Posts filed under ‘Personal’
After the final exam (aka after the storm)
The exam was really stressful. More than three hours writing like crazy. At the end I was rather confused, not really sure of what to expect. Fortunately, it was over.
I sat the exam at Barcelona’s British Council. I thought it would be a better experience than taking a plane and driving to Henley. It was a good idea. The place is just ten minutes from home.
On the other hand it was rather weird to be the only one taking the exam. The invigilator was there only for me. At least he was nice and had a thick book to read so he didn’t spend three hours glancing at me in suspicion. That would have been awkward.
Half full or half empty, who knows. I hope I pass. In the meantime I just need some time to relax. And that’s what I did on the weekend. The garden needed my attention so I just focused on trimming the bushes and getting tired. Oh my, my arms got so bruised!
The view from home is rather relaxing. The weather wasn’t perfect. It was the fourth rainy weekend after the most severe draught that I can recall. From scarcity to the most rainy May in 25 years. Our water reserves have tripled and reservoirs have reached 60% capacity. It looks like we’ll have enough water for the time being.
I like it when the beach is almost empty, and the showers scare the tourists. The calm seems to envelope everything, the air is fresher, the plants greener. This spring the plants are blooming like never before. Let’s forget about the price of oil, the high interest rates, the lack of liquidity and the forthcoming stagflation. It’s time to enjoy… at least for a while…
The garden this year is full of Mediterranean roses. The plants grow by the hour. A good omen? I hope so.
The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain (rainy day at the beach)
It’s been too long without blogging. Some weeks at an hectic pace. Good things, bum things and a grain of salt. In this learning journey I don’t especially like posting about me. But here I am again, the worst draught we have ever suffered in Barcelona and I am at the beach and it’s raining! A few days ago I was in rainy England reflecting, trying to finish my assignment -dismissed as too reflective by the way-. Can it be that I’ve started to believe my own lies? Do people really expect you to reflect or talking about reflection in personal development is paying lip service to a new god while still worshipping the old one? Who knows.
I don’t want to further bore you with my own ramblings. The thing is that, if you ever face finance, think about the bottom line! There’s absolutely nothing else. No corporate social responsibility, no carbon footprint, just budgets, margins and ratios. The stake-holders are simply unavoidable, and the customers necessary. And if they care about those things, we’ll have to convince them that we care too. Nothing more.
My macbook just took this picture of me. I know I should have moved to avoid the direct light from behind, but I thought I could put something natural and improvised here. And that’s what I did. It’s raining outside. The fireplace is the only heat around, and the air is a bit smoky. Huge waves from the storm are splashing on the beach a few metres from here. Some dogs are howling while mine lay wet on the floor next to me. The recently established neighbouring bees are completely quiet inside their hive: they do not dare to go out. Next picture I’ll try to show you more of this. But not today.
The blog has just surpassed its 30.000 visits. Not bad, huh? Fairly surprising in fact. I’m still amazed that people find these pages floating in this coarse soup that the internet is. Maybe that’s why I decided to show my face and my nonsense, all at once.
What else happened these days? Another workshop, and, seeing the big picture, I’m straightly headed for the final exam. The first year will soon be gone. But first I need to study, I need to pass the exam. And another year will be gone, one year and a half of blogging, and I will still be here.
Sorry for the babbling. That’s what I felt like doing today. That’s what my 3.5G modem is for. And thanks for reading.
Doggie jumping on my MacBook (a.k.a. a moment of truth)
Last Sunday my doggie decided to jump on my MacBook. Doggies have the ability to change from a quiet and relaxed mood to an excessive joy in a matter of seconds. I can’t describe the sensation I had seeing my middle-to-large sized beloved dog on my highly-priced adored computer. But she did.
Guess what happened? The computer withstood valiantly the assault. The momentum wasn’t able to join forces with gravity. It never fell down. But one of the keys jumped in revenge and tried to catch the doggie. Utterly broken, there was no way to reattach it.
A broken key. I felt like possessed by a sudden illness. Now it was my time to change into a gloomy mood.
