Stay hungry, Stay Foolish.

-Steve Jobs, Stanford Commencement (2005)

The ending phrase made by Steve Jobs in the Stanford College Commencement in the year 2005 very well sums up the attitude winners need to have and need to keep.

Brief Overview:

In Technology, Society and Global Dominance, we first looked through the dimensions of global dominance and the Shahi Organizational Behavior Model for Identifying Innovation Leaders and Dominant Players. Next, we looked at some interesting videos, one of them featuring a different take on colonialism. We then wrapped up the session with individual oral presentations and discussions. Kudos to those brave enough to lead the way!

Interesting Observations:

How do we identify a rising star? What are the qualities of a rising star? The professor’s organizational behavior model deems those qualities as “open perspective, optimistic, hungry to learn from others, keen to invest in new ideas.” This is where Steve Jobs’ quote comes into play. Stay Hungry implies a never ending thirst for knowledge. The rising star is humble enough to know that there is still much to learn and much insight to be gained from others. The star will go full-speed ahead in finding out more and doing more. This is evidenced from China’s rapid development since Deng Xiao Ping took the helm along with Apple’s amazing ability to reinvent itself in times of need. Stay Foolish implies that the group in question must never shy away from trying new things out or be afraid of failure. To use the words of Thomas A. Edison, the inventor of the light bulb, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that do not work.”

From reading the Colonial Holocaust and its Legacy by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, a more graphic and horrific description of colonialism and especially in my case, Columbus’ systematic destruction of the Native American Civilization is portrayed. While the case itself can be considered biased as the good traits of colonialism is not mentioned, it does provide a good balance to the whitewashed, sugar-coated version we’re quite used to. In the reading, the author cites that:

… are by nature the most humble, patient, and peaceable, holding no grudges, free from embroilments, neither excitable nor quarrelsome. These people are the most devoid of rancors, hatreds, or desire for vengeance of any people in the world... they not only possess little but have no desire to possess worldly goods. For this reason they are not arrogant, embittered, or greedy... They are very clean in their persons, with alert, intelligent minds.*

This means to say that the Native American values stated above portrayed them as a very peace-loving society. This same society was subsequently subjugated and eliminated on a scale one could compare with genocide. This is quite reminiscent of how the Maoris completely decimated the Morioris previously. Could this be what they meant by “Good guys finish last”?

Brief Overview:

Technology and Human Development was the topic of the next half of the session. We shifted to what the areas of human development are such as social development, economic development and cultural development and the like. Videos such as Hans Rosling’s 4 minute video on human development told through animated statistics and the Millennium Development Goals were played. We then wrapped up with individual oral presentations.

Interesting Observations:

I find that the Gross National Happiness concept of Bhutan is very insightful. Bhutan’s fourth Dragon King, Jigme Singye Wangchuck believed that the happiness of his people was more important than the economic progress measured in Gross Domestic Product. He developed a country where the main focus is less on economic development and more on sustaining its cultural identity, its natural environment and taking care of the wellbeing of its people. It’s an interesting prospect considering that some developed countries we are aware of such as South Korea and Japan have rather high suicide rates. (link here) I think it is well worth considering that we step back and consider the direction that we want the world to head in and think about what is most important for all of us.

Key Take-Away Points:

·        Everything we make in life is a choice. To become the next rising star, make a choice to adopt the right mindset and attitude.

·       

        Colonialism may have been a rough time during our course of history and it is important to note of the atrocities committed during that time that we may ensure they never happen again.

·        Gross National Happiness? I’ll have to take some time to find out what makes me happy then.

Comments on Individual Presentations

Once again, congratulations on the five people brave enough to present first! The dark side of technology and also the offline iPhone translator app caught my attention the most.

Technology as far as mankind has developed it has always been a double-edged sword. Tian Bai’s reveals in his presentation about how certain technologies we take for granted today such as computers and ultrasound have quite dark histories. Computers were primarily to crack codes during wars while ultrasound was used to identify the gender of babies; the ones with “undesirable” genders were subsequently aborted. It’s undisputable that some may find their origins disgusting but we can’t deny the fact that these developments have been beneficial. Ultrasound helps to detect abnormalities in the fetus for treatment if necessary. 

Computers have become an inseparable education and business partner in many parts of the world. All I can say here is that if people really want to invent something, they’ll get it done.

