Day 11 (16/5) - A Day with Tom Kosnik
Today was dedicated to entrepreneurship (doubtless a sop to the NUS administration), curious given that our program was about multiculturalism. More than once, I asked the Golden Question: "What is the relationship between entrepreneurship and multiculturalism?", but never got a satisfactory reply.
I was wondering if I should buy a Stanford shirt, and my roommates said it was very poser to do so. I asked if it was not then poser to buy a Berkeley shirt, as I had, and they said it was less so.
While we were waiting for the bus, Jaga (who was wearing a Stanford shirt) and I (wearing a Berkeley shirt) engaged in some stupid posing. The photos will be put up together with others from other people once I finish my travelogue (presumably everyone will have uploaded their photos to Facebook by then).
Interestingly, Stanford has engineering societies formed along racial lines - there's one for Chicanos/Latinos, one 'American Indian Engineering and Science Society' and doubtless many more.
I don't know why grass in Singapore is so shitty - lying on the grass was great here, but no one would think of doing likewise in Singapore. Partially it's because the grass in Singapore seems a different species from that in temperate countries, but it's also due to the frequent rain making the ground soggy and muddy and the insects of the tropics.
Huge wall-mounted screen - 'This is not a chalkboard'. If you look closely you can see chalk marks.
One Stanford student thought one big motivation for volunteerism there was CV-building. Sounds familiar.
In Stanford there were quite a few students zipping around on skateboards and there were even more in Berkeley. It must be a Californian thing.
The salt in salt water taffy is surprisingly interesting. It gives it an added dimension of flavour.
Running after Tom Kosnik (
In one entrepreneurship talk, one entrepreneur talked about the importance of finding a local partner in China. I pointed out that they'd steal your technology and violate your contract. The reply was that contracts are violated elsewhere in the world as well, and that the modus operandi of Chinese companies was becoming more sophisticated; technology could be reverse engineered even though the architecture was kept from the Chinese, but they hoped to caputre the market by that time ('a few years'). I was a bit skeptical. If they can do it with cars, why not wireless technology? (I was told that while I was asking this question, the female class instructor turned around and looked at me [since I was the only NUS student to say anything], and her eyes widened on seeing my Berkeley shirt)
Cloth belts are good because they can be adjusted.
There was a noticeboard advertising tuition for maths, physics, chemistry and more besides (basically, everything pakka liao) from a Stanford PhD student. Hah. Another notice asked if you were "interested in learning about neuroscience research and motor learning studies"; I only realised its true nature upon seeing the $20/hr remuneration.
We then went to a seminar ("Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders"), where industry figures came to speak. We were a week too early to catch Mitchell Baker from Mozilla, damn. Instead we got the guy behind Ooma who annoyingly refused to say what the hell Ooma was (at press time it still had not been revealed), and a venture capitalist from DFJ (they bankrolled Hotmail, and pushed through initial opposition from the founder for the little ad at the bottom of each email message, thus innovating viral marketing).
The speakers said that failure was important (not just preferred) on your CV so you'd know what gravity felt like. They also said the problem with letting engineering lead product development was that you'd pour in $300 million over 4 years to make a supercool product no one would buy, because they'd keep changing the specs.
I pointed out to people that if I was a girl being marginalised by guys, the narrative would be very different, and was told to shut up. Bah.
Everyone loves Yoda
Explaining GLEAN - Global Leaders, Entrepreneurs and Altruists Network
When we were going back at night there was a manhole outside the Terman Engineering Building covered by a grille. Below it there was a ladder and a passage leading to an opening from which a light source was shining. Much warmth was also coming out of the manhole. I thought this sort of thing only existed in science fiction movies.
Besides my clapping, my laugh was also imitated. Bah.
Quotes:
In Singapore we are quite ignore'rernt (ignorant)
[On buying prom dresses to return them the next day] How de'speckable they are (despicable)
[On his band on in-head advisers ('what would xxx do?')] Mom, Dad, Mickey Mouse, Robin Hood, Maid Marian, Jimmy Cricket, Yoda.
[Me on a 'Situational Leadership' graph: Business is bullshit. They just pull this shit out of their ass] I agree with you. There's no such thing as learning business.
[Me on a 'Situational Leadership' graph: What do you think of the graph thing?] Bullshit... [Student 2: I am generally skeptical of all business models.]
[Me on a string below the bust line: What's that string for?] For decoration... I feel uncomfortable now.
