In Search of Excellence

#10

Mar. 13, 2008

Mr. Toastmaster, fellow toastmasters, and honored guests:

How many of us here want to be excellent at something? I think most people do, and we all can.

I claim that achieving excellence is not so much as having the talent for it or the discipline of working hard to acquire the skills, but rather a matter of doing the right things with appropriate intensity and persistence.

Over the years I have struggled and experimented trying to find ways to help me to get good at something. I have boiled down my findings to a 3-step recipe to help me, and I’d like to share the recipe with you.

Step 1: Choose the Right Thing

How do you find the things you can be excellent at? The answer is simple: you rephrase the question to “what do I love to do?” I mean LOVE, not LIKE.

•  A famous physicist, Richard Feynman, said, “Physics is like sex. It may sometimes create some useful products, but that’s not why we do it.” He did physics, not because he wanted glory, not because he wanted to create some useful things, he did it because he loved it. He won a Nobel Prize doing what he loved.
  
•  Warren Buffet, when asked how he got so rich, answered: I love investment work, I got good at it, and it just so happened that I made a lot of money. I did not plan to get rich. I just do what I love to do.
  
•  Tom Clancy quit his job, as an insurance salesman, to pursue full time what he loved that is writing high tech. spy novels. We all know how successful he has become.
  

Three hugely successful people, in three entirely different fields, share one secrete: they all chose to do what they loved. Although they do their things repeatedly they did not get burned out. We the regular people are the same. We will not be burned out when we do what we love to do. We don’t need discipline to do what needs done; we will be eagerly waiting to get up from bed and plunge into it, again and again, day in and day out, and still ask for more, because we love doing it.

Step 2: Make it Simple and Keep it Intense

We may love to become excellent at many things. But, none of us have unlimited resources or energy. It is important to make it simple--choose one target at a time!

Once you identified your target, you got to put enough intensity to it.

A book called The Arts of War was written some 3000 years ago in China and is still quite popular in today’s business world. The book describes how to win a battle. It says:

Swift as wind, resourceful as forests, invade like fire, unmovable as mountains.

The real world is a lot like a battle field. When you encounter an issue, you want to swiftly take the necessary actions; you want to find as much help from as many sources as possible; you want to apply as much heat to the issue as you possibly can; you cannot be deterred by obstacles.

You see the intense single-minded pursuit demonstrated in Olympic athletes and numerous successful business people--none of them do things half heartedly.

Some golfer said, “Golf is like a love affair—if you don’t take it seriously, you won’t have fun." If you don't take your pursuit seriously, you are not going to have fun; when you don't have fun, you'll burn out; when you burn out, you will not achieve your goal.

The same golfer also said, " If you take it too seriously, it’ll break your heart.” Can you take it too seriously and end up broken hearted? Yes, it could happen. But I have a remedy for that—that is…

Step 3: Give Yourself a Pat on the Back

The more challenging the goal is, the more joy you’ll get when the goal is achieved; on the other hand, it is also more likely that you may stumble. However, if you choose to do what you love to do and do it persistently with enough intensity, I see no way that you won’t improve. The progress may not be as fast as you’d like, but it’s there. It is important that you recognize the progress you have made and give yourself a pat on the back once in a while. Then, you come back for more.

In Conclusion:

I guarantee that you can become excellent at anything, if you would

• Choose what you love as the goal.
• Focus on one goal at a time and do it with intensity.
• Give yourself a proper pat on the back when appropriate.

But, that’s not all. You can become excellent not only at anything, but also at everything you choose. The one rule to bind them and rule them all is to make the pursuit of excellence a habit.

The great Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but rather a habit.”

After you became excellent in one thing; you pick another target and do it again, and again, until it becomes a habit. Then you can be excellent not only at anything, but also at everything you do.

Mr. Toastmaster.

TV Watching is Good

Feb. 14, 2008

Madam Toastmaster, fellow toastmasters, and honored guests:

How many of you have heard that TV watching is addictive, that it makes you fat, that it has too much violence for your own good? Therefore, watching TV is bad, Right? Well, I want to convince you to the contrary. I think TV watching is good. Very good.

Does the violence and ugliness on TV angers and depresses you. Does it make you want to shut it down once and for all? Well, let me tell you a story Dalai Lama likes to tell:

A shepherd went deeply into a mountain in Tibet, saw a meditating monk, and asked what he was doing. The monk said the world outside was too violent and full of ugliness. He wanted to do meditation in a quite place, to expel all evil thoughts and anger to achieve enlightenment. The shepherd gave him also sorts of insult and called him a useless parasite. “Everyone works for a living, you alone is here doing nothing but waiting to be fed!” The monk got angry and threw stones at the shepherd.

Dalai Lama’s message was: If you are detached from the real world, all enlightenment is useless. Yes, TV brings you the ugliness of the world. But, burying your head in the sand is no solution.

