US is growing. That’s a fact. It is a nation of 300 million! It’s madeup of many nations blended together. I think that the most amazing thingabout the US: the ability to mix many nations and races, and still have a safeenvironment. I came across a great article on Yahoo: what US iscomposed of, and what it will look like in the future. A good read –link below. I extracted some interesting parts from the article: The US population moves past 300 million- expected to happen in the next few days There will be 400 million Americans in 2043 2050, non-Hispanic whites…
Stanley
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Rajesh Setty, author of Beyond Code (book I recommend for programmers), has some good points about blogging. It’s not as easy as it seems. 🙂 I agree with Rajesh. 1. It’s easy to start but hard to maintain. In fact, it is VERY hard to maintain. Since most bloggers are not depending on blogging for their living, it is walking an extra mile almost everyday. Plus, how do you motivate yourself to do something that does not have a short-term return? 2. People expect consistently good content or quality readers walk away. You can write something stupid and get away…
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In an ideal environment, you have people that you admire and can learn from. They mentor you. If you have that environment, consider yourself lucky and take advantage of it. It’s one of the best ways to keep learning! If you don’t have that luxury, and you think people around you are mediocre or just bad, you can learn and keep learning from them as well! How? By observing them and learning what not to do! This was mentioned in How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci book. The author says that he learned the most from bad teachers. He…
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The latest issue of ComputerWorld, Oct 2nd issue, has a very good section on leadership, Lessons In Leadership, where five top CIOs share their lessons learned. I am going to extract some great quotes I found. These quotes explain what leadership is in a practical way. Bette Walker, CIO of Delphi Corp”I remind my direct reports that if they’re not doing a good job of communicating, coaching and preparing materials in advance, change will take even longer.” David Rice, CIO of Siemens Medical Solutions USA”Sometimes the absolutely worst decision is to not make a decision. Being a leader means having…
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I am just looking over the 2006 Semi-Annual iShares MSCI Series report I received today. I’m thinking, US economy will slow in the next year or two. Looking at the markets outside of US, I might want to invest in other assets. For instance, iShares Australia Index (EWA). 1 year return: 15.83%; 5 year return: 148%. Brazil Index (EWZ): 1 year: 70%; 5 years: 187% Canada Index (EWC): 1 year: 33%; 5 years: 103% Mexico Index (EWW): 1 year: 45%; 5 years: 194% Those are some impressive returns. I like Canada and Australia indexes: stable countries with very good results.…
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Being humble is hard. Especially in pressure situations. But I think it is one of the most important characteristics of a person. What does it mean to be humble? The article I found on lifehack.org, Humility in the Workplace, written by Rosa Say, has a great definition of what it means. (It’s so good that I re-posted the whole content.) ‘Humility’ is a widely understood word. It’s not one of those words people will pause to look up the meaning for. Generally, people love the thought of humility. It’s one of those ‘good’ values we strive for; one we admire.…
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How do you grow as a person? One of the ways is doing new things. We get new ideas (by reading, observing, listening, etc.). We then try to implement them in our own lives. I do this fairly often. For instance, I read that writing your goals everyday (or several times a week) works. I have implemented that and before I go to bed, I try to write (re-write) the list of goals, along with the completion date. This has really helped me focus on the things that I want to do. A different way of growing is attacking your…
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I read a lot. I love to read. Every chance I get, I try to read. I acquire a lot of knowledge through reading. It’s more a habit now than a hobby. I would probably not be able to live without it. 🙂 So why not learn how to speed-read? I am still a skeptical about speed reading. But lately, I think it might work. I read this article, Speed-Reading Techniques, some time ago. Basically, the guy convinced me that speed reading might actually work. For everyone. I’m not sure if it works for all material types, but it works…
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A good leader needs to have at least some charisma. What is charisma? I found a great definition of it while reading Win The Crowd. Charismatic people are: enthusiastic confident comfortable in their own skin unconcerned about what others think of them masters of their subject matter symbols of something others desire Be Unconcerned About What Others Think of YouThe key to charisma may lie in this advice. Do what seems right to you, and don’t waver when people present differing points of view. Stay true to who you are and what you believe in. People will often test you…
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I learned a lot by listening to these two books. They both contain similar information, but I think they compliment each other. What did I learn? I used to think that punishment is a good way to discipline kids. I don’t mean hitting, but punishing for the wrong things. I see now that my thinking was wrong. Punishing does not work! The result of punishment is that kids are just more careful and try not to get caught. There are better ways of making sure that the message gets across. The most important thing is (I knew this was the…