Category Archives: Random Thoughts

Random Thoughts

A year in uneasy solitude

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“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” – Albert Einstein

It is the end of another year on calendar, Year 2020, a Chinese Yang Metal Rat year. No other time in the past as I have experienced, has people so willingly wish to pass faster and move on quicker to the next. In the other years by this time, it was more the feeling of panic watching time once again slipped mysteriously away, and of aged unfruitfulness paralyzing us from tearing down the last page of the calendar on the wall. This year has been different to many.

Call it Nature’s response or not, Mother Nature apparently is kind enough to warn us when we may be heading for some infinite abyss or irreversible disaster. This year as if Mother Nature has pushed a PAUSE button in human society’s blinding dizziness in fast forward developments, consumptions, money, technology, population, conflicts … Instead of another year of hypergrowth, we got lockdowns, isolations, quietness, goodbyes, and for luck ones, the uneasy solitude – as if the seeming peace is all but temporary in an alternative reality.

Humans are conceited animals. We rarely observe the feedback of our path chosen with wise minds either constantly or periodically. We like to leave that exercise to a few historians. We march full speed ahead just like any large moving herd, except when somehow get stopped in that path with stunning failures. This year can be marked as one of those “stopping” moment. We in fact have experienced quite a disaster this year already, but are we ready to accept the warning and adjust? Likely not to many.

We saw reactions of all kinds in the face of a crisis that COVID 19 has unfortunately thrown to us. Many of those reactions were similar to children who simply couldn’t believe that their wishes of candies, toys or games could be abruptedly denied. We yelled, cried, cursed, kicked, struggled as hard as we could, but in the end in order not to journey to the underworld too soon, we had to quiet down and went back to our caves to start thinking. It is said that there is an uptick in the interests of science, history, religion, supernatural and esoteric from this year in the general public, but we only heard a few faint voices to question the path that we are on and our way of ardent pursuits in our daily life.

To accept changes is hard. It is even harder to change the way we think – because that needs knowledge, intelligence, wisdom of the ages, and most of all, will and willingness of the mass.

Mother Nature may have many more PAUSE buttons in-line to save us before hopelessly abandon all the creatures of this planet. Everything has a beginning and an end, along with the universe we are in. We may be able to find another place to leave our human’s ingenious marks, but would that be so much different than this one? Would that last forever?

As a Chinese proverb mentions, solitude is enjoyed only when one is at peace with oneself. It’s far from a peaceful world at the moment and we are all in it trying to find peace and balance in the utter uneasiness. May next year offer us more peace and time for true reflection.

Random Thoughts

With AI, Are We Really out of Hope as Humans?

“What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.” – Bertrand Russell

The world is a hot bed for AI evolution at the moment. We believe so ardently our human ingenuity can make machines think just as fast as ourselves and even faster. We expect that they will expand our cognitive abilities and make us smarter in our dealings. We are beginning to design our ideal selves from our minds to reality with human-looking robots. The progress in chip technologies, algorithms and material science will surely make these robots more human-like than ever.  It seems it’s only a matter of time that the level of AI may indeed on par with humans to handle many of our daily business.

When robots can think, talk and walk just like humans with faster brains on many daily things, are we, those biological humans without technological modifications,  going to become of a lesser intelligence? The answer can be both: yes, if we stay the same way we live and think today;  and no, if we believe that as nature’s creation, biological humans also evolve with time and capable of adapting to changes. On appearance, we as humans look the same as our great-grand-parents  or great-great-grand-parents from centuries ago, but our life styles, life challenges we face,  information we receive,  and many capabilities required of us are no longer the same. Our brain evolves, as well as our capable level of intelligence.

Yet, we are shaped by what we have created. Whether it is a world of overwhelming information or superfluous connectivity, it triggers us to adapt physically and mentally. Automation, smart AI, etc. are going to help us everywhere, at home, at work, and on the road. However, as the technologies are getting smarter, are they making us smarter?

More than likely the answer is the opposite over time. As humans rely more on machine logics and help, our brain activities in fact decrease with time.  We may become part of a machine evolution – we think in machine logic and follow machines’ orders more than we trust the messages from our own brain or body. Maybe some of us will become “superhuman” with technological help,  or become super biological geniuses, but after all, it will not be the majority.

The convergence of physical, digital and biological world is considered as the central theme of the Fourth Industrial Evolution today.  The advances of neural science and computing technologies together promotes AI development which in turn trigger the possibilities of genetic and neural engineering.  Human-like robots and machine-like humans seem are going to walk side-by-side on the same street in the near future. Who are we then eventually?

