101 Creative Problem Solving Techniques, James M Higgins

currently I'm reading this book. there's a phrase which captured my attention most: 'INNOVATE OR EVAPORATE'. certainly true! the author gave several examples of corporations surviving a rough sea through innovation. even giant corporations need to innovate.

this brought me back to when I was working in a competition-less environment work place. I tried to innovate but to no avail. may be because of the environment. nevertheless the clients were all unhappy and liked to see us changed. there was a 'blue ocean' movement in the office. they argued "let us changed and make our competitiors (complainants) irrelevant".

they were right in that sense. but by ignoring the very essence of service that we were supposedly to deliver, we were actually made our self irrelevant. we were blind then...

diary of a father II

the start of my family is a very ordinary matters. we built our home on love and built our house from pieces of paper. our shoe rack was from boxes and our first car was rather less than ordinary. we washed our clothes by our bare hands and had our less than average food. but it was a happy life then. there was no TV, sofa, even bed or fridge. there were very less 'things' on those days. very much less.

diary of a father

I'm an ordinary people with a very common life style that probably won't attract anyone attention. what I face everyday must have been faced by anyone else in this world. but after such episode with my son, I want to pen down all my life long experience so that all my kids know that I'm an average people but I always want to be special to them. we are given a very short time on this world but the responsibility is so much.

may be I want to start my diary with "to my children, and my wife, and my family. I'm just another ordinary person. but you're all always special to me as I always want myself to be special in your life".

Direct Democracy: 'The Third Wave', Alvin Toffler

fascinating! the politicians in the US could only agreed to disagree. in Egypt, street demonstration kicking again. anti-Muammar Gadaffi in Libya had one of their top leader killed. in Turkey, top brass of all three branches of army, whom they called themselves defender of the constitution, resigned en mass. in my country, we lose some of our land and waters to our neighbour. I wonder if all these have anything to do with what people really want. leaders have always say what they do is what the people want.

then I remember the term 'direct democracy' I read in 'The Third Wave'by Alvin Toffler 30 years ago. with all the social and technological advancement, can't the idea put into practice? or is it practical in the first place? remember that some of previous civilizations did some kind of the idea.

'to be or not to be'
- c 1600

'Use Your Memory', by Tony Buzan

this is a good one. the author says in order to remember something we must use our 'imagination' and 'association' of the events, lists etc. use the following Memory Principles to create that image:

1. synaesthesia/ sensuality
2. movement
3. association
4. sexuality
5. humor
6. imagination
7. number
8. symbolism
9. colour
10. order (sequence)
11. positive image
12. exaggeration

use this Key Memory Image words along with the principles

1. crashing things together
2. sticking things together
3. placing things on top each other
4. placing things underneath of each other
5. placing things inside each other
6. substitute things for each other
7. placing things in new situations
8. weaving things together
9. wrapping things together
10. having things talks
11. having things dance
12. having things share colour, aroma, action

there are several system explained in the book. but these systems are awesome

1. link system
• links all the events, lists in one story
2. number shape system
• assigns shape to number 1 to 10 and wraps any object within that shape (e.g. pencil to 1)
3. number rhyme system
• assigns word that rhyme with number (1 to 10) (e.g. bun to 1)
4. Roman room system
• I like this system. imagine entering a house and seeing things along the way
5. alphabet system
• assigns a word to an alphabet (e.g. arrow to A)
6. major system
• assigns number to any word.
• 0 - s, z, soft c
• 1 - d, t, th
• 2 - n
• 3 - m
• 4 - r
• 5 - l
• 6 - j, sh, soft ch, soft g
• 7 - k, hard ch, hard c, hard g, ng, qu
• 8 - f, v
• 9 - b, p
• mind maps

'How to Manage Your Boss - Developing the Perfect Working Relationship', book by Ros Jay

I couldn't finished reading this book. I just can't. I've read two chapters and ... you expect me to worship my boss? what a s***. please read this book your self.

'Dealing With People You Can't Stand - How to bring Out the Best in People at Their Worst', book by Rick Brinkman, Rick Kirschner

in 'Dealing With People You Can't Stand - How to bring Out the Best in People at Their Worst', book by Rick Brinkman, Rick Kirschner, difficult people can be divided into several classes.

