Yoav, Matti, and I mentioned about the incident at Muddy Charles last Friday where Matti was denied admission to. Matti asserted that the bouncer should have used his/her judgment on Mattis obviously mature looks as an indicator of being over 21 years of age. Yoav argued that U.S. is overly litigious and relying on appearance is a risk too much for businesses to bear. I think Yoav has a good point but I cant help but to wonder where do common sense and human judgment have in todays society? Are we so enslaved to rules and so sensitive of mitigating ones liability that common sense and human judgment are merely after-thoughts. Case in point, read the following news where an ambulance was clamped down for parking in an parking spot reserved for emergency use at the Dublin Airport. Even if the ambulance was violating the no-parking rule, a simple phone call could have been made to the ambulances company for verification.

2/19/2005 2:58:36 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [15]

Thoughts

The topic of today's Marketing class is "Do most innovations come out of systematic thinking or a "spark of genius?" I really enjoyed the last 2 marketing classes by Professor Ariely. As usual, Professor Ariely kept the class lively, which made the 3 hours lecture a little more tolerable. Anyway, the crux of today's lecture was about how most people are able to recognize good ideas but aren't able to come out with ideas, hence the common phrase "Why didn't I think of it myself?" So is creativity intrinsically a product of a genius or can we become more creative through systematic analysis of products and their attributes? The lecture went on with the notion that businesses can’t just use market research to come out with very creative ideas. Sometimes, users may not provide enough insights. Perhaps this is the reason why the most innovative ideas are the result of the so-called "spark of genius." So for the rest of us, there are many systematic methodologies to analyze the market and create innovative products. In closing, the later half of the lecture focused on 2 specific mechanisms in systematic marketing creativity - attribute dependency and replacement.

Anyway, here are some of the really funny and creative advertisements that the professor showed in class.

2/18/2005 2:57:36 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [0]

School

Since attending the last 50k competition event last week, I have been receiving emails about upcoming events relating to 50k competition. Last night's event was an informal pizza dinner/get-together to discuss about energy related technology as well as identifying compatible participants to form teams for the competition. Once again, I was over dressed with suit and tie for the occasion as I had mistaken the event as a formal dinner. Yeah, I did appear looking like a sleazy well-dressed student from the management school. Note to self, unless explicitly told, dont ever wear a tie and suit to any MIT event. Gosh, I am a geek and I am hanging out with geeks now. It's ok to be scruffy. Nonetheless, this is the best 50k meeting that I have attended so far. It was very informative and I really found myself surrounding by some of the brightest minds in energy technology and research. I can see why 50k kick-off events are melting pots of technologists looking for business people to commercialize their ideas, while business people looking for opportunities with new technology emerging out from the labs of MIT. We openly discussed some great novel energy technology and business ideas on how we can capitalize them. I dont think I am ready for the competition yet nonetheless it was a good learning experience (and good pizza).

2/17/2005 2:51:37 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [13]

Entrepreneurship

So I met the 2 guys who invited me to form a team with them to enter the MIT 50k competition. Unfortunately, I really thought that their proposed idea was too complicated for entry to the competition. It would require a lot of research and planning to write a good business plan and proposal to convince the judges that the business model is sound. I think the idea is fairly good but project would be time consuming. Consequently, I decided not to join the team and wished them good luck.

I went for my first outside run of the year earlier tonight. I think I am doing well for my triathlon training. I just need to start practicing swimming soon. But what I really need is swimming lessons to improve my strokes. There are some semi-private swimming lessons that I can take at MIT but I need to buddy up with at least a person to qualify for it. So anyone interested?

2/15/2005 2:50:30 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [23]

Entrepreneurship

Let me start off by making a "Note to Self" -Do not reuse pots if they are not washed even if they look clean and hygienic. My gastrointestinal discomfort due to my cooking (yeah, my cooking) kept up most of the night before. Surprisingly, I was able wake up feeling fully rested for System Optimization class. I was able to focus much better today than I did last week. System Optimization is a 3 hour-long lectureand can be intensive at times but I have discovered that the best way to learn and understand the material is to pay attention at class. The professor, David Simchi-Levi is not only well-known in the field of supply chain and planning, but a very engaging lecturer. The professor enjoys asking students questions during the class. One can tell who the smarter ones are since they are often the ones who would answer the most difficult questions promptly and accurately. I am just an average Joe but John, Matt, Matti, Steve, and Uday are in a different class of their own.

