Let the Greeks decide

Greece should stop discussing and quickly call another election. Let it be known to the Greeks that if they support the SYRIZA, they must be prepared to leave the Euro because the EU and Germany have already issued statements that the terms of the bailout will not change.

If the Greeks choose to support SYRIZA again, then let them choose with their eyes open. Greece leaving the euro zone may not be a bad thing. I was never a fan of a common currency. I have spoken a bit on it in this post here.

But then again... Holding elections again is a waste of tax payers money, and Greece doesn't really have a lot of that now.

Who is responsible for the birds at Orchard Road?

Now that the minister has cleared the air on who is in-charge of all the birds nuisances since the starting of Jan 2012, why are the birds still at Orchard Road? I've recently passed by Orchard Road and the birds are making a din as usual at the junction where Heeren and H&M is. That would mean that the pavements will be full of "white stuff" again every morning.

Orchard Rd is not important enough?

Slow down

I was reading an article recently about work-life balance and I found the following paragraph meaningful. Read it, digest it, and think about it.

Slow down. Speed is the enemy of nearly everything in life that really matters. It's addictive and it undermines quality, compassion, depth, creativity, appreciation and real relationship.

There is no short cut to what you wish to achieve. Doing it faster doesn't mean you will reach your goal earlier. In fact, it may be disastrous in the long run. Don't confuse productivity with speed.

Nothing new in iOS 5.1.1

I've just recently upgraded to iOS 5.1.1 from iOS5.1. Summary of changes is as follows:

• Improves reliability of using HDR option for photos taken using the Lock Screen shortcut
• Addresses bugs that could prevent the new iPad from switching between 2G and 3G networks
• Fixes bugs that affected AirPlay video playback in some circumstances
• Improved reliability for syncing Safari bookmarks and Reading List
• Fixes an issue where 'Unable to purchase' alert could be displayed after successful purchase

Personally though, there isn't really anything new except for the security patches for Safari. For that alone, you should upgrade your iOS as the security patches allow a website to take control over your phone. Nasty stuff.

The 3G bug which I mentioned in this post here still exists. :(

TCO of nuclear energy

Recently it was reported that South Korea is building nuclear reactors to meet their energy needs. Before the governments everywhere take the short-term view on nuclear energy,  I hope they look at it from the long term perspective. According to an article at spinwatch here, it will take 73 billion pounds to clear up U.K's nuclear waste. Is the benefit of nuclear energy more than 73 billions pounds? I doubt so.

Do the governments look at the true total cost of ownership of nuclear energy? Do we need another incident like Japan's recent predicament to wake everyone up? It is best that there is a world mandate on the treatment of nuclear waste. No exportation of nuclear waste to other countries and that the countries responsible for generating it should be responsible for clearing it.

This will ensure that all governments know the true total cost of ownership of nuclear energy. There is no easy way out. If there is, be sure it will bite you back some way or another because there is no easy way out when we're talking about energy.

Problem with competition

I was reading an article on competition and I found that the author, David Brooks, hit the nail on the head on the problem with competition. Many people have confuse capitalism with competition. The problem is that in the race to be more competitive, we sometimes confuse what is hard with what is valuable. The intensity of competition becomes a proxy of value.

In the race to "improve productivity", some try to inject competition which resulted in disastrous consequence. Backstabbing people to get to the top, sabotaging other people so that they look good, etc. All this sound familiar?

The objective is to add value to the work you're doing, not putting other people down. What is valuable to the company? Sustainable innovation is not competition in that sense. It's finding your niche market, finding a market that your competitors did not see, and build it up to your advantage. That is the kind of competition that is healthy.

Does this kind of environment exist?

Higher wages come with productivity?

In an ideal world, increase of productivity will result in higher profits for the company, which will lead to better wages for the employees. However, there is one big problem. We do not live in an ideal world.

The problem is that without any external stimuli, there will not be any increase of wages because there are always reasons not to. The economy is not strong, the customers may not buy from us again, expenses are increasing, etc.

Therefore I dare say that very often, the "productivity" that is being used the most often is usually to overload a person with a lot of work. More output per employee so therefore, more productivity. Is that the intent? Of course not but we're not living in an ideal world where everyone is good and fair to one another.

To have true productivity, you must have the stick and the carrot. Carrot is there. Grants to improve productivity for example. Stick? I don't see it yet. I feel that there should be changes to the labour law to cover all employees. Personally, I'm not sure why must we differentiate between blue and white collar workers. Everyone is still a worker and why is there a differentiation between them? If you earn more, you can work them to death?

Puzzles me.

Is it your belief?

I quote from Elly Roselle:

A belief is not an idea held by the mind, it is an idea that holds the mind

This simple and yet powerful sentence explains clearly what is a belief. It is something that holds your mind, something that you believe whole heartedly, and you think about it when you're awake or when you're sleeping. It is not an idea that just exists in your mind. Know the difference and it may help you.

How will the $900 million be split?

I think everyone is trying to guess how LTA and SMRT will split the $900 million dollar bill. Look no further than the SMRT annual report.

Base on their annual report, LTA owns the infrastructure of all the lines, which includes tunnels, tracks, viaducts and station structures. Therefore, these collector shoes on the tracks will most probably be the responsibility of LTA.

For NSEW Line, SMRT owns the operating assets including the trains, power supply equipment, cabling, electrical services, signalling system, and communication system to name a few. Therefore it will seem that SMRT is responsible for almost all the other items, especially the big ticket items.

Moreover, a grant of $480 million was given to SMRT to help them to own the operating assets of NSEW line. Therefore, I strongly feel that SMRT should be made to pay for what they own. This will send a strong message to the other transport operator that they better maintain their assets well, or it will come back to bite them.

Quality vs "Productivity"

I've read an article recently talking about the state of workers nowadays. It will seem that with the crazy drive for productivity, many companies seem to lose sight of the services that they are providing to their customers. In essence, this means the quality of their service.

No matter the definition given, productivity in many companies just mean that you can do multiple things at the same time. Simply said, it just means you're a jack of all trades. I feel that many are now discounting the importance of having specialists. In fact, if you look at our educational system, it seems to me that they are encouraging generalists more than specialists. Why? I'm sure they will give the usual reasons that it provides more flexibility, adaptability, etc etc.

Yes I do not deny that it does. However, there is one important advantage about specialists. They are the subject matter experts in their area and this will result in a improvement in the quality of thinking that you're providing to your customers.

For example, looking from the technology point of view. You may have an architect that has experience in designing Dot Net systems. For those in the technology sector, you have definitely heard of SharePoint. Tell me, who will provide more quality to your customers? A Dot Net architect, or a SharePoint architect?

Definitely the product specialist will be able to provide better value because they are able to design and optimise the solution that they are providing to the customers. How they can do that is because of their intimate knowledge of the product that they specialist in.

Granted I've seen so called product specialist whose knowledge is so rudimentary it made me feel that the certificate may not be real, but by and large, there are such experts out there, and the problem is that the current education system are no longer producing such specialists. In fact, the way the education syllabus is structured, it would also seem that they are even discouraging specialist even if you wish to go down this route.

Sigh. I pay school fees and yet I'm unable to study the modules that I'm interested. That's the 21st century for you. Stupid, but true.