1. the tank
2. the sniper
3. the grenade
4. the know-it-all
5. the they-think-they-know-it-all
6. the yes person
7. the may be
8. the nothing person
9. the no person
10. the whiner

in this book, the authors write about the character of each class of difficult person, the skills and strategy to defuse such attitude. yea read it and practice it. but from my experience the most class of people that I faced was from the 'the they-think-they-know-it-all'. may be from my culture, they need to do that to disguise their incompetency or low-esteem. you figure.

'An Engineer in the Courtroom', by William J Lux

today I finally received my book entitled 'An Engineer in the Courtroom'. I've been scouring this book on the net for a long time only to find the cost is prohibitive because of the currency exchange. remember I'm jobless. I had finally found a very cheap copy of the book on the net at www.abebooks.com two months ago. I'll write something on the book later.

sales, 'The Greatest Sales Stories Ever Told: From the World's Best Salespeople', by Robert L Shook

this 'The Greatest Sales Stories Ever Told: From the World's Best Salespeople' book by Robert L Shook is very entertaining but valuable. here are the attributes of best sales peoples according to the book.

1. mental attitude (enthusiasm)
2. the initial approach
3. selling yourself
4. innovation
5. selling solution
6. creating a sense of urgency
7. closing the sale
8. servicing the customer

thank you for reading.

GREENHOUSE GAS RELEASED: negligible (due to my current financial difficulties, I cut several electrical usage rigourously)

performance assessment, '360 Degree Feedback, The Powerful New Model for Employee Assessment & Performance Improvement', by Mark R Edwards and Ann J Ewen

currently I'm reading a book entitled '360 degree feedback, the powerful new model for employee assessment & performance improvement', by Mark R Edwards and Ann J Ewen. the book was published in 1996. I read this book because my friend who is working with a government agency told me that they might be using the system.

under the scheme, an employees  will be assessed not only by his supervisor but also his peers, customers, himself etc. in 2006 or 2007, I was experimenting with that kind of system. as a head of unit, I chaired the assessment sessions which also comprised the employee and his direct supervisor and supervisor's supervisor. we talked frankly about the employee performance. in my hand I also had the data on the employee achievement for that year. on top of that, I also gave the employee the chance to rate his/ her peers.

I got the idea of doing that from all the reality shows on TV, particularly 'The Apprentice'. now that I've read the book, I'm feeling great. not that the system is perfect that I'm actually can do or think something. I've always complained that the current system of appraisal was non-objective, that the supervisors tend to remember one or two events (good or bad) of that year and that is it. I'm great!

but who cares? I'm jobless now.

GREENHOUSE GAS RELEASED: 0.117 kg

'8 Barriers to Communication & How to Overcome Them' by Kevin Hogan and Ron Stubbs

according to '8 Barriers to Communication & How to Overcome Them' by Kevin Hogan and Ron Stubbs, these are the barriers:

1. failure to make a great first (and second impression)
• mirror the other person style
• the lead
• lead with your tune of talking
2. flubbing the story
• what is the intention in telling the story
• why
• would the story create misunderstanding
3. forgetting the art of listening
• listen instead of hear
• let the person speak his version of the story
• help someone create himself by listening to him
• know the audience, use discrimination and avoid jokes
• a good listener is a a brilliant conversationalist
4. arguing with the intent to harm
• discuss the issue with fact
5. criticism & being too 'honest'
• destructive criticism is meant to hurt/ humiliate, manipulate/ control, blame/ create gain, get attention
• criticize the behaviour
• don't demean: first empathy then critic
• critic on behaviour which can be changed
• create a conversation which show 'togetherness' to solve the problem
• make sure people know that you're criticize at
• don't belabor the point
• look for non-verbal communication
• avoid comparing people
• ask for specific change
• don't set a tone of anger etc
• show you understand how's the other person feeling
• reread writing on critic
• start of with something good
• reaffirm your support and confidence to the person
6. hostility and contempt
• labeling
• non-verbal
• covert insults and humiliation
7. ignoring the non-verbal communication
8. ignoring the cycle of effective communication
• make people special
• create a safe environment
• let a person have a moment of spotlight
• treat people as you want people to treat you

