From Wikipedia, rationality is broadly described as "All that is required for an action to be rational is that if one believes action X (which can be done) implies Y, and that Y is desirable, he or she does X. The action would likewise be avoided were Y undesirable. Such arguments are logically valid but not necessarily logically sound." And being logically sound requires good human judgment.

So as humans do we make a decision based primarily our intelligence or impulse? As the title of his book Predictably Irrational may suggests, Dan Ariely thinks it is the latter. In a span of a week, I have seen or heard about the book from different sources. I first heard about the book when the author was being interviewed on NPR last week. Yesterday, I saw the book on the shelves in a bookstore in San Francisco. Earlier today, my friend Siobhan, sent me this link to the New York Times review of the book. The author is also one of the 2 co-professors of a marketing class I took at MIT 3 years ago (gosh, has it been that long). Here is the blog entry about my thoughts about his class.

As an economic junkie and a Freakonomics fan, I am attracted to the content of Ariely's book. Maybe I should go pick a copy up and read it on my red eye flight from San Francisco to Boston tomorrow.

2/27/2008 11:53:00 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

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Book

Modern business, lifestyle, and culture are creeping into the mainstream in Laos. The country is changing fast and in the face of enormous economic change, great opportunities can be created. I can relate to a story of how a Lao girl react to economic change in her local turf.

In Vientiane, Laos, where I worked, there is a strip of land by the Mekong River known as the Mekong Promenade (or Fa Ngum) where traditional streetside food vendors set up makeshift stalls selling delicious Lao food.

In recent years new beer gardens and riverside restaurants have opened up in the area. Mekong Deck, one of the newer modern beer gardens with a stylish modern decor opened for business in around September 2007. I visited Mekong Deck a lot while I was working in Vientiane since my roommate and I knew the people who own the bar. Honestly, Mekong Deck is a wonderful place to nurse a glass of Beer Lao and enjoy the evening tropical breeze by the Mekong River.

Whenever I was at the Mekong Deck, I saw this little girl, about 12 years old, with nice complexion and beautiful eyes selling inflatable figures. Every night, she would walk from one end of the promenade where the streetside food vendors are located to the other end where the chic bars and restaurants are. She would hold these inflated figures usually of animals and sometimes of super-heroes, like Spiderman, while making rounds on the circuit selling toys to patrons there. Regretfully, her business hasn't been doing well. I have never seen a sellout of her inventory. Some nights, I see her getting mad by stomping her feet and yelling at customers for not being able to sell her toys. And then there are nights when she was just sad and disappointed. Ally, a girlfriend of my roommate, and I sympathized with the girl. We really wanted to do something to help her out. One doesn't need an MBA to realize that this is a classical example of adapting to the market and selling the right product. In business lingo, what she needs is the 2 Ps (out of 4) of marketing: placement and product. In terms of placement, we need to recognize that the market is changing at the Mekong Promenade. The demographic trend is towards a younger, affluent, and sophisticated crowd. More importantly, most people go to the Mekong Promenade at night to drink. So she needs a product that specifically targets these people. And what better way to entice a drinking crowd than peanuts. Since I can only speak "baby" Lao (a level of mastery where I can "get by," ie. ordering food and getting around town), I had Ally to speak to the little girl in their native language. We didn't baffle her with the Ps of marketing. Our message was direct and simple. We simply told her: "Go sell some peanuts. Everyone at this beer garden wants peanut." She first reacted by shrugging her shoulders and then asked if we want to buy an inflatable figure from her. We repeated our message to her. She then stared at us for a good 2 seconds before walking away looking disappointed that we didn't buy a balloon from her. Sigh... Maybe I should have bought a toy from her just to get her full attention. In any case, I hope she took our advice and is successful in what she does. I hate seeing her feeling, frustrated and disappointed every night.

2/14/2008 2:31:26 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

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Business

Wikipedia offers the following description of the classical prisoner's dilemma:

Two suspects, A and B, are arrested by the police. The police have insufficient evidence for a conviction, and, having separated both prisoners, visit each of them to offer the same deal: if one testifies for the prosecution against the other and the other remains silent, the betrayer goes free and the silent accomplice receives the full 10-year sentence. If both remain silent, both prisoners are sentenced to only six months in jail for a minor charge. If each betrays the other, each receives a five-year sentence. Each prisoner must make the choice of whether to betray the other or to remain silent. However, neither prisoner knows for sure what choice the other prisoner will make. So this dilemma poses the question: How should the prisoners act?

