Posted by cher @ 2:24 am, February 8th, 2010

今天和几位朋友聊天,有些恋爱经验算是丰富的,有些没有经验的。我也算有些浅浅的经验,我的人生目标基本上与我的伴侣经营一个充满爱的家庭,以及建立一个可以发挥我聪明才智的事业。可是什么是爱? 这是我们最喜欢讨论的话题,因为这个问题对我如此重要。讨论那么多,听了那么多,我觉得这是一个在荷尔蒙驱使下令我把对自己的爱向另一个个体转移的过程。荷尔蒙的驱使令我被健康英俊,聪明能干的异性吸引,开始确定我的伴侣。接下来的过程大概是和她分享我的最美好的东西(我长期努力而建立的自信,智慧,自爱),把我得到这些美好东西的经历和经验与他分享,从而彼此分享爱,转换爱,传递爱。所以,我认为不可能爱人的有两种人,第一种是不自爱的人,例子如木子美,我看了她的书的第一个故事我就自以为看透了她,理想主义的她被第一个爱情的挫折摧毁了自己的所有自尊,开始自暴自弃。 无自爱的人没法转移自己的爱,就像自己没有火种,哪里能够帮别人取暖? 第二种是不愿分享和不愿信任的人,这类人是极端的利己主义者,就像2010前的我。 宇宙都围绕着这类人而旋转,他们否认其他人的存在,至少人为其他人的存在对自己的生活没有影响。

然而, 我和我的所有朋友,这就是青春给我们的教训,只有犯过错之后才能做对事。 而上帝,我相信你已经把那个人送到我的手上,剩下的事情应该由我来经营了。:)

Posted by cher @ 11:59 pm, February 7th, 2010

今天坐火车回家的时候,看到一件感人的事情。一个工作人员拿着一片精心制作的橡胶皮在站台等。火车到站的时候,门一打开,一个坐轮椅的残疾人出来,工作人员马上把橡胶皮铺在火车和月台中间的缝隙上,让残疾人可以顺利过来。 这个工作人员怎么知道这个残疾人在这个站台?一定有专门的电话可以打。 真是体贴的温暖。 谁说香港没有文化?谁说香港人情冷漠? 在我看来,这就是最有文化,最有人情的明证,比大陆杯盏交错,满口称兄道弟, 凡事靠人情关系的社会要文明一百倍,有人情一百倍。因为有利益而和某些人建立关系,同平等公正关怀的对待陌生人比较,就是野蛮和文明的差距。

今天一天都和sara,晓晨在一起,晚上吃意大利菜,聊天到午夜。真痛快,喉咙都快说疼了。下文是一个沃顿商学院的教授写的,非常值得一看。

In February, three Wharton faculty colleagues and I had the pleasure of dining with 19 visiting students from one of China’s most prestigious universities. The students were young. They were charming. They were very intelligent. And they were very, very goal-directed.

My colleagues and I had each prepared brief opening remarks, but the students were having none of it. They had elected a delegation leader, and the delegation leader, as quickly as possible, got to the question the students all wanted to address: What are the implications of the current financial and economic crisis?

A colleague in the accounting department gave them a careful, scholarly, even-handed explanation of how firms’ decisions on the repricing of assets in their portfolio could perhaps have been used, perhaps unintentionally, to create false expectations in the marketplace, and could have been done in a way undetectable to auditors, leading to over-investment in toxic subprime assets.

No, that’s not what the students wanted to discuss. With much less tact, I explained that, indeed, mispricing of assets at an inflated price could have been deliberately used to create the illusion of value, and this could then have been used to create the very real rewards of wealth for the financial engineering wizards responsible for the scheme.

This got us much closer to the questions that the visiting students wanted to address. Their first round of questions were basically, How can I get that job? How can I get a high-paying job in investment banking now?

My colleagues and I attempted to convince them that those jobs simply will not exist again, at historical levels of compensation, in the months or years before these students’ graduation.

This led to a second round of questions, like, What can I do while working as a desk drone in an audit firm in China to ensure that I can get into Wharton, Harvard or Stanford, and get a job in investment banking later? The students were patient. They did not need a job with a $10 million bonus now, as long as the prospect of receiving it later would still arise.