GREENHOUSE GAS RELEASED: 0.117 kg

listening, '8 Barriers to Communication & How to Overcome Them' by Kevin Hogan and Ron Stubbs

above is a picture of a cassette player courtesy by getty image. once I had that kind of player. my friends and I love to listen to it. we listened to all sort of music from death metal to richard marx. we also listened to political and sports event broadcast by radio station. yea, we listened.

right now I'm reading a book by Kevin Hogan and Ron Stubbs, '8 Barriers to Communication & How to Overcome Them'. one of the chapters, 'the forgotten art of listening', they write about the different of 'listening' and 'hear' and about 'already always know' person: the person who always cut in while we're talking and they give their own version of OUR ideas/ stories.

frankly though I developed a love to read books for the past a decade or two, I never like to read about communication, psychology, motivational and the likes. not until recently. if only I read those books earlier... ok, back to the topic. 

we had this deputy director whose style of communication exactly resembles the 'already always know'. try give out ideas and all you get is "we've already think about it" before you can finish you words. at one time (during a discussion on legal electrical matters) I was so sick of his style I had to say "look, I'm a professional  electrical engineer and I'm also doing an exam in legal-related for electrical engineer. and if you don't trust me let me get a copy of the (Electrical) Act now". I felt disgusted. at the other point of time when he expressed his demoralise due to lack of participation from other meeting members, I stood up and said "it's only once and you feel to back down. we've been all the while have to talk to you with your ...... style of communicating". it's really bad. I wish I read books on communication earlier...

I read that World War I was a product of, among others, miscommunication! http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=524

GREENHOUSE GAS RELEASED: 0.2 kg

work II, 'I, Robot' by Isaac Asimov

today I went to an industry park to seek for a job opportunity. and guess what, I saw there were several others patrolling the place looking for a job. so much for the government announcement few days ago that job openings are larger in number than job seekers.

looking at those factories I remember about two decades ago I had a conversation with an old man in a train. it was a journey to the capital city where I did my undergraduate. the old man told me about his observation on the factories' workers. "the way the factories work produce a 'robot' workers", he said. "this is because with all the system in place, human being are no longer required to think but just follow". of course he referred  the 'workers' in his point is at the production level.

later I developed an interest in reading. one of the author who I like is Isaac Asimov. 'I, Robot' is one of his books. inside the book, one can find the famous 'three laws of robotics'. the laws are:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

today I wonder whether that old man read the book and made the observation. I can see now the resemblance of the ideas he uttered to me and the writings by Isaac Asimov. perhaps the old man that I had the chance to converse to was not an ordinary 'old man'. it is only at this age I started to realised certain things that I've already faced in the past.


I hope that I can also can have that kind of power and accuracy of observation.


GREENHOUSE GAS RELEASED: 0.2 kg

engineer, 'The Existential Pleasure of Engineering, 2nd Edition' by Samuel C Florman

as a member of an engineer society, I receives a magazine on monthly basis. recently, there was an article by the title of 'trends in professional engineering practice'. inside the article, one of the interviewee said "we must be willing to admit that the profession is not where it should be ...". I believe one of the reasons of this admission is told earlier in the article by the same person "the problem arises when the original engineer chooses to sacrifice his professional integrity for the sake of job and the money that comes with it".

I've been in such a moment when, 3 or 4 years ago, my professionalism is at stake. at that time I declined to oversee a job which was 'wrongly' designed by party beyond my organisation. please be careful that the word 'wrongly' doesn't only mean 'wrong design' but also some other administrative meanings. I did complain but in returned I was labelled as 'negative person'. it was a complete surprised considering the person I that I complaint to was also a professional engineer. the irony was that the same person was the one who strongly urged me to go for professional title.

Three years ago I bought a book entitle 'The Existential Pleasure of Engineering, 2nd Edition' by Samuel C Florman. the author himself is an engineer. for me it was a heavy book, quite difficult to comprehend. in one of the chapters, the author noted that "it should be apparent that engineering's Golden Age ended abruptly about 1950, and that the profession, for all its continuing technical achievements, finds itself at the present time in a Dark Age of the spirit". so it was 1950... if the scenario was globally true, than in my country the engineering society has never been in a Golden Age!

in my country there was a joke: "here, a finished building collapsed, building during construction collapsed and even (old) building which is in the process of demolition collapsed". the joke burst when an old building under demolition collapsed, allegedly because of human mistake, and killed few persons.

