Category: Random Musings

The Diamond Age

After watching this commercial from IDEO, about the future of e-books and reader devices, it got me thinking about a previous blog post of mine on social reading – particularly my third idea and Coupland. However, Alice reminds me of something straight out of The Diamond Age, one of my favourite books and features strongly as the main mantra of my company.

I am most excited by Alice and its possibilities for educating our young in a far more immersive environment. Imagine a childrens’ book that encourages a child to learn about the natural environment by actively getting the child to step out of the house and into the real-world. It can use the built-in GPS on the reader to pull in local content for the child so that the book is customised for the local environment.

So, in Malaysia, the book may talk more about rain-forests and may even encourage the child to take a trip to one of our National Parks, where the child will be encouraged to hunt for photos of specific flora/fauna with the built-in camera on the reader. Successfully taking a photo would unlock deliverable gifts/toys and earn the child kudos points at the central repository.

Snazzy!

Racist Teachers

There has been calls recently from various political parties for government action against errant teachers who have allegedly uttered racist remarks in schools. While I feel that it is wrong for these teachers, who serve as role-models to our young, to behave in that manner, I do not think that there is anything that the government can do against them.

First and foremost, there are procedures to be followed when initiating any disciplinary action against a government employee. Then, there is the problem with the fact that the teachers have not broken any conceivable law. Finally, there is the problem with precedent that has been set by politicians on both sides of the fence.

It sucks to be a Malaysian but racism is part and parcel of our very existence. We are probably the only country in the world with racial preference enshrined in its Constitution.

Malaysian First?

We, Malaysians, tend to be rather focused on labels – we like to label things. It is so ingrained in our psyche that whenever someone raises an issue, the first thing that we need to do is to label it so that it can be properly categorised and compartmentalised into its proper box. Then, the issue can be bludgeoned to a pulp with the appropriate tool.

A week ago, I had an interview with a sociologist who was conducting some research. I was asked if I thought of myself as a Malaysian instead of a Chinese. I went on record saying that, “No, it depends on how you define Malaysian.” I definitely do not see myself as Malaysian first nor Chinese second. I see myself as myself first and foremost. How could anyone be a Malaysian first and Malay second or a Malaysian first and Chinese second if they are not themselves first?

To explain this, I went on record describing my identity.

My mother tongue is English, which I spoke nothing but, for the first few years of my life. My first books were all English books, and my initial cultural exposure was all western. Then, when I became old enough to have some philosophy and morals imbued into me, I picked up an Indian religion. While I may celebrate Chinese culture on the surface, I have very little appreciation for it and would happily do without most of it if given the chance. I have more Korean, Japanese, English and Malay DVDs and music CDs than Chinese ones. If given a choice between our venerable roti canai, nasi lemak, wanton mee for breakfast, I would choose them in that order exactly. I speak Malay well enough and was actually mistaken as a Malay for my first semester in university.

I found it difficult to say that I am Malaysian first because I do not know what it means to be Malaysian first. I am hoping that someone else might be able to explain it to me.

For now, I would say that I am “me, myself and I” first. Thank you very much!

PS: In all honesty, I would describe myself as Hacker first as I identify better with the Hacker culture than any other culture.

MineCraft Success

The Internet is abuzz with the sensational success story of Minecraft, an independently developed game, that is now raking in US$250k per day. The game is largely the effort of a single developer and the company is pretty much a one-man show. I congratulate the genius behind the game and it breathes life and gives hope to other indie game developers around the world.

At $10 per pop, this developer has cleanly raked in almost US$10 million overnight.

Minecraft is another story on how you can turn problems into opportunities. When they had server problems causing outages, they gave away free copies of the game to everyone who had difficulties playing during the outage. Once the problem was solved, these freebies became converts and paid the ten buck for a license. Read that – he gave stuff away for free during a down-time and this brought in converts once up-time was restored. Brilliant!

However, as good as this story sounds, it reminds me of another adage – overnight success takes years of effort.

