Why Asian designers accel and at the same time fall behind their western counterparts

In my career and travels thus far, I have noticed distinct reasons why western designers accel over Asian designers in certain areas and vice versa.

Much of being a successful and sensitive designer is empathy and experience in a particular product field. Take Formula 1 auto racing which has been around since the 1950s. Most Formula 1 designers are steeped in mechanical design and aerodynamics from their childhoods. They probably spent many hours at the track through the decades observing speed and how it is achieved. This full immersion in the sport of Formula 1 gives a distinct advantage over say a Chinese designer trained in Beijing in the same disciplines of mechanical design and aerodynamics. Without the childhood experiences at the track, there is no way the Beijing trained designer can imagine the next innovation or improvement in the sport because of their lack of immersion and number of years in and around the sport.

Another such example is high performance sailing. The cultures with the oldest heritages in yachting will always be ahead of cultures that are behind in nautical design and epistemology. If a Korean designer only learns the fundamentals in his university studies and maybe specializes in fluid dynamics as a PhD, he still will not be able to imagine the next level of innovation or need to go faster with lighter materials or stronger technology. Without that childhood immersion in boats, sailing, nautical lingo and experience in competition within the sport, there is now way to achieve the level of intensity or raison d'etre that is necessary to create the next level of high performance.

Now, on the other side Asian designers far exceed the talent needed to generate the next level of sophistication in electronics design due to the same phenomena. Japanese designers from birth are surrounded by sophisticated efficiency in manufacturing and assembly. Instead of enjoying themselves in a power boat on the lake near Osaka, they are hanging around the factory observing and immersed in the discipline of sophisticated electronics design, manufacture and innovation. They grow up fiddling with electronics and finding new ways of improving their lives with electronics.

There is a sea change going on now as China builds it middle class bourgeois consumer society. Children today in China will have the advantage of experimenting and playing with the latest in consumer goods, sporting goods, electronics, toys, cars, lawn mowers etc, just as western children did in the last 40 years. This will give them the necessary abstract imagination to improve and apply the knowledge they get from formal education they receive at the university level in design and engineering.

Where western designers and engineers can accel and keep their edge, is to quickly learn the history of culture of these new developing bourgeois consumer societies and design for them instead of designing for a group who's numbers are shrinking.

Otherwise in a generation western designers will be using electric cars that go 110 miles an hour on a 20 minute charge and will be wondering why there is a incense burner where the ashtray used to be.

Friends and Family...

I get on the red eye tonight to travel to Minneapolis for some family time over the weekend.

My uncle is getting married and throwing a party. Funny, he is on his 3rd marriage and I have yet to engage in my first...He is getting on in years and I really can't afford to make this trip, but how can I say no to my favourite uncle who granted me such freedom when I was a young lad.

When I was just 10 years old, he bequeathed a fishing boat to me which allowed me to explore the wonders of Lake Minnetonka as a solo captain. This gift gave birth to my travel wanderlust and excitement in visiting other cultures.

I'll play some golf with some old highschool friends, visit a couple and their 2 kids that I have not seen since I returned from Singapore. My sister has agreed to let me stay at her place which will give me the opportunity to cook for them. I love seeing my nieces and watch them grow into little girls. Soon I will be saying... young women. I'll spend some time with my parents and maybe see my brother. I had a dream this morning that included he and his wife.

I'll always appreciate the opportunity to see my family in Minneapolis, as I am fortunate to know such wonderful and flawed individuals.

On being "banned"

It has become very hip and trendy to ban or become banned from weblogs these days.

It is rather humorous to "lurk" around the blogosphere to witness some of the hypocrisy and weasling going on as netizens debate issues from technology policy to racial politics and gender issues in the modern world.

I have yet to be banned myself from a blog where I chose to participate in the dialogue and comment areas. Perhaps I am not spicing it up enough or my comments are too dull.

Some seem to be wearing their banned status as a badge of honor and continue to defend their positions on other affiliated weblogs. There is so much pseudo intellectual discourse being thrown around in the name of defending ones avatar image that I wonder what some of these banned types do when they are not frantically typing way defending or ridiculing one another in a medium that never resolves any disputes.

There is never a winner or a loser in these online debates as the discussion inevitably leads to the owner of the blog to start to delete "offensive" posts and ban those that chose to go against the editorial mission of the weglog owner.

Perhaps the next innovation in weblogs is to move into the video realm and conduct live debates that include much more in the way of skills to make your argument persuasive to a larger audience as well as to your newly hated enemy that gets you so steamed at their hypocrisy that you end up spilling vulgarity to make a point and inevitably getting yourself banned.

Korea's Sea Women

So I am fascinated by the Sea Women of Jeju Island south of Busan Korea. These women run the show in their little corner of the world. They dicate the economy, earn the income, make the family decisions and work day in and day out diving below the chilly depths of the Yellow Sea.

For centuries these women have perfected the art of free diving to make a living. They are rugged, athletic and industrious. Many of them continue to dive well into their 60s and carry with them the tennacity of a bull shark.

On land, they are the ones who call the shots in thier marriages while their husbands toil away keeping the house clean, shopping and playing cards with their neighbors. Since the men do little to earn income for their families, they reliquish their decision making power to their wives who run the shellfish market.

These women are so tough that they even organized a militia to defend their rights to their fishing waters during the Jeju insurgency of April 3rd by joining the guerillas in the mountains.