I want to close this writing with a speech in 1902 by president of American Society of Civil Engineers.

"and in the future, even more that in the present, will the secrets of power be in his keeping, and more and more will he be a leader and benefactor of men. that his place in the esteem of his fellows and of the world will keep pace with growing capacity and widening achievement is as certain as that effect will follow cause"

GREENHOUSE GAS RELEASED: 0.14 kg

giving back to the society, 'Get Real, Get Rich: Conquer the 7 Lies Blocking You From Success' by Farrah Gray

the picture above is a bridge to a ferry berth. it has been there longer than I've been living in this world. I guess that the people who involved in completing this work, if they still alive, will smile of their accomplishment. millions of commoner have used this bridge and they are still using it.

once I worked with a local electricity company. we engaged a Japanese giant company to make a repair on a damaged submarine cable (electricity cable laid undersea) not far from the bridge. after weeks of tracking the cable route, we managed to hauled it up on a barge. we cut the cable and we could see on its inner paper layer, the manufacturing year of the cable. out of a sudden, one elder Japanese worker, who oversaw the barge coordination, smiling. as he cannot speak English, one of his fellow asked why he smiled. then explained that he involved in laying the cable more than 40 years ago. that was a smile of accomplishment.

in 'Get Real, Get Rich: Conquer the 7 Lies Blocking You From Success', the author, Farrah Gray, writes about obstacles and ways to get around them. one of the lies, is the 'Worked Hard Lie'. under the chapter, he tells about seeking for job that we would like to do. there three questions:
1. what comes easy to you but harder to others?
2. what would you do non stop even if you never got paid for it?
3. how can you be on service & give back to others?

note point number 3. I talked about that in several interviews. but they kept on telling me that that was an idealistic kind of words yet unrealistic. it is also just another bombastic words to catch people mind.

is commoner like me cannot have that kind of idealism? go figure.

CARBON FOOTPRINT: 0.117 kg

partner, 'Partnering in Design and Construction', Kneeland A Godfrey Jr.

above is a picture of dinosaur sculptured by my son. I bought the kit so that my kids can practice their art skills. by the way, dinosaurs are prehistoric, extinct creatures. we know them only through bones.

I have a partner in a business. I have long suspected that my partner need me only because I have certain qualification so that we can register the business. but our company never carry out any business activity because my partner himself tied to other kind of business. recently he made friend with someone whose wife is going to get that certification. so got I side lined and I was even told that I can leave the company once the company is well registered. my partnership will be replaced by that woman. that partnership is broken now. what I'm afraid most is that a friendship will also be broken soon.

two years ago I read a book entitled 'Partnering in Design and Construction' by Kneeland A Godfrey Jr. it was a good book in about construction. it give a new meaning in working through people in construction industry. once (while I'm working in Project Management Organisation), I talked about this idea to my MD when he kept on talking about the need to get tough in construction industry. he replied "ok, you try first. I want to see it happen". of course I not dare to practice it. to practice the partnership I need to revise the working frame work within the company and may be also need to break certain clause in the existing Condition of Contract.

so is it safe for me to say that partnership in its pure definition is like a dinosaur. you can see and touch its teeth and bones but you will never see, touch, smell and feel its body and soul. we can only imagine to have all that only in movies.

lesson: how to get a good partner in business?

belief, 'The Fearless Executive - Finding the Courage to trust Your Talents and Be the Leader You Are Meant to Be', Alan Downs

last Saturday my family & I went to this nice park by a river. We brought two bicycles along so that my kids can ride and have fun. it was raining before we arrived so the condition is fresh. while on the way to go home, I noticed the lamp post in the picture. the park was opened to public about 4 or 5 years ago. so I suspect that the lamp post has been there ever since, giving its service.