Wei Yang in his presentation posed the question: “What if everyone in the world was equipped with a 

smartphone with access to a data connection?”

As of November last year, Africa’s cellphone penetration hit 65% of its population. This means more farmers have access to information that could bring in potential economic gains. Information like the weather and wholesale crop prices would be available to them placing them in better negotiating positions. If the whole world was equipped with a smartphone and data connection, this kind of data and more would be available to them. Provided that language is not a barrier, the farmers could find out about better methods for farming meaning that adoption of technology would be more widespread and effective. The ability for the whole world to be connected through the internet would be quite like Wikipedia’s philosophy: all the people of the world sharing information and the best practices in various fields with one another. I may not be touching on the negative implications but I’d like to stay optimistic.

Ratings for the class:

The class as usual was fast-paced and informative. Discussion regarding the readings and the questions posed by the presenters especially were very interesting. However, it would be good if we set a time frame for each discussion session as we would not want to eat into the rest of the class time. I give this class an 8 out of 10.

Week 1: Here we go!

Brief overview

                When anyone is new to anything, an introduction is in order. The class began with everyone introducing themselves and then being introduced to the subject at hand. Then we got down to business. We viewed 2 videos, Part 1 of Guns, Germs and Steel and the original version of “Shift Happens”. We then had discussions on our readings, saw the British Telecommunications Timeline and finished the session.

My thoughts

                Here I will list down and elaborate on the things that got me thinking.

                When we watched the Guns, Germs and Steel video, we were shown that a small group of Spanish Conquistadors single-handedly brought ruin to an entire civilization. How could it be that this group of about less than 100 decimate an entire empire?  We were also introduced to the notion of Yali’s question (I ‘ve paraphrased it) “Why do white men have more cargo than the New Guineans?”

                From what I can understand in the book, it is a lot to do with geographical starting points. Did the place have decent lands for farming and a decent source of water? Did the place have raw materials for making tools? Did the place allow the settlers contact with other people? All these factors and more contribute to the development of the settlers.

Another vastly important observation I’ve made is the people’s intentions. The Maori and the Moriori are two different civilisations found in the Polynesian region. However, they are genetically similar as the Moriori are actually Maori who settled on Chatham Island and never saw anyone else for about 200 years. The Moriori saw how devastating war was and became peaceful while their Maori cousins continued waging war (and also winning sometimes) back home. The Maori had better weapons as they fought frequently while the Moriori weren’t well armed as they had no need for fighting. The Maori loved killing people and when they invaded Chatham Island they completely decimated and enslaved our peace-loving Moriori and justified their actions by saying “It’s our customs.”

Similarly, the Spanish Conquistadors had beaten back the Muslim Moors and taken Iberia. Seeing it as an extension of their Medieval crusades, they went out to the New World looking for places to make Spanish colonies in the name of their King and religion. At the end of the day, the amount of cargo you have doesn’t rely so much on human genetics as it does with geography, exposure to other nations and (perhaps) a hunger for conquest.

                Next, we heard from the professor how the Roman Empire fell after its glory days. Pax Romana was a time of peace and prosperity for all of Rome and things were good. Then people started getting sick. Then they died. The remaining people turned to the thinkers of the Roman society for help but they were as baffled and clueless as the ones talking to them. People became shut-ins, out of fear of contracting the disease and the Roman Empire began to crumble. Realising that they could not live on extended vacation forever, the people turned to religion who gave them a pat on the back and said “We’ll take care of you” The rest as they call it is the “Dark Ages”.

                In this matter it is interesting to note that there was a world change but it wasn’t based on progressive technological advancements. It was facilitated by a lack of development of medical technology. Had the Roman apothecaries actually developed an effective medicine to treat the plague, the disease itself would have been known as a minor inconvenience in Roman history. It just goes to show that world change can happen with or without technological change.

                Perhaps in the next lesson, we will be able to find out more about how human behavior develops the way it does throughout the course of history. While this might not have been given too much consideration in this class, it just might be discussed in out next class: “Technology Society and Global Dominance” and Technology and Human Development.”

                In this week’s class I found that time zipped by ludicrously fast. That would mean that I thoroughly enjoyed it. It felt quite organized and the subject matter did not feel boring in the least. There were some times when none of the members of our class could respond to the professor but I’m sure that we’ll all be better prepared in the future. Personally, I would give this lesson an 8 out of 10.