Many complex neural illnesses, such as schizophrenia, have puzzled scientists throughout the history without the right answers or cures. In recent years through more extensive genetic comparisons, scientists are coming to terms to realize that some carry the markers of human evolution.  A 2018 study published by Australian scientists verified that 79% of the condition associated with schizophrenia is of genetic origin. If we are willing to think from an open perspective, we indeed have many unknowns in our own natural biological evolution. Maybe they bear the answers to those untapped abilities that we human have yet to understand or develop but will become useful in time.

Looks like we still have hope, but the best hope is likely that we are willing to listen to those possibilities that may sound like a distant drum beat at the moment.

Random Thoughts, Trend of Technology

How should we view data?


The advances of cloud computing and big data technologies, along with the steep drop of the price points for storage solutions, certainly have promoted an astronomical increase of the amount of data each individual and company accumulate today. Each individual could easily create, collect and store more than 500 GB of data. With billions of population on earth, understandably in a few years there will be Zetabytes (1 ZB = 1 trillion of GBs) of data on the planet. These data are also merged, linked and populated in numerous ways. Who should be the owner of these data? If one day we are asked to find a specific set of data among all the data we currently have, how much cost would that be? The total human and computational cost of maintaining and handling these data is definitely not a trivial issue although most of us seem to be happy today on just how easily we can collect more data.

In TriStrategy’s early blogs on The Positioning of Public Cloud Services, we mentioned that “Data to cloud computing is the water to natural clouds in the sky, flowing in and out in various forms.”. It is more so than ever. We are in a giant ocean of data. These data are not discrete, but intricately fluid entities. One small set of the discrete new data will soon disperse into the ocean like one piece of dye.

Although big data solutions provide various ways to divide and conquer these data for analysis and intelligence, our perspectives on how to view data haven’t changed much. We may be facing some serious challenges today in multiple areas such as storage and computation, security and privacy, retention and elimination, etc., but soon we will be debating on another level, on the ownership, the guardianship, the legal and ethical issues, and perhaps the philosophical meaning of data?

Random Thoughts

Individual-based Business vs. Conglomerate Enterprise

Season’s cheers and season’s blues … That’s especially true for the Christmas time in Seattle. Solution: out to a sunshine place instead of a local crowded coffee shop.

Comes the sunshine, comes the new way of travel, too. Want to meet the locals and have a nice place to stay? Try AirBnB. Transportation? Let’s Uber or Lyft it with a fraction of the taxi fare. Amazingly many high-end hotels and airports have added a designated spot with a new sign “Uber/Lyft Pick-up location”. The driver will happily tell you where to go and to have fun, with a sunny smile on the face.

By 2016, Airbnb is estimated to worth more than Hilton and Hyatt combined at around $30.2 billion market valuation. For Uber, some valuation puts it above the market value of GM, Honda or Ford. Taxi companies? No one mentions them that much anymore.

With the help of these new business models on web and mobile, individuals are taking their lives into their own hands: no need upfront capital, no need set up a company or find a partnership, no need extensive training or experiences. These are simply common people who are making money handily for themselves and offering values to the broad customers at the same time.

Even just gradually, changes are there: individual power has been enhanced and traditional market space is rattled and squeezed. How about the old-fashioned companies and businesses then? Often they have to offer similar services and competitive advantages, or they are buying the start-ups to stay relevant. After all, they either get bigger or disappear.

Are we already seeing a glimpse of the future? Do we see Wayne Enterprises? (But let’s hope that we won’t live in the city of Gotham in Batman movies.) They are giant conglomerates, powerful and omnipresent, and they can do many things. On the other hand, we have millions of Joes and Bobs who are running their businesses as individuals. Yes, the world may get more polarized even before the appearance of the robotic workforce in quantity.

For now, let’s cherish our changing time and hope that by next Christmas season, there will be some new learning again.

Random Thoughts

The Name of The Town …

Another tour of global travel this year strengthened the signal in mind that familiarity is the new reality around the globe. Big businesses and known brand names are everywhere with little differences in or outside any country’s borders, from American Walmart or Starbucks to French Carrefour, German Mercedes-Benz… The name of the town is? It really doesn’t matter that much.

Although still acting up in some scattered pockets of the underdeveloped world, it is in fact the same wave that has been sweeping through for several decades by now, where big businesses gradually eliminated the cute papa and mama shops on the streets. This is an age often called: “The name of the town is a big corporation(xxx).”

Now, another wave from the horizon seems to be roaring over and maybe indeed a new age has begun. Similarity everywhere will be even more pronounced.