Today's ERBA recitation, which I am somewhat ambivalent to, was a disaster. There were connection problems with the long-distance students and every student had a different question for the TA that he needs to answer within an hour. Needless to say, we didn't cover a lot of material in the class today. But to the TA defense, it was tough for him since the level of math background in the class is IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) multifarious. Some students complained that the class is a cakewalk while a few are simply buried in the rigorous statistics requirements of the class. To be honest, I did struggled a little with ERBA but once I understand the concepts, which thanks to a large part to Spiros for explaining, it isn't bad at all. A lot of people mentioned that there's very little use of ERBA in their profession. I respectfully disagree, I think as an engineer we need to have a good understanding of statistics and probability. While ERBA is not purely a statistics class, I find that the review useful and who knows we may learn a few tools or techniques that may help us in our job in the future.

We had a lecture on Intellectual Property by a guest lecturer who worked at the MIT Technology Licensing Office (TLO) at today's Product Design & Development class. He mentioned that in his 10 years of work at MIT TLO, he has seen about 45,000 inventions, which about half of these inventions were filed for patents. Only 5 inventions didn't get patented. The moral of the story is that if you have a great idea, file for a patent; the chances of getting a patent grant is greater than you think.

2/15/2005 2:48:33 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [18]

School

You are welcome Yoav for thanking me for blogginig regularly. Let me return my thanks to Yoav and Matti who reintroduced blogging back to my life again. I am not an eloquent or prolific writer, but I have found blogging conducive to improving my writing skills. I have also discovered blog as a good way to share my life and thoughts to others, especially my friends. No more repeating the same story any more, I just tell my friends to read my blog. Furthermore, with blogging my thoughts are captured at the moment I write my blog.

The schoolworkload has been very light this weekend, I was able to finish my ERBA homework and put in some hours to my professional work. My friend, Joanna is in town and so a few of us went to Legal Sea Foodsfor dinner and followed by attending a party organized mainly by BU students at Tantric. I felt really happy for Joanna who will be graduating from U of Chicago buisness school this summer and marrying Zack this fall. I will be booking a flight to Detroit (Rock City) to attend the wedding very soon.

2/12/2005 2:44:14 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [13]

Blog

Dan Ariely taught the Friday session of Innovation in the Marketplace class, which I found to be one of the most interactive class so far. He really engaged the students, especially the distance students in class discussion, which unfortunately Sky (our classmate) was busted for dozing when he asked him a question. But to the distance students' defense, the volume and latency of the class broadcast are known to be badand Sky may not have heard the question clearly. Nonetheless, we covered a lot in a 3 hour session, which can be summed up in the following:

• Frame the question right and ask it at the right time and place (aka my stupid remark of the day).
• Intel has created something that the customers dont feel directly yet we want to buy Intel products because the product where the chip is used is labeled as "Intel Inside". Ah... the power of branding.
• If there was no need or potential need there was no way to create a product, but finding need can be very hard.

A few of us went to Muddy Charles after class; unfortunately Matti was turned down by the bouncer who requested for I.D. for proof of being 21 or over. As you can see, Matti is Finnish and being relatively new to this country he does not have a driver license, which in the U.S.A. that's our only source of identification that can be carried in a wallet. So for Matti to get into any bar inthe U.S. he has to carry his passport with him, which I think it's utterly stupid. Both Yoav and Matti were right, if one can vote at 18, why not has the right to consume alcohol? But Matti's argument is that the bouncer should be able to see that he is over 21. So how about it? Should a bouncer use good judgment or is the proof of identity required at all times to determine one's age?

Anyway, after consuming 3 glasses of beer, I went to the Z-center and worked out with Cenkhan. I was doing much better with my running that night. Eventually, I need to start incorporating swimming and running to my weekly exercise if I am going to sign up for a triathlon this summer. This is a tall order (don't give me grief if I don't end up doing a triathlon). There isso much to do but so little time.

2/11/2005 2:42:34 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [13]

School

I realized I have been quoting Yoav in my last few blogs but what the heck. Well for our 15.980/ESD.936 - Product Design & Development (PDD) class, we had selected a team of 7 people to design, develop, and market a product that is based out of Yoav's proposed idea. The team will be given $1,000 that can be spent on the design and fabrication of the product, which will become the final project for this class. This is going to be an exciting and fun class.

Finally, I am in agreement with Yoav on something. I agree with Yoav on the guest speaker at Thursday's thesis seminar. I wished that he would have skipped the first half of his talk on the World Wide Web and Web Service, and go right into RFID, which I find fascinating. But to Professor John Williams's credit, he was able to explained Web Service eloquently to the people who has not been involved in Information Systems. Even though I have been using C# and .NET professionally to implement enterprise web and desktop solutions at my work place, I get uncomfortable when faculty members show strong bias towards commercial programming language like C#, Visual Basic, Delphi and even Java (well unless SUN relinquish control of Java to the open standard/source community, it's still a commercial product IMHO).

