Monthly Archives: June 2021

The cost of an MBA is very high. It is justified from a long term perspective, where you are expected to earn a higher wage over time. It is normally done a few years into your career, otherwise you won’t be able to fully understand what you are learning. The big question is, does that make you a better leader?

If you can afford to take an MBA, arguably it means you are quite well off. Not only are you taking up either a big debt or a large expenditure, there is also a big need to sacrifice your time and energy. So that is the first hallmark of private school.

The next thing we consider is what the true benefit of an MBA is in terms of the knowledge gained. Sure there are some nuggets of gold in a few subjects which may be hard to discern anywhere, but ultimately what you can truly remember is quoted by many other people if you read a lot of books on business. You do gain access to a select group of people, who are in alliance with your circumstances to some degree. This is the second hallmark of private school – a niche members only type group.

Last but not least, the reason why it’s good to have an MBA is that you understand the lingo. When working in a big company with multiple MBA holders, there is an understanding of a certain level of language and methodology used – whether it works or not is anybody’s guess. There will be terms thrown around that the average person may not understand, and decisions will be made of certain structures that are not easily inferenced. And this is where we have the third hallmark – having an elitist type way of communication.

So many elements in a cafe – from a great barista, to a good menu selection, to the conscientious service of the staff, and not to mention well priced and great tasting food. But if there is one less obvious way to find out if a place is good, check out their toilets.

The washroom is the place of respite, even if its just a few minutes. Hospitality is a fast paced industry with a lot of pressure from everyone working there. There is also always a little bit of creativity needed to keep days interesting – the food fresh and the customers happy. So when you have a great toilet, one that exudes serenity and comfort – it doubles down as a creativity escape. It gives everyone a chance to breathe, relax and conjure up or motivate to take on the next thing.

A very simple idea not very well implemented in most places. It’s of course not the only way to identify a good place – but it’s so important especially for smaller establishments to pay attention to this. Not only the staff will appreciate it but the customers themselves will as well. After all, if you were a food critic wouldn’t you want to have a place to recharge away from prying eyes?

In a classic weekend hackathon, a team is formulated over a short period of time to create an outcome either based on a set theme or by brainstorming something of merit. This happens typically in a span of 48 hours. Sounds fun? Well the thing that makes it fun is also what makes it bad for engineering.

There is tons of shortcuts out there in software or even hardware to do something, ranging from completely created solutions requiring a small configuration step. Down to more overarching solutions that are more generic in nature. The thing is, these items were created for the sake of simplicity and speed.

What does this encourage? It encourages you to do the minimal effort. What’s more is that winners are judged based so much more on how it is presented more than whether something great was invented. In other words it lacks grit.

When you start from this basepoint, every engineer thinks there is a quick win to everything, not engaging in longer scale strategies or things that are tedious to not being fun. It paints a bad idea of how engineering really is.

Sure it’s still fun, but I’d say it’s best for entrepreneurs and people who love doing sales and pitches.

What is the definition of random? Something that is not predictable? Well in most cases there is nothing random. A real random event has no source of truth. It is a truly decoupled result from everything it originates from

However, this is not possible. Even in computer science, there is a term called entropy which is a designation of level of uniqueness. One way is to define it is by using noise. But noise comes from things that are predictable.

If we argue that computing is the complete opposite of random – because it relies on preset programs, events itself are not random. They maybe observed as random in a collective, but on the individual sense, every organism is driven by motivation of some sort.

So the next time you think about random, ask yourself – is it random or is it just blissful ignorance.