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I then suggested that perhaps they might work for companies that made things. Actual things. With a burgeoning middle class that would soon be larger than the entire population of the U.S. or Western Europe, surely there was going to be a huge domestic market for things in China. The students could pursue careers with companies that were working to develop and to sell appliances fit for a Chinese home, or mass-market, branded consumer package goods for the new middle class Chinese consumer.

This was met with stares from the students. Another colleague from the management department suggested that Chinese retailing and distribution offered two other growth opportunities for a bold young entrepreneur. Again, we got mostly stares.

I then explained that there are really only three ways for an individual to earn tens of millions of dollars a year:

–Create a company that creates real wealth and keep a piece of the company. Bill Gates did that at Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFTnews - people ), and he is, probably, still one of the five wealthiest men in America. Vanderbilt (railroads and shipping), Carnegie (U.S. Steel (nyse: Xnews - people )) and Rockefeller (Standard Oil) did it, too. These men played hardball, seeking to crush commercial competitors, but they did successfully transform America and the world.

–Facilitate the creation of real wealth by others and keep a piece of each transaction. J. P. Morgan convinced European investors that they would earn far more investing in the fastest-growing industries in the United States than they would investing in their more developed, more mature and more slowly growing domestic markets. He directed the capital that led to the industrialization of the United States. American industrialists got rich. European investors got rich. America was transformed, and his share of each transaction ensured that Morgan became wealthy as well.

Venture capitalists, early round investors in new companies and firms that underwrite their initial public offerings all facilitate the creation of new companies and the creation of jobs and wealth, and profit from it. Early investors in Microsoft, Google (nasdaq: GOOGnews - people ), Oracle (nasdaq: ORCLnews - people ) and Apple (nasdaq: AAPLnews - people ) all profited quite handsomely from it.

This used to be the principal function of Wall Street firms other than those principally in retail brokerage. But it produces individual Wall Street executive wealth only slowly, and only when Wall Street produces increases in national wealth. Patient men like Warren Buffett still facilitate wealth creation, and Buffett may be richer even than Gates.

–Steal it. Stealing money is much more reliable than earning it. You can steal wealth slowly, the old-fashioned way, buried within the operations of trading for the house account. Or you can steal it quickly, by using obscure and poorly understood financial artifacts to produce the illusion of wealth creation. Then you take a piece of the illusionary wealth, as personal cash, now. Then you exit and duck for cover before the entire game blows up. Better yet, you can sell your private equity firm to naïve investors for one final twist of the knife into the carcass of your nation. (Deliberate fraud, like those allegedly committed by Bernie Madoff or Robert Allen Stanford, is too crude to be of interest to young financial engineers, and too likely to result in extreme punishment.)

I then suggested that if students were not interested in earning their money through entrepreneurship (too risky), then investment banking in China offered the next best alternative for personal wealth creation. Facilitating investment in, and growth of, companies catering to the wants, needs, cravings and longings of China’s growing middle class, offers Chinese investment bankers a path toward personal wealth by creating national wealth, much as J. P. Morgan did for America.

The students, though, were uninterested in banking in China. After the students left, it took my colleagues and me a couple of hours to figure out why this was so. I-banking in China is about improving China. The students saw i-banking in America as being about improving their own personal wealth, first and foremost; if the client could be assisted without too much personal inconvenience then and only then did they see American i-banking as also being about value creation.

I asked myself, What have we done? When I thought that the craze for private equity careers and investment banking careers among the brightest Western students was the fault of Western business schools, I felt both shame (for perhaps having contributed to this) and fear (for how we as a nation could possibly compete with foreign nations where the best and brightest young students sought real careers).

Perhaps the fear was unwarranted. Perhaps the best and the brightest students of other nations also wish to transform their homelands from economic dragons into paper tigers, following the Western model. Interestingly, our own students are indeed learning to manage, learning to market, learning operations and production planning and logistics; they are working hard to get ready for a world of things. Perhaps America doesn’t have as much to fear from foreign competition as we thought.