TV-watching makes you fat? I bet if you eat the same junk food while reading the Good Book you’ll get equally fat. TV watching is addictive? Yes, it makes you want to watch and watch that you don’t do what you are supposed to do and neglect your social life. I’ve done that, reading books to the point people call me a nerd. And I was reading good books.

There are good things on TV. Just let me share with you 2 good ones I experienced.

First of all, does anyone here against educating our children or the general public about science? Albert Einstein’s view of science is that science is not about memorizing scientific facts; it is about the process of defining the problem clearly and doing rigorous experiments to find the answers.

I watched a program called the Myth Busters, in which people are giggling and chucking and having fun trying to find out whether some scenes in movies are true or just myths. For example,

• Can you tie a few balloons to a little girl’s hand to lift her up in the air? You’d need more than 5000 balloons.
  
• Can you put salsa on the iron bars of a prison cell and connect a wire to the light bulb socket to erode the iron bars so that the prisoners can break them and escape? Yes, you can. And surprisingly DC works better than AC.
  

I can’t help thinking that letting kids watching giggling adults finding things out this way turn them on to science more than telling them how important science is. I can’t help thinking this one-hour episode defines the scientific process to me better than what Einstein could say.

Shortly after the last presidential election, I watched, on TV, the Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Conner answering questions from school children about her view in deciding whether to continue the recounting of votes. She answered that her job, as a Supreme Court justice, was not to judge what was good for the nation but to judge what should be done according to the Constitution.

I remember my wife asked me why I had tears in my eyes. Let me tell you why. I saw a Supreme Court justice speaking to children sitting on the floor as she would speak to the congress. I saw how the Supreme Court is tied to the Constitution. I saw the opportunities the American school children were given. You tell me; if not on TV, where else could I experience this?

These are just 2 random examples. There are many more on TV waiting for you to watch. Free of charge.

Everything has its good and bad side. Love is good; love without discretion can be dangerous. Explosives can be bad, but we cannot build a tunnel without it. Same with TV watching; whether it’s good or bad, it’s entirely up to you. Don’t blame it on TV. Take advantage of it.

Madam Toastmaster.

A Little Story of an Immigrant

June 7, 2007

A few years ago I sat in the lobby of a dental office waiting for my appointment. There were magazines on the table. I picked up a Reader’s Digest and dived into the Lives in These United States. There was this story about a Greek immigrant who owned a Greek restaurant in New York City. His son tried to convince him to hire an accountant to improve his bookkeeping. The dad wouldn’t budge. Frustrated, the son said, “How else will you know how much money you have made?”

The dad answered:
It’s really not that hard to figure out. 40 years ago I came to this country when I was 17 years old. Other than what I was wearing, I had 2 pair of pants and 3 pots. Today, you are an accountant, your sister is a doctor, your brother is a lawyer, and I own this restaurant. Take all these, minus two pairs of pants and 3 pots, that’s how much I have made.

Madam Toastmaster, most welcomed guests, and fellow toastmasters:

Today I’d like to talk about a story about another immigrant, Yours Truly.
I was born and raised in Taiwan. After graduating from college, I got married, finished my mandatory 2-year military service, and a master degree in Biology. It occurred to me that I wanted to go to American to further my education.

It was 27 years ago. Leaving my wife and my 1-year old daughter at home, I packed up and headed for America. What I had on me was a military backpack and $3,000 in traveler’s checks. The $3,000 came from my dad who worked as a high school teacher. It was not easy to save that much money on his income then. My wife sewed the traveler’s checks inside my underwear. I felt very secure, but let me tell you, physically it was not very comfortable sitting in the plane for 30 hours with those crisp checks reminding you of their existence--especially when you have to go to the bathroom.

When I checked in to the dorm, a Taiwanese upper classman gathered us new comers from Taiwan together and said he would show us country bums how big America was. He took us from Chicago to Cleveland. It was miles upon miles of cornfield. By the roadside, we saw a huge basket full of corns and a small cookie jar with a few dollars inside. A hand written sign said, “10 corns for 1 dollar”. We did not see anybody around anywhere. It was amazing that nobody had taken the whole basket AND the cookie jar as well. Anyway, I put a dollar in the jar and we started to pick our 10 corns, someone saw us and walked over. I immediately started to practice in my mind how to explain that we had already put in the one dollar and that we were not stealing. It was a beautiful blond girl, perhaps in her early 20’s. She did not question us about stealing; she was more interested in finding out where we came from, which school we went to, what we were studying. All the time, she was calling us honey, sweet heart, and kept on giving us one ear after another of corns.

Back then, we hadn’t seen many blond girls other than movie stars in Hollywood movies. Now this Grace Kelly look alike, who must be a few years younger than us, was calling us honeys and sweet hearts and the only thing in my mind was how to explain politely that we didn’t have enough money for all those corns. It was a good thing she said not to worry about the money. That’s my first impression of America.