I left my jobs because of belief (the other word for principle). not religious belief, but professional belief. some says I'm "stupid", "wait for your turn", "don't expect perfection" etc but for me it was a plain principle. if I believe the situation is not conform to my system of belief, which I'm pretty sure right, than what else. 

last year I read a book entitled 'The Fearless Executive - Finding the Courage to Trust Your Talents and Be the Leader You Are Meant to Be'. the author wrote that he was a highly successful HR manager but he quit his job because of something about principle. but he advised other people not to follow his step. however at that point of time, I found my self done the same thing that Alan Downs advised not to do.

in one incident or example about principle, I was accused of breaking the team spirit only because I'm promoting (actually urging) a system in which every unit in the organisation need to play their part 'actively'! (later I was actually forced the idea to go on unilaterally without the consent of the organisation. why should I stopped if the idea is right?)

may be the system of belief is not as important? or may be only a 'selective' system of belief is important?

to believe or not to believe. it's your choice.

construction, 'Sack Your Boss' by Jonathan Jay

above is a picture dated on July last year. the picture was taken in a site which i was directly involved as part of project management team. The picture depicts one of the most important event in any construction stage - the first pile! precede to that, there are a lot of other important things.

there are certainly lot of activities before you can turn that key and get your feet inside a finished building. there are elements of law, contract, engineering, science, technology, environment, management, lot others but i think the most important is humanity. the more I think about it, it is more and more about human and art. and I'm an engineer...

there are a lot of thing about humanity that I learned during my stint as project management team. and I think I also bit by bit discover my strengths and interests. I must live within this strength or otherwise I'll doing things that I probably hate. I remember reading a book 'Sack Your Boss' by Jonathan Jay 4 years ago on the same issue. however I realised that only a year ago, through a hard way. some of us only learn things through the hard way, I supposed.

so I should start put my strength on the run, again I supposed. but how?

country life, 'The Third Wave', Alvin Toffler

this is my grand ma's barn. what you can see here is the wood logs and an old wood stove. she cooks certain dishes using this wood-fired kitchen. i loved to sit here to get the aroma of the food as well the smell of the burning wood. i wonder if this kitchen is less environmental-friendly compared to gas or electricity fired stove. i should do some research on this fact!

whenever there is a need to cook dishes on a larger scale, e.g. during festive, we will swarm this place. we need to get a hand in preparing the food. it used to be joyous, momentous and free from the outside world. but after my grand pa passed away few years ago, the event is not as joyous or momentous as before. there are less participation nowadays. in fact the conversation becomes more and more about work, car, house, technical, money and about people. the modern life has finally creep into this country life.

is country life style need to be defended? may be it is because i notice that more and more vacation planners promote this 'country life' getaway. i, myself, longed to live in this kind of life style. but according to Alvin Toffler in his book 'The Third Wave', the change is initiated by every one of us.

about a year ago i worked in a company overseeing massive development areas initiated by the government. one of the area is very close to a small town. one morning, i am having my breakfast alone in a traditional styled outlet when a local man, about 50 years old, came and shared the table with me. after learning where i'm working he expressed his eagerness to know about the development. but after that he expressed his concerned on what will happed to his sleepy town, traffic, to their villages and also the effect on the environment. immediately my mind struck back to the Alvin Toffler's book.

i believed i heard someone talking about 'the price of development' not long ago. but i couldn't remember the context of the conversation. may be i, myself, can fill in the context of such phrase. after all, i, is the one who initiate the change.

sea side

last Sunday afternoon my family & i went to a small fisherman town. by the time we reached there it was raining heavily. we managed to get a shelter in a small building by the sea side. it is a two-storey building and close to a jetty (in the picture). at the ground level are food outlets while at the top are shops, less than 30 i guess, selling sea-related products. i believe the outlets are run by villagers.

there were people having their food. i don't know whether the food is good or not, but the 'ambiance' was certainly very 'delicious' considering the condition, heavy rain and by the sea side. most of the people seemed to get themselves 'busy' looking at the sea. there were also people fishing on the jetty despite the rain. i also saw kids having fun playing in the rain. i also noticed that my kids were happy. even my one year old kid is having a good time looking at the sea and the rain.

so last weekend was certainly a good one. but i'm still out of a job. nevertheless i'm also started to read a book titled 'get real, get reach' by Farrah Gray last weekend. i'll come back more about the book later.