Drucker on Learning and Knowledge

BusinessWeek called Peter Druker "the man who invented management". And while reading the book 'The Drucker Lectures', I'm just amazed at the breath and depth of the various topics Drucker lectured on. From philosophy to economics to sociology, he seamlessly integrated knowledge from different fields and sought to bring about greater efficiency for managers and in some cases, tried to lay out a roadmap for others to travel on.

Druker coined the term "Knowledge Worker", and his series of lectures on knowledge is extremely relevant especially to Singapore. We have no natural resources to export, we have little low end manufacturing in Singapore, so all that we are left with is the so called knowledge-based economy. Play around on this animation and you'll see the value and productivity of different industry in Singapore.

But what is knowledge? Druker first talked about information. He said that we are in an age (1986) of people drowning in data, not information. And we will have to learn that more is less, and that data is not information. And information is something that has to be selected. "Information is something that is pertinent to the task that can be converted into knowledge. And knowledge is information in action. One has to learn this."

With this growth in information, we will have many fewer layers of management and many more specialist. He drew on the analogy of a large symphony orchestra, where the triangle player has no ambition to become a bassoonist, and none to become first violin. And looking at university size, he lamented that with the growth in student population, sooner or later there'll be need for more vice president than student. It will be interesting to review the staff to faculty to student ratio in Singapore over the last 20 years.

Drucker drew on all branches of learning that he could. He said, "Every three or four years I pick a new subject. It may be Japanese art; it may be economics. Three years of study are by no means enough to master a subject but they are enough to understand it. SO for more than 60 years I have kept studying one subject at a time. That not only has given me a substantial fund of knowledge. It has also forced me to be open to new disciplines and new approaches and new methods--for every one of the subjects I have studied makes different assumptions and employs a different methodology."

His ability to bring knowledge and wisdom down from academic stratosphere into the nuts and bolts of what should be done is astonishing. He probably lived his life to the Confucius words: 博学之，审问之，慎思之，明辨之，笃行之。

13 Bankers

Just finished this amazing book called 13 Bankers. It discusses finance in a political setting. Essentially the struggle between pure laissez-faire economic system versus a tightly regulated banking system. It also discusses the regulation of banks from a historical perspective, and how the US achieved the lowest bank default rate post depression all the way till 1980s early.

It reminds me of my Accounting Theory course, where accounting standards setting is shown to be a political process. For instance, who gets the benefit of accounting for booking profit early say for a construction project? and can the people who benefits influence accounting standards?

Looking at Singapore's Accounting Standards Council board, it seems to me like a pretty balanced representation of different sectors in Singapore, but is everyone there as qualified as others to make accounting recommendations or does any member has great influence over others?

Also, a standard that is perhaps good for the stability of Singapore, for instance super conservative loan loss provision and prohibition of complex levered derivatives products, could mean that Singapore banks may not be able to compete effectively on an international arena. Furthermore, conservative accounting would usually lead to a lower earnings figure (relative to capital) compared to competitors, will this then lead to higher cost of capital which have a real economic impact on the competitiveness of our banks?

13 Bankers is an amazing book that strikes a balanced path in providing an end-of-book suggestion to such issues.

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读了以下论语篇章，觉得太有趣了。孔子不讲一些深不可知的道理，多讲立身处事的原则。但要每时每刻做到，也太难了。

子张学干禄。子曰：“多闻阙疑，慎言其余，则寡尤。多见阙殆，慎行其余，则寡悔。言寡尤，行寡悔，禄在其中矣。

意思大略是说一个人需要博学但同时要保存怀疑的的能力，不能变书呆子。说话要恰到好处，不可多说，多则容易失信。 即时见识广了，如有不安于心之事，依然不做。要做的事，须中道而行，无过无不及。如此则少后悔。这升官的方法就在其中。

Starting work in a month's time. It will be great to apply these principles daily, and not read and chuck it aside.

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Journey

Reading this book called Good Value by Stephen Green, Chairman of HSBC, who is also an ordained priest. A fun book to read detailing the history of man, urbanisation, and commerce and how it leads into the credit crises.

In the book, the following website - Journey of Mankind, was mentioned. In this interactive map, it shows us our origin and how mankind spread out and took over the known land. In particular, we see that we spread out from a single point, and finally 'meet again' after thousands of years as we take over more land. Then political and social pressure will mount, aka inter-state and inter-racial, and definition of sovereignty might even take on a new meaning.