The worst thing a patient can do is try to impersonate a doctor and use the world-wide-vademecum, that’s the internet and its information about hundreds of patients that have gone through the same illness. Why is that that the bad experiences get blogged far more often?
I encountered dozens of stories about broken keyboards, computers kidnapped at the technical service for weeks or even months, and then returned scratched to their unfortunate proprietors, about huge repair bills, bad and worse experiences, voided guarantees or even frauds.
So my mood went from gloomy to desperately depressive, collecting the dismal, dreary and dispiriting tonalities all in one.
I even tried to investigate how to solve the problem. I found a couple of websites that sold individual keys. That was the first good news. The bad news was that the gone-missing key is not standard but from the Spanish keyboard. My computer is in English but of course with a Spanish keyboard: I need a few more symbols to be able to write Spanish or Catalan.
The missing key was the one with both the symbols < and >. The English (both American and European) keyboards, have those symbols in two separate keys. That meant that they probably didn’t have my key in stock. The cost wasn’t that important, but the expected delay was significant. What should I do?
Well. Monday came and I went to the nearest Apple service centre in Barcelona. Only 300m from home there is that nice place… Microgestio. Let me tell you about my experience with them.
There were no queues. Just a nice couple at the counter. They called a technician that was with me in a matter of seconds. Then he left with my hapless computer. And I was there left waiting… I felt naked… it felt like a long wait… but it was only for a couple of minutes. Then he came back. The key was there. Everything was covered, no questions asked. Just a nice, emphatic smile. Just what I needed: no delays, no retreats, only an efficient solution.
That was like a moment of truth, a defining moment. I enjoyed and experimented good service… a rare and elusive taste. For Apple it was a small expense: the cost of a key. But what they got in return was loyalty. Immediate pay-back, and a greater, by far, net present value.
One key for another apostle. Is there a better deal?
Green reflections from the Greenlands (Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire)
One of the best sensations of studying at Henley are the procrastinating moments at the Greenlands. You only have to find some stairs to sit on, and then just look around and stare at the Thames.
If you are lucky you’ll see rowers practising for the Henley Regatta, due in June. But they are just a few spots on a landslide made up of greens and blues coming in all tones.
Being a Spanish born in Catalonia, I can’t help losing myself into the amazing greens that England has to offer. Yes, I’ve seen so many blues in my life, as well as reds and yellows, and some greens too… but not this variety, from light to dark, a chromatic variety that depends on the time of the day, the temperature, humidity… If it is dark and foggy, as it has been these mornings, they even turn into greenish greys.
I know that my mobile phone is not the best camera to capture them, and then the computer screen doesn’t help either. In fact the colours look slightly different in each of my two screens. And although I’ve tried to correct that with my Mac OS, I’ve never experimented success yet. It’s so difficult to get something as incorporeal as a colour right.
One might wonder how this piece of landscape in a highly priced zone may have survived. It wouldn’t if it had been only subject to the forces of the market, but this part of land facing the Thames is thoroughly protected. Construction has been restricted, old buildings must be respected. Time has ceased to pass here.
I like this feeling of isolation, of being apart of the world. It’s like a retreat, an emotional escape.
Yesterday morning I couldn’t help staring with awe both the cow and the bull that enjoyed licking the entrance barrier and didn’t let me make it on time for class. I could have complained or horn them… but that would have been pointless. They were so happy that the barrier was so tasty. And I was so happy to see them that close… and to share their mouth-watering feeling.
But this kind of feelings are increasingly scarce in a mass-marketed world. And small schools will become bigger with time, to survive the ruthless competition. That includes Henley: it must grow to keep up with a fiercer competition.
Henley Management College won’t be able to grow much more here, though. Future Henley MBAs will probably be studying in other modern and expensive buildings, away from here (who knows, maybe in Reading). It’s a sign of the times.
In the meanwhile I just try to savour the moment. Moments by themselves are just an unintended consequence of the flow of time, of the increase of entropy in the universe. But we can make them special… as this one.
Experiment: a management lesson from Porter (Cole, not Michael)
This week I’ve been listening to Cole Porter’s songs while driving to work.The Mobile World Congress 2008 has been clogging the traffic around Barcelona these days. Believe me, that has meant that I’ve had a lot of time while going to the airport. I happened to record a CD with a lot his songs and, one of them, simply surprised me: an unexpected snippet of wisdom.