Walmart just announced that it will layout thousands of back-office workers due to automation and online initiatives. The competition or efficiency needs of the modern businesses and fast advancement of the technologies inevitably will trigger such a reality. Technology automation will reduce human labors from many manual and repetitive tasks. Further more, cloud computing today will eventually promote centralized IT and back-office management across the globe, which in turn will reduce more traditional human resources in these areas. Cloud-powered AI and robotics will eventually be able to replace even the higher-level jobs that usually require certain situational human experiences or judgements.

Many jobs will be at risks, but on the other hand, humans may benefit from the freed-up time by engaging in more creative and leisure-based activities. Would we see more start-ups or art fairs in the making? Certainly. However big businesses are already buying start-ups at record speed. Inequality, resource scarcity and uncertainty may also render many small creative work less economically feasible for a wealthy living.

After a couple of decades, what would we call the name of our town? Let’s hope that it won’t be called a District 9. World peace, policies and education may well decide the fate of our town.

Random Thoughts

A Modern World of No Experts

We used to live in an expert-based society and often refer to the phrase “based on expert opinions” as our safe bet. Not too long ago, we had experts in every specialty of the industries. We invited them to help solve our very specific problems and we all want to become one of them in our vocation. However now, we may have second thoughts.

A customer can be thrilled immensely today by all the built-in high-tech gadgets in a shining luxury new car, either a Mercedes or BMW: touch screen display, bluetooth connection, navigation system, rear-view camera, lane-changing assistance, parking sensors, keyless entries, built-in WiFi, etc., etc… If the features are not intuitive and the customer has no clue on how to use any of these, reading the manual may be the best resort. If the manual is poorly written, then figure it out yourself. Asking the salesmen? They are most likely of little help – simply because no salesman can understand all the new features. Call the warranty department of the manufacturer? Good luck with the time spent, because each part of the feature is likely developed by a different department or vendor, even from a different country. The situation is not any manufacturer or saleman’s fault. Customers want these fancy high-tech features and they are added in at a much faster pace than generations of mechanical features.

No other age in history makes it harder for anyone to claim an expert on anything. Broad range of changes, facilitated by modern technology advances, are accelerating at such a speed that it renders yesterday’s experts no longer today’s best know-how resources. In computer industry today, who can claim an expert on open source? Taking the legal industry as another example. When common laws and judgments can be processed by computer programs in the future, should a prospective law student learn more details about the laws or the computer skills?

What would constitute the key factors to survive in a modern world of no experts? How do we solve problems of our own and those big issues of business, economy, society or world peace in the coming age? – Broad experience and perspective, abilities to learn fast and learn on our own are likely among those that are surely needed.

Random Thoughts

A Force Awakens – From Star War to Future Diversity

Café Scene in Star War - The Force Awakens
Café Scene in Star War – The Force Awakens


Diversity has become an alarmingly thorny issue again lately, no matter on college campuses or in corporations. The news and public interests that it has generated are just slightly shy of those in the 1960s. From Princeton to Harvard or Yale, students are demanding the re-evaluation of their past worshipped alumni who may historically have biased on diversity issues. Princeton is examining if the name of the famous Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs should be renamed without Wilson – a Princeton Class of 1879, governor, US president and Nobel Peace Prize winner; while Yale is considering the removal of the name of John C. Calhoun – a Yale 1804 graduate, senator and US vice president, from one of their residential colleges. Diversity lawsuits are also perplexing the top managements of many large corporations, as frequently as they fear to hear.

From the US immigration debates to the European migrant saga, from the pockets of bloody religious fights to the military’s allowing women in all combat battles, from the changes of demographic distributions to the global denouncement of the mistreatment of women in outdated cultures, although generations’ progress on diversity have been made little by little, either in hiss-hiss mode or everyone-go-through-a-training mode, a new look at the diversity is apparently in need.

What will really be the future situation of the diversity? Can we have the unbiased view that can stand the test of the passing of the time? Diversity is a force that awakens with the developments of human societies and modern sciences and technologies. More than ever, ignorance and arrogance on diversity are deterrents on progress.

As the author watched the Star War’s latest episode, The Force Awakens, she can’t help marveling at that café scene (See pic.) of the Maz’s castle on the planet of Tokodana where Luke the Skywalker’s lost lightsaber was located once more. Various species of the galaxies are gathering together as equals in a rip-roarious café. If one day we earthly humans indeed need to live among the strange-looking ETs, would we be able to enjoy our drink just the same as we do today? When joint survival is no longer a topic but a necessity, the respect of diversity seems the only way for every being. Unfortunately our current diversity challenges even among all humans are already daunting.