2/10/2005 2:40:45 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [16]

School

I went to the MIT 50k competition kick-off event last night. For those of you who dont know what the 50k competition is, it is a competition at MIT where students form teams to propose an idea or product (often the result of some research on campus)that has huge business potential. Teams with the best business plan wins. Entrants get to meet venture capitalists and other industry contacts that may fund or help launch entrants' own companies. In fact, 50k competition has given birth to some very successful companies in past, like Akamai, net.Genesis, Virtmed, etc. I didn't have any agenda going to the 50k event other than checking it out. There were 2 guest speakers that night who talked about the do's and don'ts of entrepreneurship. One was the co-founder of net.Genesis and the other the found of NewMerix and Service Metrics. There were also a few venture capitalists that night, although I didn't get the chance to talk to them. But seriously, it wasn't as extravagant as it sounds. It was my first experience in such event and I found the atmosphere to be very causal and cordial. To my surprise, you don't have to have a great idea to participate in 50k. Is like this, people match up with people who complements their own skills and talents. Diversity is critical to any successful enterprise. Every team member of an enterprise contributes something important, people with big ideas or vision will look for people of other talents and vice versa. I was surprised that a few people talked to me regarding opportunities in forming a team but I doubt I have the time for it. However, I am definitely looking forward to the 50k competition in the fall. This should give me the whole summer to think about the next big idea.

2/10/2005 2:32:10 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [17]

Entrepreneurship

I thought if I had most of the difficult questions in my ESD.72 Engineering Risk & Benefit Analysis (ERBA) homework done, I would have more free time that night. I was wrong. I drafted the homework solutions on scratch papers and they weren't in a presentable format. So I literally have to spend a lot of time cleaning and rewriting the solutions onto a more presentable form. I started working on the homework at 1am after slacking off at the Z-center, talking to my mother,and adding "Steal These Buttons" on my blog. I thought I would finish the problem set by 2pm. Well, I didn't go to bed till 5am again, thanks to the ball-busting task of expanding an 8th order factorized polynomial equation problem, which I ended spendinga lot of time on. For those of you who have not attempted this before, it is both stupid and senselessly time-consuming. In any case, I overslept and went to the ERBA class late. Worse, I didn't actually get to finish expanding the ridiculously long polynomial equation till 1 hour after class. The TA was a little stern and expressed dissatisfaction when I submitted my homework even an hour late. He warned that he will penalize any late submission in the future. Yikes!

Nonetheless, I find todays ERBA lecture interesting. The professor talked about Bayesian probability and how it can be applied to help make important decision, in particular the choice of doors in an execution room to open so that you wont get electrocuted. Unlike my classmate Yoav, I do find ERBA interesting. In fact, I have found it interesting enough that I signed up for the 12-unit full version of ERBA instead of the 9-unt abridged version of the same class that the SDM students are required to take. Let me finish this blog and get an early shut-eye tonight. Yawn...

2/9/2005 2:31:15 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [17]

School

I think System Optimization is now my favorite class this semester. The professor in this class, David Simchi-Levi promotes active discussions during his lectures. The material also relates very well to the nature of my professional work, which is operations management and decision support. Regretfully, I didn't pay too much attention in his class today since I only got less than 3 hours of sleep last night. I didn't get to sleep till 5am last night as I tried to finish the assignment for this class, which was due at the end of the class. I made some irreversible revisions to the model that I needed to optimize, consequently screwing my entire model. Anyway, thanks to Uday who gracefully helped me to rectify the problem, I was able to complete the homework by the end of the lecture.

Yahoo! I actually got the homework for Engineering Risk & Benefit Analysis (ERBA) done before 4pm today. With the free time that I got, which doesn't come often these days, I went to the Zesiger center to workout. Since coming to MIT, I have lost count of the number times I came here to work out. This is a beautiful fitness facility, which I thought was 10 times better than the health gym that I was with before coming to MIT. I did some running, lifting, and stretching at the Z tonight. My ankle is doing much better now than a month ago and I slowly ramping up my running to prepare for some races in spring and summer. In my desire todo a triathlon this summer, I just joined the MIT triathlon yesterday to participate in their training programs. Right now, I handling my studies, work, sports, and social activities quite well but I don't how long I can hold up. We'll see, stay tuned...

2/8/2005 2:07:38 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [17]

School

My good buddy, Brian Squibb decided to quit his high-paying job in San Francisco and started traveling around the world. He just emailed me the link to his travel blog. Let's see what misadventures he can find.

Not to be outdone by Brian, I started my own travel blog. The only problem is that I am currently stuck in Cambridge, Massachusetts attending school. I need to start filling that blog soon. Yes, I know I have to get a better picture than the one that is currently on my travel blog.

2/8/2005 2:06:53 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [12]

Blog