Eric K. Clemons is a professor in the Information Strategy and Economics Group at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Posted by cher @ 2:19 pm, February 5th, 2010

长大的感觉真好。就像一块顽石,被湍急的河流冲刷,随着溪流看过风景,经过经过风浪,最后自己的棱角被磨的平滑,而品质更加通透灵秀。 当你逐渐了解 你和别人的异同,也就更加理解了别人,宽容,信任和理解也就随之而来了。对其他人无所求,而对自己多反省,又怎么会被消极的情感困扰呢?凡事不轻易下判断,不感情用事,总能得到好的结果。

驕傲來羞恥也來;謙遜人卻有智慧。爱,其实是不是包括了谦虚,喜悦,信任,宽容和公义的一种感情。 所以骄傲,自私,小气,猜疑的人根本没法爱人,只会通过别人来增加对自己的爱。 我才明白原来我不懂得这些是永远不可能发现爱的真谛的,原来那些实在是胡闹。

突然觉得豁然开朗,对周围的人也喜欢起来。是不是因为街市里的卖菜的人太可爱了呢?

Posted by cher @ 7:06 pm, February 2nd, 2010

我老觉得在香港做一个穷人要比在上海幸福的多。我暂住粉岭的公屋,离深圳10分钟的火车。 这里算是香港的郊区,也大都是普通穷困人家,很多老太太老爷爷。 那天偶尔在商场里看到房产价格,吃了一惊。这里大概50平方米的房子能找到一百万的,而上海浦东东方路的房价大概也是这样。 而这里的交通方便,生活便利远远超过了上海浦东的郊区。 更不要提香港的公屋制度,家里买不起房也肯定会有立锥之地,政府自然不会让人流落街头,还有公立医院,医疗几乎不花钱。 而食物的价钱也和上海差不多,我自己做饭,一天30块可以保证两菜一汤,有荤有素,十分健康。而且这里资讯流通,文化生活丰富,人享有的自由远远比在上海 广阔。我在上海住了4个月,就觉得自己被困住了,被桎梏住了,被生活的物质,单调,贫乏和缺乏自由困住了。 何况香港的政府是可以被信任的,不管如何办事不力也是清廉的。 和大陆的朋友说,如果要在大陆缴税我非得疯了不可,简直是变相的被人抢劫,养了政府还要看他脸色。

转一篇陶杰的专栏。

唐樓倒塌,不止是一場災難,還是一場所謂「深層次矛盾」。
不是沒有預警,建築工人早就知道要塌樓了,先行衝離現場。有整整十五分鐘,一幢五層高的房子,最多只十伙人家,完全有時間趕快逃生。
有一位「鳳姐」,已經驚覺,探頭慌問,發生了什麼事?另一個女住客就在「鳳姐」面前溜掉,沒有通知她跑。
為什麼,因為這位「鳳姐」的敏感職業,一幢房子的住客是知道的。逃生的人,會不會鄙視她,根本不予答理,就此多送一條人命呢?
香港早就有了「平機會」,也出現了「性工作者」這個類西方的名詞,都是一層包裝紙,證明社會對這個行業還是很歧視。
一 個城市對人命的價值不重視,就有這種災難了。籠屋蝸居,一個窮人住在碌架床的下格,平時上班,把床位的鐵絲網鎖起來,這是把自己當雞鴨畜牲看待。地產商的 殘酷剝削,把人的尊嚴也刨挖掉了。一個真正的公民社會,你自己住進豪宅,有那麼多不幸的人像牲畜一樣活着,自己也不安樂的。公民社會,就是不能「分享」這 種羞恥。
平時不是高喊「天下為公」嗎?這就是儒家思想,大家最喜歡以「同胞」稱呼,自己的同胞,活得如此卑微,裝作看不見就是了,替這些不幸的人群出頭爭取什麼,隨時會當作「起義」的。
中 國人社會從來標榜「人情味」,外國人比較講「私隱」,人際關係很冷漠。但如果紐約的公寓有這種危機,互不相識的住客,逃走的時候,多半一面跑,一面敲鄰居 的大門高喊叫逃生。一個人生下來的喧嘩大嗓門,不是叫你在飲茶、看戲、出席城市論壇時全天候開動,是用在這等生死關頭的骨節眼上的。
在關鍵的時候,選擇沉默,在不適當的時候,偏偏最八卦而愛管閒事,會不會是一個群體走向墮落的根源?
留下的懊悔,纏繞終生,對於一個有良心的生還者,還是很痛苦的,怎樣「吸收教訓」?記住,一張嘴巴,該叫喊時叫喊,該閉上時閉上,樓還是會繼續塌下去的,生命會省回許多,雖然,一個妓女,不,性工作者的生命價值很卑微,這,就是另一卷悲劇了。