While reading 论语, it laid out a road map to learning and constant renewal. Singapore loves to talk about 'skills upgrade' and 'technical upgrade'. However, witnessing the staff in my dad's office, i think that improvements and learning must be internally driven and not forced up by others. It pains me that while learning opportunities abound, many of them choose to stick to what's comfortable (and turning obsolete) then to just walk over to the other person and ask "How is this done, why?". When the next downturn comes...guess who will be at risk of being retrenched?

I love this line "学而不思则罔，思而不学则殆" 。baidu's explanation as follow: 一味的读书，而不思考，只能被书本牵着鼻子走，就会被书本所连累，从而受到书本表象的迷惑而不得甚解。所谓尽信书则不如无书。而只是一味的埋头苦思而不进行一定的书本知识的积累，进而对知识进行研究推敲，也只能是流于空想，问题仍然不会得到解决，也就会产生更多的疑惑而更加危险。只有把学习和思考结合起来，才能学以致用。

南怀瑾谈到这段，说了以下让人反思的话，“少年教育的问题，首先要注意他们的幻想，因为幻想是学问的基础... ...学问、事业... ...都建立少年时期这一段。一个人的一生，也只是把少年时期的理想加上学问的培养而以，到了中年事业就是少年理想的发挥。... ...思想没有学问去培养则‘殆’，危险。”

Watching NDP 2010, there was a video clips of kids telling Singapore their dreams and aspirations. I told my dad that there were only kids in the clip cuz if you interview the elderly, they'll tell you they dream that their ankles will not ache, if you interview housewives, they'll tell you they dream that their kids come home for dinner and show some appreciation. And if you ask most people in their 40s is this the life they thought they'll lead when then they were in their youth, most will tell us no.

Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children.
George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)

Inflation and Unemployment

It has been almost 2 months since I last blogged. Friends asked me what am I doing since I don’t start work till sept, and my answer has been always, Eat, Sleep, Read.

We all know that learnt unemployment and inflation is bad, but until we experience it ourselves, it is just ‘textbook’ talk. Since the day I was born, inflation has been benign and unemployment in Singapore was generally low. When I was in Argentina, I asked my guide what was it like during the Peso crises and general devaluation of peso (and inflation in local dollars). He said that many people lost their savings and affected their livelihood.

For instance, you could be working in Argentina collecting your pay in USD. Say you’ve saved $1,000 USD, which also translate to 1000 (Argentinean dollars) ARD before the devaluation. During the period of crises, bank will only allow you to withdraw in ARD even though you’ve deposited USD!!! If you insist on withdrawing in USD, they’ll convert it at the current (devalued) exchange rate and you’ll lose up to 30% of savings in a month! Also the super rich were withdrawing USD from local banks and depositing them in US banks, so local banks ran out of USD… bank run began and queues formed for days outside banks, ATMs got trashed, and many Argentineans who were studying overseas has to go back to Argentina because they can no longer afford expenses in USD.

Unemployement in South America is not low. From CIA Fact Book: Peru 8.1% Argentina - 8.7%, Chile – 9.6%, and official figures are probably under-reported. Through observation, you have a huge part of city life involved in daily protests on the streets. A very unproductive activity, all the squabbling yet nothing gets resolved. Also, when a person is unemployed and poor, he has got nothing to lose and no future to look forward to, law and order will not prevail. Anarchy follows. Economic destruction will tear apart a country's social fabric.

Percentage of population under poverty line: 20% (Chile), 44.5% (Peru) and 14.9% (Argentina). Looking at the young beggars on the streets who have their young ones strapped to their back, I can only see the vicious cycle of poverty repeating itself over the next generation. Very sad.

How fortunate that we are in Singapore! Unemployment 3.8%, Percentage of population under poverty line: Not Applicable!!!

Of course all statistic lies. At least these are not chronic problems in Singapore.

Me being currently fully unemployed, I see the risks that unemployment brings: you can sleep as late as you want, stay at home whole day in the clothes you wake up in, eat and watch Scrubs and True Blood (weird combi in know!) and then sleep as late as you want again. Soon, your brain goes numb, your body goes flabby and soon I’ll be like the crazy mom in the movie Precious. Ewww……So now I put in extra extra effort to stay industrious.

Benjamin Franklin on laziness:
1. Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the used key is always bright
2. Dost thou love life, then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of
3. Lost time is never found again
4. He that riseth late, must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night
5. Drive thy business, let not that drive thee
6. Industry need not wish
7. He that lives upon hope will die fasting
8. There are no gains, without pains
9. Plough deep, while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell and to keep
10. One today is worth two tomorrows
11. Have you somewhat to do tomorrow, do it today
12. Be ashamed to catch yourself idle
13. Let not the sun look down and say, inglorious here he lies