Those corns were the sweetest corns I had ever had. A few days later, I went to a Kentucky Fried Chicken wanting to order a cup of corn soup. Nobody understood me. I had to spell out C-O-R-N S-O-U-P and then they told me they didn’t sell corn soup in KFC. It confused me. I just saw mountains of corns a few days ago; how come no corn soup here. Back home in Taiwan, I had never seen any cornfield, and we had corn soup in McDonald.

And there are memories not so funny but even more heart-warming. In order to be easier to find a job, I changed my major from biology to Biomedical Engineering and moved to another school in Cleveland. My wife brought our 18-month old daughter to stay with me. I had to make up for many engineering courses in undergraduate school. I struggled with physics, computer science, and electronics. In desperation, I told the foreign student advisor about my difficulty. She said I needed a tutor. I told her I didn’t have the money. She picked up the phone and called the professors. Half an hour later, tutors were provided to me in the evenings; free of charge. That’s how I got my Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering.

After getting my degree, I needed a job. I sent out hundreds of resumes, but did not get anywhere because they all required permanent residency. Then someone told me I might have better luck in the Silicon Valley. So I sent my wife and daughter home to Taiwan and bought a one-way ticket to San Francisco, found a motel in Mountain View, and started my job search again. A whole month went by without any success. My wife said for better for worse the family should stick together. That was a very good advice. Because the day before they were due to arrive, I got 3 job offers.

I chose to work on being a research engineer in a company making diagnostic ultrasound systems. That’s 1983. From then, I changed jobs 3 times, worked my way through technical positions and became a software group manager at Siemens Medical Solutions in Issaquah. In Sep. 2005, the Project Management Institute certified me for Project Management Professional (PMP). In Oct. same year, in a massive restructuring, Siemens laid off 9 software group managers, the software director, all the V.P’s. along with the CEO. I was lucky to be spared, because of my PMP credential. I am now a Project Manager at Siemens.

27 years ago I landed in this country, a stranger in a strange land—strange; they don’t have corn soup in KFC. I was not able to speak coherent English to order a cup of corn soup. Today I am giving a speech in English in front of a group of toastmasters. Yes, I am shaking. But, at least I can write home telling my dad I am brave enough to attempt it. The only worry I have is not to shake too noticeably.

My wife used to work for H&R Block preparing tax returns for people. She often argued with our friends when they complained about paying too much tax. You cannot find a better person than my wife arguing in favor of the tax law. Today, she works at King County Library because she enjoys talking with people, finding out what books people are reading and benefit from that.

27 years ago, I was a poor skinny student spending money my parents and my wife saved with much sweating. Today, I have (this beer belly and) a house in Sammamish. My 1-year old daughter is now married and working as a dentist in Seattle. The whole family is going to attend my son’s commencement tomorrow at UW. We often joked that Andy is the only one in the family eligible to be elected president of the United States. My wife and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary last year.

All these, minus the military backpack and the $3,000, were due to the opportunities given to me by the American society. I deeply appreciate that America adopted my family and me as its citizen and into its society. I got a bargain in this immigration deal; I hope I can hold up my end of the deal so that the American society won’t regret adopting us.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is my little tale of an immigrant’s experience in America.

Madam Toastmaster.

Emphatic Listening

Jan. 24, 2008

Mr. Toastmaster, fellow toastmasters, and honored guests:

I believe everyone in this room can hear. But, is there anyone here willing to admit that he or she can use a reminder on how to listen effectively? I admit I need a reminder.

The toastmasters’ manual teaches us to not only listen carefully with an open mind but also to observe the body languages. In a famous book called “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, Mr. Stephen Covey describes a habit called “Seek first to understand, then to be understood” as one of the 7 habits. To achieve this, he advised emphatic listening—put yourself in the speaker’s shoes.

Since people say a picture is worth a thousand words, I wonder if there’s a picture I can use to remind myself of all the ingredients of emphatic listening.

I remember a story I heard when I was a kid. There was a contest in which the contestants were asked to draw a picture of quietness, of serenity. The winner drew a baby bird with her eyes closed, snoozing on a rock under a roaring waterfall.

How can I draw a picture to sum up the ingredients of emphatic listening?
Can this picture serve the purpose? <Gesture: Put a hand behind an ear and lean forward.>
Does it project an image of applying my knowledge and experience with an open mind?
I am artistically challenged. I cannot draw a picture worth anything, but I do know how to draw symbols—Chinese word symbols. Let me draw it and see if it makes sense.