Posted by cher @ 4:55 pm, January 29th, 2010

http://oyc.yale.edu/philosophy

在家每天睡到自然醒,下午有时和院子里的退休老太太打打麻将,晚上和爸妈聊天,和我的狗玩,日子过的如此清闲,好是好,可是放在我身上,又觉得虚度了时光,心底有一种烦躁,希望快点回港,忙碌起来。 什么是生,什么是死? 闲来无事找出上面一个网上课程又看了一遍,没有人真正明白生死,只是寻找权宜之计,有些人认为留下永垂不朽的艺术品或者事业,就可以借历史得到永生,这种想法丝毫不能安慰我。 你死了就是死了,时空之外找到知音,于你何益处? 在我看来,世人胡闹的那些玩意,都是怕死综合征导致,其中比较普遍的一点就是追求爱情,求爱如求生命,在爱情的眩晕中得到永恒的幻觉,似乎让这短暂的生命值的一过。我经历虽浅,也不再寻求什么爱情,而是寻找可以共度一生的朋友,品行和智力都可以相配,未来几十年不会生厌就好。

Posted by cher @ 11:08 pm, January 20th, 2010

我挺爱看天涯的情感专栏,有的是很好的纪实文学,增进我对现实的爱情和婚姻婚姻的了解。 其中很多是关于剩女的, 有剩女埋怨自己被剩下,有的叙述自己烦恼的相亲经历。剩女,这个概念,真的令我哭笑不得。文学里的爱情是不存在的, 也没有什么完美的爱情和婚姻。 有人选择婚姻,有人选择不结婚, 都是他们理性的考虑。 在过去的和现在的中国外国,婚姻经常成为一个功利的选择,那么你不结婚又有什么关系呢?  我今年26岁,按照中国的标准也可能是剩女, 可是我从来没有觉得是剩女,相反,我觉得自己很有魅力,我对自己的爱情和婚姻,就像我对自己的事业一样, 充满信心。 我之所以这么想, 不是因为我的家境,容貌或者能力,而是因为我从来从来就这么想。在这个世界上,除了归上帝管的那部分我不过问,其他的东西都是自己掌控的。 你是否快乐, 是否”成功”, 是否聪明,是由你自己决定的。 当然,你自己是不是所谓的“剩女”,也由你决定。 你是不是成为房奴,也是由你自己决定。 这是艾默生的self-reliance, 也是指导我的人生的准则之一。 本来被生下来这个世界上已经够不幸的了, 人们还自欺欺人,庸人自扰,实在是火上浇油。 干嘛不把精力去集中在一些有趣有价值的事情上,在无聊的顾影自怜中浪费能量呢?

我做火车去南京的时候,遇到一个60岁的美国老头,特爱说话。我特意和别人调了座位,跟他做一起, 和我聊了两个钟头,他二战后被派到德国,有些朋友去越南死了, 现在是个玩具设计师,工厂就在我家那里。这个老头子,特别童真,小本子里都是中文,说,经常看着镜子说,哎, 怎么我脸上都是皱纹啊, 我觉得自己才16岁啊。 我心想,我才26岁,可是心态好像40岁了。 真的要努力回到他那样的天真状态啊。 他两天后给我发了一个短信, 说,I am just thinking of you and how impressed I was meeting you. Your english is better than mine and i love the way you are interested in new ideas and listen to all with oepn mind. You and young people like you are the best future of China, not like the older people with such prejudous ideas.Please take care and keep doing what you are doing.  我想,这个老头子再过20年就在这个地球上消失了,然后再过60年我也要消失了。 我们有过两个钟头的谈话, 仅仅而已, 两个短暂存在的一个时间点和空间点的交接,我们彼此都被改变了一点,仅仅而已。 What is the meaning of this?