Government Business

During the Economic Transformation Programme Open Day held yesterday, one of the key messages sent by the CEOs to our government was – for Government’s role in business to be reduced and for freer competition.

Personally, I can particularly relate to that. In fact, I am so averse to government involvement in business that I have decided to avoid the many government grants that are given out for technology startups. I have also decided to steer clear of the government as much as I can in business. This means avoiding government contracts like the plague. I am crazy like that.

The thing is, I do not see how our present government can reform the business of government to be limited to policy making and regulation, which is what we actually need the government to do instead of actually getting involved in the decision making and operational issues of businesses particularly through its many GLCs. Even if the present opposition takes over the federal government, I do not see the government getting out of business either because the system is already institutionalised and ingrained in our collective psyche that Malaysia Inc is run like that.

Some may ask me why I am so anti government. I am not anti-government. I am merely anti government involvement in business. The reason that I feel this way is that I have personally felt the bite of government involvement in business and I do not want to experience it ever again. I would be very happy if the government, whichever government, decides to just keep its fingers out of business and to instead focus on policy and regulation.

In fact, I would argue that the government should step up regulation – not in the bad way, mind you. Taking the example of the Internet – while I do not think that the government should engage in Internet censorship, I do feel that regulation needs to be stepped up in certain areas such as: policing the collection and transmission of personal information, registration and collection of taxes from internet businesses, and taking cyber-criminals to task.

However, from what I have gathered about the ETP, I believe that it is business as usual for our government. I do not see why the government would happily give away multi-billion dollar cash cows until after they have been milked dry. I will believe our governments’ drive when I actually see it. For now, I will wait and see.

Religion vs Corporation

There has been quite a bit of discussion going back and forth on the merits of a single-founder vs co-founder business in the tech/entrepreneurial circles. In fact, I recently had a conversation with a few successful entrepreneurs on this subject recently and came away with some conclusions. After reading this article on the subject today, I have to give it my personal twist.

So next time you read, write or comment on an article comparing the merits of single and co-founders; next time you feel your personal choice undermined by someone else’s argument, stop and ask yourself: is this about forging an empire, or being master of your own destiny? They’re not the same thing.

I would like to say that in my case, I have come to realise that the reason that I am going into business has always been the same since day one – it has never been about empire building, but about personal freedoms. I have always been clear on this – I need to build a successful company in order to have the freedom to engineer.

That said, the reason why I have decided to go it on my own as a single-founder business is because I am not interested in building a corporation, but interested in starting a religion (not literally). So far, I don’t know of any religion where there are co-founders since most religions seem to have had a single teacher or saviour. There is a reason why this is the case – religions are about passion.

So, instead of building a lifestyle business, I am in the process of starting my own little religion, and I hope that others will ultimately join me. Hiring and contracting will be the way to go for me for a while at least. Donations will also be solicited and welcomed, in addition to volunteers and support. I think it is interesting that such a business model will be used for a technology company.

Sounds crazy? That’s the whole point.

Short Fuse

For some reason, I feel that I have been on a short fuse in recent weeks. Maybe it’s the stress of taking on too many things in life. Maybe it’s the certain eventuality of certain decisions that have to be made soon. Maybe it’s the chronic ache that I have had in my back for a few weeks. Maybe it’s the lack of rest due to disturbed sleep. Regardless of the reasons, I have definitely felt the blood rush faster and higher than it normally does.

As a mitigation, I have taken to exercise. I try to take a brisk walk through a nearby park whenever I get the chance to. Oddly enough, my brisk walk seems to be faster than some joggers. Yesterday, I overtook several joggers while reading a book. Yes, I read while I get my exercise. That’s why I walk, and not run. I would not be able to read while running.

However, I hope that a short break away from everything would be able to change things; at least, break the daily monotony and senseless work that I have been engaged in. I plan to come back ready to take a plunge into the future world!

Onsen, I need Onsen!