It’s related to what I call ossification.
Ossification can happen in organisations, or to people. We tend to get used to the same thing, that we do increasingly efficiently.
Don’t you wish you were given the same assignment, the same topic, the same customer year after year? That would surely boost your ease and ability to achieve it. The customer would get to know you better and better… more trust, and you’d face that fright to a blank sheet no more.
But, as every good thing in life, that would also come with a trade off. You’d become less versatile, less adaptable.
You’d build muscle, yes, but your joints would calcify, become increasingly stable and unimaginative. You’d simply trade safety for vitality, stability for adaptability.
That means that not only your profit would increase but also your costs, albeit you wouldn’t perceive it, specially your opportunity costs (the gains you could have obtained if you had chosen the best available option). And your employability would decrease.
Finally, on the long run, there would be an expected outcome, that would not be the best possible outcome. Just imagine.
The treatment… that’s when Cole Porter, a composer and song writer that was born in 1891 and died in 1964 comes into play. There’s a simple but sound advice in this song. Think and reflect about it.
to meet less fortunate mortals,
there’s just one final message I would give to you.
You all have learned reliance
on the sacred teachings of science,
so I hope through life you never will decline,
in spite of philistine defiance,
to do what all good scientists do.
Experiment,
Make it your motto day and night.
Experiment,
And it will lead you to the light.
The apple on the top of the tree
is never too high to achieve.
So take an example from Eve.
Experiment.
Be curious,
Though interfering friends may frown.
Get furious,
At each attempt to hold you down.
If this advice you’ll only employ,
the future can offer you infinite joy
and merriment.
Experiment,
and you’ll see.
100th post (and I’m still here)
I began one year ago. Now, 100 posts, 15,367 page views and 203 comments later I’m still here. The Rubicon I have crossed is that fine line that separates short term from long term, try from perseverance, taster from fullness and explorer from infestation.
When I look at the map below, with dots identifying the recent visits, I am amazed about how so many people from so many different places have reached this page. This beacon has been detected, and many concealed thoughts are now out in the open air. Very positive feedback but also indifference, flames and even insults. An invisible network of visits that spread (and spree) all over the world. Truly amazing.
I know that my posts are usually much longer, but this one won’t. We are at the point in history where there are 100 million bloggers and 200 million ex-bloggers. The analysts say we are reaching the peak. Well, I’m not giving up. Not yet! I still have so much to learn and to reflect about…
Thank-you 
2008 IT trends, what they mean for Apple and where Microsoft is wrong
I’ve been reading Gartner’s key IT predictions for 2008 and beyond. (If you don’t have access to the full text you can access a summary here.)There’s one prediction regarding Apple:
“By 2011, Apple will double its U.S. and Western Europe unit market share in Computers. Apple’s gains in computer market share reflect as much on the failures of the rest of the industry as on Apple’s success. Apple is challenging its competitors with software integration that provides ease of use and flexibility; continuous and more frequent innovation in hardware and software; and an ecosystem that focuses on interoperability across multiple devices (such as iPod and iMac cross selling)”
The reflection about the failures of others it’s directly aimed to Microsoft. In a political analogy, the incumbent presidents are the ones to lose elections.And apart from the recent “downgrade” riots where many users want to go back from Vista to XP, there’s something wrong with Microsoft’s strategy. A misalignment that is growing worrisome for the huge company, accustomed to not being able to detect trends at their beginnings. Let’s think about it.