Posted by cher @ 3:10 pm, January 6th, 2010

正在收拾行李,明天回家。妈妈电话过来问了要吃什么菜。差不多20双高跟鞋,和7,8个包,不能折,不能挤,收拾的我发誓再也不买鞋了。离开公司很愉快,大家都很理解,还开心在釜山吃了一顿烧烤。其中有个菜,硕大的整个香菇,里面夹着肉,铐的香香的,很好吃。 离开上海,希望在短期里不要回来这个无趣的连庸俗都没有自己风格的城市。 在家里稍稍休整,我就要回去我心爱的香港啦。和我一起去香港的同学没有一个喜欢香港,都觉得这是暂居之地。这而我是真心的爱上了这个岛。 在这里漫步,我觉得很安全,觉得我不会受任何人欺负,我可以完成我的梦想,只要我努力,我可以飞的很高,只要我想。 这是中国唯一一块可以让我舒心的忘记政治的地方,是我的避难所。

Posted by cher @ 9:38 pm, January 3rd, 2010

今天从厦门回来,看了一部纪录片,the corporation, 解构企业,满震撼的,推荐。

在鼓浪屿住了两天,在厦门住了一天。鼓浪屿很适合度假,很多陈旧的老房子,到处是绿色植物,还有很多有精致礼品的小店。其中一家叫潘小莲的芒果酸奶店,装潢别致,墙上都挂着色彩艳丽的热带植物的油画,卖的酸奶自己发酵的,清淡润滑,自制的椰子和芒果馅饼也很不错。旧房子之间的小巷子里有叫卖莲雾和青枣的人,我是第一次尝青枣,水分多而且清脆,非常喜欢。当地还有一种香煎豆腐,豆腐切成片,放上葱,加上五香粉,香味浓郁, 我大吃了两块。另有一家店叫太祖的店,卖各种当小食的紫菜,有辣的,有原味的,如果可以像海苔那样商业化推广开来,一定很受欢迎。

我的惊喜相遇还包括大同路上的瓦缸煨汤,连续去吃了两天,每一餐两菜一汤,不过30块,茶树古筒骨汤实在太赞了。唯一遗憾是没有吃到猪肚鸡,在广州吃过一次后念念不忘,这次特地查到一家福鑫记不错,太远没能去。

在厦门住宾馆,和几年没见的中学同学一聚,如果善良可以看出来,那么我这个同学就是那种未经污染的善良的人,面容上的表情的真挚和细腻,感情的丰富和幻想的纯真 ,都是那么清晰。 和她比起来,我觉得我其实表面上感性理想化,但是所有决定都是相当理性的。这位朋友最近遭遇到一些不幸的事情,我很想安慰她,可是没有办法。一些悲惨的事情至今没有降临到我身上,我虽然感谢上帝,但总是让自己准备好这些灾难的降临。因为生在这个世界上,毕竟还是苦多于乐的。尽管努力趋利避害,可是心智上一定要意识到自己没有强大到和命运较量。 我什么都不知道,什么悲痛都没有经历过,实在没有资格去安慰经历过深重的痛苦的人,只能默默的陪你一起流泪了。

虽然辞职了,这次旅行去放松一下,可是脑子里一直在想我下一步怎么办。我想干什么,我要怎么合理利用我的未来一年的时间。我不知道我想干什么职业,但是我想让自己更聪明,更健康,坚持锻炼,更好地了解商业是怎么运作的,并且多做一些工作,甚至一些体力活,去了解不同的机构的运作模式。我要对爸妈更好,更耐心的向他们解释我的想法,而不是嘲笑他们的不理解。 Lucy说她每年都作new year resolution,并且都能完成。希望自己也有行动力。

今天看到carl jung的几个quotes,蛮喜欢。

“Where love rules, there is no will to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.”

“Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism.”
Memories, Dreams, Reflections, 1962

Posted by cher @ 8:42 pm, December 30th, 2009

在上海的时间,最多就是lucy整天吃饭聊天,情同姐妹。Lucy是我见过最优秀的女孩,没有之一。不提她的容貌,气质,智慧,学历和事业,最可人的是她的纯真善良, 爱人如己, 和认真对待生活决不苟且的态度。 以后谁娶到lucy, 真是除我老公之外最幸福的男人啊。我们两个好多地方都很相似,最相似的就是按她的话说,是hopeless romantic,不可救药的向往浪漫完美的爱情和婚姻,在我们俩谈话里永恒的话题就是爱情和婚姻。今天说到,我俩小时候都希望自己是男孩,我现在也很希望自己是个男孩,如果是男孩,社会上限制少很多,自由空间也大很多,可以肆无忌惮的追女孩。而女孩,真的真的都是很好追的,而追人 比被人追要有意思好多。那我的生活会多有趣,毫无怀疑我会是出色的男朋友啊。上帝生我是女孩真的犯了大错!

Posted by cher @ 11:36 pm, December 26th, 2009

小时候,我临睡前的时候,偶尔会深深的沉浸在一种感觉中,就是我不存在,或者更准确地说,就是我存在这件事太奇怪了。这个大的宇宙,这个一个小小地球,竟然有这样一个所在,我有这样奇怪的身体,这样奇怪的表达方式,我们人类社会是按照这种一种方式运行着。如果我是一个观众,来看我们地球上发生的一切,我完全有理由觉得这是假的。 当时我觉得我爸妈都是假的,读书,每天的日常规律,都太怪了,为什么我要这么做。 这种想法往往只有几分钟,然我自己害怕了,就强迫自己不要那么想。这种感觉,我存在的这个世界并不存在,经常侵袭我。不久前的那晚,我很晚坐taxi经过隧道,昏黄的灯光,我突然又觉得自己在这世界上,这个像个虚假的舞台的世界上,只有我一个人清醒。我看黑客帝国的时候,被震惊到了,因为这个故事似乎突然解释了我从小有的那个感觉,至少编剧一定有过我曾经那种感觉。

我猜很小时候就有的这种感觉让我和其他小孩都有点不一样,有点对其他事情漠不关心的清高和寂寞的感觉。我只是每天的读书,独处, 看云,看树,看雨和雪。在校园里,我一个人走过的时候,总要把手放在修建过的灌木丛上,让手指在绿色植物上滑过。 也经常突然跳起来,去碰路边的树枝。 后来大了,也没有改变这样的习惯。我讨厌人,很少有长得好看的人, 但是几乎没有长得不好看的植物和小孩子。可是小孩子一旦长大,就开始无可避免地变丑。

我问过很多人,我知道很多人一辈子都没有这么想过,也肯定有人跟我有一样的想法。被放在这个世界上,给我一部分的而非完全的感知能力和自觉能力, 是一件多么痛苦的事情。Why we are here? What is the purpose? 为什么我觉得毫无意义的事情别人觉得有意义, 为什么我觉得特别重要的问题,别人不care.  我那么喜欢去教堂,大概是因为我误以为宗教会给我一个答案。 但是教堂里的人大部分都是蠢透了,教会很多时候是一个社交机构,不是寻求任何答案的地方。 商业, 政治, 宗教, 我想不出人类还能发明出比这些更蠢的东西么? 这些东西都是来困扰我们的,让我们互相压榨互相憎恨的。这些都是让一部分拥有更多权力来控制另一部分人的, 或者给我们活下去找各种理由。 这一出蹩脚的戏剧也不会太长,顶多到我死的那天,可是这么多蹩脚的演员让我不得不经常发一下这样的牢骚。

PS: 最近追完了lie to me, 现在在看广告狂人,mad men, 前者很出色,后者是太出色。 太聪明的戏,编剧不知道是什么脑袋。