The dilemma can be summarized thus:

Basically, each prisoner has only two choices:

1. Betrays or defects
2. Cooperates and stays silent

Moreover each prisoner must choose without knowing what his accomplice has chosen, thereby making the situation more interesting. But for any prisoner, the dominant strategy is to defect. If the prisoner B stays silent, it would be better for prisoner A to defect. Even if prisoner B defects, it would still be better for prisoner to defect as he/she will be serving 5 years instead of 10. But here's the rub: since all rational players will defect (all things being equal), each prisoner will end up serving 5 years in prison. The system optimal solution is for both to cooperate so that if both prisoners stay silent, they each serves 6 months. In other words, cooperation is the way to go.

What makes prisoner's dilemma even more interesting is how it can be used to explain the one of the behaviors I commonly witness when I was traveling in Asia: the lack of cooperation. I have observed that the lack of social cooperation (sometime it is just downright selfishness) is pervasive in many Asian societies (there are exceptions but the attitude of "everyone for him/herself" seems to be most entrenched in most developing Asian countries). Try taking the subway in China or driving in India, and you will know what I mean. I am no saint myself. Within hours of assimilation in a new city in Asia, I, too, think "If everyone is looking out for him or herself. Why shouldn't I?" That said, my argument isn't a moral diatribe or even a criticism of any sorts. But rather how I can explain traffic gridlock in China and India using the concepts of the prisoner's dilemma.

I have seen it so many times in China and India, people there love to run the red light and most often than not, creating a gridlock that looks like this:

I was traveling on a taxi from New Delhi to Jaipur two months ago. Halfway through the journey, J.K. the taxi driver and I, came to an intersection in a town where the traffic was heavy. As we were about to cross the intersection, the red light came on. Even though there was simply no room to maneuver ahead, every driver in the moving traffic including J.K. floored the pedal and raced ahead as if stopping behind a red light was a death sentence. But in doing so, we actually created something that very much looked like the scene in the picture above. We wasted a good 3 minutes as drivers rushed to untangle the mess they had created. So I asked J.K. whom I had got to know very well by now why he and everyone around him did this even though it doesn't serve anyone any good. With a thick Indian accent, he answered: "We always have to get ahead." I said: "But J.K. there's a reason why we need to stop at the red light." He responded: "No sir, you won't survive if you play nice."

I disagree with J.K. I don't think cooperation is a sign of weakness or niceness. If J.K. was the only person running the red light, that's fine by me since the traffic would still flow. But if everyone is doing it, that's a different story. On the contrary, when drivers actually cooperate and observe traffic rules (a system optimal solution for everyone involved), we can all get through it a little faster by avoiding a traffic carnage. Indeed, I read it from somewhere before that selfishness can go hand in hand with cooperation. So I think the lesson of the prisoner's dilemma in real life is: whether you are altruistic or selfish, the best strategy over the long term should be mutual cooperation.

2/12/2008 11:58:41 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

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Business

Economics was my favorite subject when I was studying at MIT. Asia, a continent currently experiencing enormous economic reforms and change, offers a rich source of displays of economic unraveling. In coming weeks, I hope to employ the principles of economics and recount some interesting observations that I experienced while traveling in Asia. I don't claim to be an authority on economics or an expert in Asian culture, besides I am doing this mainly to explore the linkages between management science and some real cases that I observed in Asia. So please enrich the discussion with your comments.

2/10/2008 11:35:41 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

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Travels

I didn't have a great camera when I was traveling in Asia recently. In fact, my Canon digital camera broke on the first day I was in India. I had to resort to using my camera phone for the rest of my trip there. I have been lucky with photo taking, especially with sunset as being the subject. I happened to be at the right place and the right time to capture some amazing sunsets and silhouettes. Here are some of the best sunset pictures that I took. See here for complete collection.

2/9/2008 2:36:20 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

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Travels

Happy new year everyone -- belated greeting I know, but like they say: it's better late than never.

It has been so long since I last blogged. I have been traveling in Asia the past 6 months, leaving little time to blog. Alright, I also have to admit that I was being unmotivated and lazy to blog at times. But after returning home from my travels, I have been hankering for an outlet to express myself. So starting today, I will make an effort to start blogging again. Stay tuned.

2/8/2008 11:03:03 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

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Blog

One of the objectives of my grand tour of Asia, which I have embarked a few months ago, is to visit the three countries that comprise French Indochina: Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. I have always been intrigued by the history and culture of this exotic region. My initial fascination by Indochina stems from romantic novels and movies on this region -- the excitement and mystery associated with Indochina are hard to beat. Needless to say, not all movies accurately depict the true character of these countries. Further reading on history and serious literature helped me to understand the their historical and cultural background, but I was also further intrigued to visit these countries. My long time wish was finally fulfilled when I finally visited these three countries. I even did a volunteering stint in Laos for 2+ months and hence spent significant time with the people and learned much about their culture and language.