Why is people downgrading from Vista? It’s not because it’s ugly, it is not ugly enough for that, and XP wasn’t the most handsome kid on the block either. People are trying to avoid vista because it requires too much hardware, because takes too much resources to run, because it’s not as snappy as it should be.Think of it from the personal computer cluster’s viewpoint: additional requirements from OSes mean more opportunities to sell more advanced hardware, and thus a growing market. The more sophisticated OSes become, the more complex hardware is needed. And the different companies are, of course, happy to indulge and sell.But that’s not what users want. There are no new necessities covered. Applications are fancier, yes, but there are no new killer applications. In fact I still have to see an application that makes full use of Vista’s new graphics engine. Everything could still be done from XP, no transparent frames, true, but who cares?After seeing Vista, people still prefer to focus their hardware on a better working machine, not on a better looking but buggier one. And they look the other way round… to XP and sometimes Apple.That’s where Apple’s new market share comes from. In evolving their Mac OS X system they have not used the extra power inherited by Moore’s law to rejoice in extra-sophisticated graphics and a huge coverage of legacy systems. Instead they have used it to get snappier applications, providing a secure and limited environment, even excluding their oldest hardware from compatibility. Once their compatible hardware (yes, all of it PC compatible hardware) has been short-listed, they have focused on making it work better.And then they have favoured usability over trendiness (without forgetting the latter). Simplicity over a spree of hidden options, users’ needs over hardware providers’ needs.
But that’s not the only thing going around.And there’s still another trend going on here: from more powerful portable computers to simple ones (that are still very sophisticated by the way) but focus on doing simpler things and rely on other machines and network capabilities. We will no longer need that huge hard drive in our laptop when we will be able to store and synchronise our files on-line. Or, as the MacBook Air does, we don’t need to have a DVD unit in our laptop if we are able to access other’s people DVD drives.And sometimes, as gadgets like Blackberrys, iPhones et al have demonstrated, we can do most of the things we are requesting from our laptops if we can have better screens, better connectivity and better input methods.Or with network shared utilities and storage, as well as web-based applications (look out for some Google office hardware soon). Those web applications will increasingly have the ability of working off-line and syncing when needed. That will mean less reliance on your “own” computer and easier usability of both shared and simpler devices.
That’s three dilemmas identified in this post:
- Using the additional power to provide snappier applications versus fancier looks.
- Focus on support a limited list of hardware and make the most efficient usage of it or try to keep all users (and providers) happy paying a price on performance.
- Relying on shared and simpler net-powered devices or having your own computer the more powerful the better.
As I see, Microsoft has focused on the second options of the three dilemmas, while other companies, namely Google and Apple, have focused on the first. And it’s the first trend that, IMHO, will dominate. Users do not want or need complete overhauls of operating systems that are operating within normal parameters. Only a big leap ahead in productivity could justify a radical change. That’s not the present case.What users do need are incremental and continuous improvements to operating systems that enhance productivity, stability and security without adding unknowns and uncertainties. And Microsoft is not walking the proper path.
Apple, without being that brilliant (Steve Jobs *is* brilliant indeed), is doing much better by comparison… better enough to reclaim part of the market share that the incumbent is going to lose. Try a Mac OS X and tell me
Skiing in the Pirinees (albeit the decreasing snow)
As you probably have guessed, this weekend I’ve been skiing in the Pirinees, in Andorra. The ski station, called Grandvalira, has an skiable domain of 193 km in 110 tracks and is the biggest in the Iberian peninsula.
That’s how it looks like in Google Maps:
And this is how it looks like from within:
Needles to say, I had a lot of fun. It’s my favourite station and I think I’ve skied (almost) all of it. The weekend was non-stop skiing, eating, going to a spa, reading and laughing.
But there’s also an scarcity reflection about all of this. It doesn’t snow as it used to be. The global warming has arrived.
Higher and higher investments are necessary to keep stations running. Artificially created snow is the only way to grant a smooth season where it used to be snowy not so long ago. That means increased tension on natural resources as water to make snow becomes more scarce, and higher energy expenditures. The balance is unsustainable on the long run.
And additional tensions arise because of the opportunity costs of those owners of land beside the station. On the French side (upper right) there’s an enlargement going on. It’s called Porte de Neige and will increase the skiable domain with 50 additional km, along with a new complex for tourists with several hotels, shops and all the necessary infrastructures.
It would simply be growth if it wasn’t in a previously unspoiled and wild place. Of course ecologists complained, but with no results. And the necessary question arises: should we be enlarging stations when the snow is becoming even more scarce? Shouldn’t we be focusing capital and investments somewhere else?