• This is an ear. 耳

• This is the number 1. 一

• 士; This symbol represents a person; not just a casual person, but a learned person, who sets high goals for himself, who feels the responsibility to the society, who takes life as a never ending endeavor of learning. The concept of such a person is universal in all Confucian cultures. By Confucian cultures, I include Taiwanese, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean cultures. Such a person is well respected, is what every parent wants his or her children to be or strive to become. This is a very significant person, and yet he humbly hides underneath a large ear.

Doesn’t it conjure up an image of one person applying his knowledge and experience while keeping his ego and his pre-mature judgments at bay, and listening with all ears?

• This is the number 10. 十

• This is the symbol for eye rotated 90 degrees. It says two eyes plus your mind’s eye. 目

• This is the number 1 again. It means one, completely and undivided.

• This is the word for heart or mind. 心

聽; Put together, it means a learned person who puts his undivided attention to listen with his ears, to watch with his eyes, and to observe with his mind’s eye while keeping his ego and prejudice in check.

This is how the word “listen” is written in Chinese and in Japanese.
Ladies and gentlemen, do you think this picture is a pretty good summary of the ingredients of emphatic listening?

Mr. Toastmaster.
===============================
聽 Listen
聞 Smell, Hear; <== 耳 Ear; 門 Door
e.g. 聞笛,
e.g. 春眠不覺曉，處處聞啼鳥

A Brief Introduction of Taiwan

Nov. 11, 2007

Mr. Toastmaster, fellow toastmasters, and honored guests:

I sometimes met people who don’t know the country called Taiwan or are confused by the Republic of China versus the People’s Republic of China. Since I came from Taiwan, I have a strong desire to introduce Taiwan, i.e. the Republic of China, to as many people as I can.

Taiwan is an island about 2 hour’s fly-time from Japan. A direct flight from Seattle to Taiwan takes about 13 hours. A 125-mile Taiwan Strait separates Taiwan from China. It is a little larger than Belgium and a little smaller than the Netherlands. Its population is approximately twice that of the Netherlands.

In the late 15th and early 16th century Portuguese da Gama discovered the route to the Orient. When the Portuguese first saw Taiwan, their 1st reaction was “Formosa!” meaning “Beautiful”. Indeed it’s a beautiful island—55% of the island is forest.

Shortly after the Portuguese came the Dutch. They occupied Taiwan for 37 yeas and recruited Chinese labors to develop the land. My ancestors came to Taiwan at the end of the Dutch occupation; that’s about the time Galileo was put in jail because he said something the Church didn’t like. For the next 2 hundred years or so, Chinese immigrants continued to come. They came for a piece of land they could own. Like the early European immigrants in the New World, they only had their bare hands and a strong desire to build a better life for their children. These people and their descendants are called the “Native Taiwanese”; they constitute about 86% of today’s Taiwanese population.

In 1885, the year when the Washington Monument was dedicated in Washington D.C., the Chinese Empire took in Taiwan as a province.

Ten years later, in 1895, the year Babe Ruth was born, Chinese Empire lost a war to Japan and ceded Taiwan to Japan. Taiwanese would be Japanese Emperor’s subjects for 50 years until the end of WWII.

In 1912, the Chinese Empire was crushed by revolution and replaced by the first republic in Asia. This republic is called the Republic of China (ROC), which is the official name of Taiwan. This was the year New Mexico and Arizona became the 47th and the 48th states of the Union.

When the WWII ended in 1945, Japan surrendered Taiwan to the ROC. Four years later, in 1949, the communists won the civil war, founded the People’s Republic of China (PROC) and chased the ROC to Taiwan. From then on, it’s PROC rules mainland China and ROC rules Taiwan. 1949 is also the year Germany became East and West Germanys.

For the next 30 years, with the realization they had no-where-to-go but to bite the bullet and work hard, Taiwan created the famous “economic miracle”. Unfortunately, democracy and human rights were sacrificed along the way.

Then in 1979, the year Iranian militants seized U.S. embassy in Tehran and held hostages, President Carter cut diplomatic relationship with Taiwan. It was devastating to Taiwan but it did not deter Taiwanese people--it made them work harder and more determined to make progress in democracy.

In 1990 a Native Taiwanese was elected the president. This is the very first time in history that the Taiwanese leader is a Native Taiwanese, instead of Dutch, Japanese, or a Chinese who came after 1949. From 1990, Taiwan has made tremendous progress in improving human rights and democracy--The martial law that had been imposed for 41 years was lifted, all political prisoners were freed, public media is opened to private sector, and freedom of speech has been taken for granted. According to a report on “freedom around the world” compiled by U.S.-based organization Freedom House, Taiwan is now on a par with Japan as the freest country in Asia.

Today, about 85% of the world’s PC mother boards are made in Taiwan. It is America’s 7th, EU’s 10th’s, and Washington State’s 5th largest trading partner. In year 2006, Taiwan’s Per Capita GDP was a little more than Spain’s, and was about 68% of America’s.