Vietnam is the bustling of the trio. In Vietnam, your sensory gets overloaded with sight (beautiful natural wonders and dynamic urban habitat), sounds (my love-and-hate relationship of cacophony of motorbikes, people and of course the constant sound of the horn), and taste (Vietnamese food is among the most delicious food around). Let not also forget the beautiful Vietnamese woman, whom I consider to be the most exquisite in S.E. Asia. Visiting Vietnam today reminds me of China 10-15 year. Its nascent economic boom, evident by the sheer number of new factories built on the outskirts of Hanoi and the drastically improved standard of living, is indeed visible and real. Someone in Vietnam told me that just 7 years ago, the primary mode of transportation of the people was the bicycle, today it is the motorcycle or the moped. This is no surprise. The Vietnamese are known for their energy and resourcefulness. They are no pushovers either. As evident in their history, the Vietnamese fought off invaders (too many to list), sometimes lost; but they always rebel and somehow managed to beat off the invaders.

I was unimpressed with Cambodia at first. Then came ambivalence. Finally, a strange love and hate relationship about the country. Initially, I found Cambodians rather skeptical of strangers, the infrastructure of the country crumbling (although has been rapidly improving over the past 3 years and not as bad as some other countries), and yes, police still as corrupted (yep, I had a close encounter with Cambodian finest). But as I immense in the culture and learn of their proud yet sometimes profoundly tragic history, I started to enjoy my stay there. Cambodians do open up once they know you better. They are proud of their heritage and seem to embrace economic progression. In Cambodia, there is something that has become the indispensable national symbol of Cambodia. The flag of Cambodia has it, the banknote has it, the sign of a local store has it; Angkor Wat appears on virtually everything in Cambodia. But does actual Angkor Wat lives up to my expectation. Absolutely yes. The pride of Cambodia is simply divine. And divine it is. The whole complex is a must-see for anyone traveling in the region. Don't just visit the temple of Angkor Wat itself, there are plenty other temples which are just as impressive. It seems that long time ago there was a competition among ancient kings to build temples that are more refined and impressive than those built by their predecessor. As much as I adore Angkor Wat, my favorite temple complex is the mystical Bayon with its awe-inspiring 4-faced Buddha statues. To me, the Bayon is the epitome of Khmer architecture and refinement. But Cambodia's history is also of war and atrocities. The Pol Pot's regime committed some of the worst atrocities in S.E. Asia. Some 1.5 million (estimates vary from 1 to 3 million) were murdered, sent to labor camps, or died of starvation between 1975 and 1979. The genocide eventually spilled over to Vietnam and in late 1978, the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia over the massacres of several of its bordering villages by the Khmer Rogue. Finally, by 1979, the Pol Pot's regime was put to an end by the Vietnamese.

Last but not least, there is Laos, which is arguably the most laid-back country in S.E. Asia. If you are looking for a country with still an immaculate environment (cultural and physical), then this is the country to visit. There are still large tracts of natural forest and mountain in the country. But Laos is a country that is about the people as much as it is about the land. I thoroughly enjoyed my long stay in Laos because of the stress-free, relaxing atmosphere and the people whom I consider to be some of most benevolent. Vientiane, the city where I lived while volunteering for a non-profit organization, is one of the most unassuming city I have ever been to. By most standards, Vientiane the capital of Laos and the largest city in the country doesn't feel like a city at all. It has a small-town feel and no hustle bustle or big-city treats. Once you are in Vientiane, time slows down to a trickle and that's a "big" city. In rural areas time can virtually come to a standstill. But that's the appeal of Laos, its unflustered and unhurried attitude. So sip a glass of Beer Lao, a local (and only) favorite, and enjoy watching the world go by.

10/18/2007 8:03:44 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Travels

The term social entrepreneurship has become increasingly popular in recent years as more universities worldwide are initialing programs that educate future social entrepreneurs and as more firms are established with business model that has positive social impacts. From Wikipedia, the term social entrepreneurship is defined as "a work of a social entrepreneur who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change." One pioneering organization that embodies such principle is Digital Divide Data (DDD), an IT outsourcing and digitization organization with a social mission of providing economic development to the local communities in Laos and Cambodia. For the last 3 months, it was a privilege for me to be volunteering at their office in Vientiane, Laos (which explains my absence at my blog due to my busy schedule).