Let’s take a look around. This station is one of the lucky stations to still have a lot of snow. Others are not so lucky. In Cantabria, north of Spain, a new ski station was opened last year after a great deal of investment by the regional government. The snowing season was so terrible there that they still have to open after one year. Meanwhile somebody is paying all the expenses. You guessed it: the taxpayers.
Every community would like to have their own ski station. They attract tourism and generate business where none existed. That’s how they make their case for state subventions and those huge investments in infrastructure.
But in the end they always want the same: to build a huge amount of apartments and houses that will have to be paid in 30-year-mortgages. That’s of course if the banks decide to finance the final buyers. The real estate companies will try to sell everything as quickly as possible. After all, a season without snow is a rare occurrence, isn’t it?
Is it an efficient use of resources to build this kind of complexes with state subventions, using natural resources and to serve an excuse for building new houses in an already depressed state market?
Tell it to buyers in 30 years time when the global warming has further progressed and they have beautiful houses with no prairie.
Nine months later… why my MBA?
These days we’ve been having a collective reflection with Stephen, Andrew, Kimball and Christian. They were thinking about their reasons to be in the Henley MBA program. I realised we had a nice thread going here, so I couldn’t help adding my own.
I’ve thought of why an MBA several times, but the first one I have recorded is the one that I wrote when I was filling in the application on the 23rd of April last year. I had everything: referee’s letters, an updated resume, my academic qualifications translated… but I still needed the why. And before writing it into the application I wrote it to myself.
Reading it now gives me a funny feeling. It hasn’t been a full year but it sounds like if it was from another person. I was really trying to convince myself that I wasn’t doing it for the sake of having the three must-have magical letters. In my writings I read somebody far more worried for the future than I am now, somebody awaiting the unexpected and at the same time trying to give a false sense of security.
But now I feel the past months have changed me. They made me think, reflect and grow. I have created an additional place for Henley in my life (and Henley means its people) and I’m quite fond of it. I feel an emotional attachment that makes me think that, after those sensible but cold words I wrote about change, focus, roles, support, perspectives, aptitudes and abilities there were far more psychological needs.
Don’t ask me to detail them, not yet. I still can’t. I know it’s something about experimenting, feeling and growing.
I studied engineering and economy before, but they always looked outwards, not inwards. I shaped external objects or analysed external realities. It was me getting closer to some facts and data, understanding and applying, but there were no reflections in me. Now I’m not worried about developing analytical abilities any more. Now I am part of what I learn. Somehow, I experiment and shape myself, the subject and the object collide and fuse. Even now, writing these words.
I don’t want to bore you with my mental ramblings. It’s only that the whys and wherefores have melded and the goals are no longer that important. The way is rewarding enough. Let’s go on…
Swim or sink (self-development)
No one can develop you. That’s something you need to do for yourself. That’s why it saddens me a lot when I see young people driving themselves to waste. Yes, I’ve been seeing that lately.
When someone is just starting, little experienced, it’s critical for him to make that additional effort, that extra step. And it’s too easy to be too proud of yourself when you hold your brand new engineering degree. Sadly, that leads nowhere. You still have not achieved anything. You’re only in your first challenge.
And with every challenge you’re offered two distinct options: confronting or denying. It’s also too easy to deny, to blame others, see other people as opponents or enemies. It’s much more difficult to see the need to tackle the challenge, the discomfort of the lack of knowledge and ability, the need to grow.
But again, nobody will be developing you. You’ll add up all the knowledge you’ll be given, if any, as well as what you can observe through your biased lenses, and then you’ll have to start doing something. That something is not that is really well known, after all you’re still in need of learning, you’ll have to start from scratch, try to order your ideas, face reality, reflect, learn, evolve. Those last words still seem too far…
I’m writing this because we are kicking somebody out of the team today. Overcoming your own resistance and incompetence is something that only you can do, nobody will do it for you. Some people will try to shield you from that but, in the end, they are not making you any favour. Reality is stubborn and, the more we try to fight it, the more it fights back.
After all, changes make you grow. Lucky you if you can change by yourself and thus lead your own personal development process. Others do not have that possibility. And while their minds are closed they can face change but still not learn anything. They will still blame me, you or anyone else except for themselves. Shame on them.
Recent Comments