Taiwan will always be the most beautiful island in my heart. I sincerely hope that you will visit Taiwan some day and see it for yourself. I assure you that you’ll find it a very friendly place.

Mr. Toastmaster.
====================================
References:
1971: Supreme Court rules unanimously that busing of students may be ordered to achieve racial desegregation.
Twenty-sixth Amendment to U.S. Constitution lowers voting age to 18.
UN seats Communist China and expels Nationalist China (Oct. 25).

1979: Shah leaves Iran after year of turmoil (Jan. 16); revolutionary forces under Muslim leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, take over (Feb. 1 et seq.).
Nuclear power plant accident at Three Mile Island, Pa., releases radiation (March 28).
Conservatives win British election; Margaret Thatcher new prime minister (May 3).
Iranian militants seize U.S. embassy in Tehran and hold hostages (Nov. 4).
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan stirs world protests (Dec. 27).
The Taiwan Relations Act is an act of the United States Congress passed in 1979 after the establishment of relations with the People's Republic of China and the breaking of relations between the United States and the Republic of China on Taiwan by President Jimmy Carter.

My View of Presenting Statistics

Sep. 6, 2007

Madam Toastmaster, fellow toastmasters, and honored guests:

The other day, I was reading ahead on the Toastmasters’ Competent Communication Manual. I was reading Project #7: Research Your Topic. I got charged up when I was on page 38. I thought this little nerd just got himself an opportunity to challenge the manual. Let me read it to you first, and then I’ll tell you why I take issues. This is what it says:

If your support material is complex or involves statistics, find the human interest side and include that information in your speech. For example, if your research shows that 20 percent of adults read at a 5th-grade level or lower, make this statistic more meaningful to your audience by saying, “One of five adults in this room reads at or below the 5th-grade level.”

I appreciate the advice: Find the human interest side and present it in a less nerdy way. After all, if the audience cannot understand you or fall asleep, then what’s the point of talking at all? However, as soon as the example was given, the speaker lost all credibility with me.
Why? Because it is simply wrong. Allow me to explain my view point:

Let’s assume this study is about the whole country. For a study to conclude that 20% of the adults read at or below 5th-grade level, it must have surveyed thousands of adults across the country; perhaps even more. The survey must include many different cities, suburban, and rural areas. It must include adults in all walks of life—farmers, accountants, professors, waitresses, etc.
<If you would pick up the hand-out.>

The triangles represent adults who read at or below 5th grade level; the small circles represent adults who read at a higher level. The big circle represents all the adults surveyed: out of the 100 adults surveyed there are 20 people who read at or below 5th grade level and 80 adults who read at a higher level. If the surveys were conducted correctly, it is appropriate to claim that 20% of the adults in the country read at or below 5th grade level. However, if you look at the smaller areas marked as A, B, C, or D this claim falls apart. Say, each of these areas represents a roomful of adults such as this room. As you can see, not all rooms are created equal—Room A has 10% triangles; room B has 50%; Room C has 0%. I am inclined to say, in this room is more like C than A or B.

What went wrong? Two things went wrong:

First: The speaker did a research on a large population and applied it to a much smaller population. This is not hard to demonstrate that it is inappropriate:
You flip a coin 1,000 times and get the conclusion that 50% of the time it will land on the tail; 50%, on the head. You then tell the audience to flip a coin 4 times and expect 2 heads and 2 tails. It won’t happen that way.

Second: The speaker did a research on a population and applied it to a population with different characteristics. The population surveyed includes many walks of life and different education levels. It cannot be true applying to a room of toastmasters and guests who, perhaps, are interested in becoming toastmasters themselves.

Why am I bent out of shape?

It is because I believe a responsible speaker should not put the sizzle ahead of the beef. A responsible speaker must always speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Only after the truth is conveyed correctly, clearly and succinctly can he/she worry about presenting it interestingly. I think compromising the correctness in favor of making a speech more understandable is, at best, putting the cart before the horse. At worst, it misleads the audience and does the audience a disservice. I believe this view is not nerdy. It is a must. My fellow toastmasters and honored guests, do you agree?

Madam Toastmaster.

A Perfect Summer Day

Oct. 11, 2007

Mr. Toastmaster, fellow toastmasters, and Honored Guests:

I had a perfect summer day a few weeks ago. It was a Friday, but I had decided to take the day off the day before. I woke up at 5, snuck out of the bedroom, put on my shoes, and stepped into the refreshing morning air.

The Sun was trying to get up early as well. It painted a beautiful color on the horizon. I wouldn’t call it red; it’s not purple or pink, either. I wondered “Hmmm. How do you call that color?” The duck pond I knew was draped by a white denseness. I wondered “Gee, is it cloud or fog? What’s the definition of cloud versus fog? Is mist something in between?”