On the surface, DDD functions very much like a profit-driven company. Operations are based and sales derived from digitization and data processing services that the organization provides. But to say that DDD is a commercial venture is not entirely true. Registered as a non-profit organization, DDD still depends on donations for good reason and cause. The organization continues to initiate many social-economic programs that improve the lives of the local communities, especially the disabled people. DDD established free education courses in English and other business subjects to the local communities. In a country where there is a general lack of talents, such programs do and have made large impact to the local economy. This model of balancing between both social and commercial objectives works is based out of an old Chinese proverb "Give a man a fish, feed mim for a day; teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime." DDD often provides possible employment to the students after graduation from DDD. Ultimately, the social goal for DDD is, whether a person stays or leaves the organization, he/she will undoubtedly end up as a productive contributor to his/her country economy and improving his/her life -- hence "feeding" him/her for a lifetime.

10/9/2007 11:47:47 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Social

After days of "cleaning," cropping, tagging, and organizing, I am pleased to announce that the photos from my recent dive trip to Sipadan are finally available for viewing on . Since some of you asked, the photo collection from the previous dive trip to Manado is also available here.

Slideshows to these photo collections:

• Sipadan 2007
• Manado 2006

8/4/2007 5:31:27 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Scuba Diving

Our stay at Seaventures, an oil rig that has been converted to a dive resort, was very pleasant. When I first looked into diving and accommodation at Sipadan , Seaventures was recommended by some who had stayed there before. The rate for staying and diving at Seaventures is cheaper than other resorts around Sipadan (except those in Semporna, but the downside is the hour long boat ride from to Sipadan). Ultimately, it is the novelty of staying and diving from an oil rig is that what drove me to select Seaventures. And that was a decision I didn't regret.

When we first arrived at Seaventures after a 45 minute boat ride from Semporna, we were greeted by a big elevator which was lowered from the upper main deck to pick the passengers from the boat. The whole platform is raised about 15m above sea level. The main deck houses the dinning area, diving station, a part of the staff quarter, and offices. The area where the drill tower normally resides has been converted to a dinning area where guests come not only have their meals but to socialize and relax. Dinning tables dot the most of the area with a few sunbathing chairs and sofas on the edge. Three meals are served at the dinning area everyday. Similar to a typical live aboard, water, coffee, tea, and other hot beverages along with light snacks like bread and biscuit are available for free every time. Beer and soft drinks cost extra. The dishes served for lunch and dinner are mostly Malaysian and very delicious. Adjacent to the dinning area is the diving station where the real action takes place. It is here the divers get geared up for their dives. While the rental equipment there aren't in tip top condition, they are functional -- but then again, I have yet to find a dive operator that offers immaculate rental equipment. One thing that I appreciate from Seaventures ground staff is the quality of their filled air. The resort director Joe had indicated to me that the center change the air filter in the air compressor regularly to ensure that the filled air in their tanks is clean, making it more pleasant for divers to breathe underwater. The rooms at Seaventures are like, well, living quarters of an oil rig. Each room has an air conditioner and bathroom. Nothing extravagant but functionally comfortable.

At Seaventures, you can dive as many times as you want -- limited by your surface intervals -- in the waters immediately below the oil rig between the hours of 6am to 8pm daily. But house dives can be boring as the area around the rig is quite devoid of interesting marine life. Much better dives are found in nearby Mabul, which arguably has the best muck diving in the area, and slightly further Sipadan. Nonetheless, you can't beat the convenience of diving right from the oil rig -- just don the scuba gear and jump right in. In the day, Seaventures organizes day trips to these islands. Divers are ferried on speed boats. Boat ride to Sipadan and Mabul take about twenty minutes and one minute respectively. A typical diving schedule in the day is as follows: two dives at Sipadan in the morning, then back to Seaventures for lunch, followed by an optional house dive on your own accord, and finally a dive in Mabul in late afternoon. Because there are no organized boat trips in the evening, you do house dives. Alternatively, you can charter a boat for 250 MYR (Malaysian Ringgit), which can be split among interested divers, to ferry you and fellow divers to dive in nearby Kalapai or Mabul.

Most of the divers I met at Seaventures were experienced divers. In fact, several professional dive masters and dive instructors from other various dive resorts across S. E. Asia were taking vacation at Seaventures while I was there -- that's right, diving professionals taking diving vacation. Nonetheless, this doesn't mean that the dive resort only caters to experienced divers. But being a world renown dive location, Sipadan seems to attract the more hardcore divers. The local staff at Seaventures are cordial and competent. Our dive master is the ever genial Eve (pronounced as duo syllabi E-Vi). Always cheerful, we practically heard her laughter even underwater.

While it wasn't my best dive vacation, I did had a good time at Seaventures. If staying and diving form an oil rig appeals you, then this affordable sea resort with a down-to-earth attitude is definitely the place to stay when you are at Sipadan.

8/2/2007 11:48:49 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Scuba Diving