History may come to a stage calling for a new level of awakening on diversity, based more and more on fairness and open-mindedness, with sensitivity and insensitivity. Some deep soul searching is likely needed for each of us. It’s futile to demand that the slave owners of the past or whoever outlawed women as voters a few centuries back be dug out from their tombs and sentenced. However as educated and future-minded as we are, in our modern day-to-day life and work, have we advanced enough to have the tolerance of differences, the equal views of others, the willingness to give fair credits to people who are different than ourselves? Can we practice to have the true acceptance from the mind and heart to the evolving needs of the diversity for the years and decades to come?

Random Thoughts, Trend of Technology

A Future World of Silence


Silent Machine
Silent Machine
Today everywhere we travel, from the U.S. to Europe, we only need turn on WiFi and find a connection, in the air, on the train or bus, in the hotel or bar. The rest will all be similar: you find where you want to go, which tube, tram, or bus you need take, check the map online, walk to the nearest stop, purchase your ticket through the ticket machine, get on the unassisted tram or bus (except drivers still exist in present days), read the chart or listen to the radio for your stop, and then get off. You don’t need talk to anyone because they are all strangers. You don’t need ask for directions, because they barely know more than you do.

Imagine such a future, everything is connected online. You call a driverless taxi to shuttle you to a train station or airport. You buy a cup of coffee or a piece of croissant through a vending machine. Your credit cards or mobile pay apps are accepted just the same. All buses or trains are unmanned. It is a silent world of WiFi and automation.

No one needs to be present with you. No one cares if a human or alien standing next to you. You think you own thoughts, hear your own giggling, speak to yourself. You don’t need know or talk to anyone. The supermarkets or magazine stands are selling the same brands that you are very familiar with. The radio in the station sounds the same tone. You see silent buildings and landscape. Then you retreat back to you own home, similar to everyone else’s house – a silent world of WiFi and automation again.

Every once a while, when you feel dreadful in the silence, you may think about traveling to some different world where you can still talk to a taxi driver or a street vendor, bargain a little, learn a few foreign terms, imitate some strange accents, and buy a piece of handmade local craft or artwork. Wouldn’t you feel wonderful? But be very careful, your next money-making idea could be, ‘how can I automate these people and things so that they can merger into my world’?

Do you really want them to be in your world?

Random Thoughts

A Constant Learning Journey for Life


A Chinese saying puts it this way on one’s effective learning journey:

“读万卷书，不如行万里路；行万里路，不如阅人无数；阅人无数，不如名师指路，名师指路不如自己去悟。”

-“Reading thousands of books is no better than traveling thousands of miles; traveling thousands of miles, is no better than meeting thousands of people; meeting thousands of people, is no better than having a great teacher for guidance; having a great teacher, is no better than thinking through and realizing by oneself.”

This is truly TriStrategist’s experience on this journey. From west coast to east coast, from home to hotels, from land to water, from the US to Europe and Asia, meeting all walks of people, viewing all types of terrains, observing all variances of local economy and culture, it’s a journey to appreciate the timeless wisdom of the past, to connect one’s present to the future, to seek changes within. Everyone is a student on this constant learning journey before he or she becomes a confident master of one’s own destiny.

Random Thoughts

The Basic Needs of A Modern Man

Pic#1: Maslow's Hierarchy 2.0 ???
Pic#1: Maslow’s Hierarchy 2.0 ???

American psychologist Abraham Maslow’s 1943 theory of Hierarchy of Needs is well-known in many countries. Although in later years through his extended studies of diverse cultures, he tried to modify the highest tier from “Self-actualization” to “Self-transcendence” to encompass broader cultural influences, a recent humor with joking modifications of his Hierarchy from China is simply more illuminating. [See Pic#1 and Pic#2]

Pic#1: Chinese Humor - Maslow's 2.0
Pic#2: Chinese Humor – Maslow’s 2.0

The humor in fact touches on some naked truth. Indeed the modern men need to be connected at all time and at all places. When food and drink are abundant, when comfortable life styles become a matter of fact, when we all feel fairly good about ourselves, when all leisured or non-leisured pursuits are mostly through various information systems and electronically connected conveniences, how could a contemporary person of today live without an online connection or an electronic device? It could only get more so in the days to come.

However, what if one day we were pushed back to the very basics of living by the sheer forces of nature? Would anyone be ready for a cave man’s life style even just for a few days? Would those type of events change our perspectives about life and modern technologies? Would we be sufficiently equipped with some basic survival and humanistic skills that may be required under such rare yet totally possible circumstances? If not yet, we may need start thinking about these questions. Moreover, would we allow ourselves to be put into the category of robots or machine men too soon?