An hour later, I came home. I smelled bacon. My wife said cheerfully, “how was your morning walk!” Oh, what a beautiful morning. And it’s gong to be a beautiful day!

I sat down to enjoy my bacon. Suddenly, the phone rang.

“Guess what, Dad!”
“What”.
“You are going to be a grandpa in March!”

Oh, what a beautiful day indeed. I decided to start practicing reading story books, but I could not find any children’s book. Instead, I found a little book covered by 20 years worth of dust. It was the Mid-Summer Night’s Dream. Dusting it off, I brought it with me and sat under a tree in my back yard.

The little girl next door was yelling “Mommy, mommy, he pushed me.” A little boy was shouting “You pushed me first”. The mom was saying “OK. OK. Listen! The ice cream man is coming.” The sun was shining, cool breeze was blowing, and birds were singing. I fell into a slumber.

I heard a little girl’s voice.

“Grandpa, grandpa. I want ice cream. I want ice cream.”
“What did Mommy say?”
“Mommy is not here.”
“Aha, let’s have as much ice cream as we want.”

Then my neighbor’s lawn mower woke me up. I tried to get back to the book. The book did not make sense:

It talked about a wedding. The Duke of Athens was marrying the Queen of the Amazons. A festival was being held in a forest. Fine, but why did these mid-summer night’s activities happen in May, instead of August?
Which language would the newly-weds use to talk with each other?
Where did they meet and fell in love anyway?
Did this Shakespeare guy know what he was talking about?

It’s a good thing I don’t need to write a book report on it. I did not finish the book 20 years ago; I certainly don’t need to finish it this time. This is not a good story for the kid any way. I am going to be a grandpa, if I don’t like the book I don’t have to read it.

I would mow the lawn instead. I pulled the string of the mower; it did not start. I pulled it again; still no luck. “Oh well. The grass will still be here tomorrow. There really is no urgency to mow it today.” I sat down again and watched the clouds sailing over my chimney.

I remembered the great Confucius caught one of his star disciples dozing off in a hot summer day. He was mad: “Dozing off in bright day light? What an incorrigible student you are!” I say “Eat your heart out, Mr. Confucius. I’ll be a grandpa soon. I will snooze off whenever I want.” This was too beautiful a day to be wasted doing serious work.

On this Friday in August, I accomplished nothing.
The book was not interesting;
The lawn mower was not starting.
I watched white clouds sailing across the blue sky;
I felt cool breeze breathing through golden light;
I heard children playing and birds singing.
This day shall go down in history as the perfect summer day in my book.

Mr. Toastmaster.
=============================================

A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken. – James Dent

登山 （唐；李涉）
終日昏昏醉夢間， 忽聞春盡強登山。
因過竹院逢僧話，又得浮生半日閒。

Happiness

Aug. 9, 2007

Mr. Toastmaster, fellow Toastmasters, and most welcomed gueste(s):

What is happiness? Will you be happy if you are young, good looking, and wealthy? On top of that, your wealth came not from inheritance but from your own talent and hard work. Won’t you be happy?

Why do so many young movie stars and rock stars have to undergo drug rehabilitation? Why aren’t they happy? What makes people happy?

I have lived for more than half a century. I don’t need to do any research to know that it takes
different things to make different kinds of people happy. In my opinion there are 3 kinds of
people: the Zen monks, the super achievers, and the reasonable people.

The Zen monks are those who think the four stages of life are being born, getting old, getting
sick, and dieing. To them, the way to happiness is to strive for emptiness, for nothingness, and
to have no desire. The idea is that if you don’t have any desire, you will never be disappointed
and therefore never be unhappy. Their logic is flawed, for being not unhappy does not equate to
being happy. I think happiness and sadness, fulfillment and disappointment come hand in hand just as sweetness and bitterness come hand in hand. Should you never taste bitterness, you would not know what sweetness tastes like. If you have never experienced disappointment or sadness you won’t know you are happy even if it falls in your lap.

When the Pulitzer Prize winner Irving Stone wrote about Michelangelo, he entitled it “The Agony and The Ecstasy”. Just by looking at the title, I known he understood that without the agony there will be no ecstasy.

The super achievers believe “The sense of joy comes from adrenaline and the vigor of purpose.”
The more vigorous the purpose, the harder the adrenaline pumps. This, I can appreciate. I would add: the higher the risk, the more satisfying when the goal is achieved—winning against my wife in a round of golf is fun, beating the club champion is joy, beating Tiger Woods is ecstasy of the highest order.

George Bernard Shaw said “Reasonable people adapt to the world. Unreasonable people want the world to adapt to them. Therefore, all great things are achieved by unreasonable people.” By definition, the super achievers are what Mr. Shaw referred to as the “unreasonable people”. The super achievers are bound to be unhappy most of the time, unless they learn to lighten up a little.

