession. It’s quite hard to go wrong with real estate, especially since housing value tends to appreciate over time as population expands, making it much easier for real estate agents to do their job. Real estate can be tremendously overlooked in Canada, but pretty soon, as more people migrate out of China to here, property prices will definitely rise, and these real estate guys will definitely make a lot. (I have doubts in my mind that this would happen, but I keep my hopes up for this profession)
😀
So…it never really occurred to me how heavily famous MBTI is. There are ideas about implementing the MBTI test as part of Sauder School of Business supplementary applications.
But I think MBTI, in the midst of its popularity, has never been more misunderstood. So please take some time to read this post if you truly which to use MBTI to the best of your advantage.
For those that don’t know what MBTI is, the test determines how you perceive and interact with the world around you. the MBTI is characterized by 4 categories, with 2 different personality traits for each category. You can be extraverted/introverted, sensing/intuitive, feeling/thinking, judging/perceiving. There are, according to MBTI, 16 different personalities, each with varying degrees…and therefore everyone is a bit different one way or the other. To give you an example what I mean by varying degrees, think about it this way. I can be an introvert, but someone else might be even MORE introverted than I am. This goes for each individual category as well. (there are no specific names for each category)
The MBTI gets more complicated, there are specific combinations which mean something, such as the fact that if you’re F and P together, it means you’re introverted feeling etc. But we won’t get into these details.
For now, if you’re interested in this popular phenomena, then try out the test in the below link. I personally prefer it if you went to find out each different type, and identified yourself there since this free test isn’t actually that good. But yeah, if you don’t have the time to read through 16 different profiles, then this test is your best bet.
http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp
Keep the letters that you got, because this part gets interesting.
What I want to focus on, is the second letter…the sensor and intuitive part. Let’s see what the experts say..
The “SN” preference refers to how we gather information. We all need data on which to base our decisions. We gather data through our five senses. Jung contended that there are two distinct ways of perceiving the data that we gather. The “Sensing” preference absorbs data in a literal, concrete fashion. The “Intuitive” preference generates abstract possibilities from information that is gathered. We all use both Sensing and Intuition in our lives, but to different degrees of effectiveness and with different levels of comfort.
We are Sensing when we:
- Taste food
- Notice a stoplight has changed
- Memorize a speech
- Follow steps in a plan
We are Intuitive when we:
- Come up with a new way of doing things
- Think about future implications for a current action
- Perceive underlying meaning in what people say or do
- See the big picture
So what do you understand it to be? To my mind, the sensor is the one we see in school, who tries everything to keep details tidy and studies word by word. The Intuitives are the ones who understand things, who can come up and adapt to situations, who can reasonably tell the future.
Out of almost everyone I asked to do the MBTI test, almost 90% have responded saying that they are intuitive.
According to Carl Jung, the number of intuition-orientated people is roughly 30% of the population.
So what’s going on here? Was Carl wrong?
One way to explain this is to say that most of my friends are intuitive. It may be a valid point, since I tend to get along better with people who have intuitive characteristics. However, I personally don’t think that ALL of my friends are intuitive, I believe a number of them are sensing-orientated, simply a lot of them don’t like creating new things, they like following the old. It’s perfectly fine to follow the old, and in some ways, it may be better than trying to create something new.
Another way to explain this phenomena may be to say that the world has changed since Carl Jung’s time, and the world is at present 90% intuition orientated. Yet, I don’t believe this is the reason either. A lot of us still enjoy following rules, abiding to simple orders, need to be given direction. I am no exception.
So what’s going on here if I already rejected two perfectly valid propositions?
The reason can only be explained by our culture.
Why do I suspect the validity of this argument? It comes down to our culture. Everyone likes feeling special, especially if they are specially gifted in some sort of way. In fact, I would deem it to be a culture of pride, whereby the pride comes from being able to do something competently within a short amount of time. Many of the times, I hear the excuse being made: “Oh I got this high grade in a very short amount of studying time” as if to imply the intelligence of the speaker. Nobody ever admits how long it takes them to actually revise for a certain subject. Almost everybody tries to say or imply some way or the other that they have studied minimally and have not received enough time to prepare. Why? In case they do poorly for all their prep time, and some other guy comes along with a high grade saying they didn’t study at all. It gets annoying when people do that.
So by observing our culture of pride, I am to deduce that the reason why many people jump towards the ‘intuitive’ bandwagon is for the same reason. First, intuitives sound smarter, and seemingly do things with ease whilst sensors have to work hard without much result. Second, intuitives are rarer, which goes on to make people feel special in terms of their abilities. Everyone likes to differentiate themselves some way or the other, right? So why not choose the rarer type?
A lot of people misunderstand MBTI….it does not impose a personality onto you. It’s simply generalised estimates as to how you behave and perceive. Everything is a PREFERENCE. Having an N in your four letters does not mean you ‘have’ intuition. It means that you prefer it. Everybody has intuition, it’s all about how much you prefer to use it compared to others.
I’ve travelled quite in depth into the MBTI system. I’ve been to forums of different MBTI types. I find that a lot of quieter Asian achievers typically get the ‘INTJ’. This is because asians typically prefer I in the first place, prefer N for reasons we discussed, and their TJ is achieved through their desire to achieve, compete, and excel. I don’t believe that there are THAT many INTJs, I have only come across a fair few which I think truly represent the type. I’m not trying to say that you are not ‘worthy’, because MBTI is not about worthiness. It’s about who you are, and your true identity.
Remember, next time don’t say that you ARE an INTJ, or you ARE an ENFP. Say that you have THE PREFERENCES of Introverted Intuitive, Thinking and Judging. You are not labelled by these four letters, and they don’t say who you are.
By all means, I don’t mean to say that EVERYBODY who believes they are intuitive DON’T actually prefer their intuitive function, but naturally there should be skepticism before we easily accept these preferences about who we are.
Hope this helps.