The reasonable people believe being happy is as natural as breath in and breath out. They cannot understand all the hoopla about defining what happiness is. They are people like the cute little girls in “The Sound of Music”. The girls said, or even better, sang:

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens,
Brown paper packages tied up with strings,
These are a few of my favorite things.
(so that) When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I’m feeling sad,
I simply remember my favorite things and then I don’t feel so bad.

A reasonable man that I am, I have a few favorite things of my own:

A round of golf with my wife and friends,
A few birdies here and there,
Children come home to lunch once in a while,
In a hot tub with a good book and a cup of tea in my hand,
These are a few of my favorite things.
So that when the work bites, when Wall Street stings, when the sky falls,
I simply enjoy my favorite little things and I am a happy man.

Chinese folks like to say, “Eight or nine out of ten events in life are disappointing and
unsatisfying.” In response, my wife created a photo-story from our family pictures and gave it
the title “Remembering the one or two things in Life.” I am a reasonable man; I listen to my wife: remember the one or two things, instead of to the monks; that’s why our family is a happy one.

It’s perfectly fine and proper and even admirable to set ambitious goals and do your best to
achieve them, as long as you do not insist on beating yourself up when you fail. Some people may need to define happiness before they can design a plan to attain happiness. A reasonably person does not have this hang-up. A reasonable person needs only to listen to my wife
and to remember cute little girls singing. With more than half a century’s hands-on experience, I give you this advice: be reasonable.

Mr. Toastmaster.

Tea and a Glimpse of Chinese Culture

June 28, 2007

Last Friday, I went to a Starbucks with my wife. The customer in front of us wanted a cup of tea; she was very particular in wanting “cha tea”, not “tea tea”. Do you know what’s the difference between “cha” and “tea”?

Madam Toastmaster, my fellow toastmasters, and most welcomed guests:

I grew up in a Tea Culture. I think I know the difference. There are many dialects in China. In a southern providence where the tea originated, it is called “Tee”. In Mandarin, it is called “Cha”. When it’s written down, “Cha” and “Tea” are identical. 茶. The difference between “cha” and “tea” is like the difference between PO-TEI-TO and PO-TA-TO.

To make a cup of coffee, you put in a spoon of coffee and hit the “Brew” button. To make 2 cups of coffee, you put in 2 spoonfuls. You expect the same result every time. That’s efficient, predictable, and repeatable. It makes every engineer and every American proud.

Not so with tea. If you ask a Chinese friend how much tea you should put in and how long you should wait before serving it, you will get answers such as: Well, it depends. What’s the weather like? What’s your mood today? What kind of friends are you serving today? Fortunately, you can always depend on a straight talking engineer to give you some practical answer: Experiment with it a few times. If you want it stronger, put in more tea or let it stay in the pot for a little longer.

The only thing you need to remember is that you should never, ever use a stopwatch to time it as if you were boiling an egg, because it’s just not the Chinese way. What IS the Chinese way, then. You would ask.

It is about enjoying whatever is served. Try to distinguish what’s different this time from the last time you had it. Try to compare it with life—the bitterness and the sweetness of life and what’s in between, what was your mood the last time you had tea, were your friends in good spirit?

It is about anticipating what your next serving of tea will be like. Will you be drinking alone, or with your spouse in your quiet backyard, or having a hearty party with a few friends whom you haven’t seen for a long time? I shall never expect that two servings of tea to be the same nor would I want it that way.

I’ve heard that there are scientific papers saying tea contains anti oxidants, which are very good for you and that they may even prevent some cancers. I think this completely misses the point. Tea drinking is not about physical well-being; it is about a cozy tete-a-tete with a friend in a cold night. As any cultured Chinese person will tell you: 有詩為證，there’s a poem to prove it. (Here’s a poem written some 700 or so years ago.)

It’s a cold night; a guest comes to visit.
Instead of wine, I bring out my tea pot.
In the flickering amber, the water starts to boil.
Outside the window, it’s the same moon I see everyday.
But just because there’s a plum flower,
the moon is entirely different today.

The plum flower means the friend. You don’t want to spell out “friend” or describe the flavor of the tea explicitly. That would be blatant.

Chinese culture is not about producing a product in a repeatable way. It is about enjoying things in a subtle way that you cannot express precisely, but you will feel it long after the event has come to pass.

So is tea-drinking. You feel the subtle after-taste that is neither sweet nor bitter. It is a little of both and yet a completely different concept. The Chinese language calls it 餘韻 “Yu-Yun”.
To experience it …

<Strike the bell. wait a few second. Strike it again.>

餘韻。 Literally the word means reverberation, resonance—the sound a bell makes after being struck. Figuratively it implies that something experienced stimulates the imagination and causes a positive memory to linger in the mind. Hard to tell when it ends. Everyone experiences it a little differently.
餘韻， that’s the essence of Chinese calligraphy, of Chinese brush painting, and perhaps many other Chinese art forms as well. Ladies and Gentlemen, That’s a glimpse of Chinese culture in a simple cup of tea.
Mr./Madam Toastmaster.
================================
寒夜 （杜來；？﹣﹣１２２５）

寒夜客來茶當酒，竹爐湯沸火初紅。
尋常一樣窗前月，才有梅花便不同。

Solving the Greatest Scientific Problem of the 18th Century

July 12, 2007

Every day in London, England by the Thames River at 12:55 p.m, a red ball climbs halfway up a mast, hovers there for 3 minutes, then ascends all the way to the top and waits another 2
minutes. At precisely one o’clock, the ball drops. The act has been in practice since 1833.

Madam Toastmaster, my fellow toastmasters, and most welcomed guests:

There is a story behind this and it is very relevant to you and me and everyone else. Let me tell
you the story. Since the ancient times when humans started to sail, people have been asking: "Where am I?"

We specify our location by a grid system; that’s longitude and latitude. The Latitude lines run horizontally. Each line is called a parallel. The Equator is the 0 degree parallel. The North Pole is the 90-degree north and the South Pole is the 90-degree south parallel. When you know your latitude, you know where you are North-South-wise.

The Longitude lines run vertically. Each line is called a meridian. There are 180 lines, i.e. 180
degrees, to the east and 180 lines to the west. When you know your longitude, you know where you are East-West-wise from the 0-degree meridian.

It is easy to find the latitude, because there is always a fixed reference point: The Sun is
almost always directly above the Equator and never wanders beyond the 23.5 degrees north and south. When you know the angle between the horizon and the sun , you know your latitude. That’s the technique Christopher Columbus used in his 1492 journey. In which he followed a straight path across the Atlantic by “sailing the parallel”.

To find the Longitude position is a very different story. Because there is no reference point: as
the Earth turns, the heavenly bodies you see change as the time goes, even if you stay at the
same place.

In a foggy day in 1707, four British war ships ran aground and killed nearly 2000 sailors in one
day, because they did now know their longitude position. All major European nations offered high rewards for a way to find the longitude. The British Parliament, in its famed Longitude Act of 1714, set the highest bounty of all, naming a prize equal to several million dollars in today’s
currency for a “Practicable and Useful” means of determining longitude. Finding the longitude
became the hottest scientific problem of the century.

Many great scientists tried to find a way to determine the longitude by mapping the heavenly
bodies without much success. Palatial observatories were founded at Paris, Berlin, and London for the express purpose of determining longitude by the heavens. They were not very successful.

Another approach was needed.

We know the Earth makes a turn in 24 hours and there are 360 longitude lines. 360/24 = 15.
Therefore, for every hour difference in time we have a 15-degree difference in longitude
position. If you are one hour off with your home port, you know you are 15 longitude degrees away from your home port. If the difference is 2 hours, it’s 30 degrees away.To know the time difference, you need to know the local time and the home port time.

It’s easy to know the local time—you set your watch to 12 o’clock noon when the sun is at the
highest point. It is not easy to know the time of the home port. The ship tosses around in the
ocean and makes all pendulums useless; the salty sea air rusts the watch’s components; the
drastic temperature changes at sea, make the watch gain or lose time accordingly. To make a watch that can withstand the hostilities of the sea and keep the time of the home port became the solution to the problem.

Many people have tried but failed. An English man, named John Harrison, designed and made a few watches that overcame those problems. Therefore, at precisely 1 p.m., all sea-going captains would set their watches when the red ball dropped to the Thames River. That’s the home port time. And, if you have a John Harrison watch, you can bring the home port time with you.

In 1773, Mr. Harrison was awarded the prize. Thus, by constructing watches that overcame the hostilities of the sea, a man with very humble upbringing and no formal education solved the greatest scientific problem of his time that is determining the longitude position.

The British government decided that the 0-degree meridian shall be the line running through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. In 1884, the International Meridian Conference declared this line to be the Prime Meridian of the world. To this east of this line is the East Hemisphere; to the west, the West Hemisphere. The space of the Earth is now defined. We say Iraq is in the
middle east and Japan is in the far east. It is with Greenwich’s point of view.

Since the time defines the position (or space), so is the space defines the time. Every day
starts at Greenwich, 15 degrees to the east, you are one hour ahead of the standard time; 15
degrees to the west, you are one hour behind. Thus, the world’s time and space are both defined by Greenwich. This is not because of the British Empire’s political or military power, not because of its many world-renowned scientists, but because of one English watchmaker, who had a very humble upbringing and had never had any formal education. He solved the greatest scientific challenge of his time. He is Mr. John Harrison.

Madam Toastmaster

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Longitude--The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time; Dava Sobel; ISBN: 0-14-025879-5