They also maintain sexual power, equality and choice in their relations with spouses. They also circumvent the patrilineal rights of men and land ownership by maintaining dominance over the sea economy. On "sharecropping" trips to Japan, groups of women would advance their economic power and earning potential while fishing the Japanese markets. They also reinforce their sexual power by taking advantage of the Korean-Inland laws while away overseas and enjoy themselves with the native Japanese men.

Very cunning broads indeed!

Car sharing insights - part deux

So I'm a regular user of the three car sharing services here in San Francisco. It allows me to have transport without the hassle and responsibility of car ownership. Gas and insurance is free, the cars are clean, new and the reservation systems are sophisticated and easy to use.

City Carshare has been around the longest in SF and has the most cars and "pods" around the bay area. Their business model is good for short trips around the city that do not incur long hours or long mileage distances. ($4/hour and $.40 per mile). I find that once you leave the city and head down the pennisula for the day or to meet with a client, it can get cost prohibitive. They have a lot of Toyota xAs and xBs in their fleet along with a few popular hybrid models, a Toyota pickup as well as a few mini coopers.

www.citycarshare.com

Flexcar's business model is a bit more geared towards those that want to have a car for a few days to get out of town or take a day trip to Tahoe, Monterey or the wine country. Their cars a bit more upmarket and offer Honda Accords, Elements as well as hybrids. They also have certain cars that you can rent for the day under the star program that will not charge you over 5 or 7 hours of usage in a given day. This is great for the trip to Tahoe for the weekend. Their hourly rate at $7-9 per hour is a bit more than citycarshare for those trips to Trader Joes on Saturday afternoon.

www.flexcar.com

Zipcar is the newest player to enter the game. They offer $60/ day rentals and also have an hourly program as well at $8-11 per hour. Although they are filling the market demand for higher end cars in their fleet (Volvo S40) and they allow members to use cars in other markets like Seattle, Minneapolis, San Diego and a few others, they are clearly the highest priced horse in the race. They also have free mileage program up to 125 miles with each rental. Anything over 125 miles per day and there is a fee per mile. The thing about this firm is that they add all sorts of fees and taxes to your bill which make it cost prohibitive to use them over one of the big major car rental firms near airports. Example: I am traveling to Minneapolis for a few days and they have a Honda Element available for $60/day or $8/ hour. To get this car for the 2 days I need it would be over $139 with a 125 mile limit per day. Instead I rented a Dodge Magnum ( or other) for $15 per day with unlimited miles for 3 days and a total including tax $68. I predict Zipcar will be the first to adjust its fee structure in order to compete.

www.zipcar.com

Judging business plans at Stanford

So I was invited to be a judge for the 2nd annual ABA business plan competition held at Stanford University which included student presentations from both Berkeley and Stanford Universities.

My takeaways were that "viral marketing" is the latest flavor of the month in trying to get your message out that you have a new company, product or service. A few were leveraging the new VoIP infrastructure that is gaining in users. One plan was leveraging the trend in online gambling and betting. Another trotted out the stale P2P business model for sharing music online, and another was a simple t-shirt printing company. The plan that won took old voice-mail technology and made it friendlier and easier to use on the new smart phones that are now saturating the market.

The winning group of students won on their profound success in stating the problem of traditional voicemail and then illustrating a solution that not only improved existing technology,but had a well thought out plan for deployment into the market. Well researched and justified problem statements are the winners in today's design development, entrepreneurial and innovations game. You must identify a real need with the consumer or an existing problem that everyone puts up with without even knowing it, and then provide a solution that is simple and cleaner than before. Even if it means using technology that is established or not very sexy, it will get the attention of funding angels if your solution serves a real identified need.

All was going well until the judges convened to "deliberate" to choose the runner up and the winner. The winner was unanimous by all seven judges, but the runner up caused some discussion amongst the judging panel. The end result was the team that had the lowest combined score took the 2nd prize because the other 3 teams that were so close in their combined scores. This made no sense to me at all.

To me, the team with the lowest score and the smallest vision won the $1000.00 prize because of their......I still don't know. I suspect some sort of favoritism. It just did not make sense that the team with the lowest combined score received a prize over 3 other teams that were clearly superior in their plans, had much higher combined scores and that were delivered with professional acumen.

Bottom line about being a judge is to identify the members of the organizing committee as well as the other judges and watch them like a hawk in order to seek out their bias in the competition. They undoubtedly bring some sort of preconceived bias to the contest, otherwise they would not be facilitating such an event. It is in their interest to control the outcome to benefit their agenda what ever it may be. One has to be willing to closely follow the moderation of the judging and be willing to standup and point out discrepancies in the process while being rushed and pressured by the clock to arrive at a decision. Even be prepared to walk out under protest if you feel stongly enough about the bending of what you think is fair.

Sole proprietor or LLC

So I'm starting yet another company. The decision of the day is to maintian 100% control or to share it with a partner. Currently the partner is based in Korea, but maintains an office in San Jose.

Since all of the homeland security issues that passed in congress, it is much more difficult to have a "foreign" (hate that word) partner without a SSN.

I myself have partnered with others just so they can do business inside the US. Whether it is The UK, Germany or China, they cannot accept payment due to all these new laws that are a result of our current state of world affairs.

So, maintaining 100% ownership has its advantages, however it can be costly due to the sweat equity benifits of partners doing pro bono work.

A Limited Liability Corporation demands that more people in the state and federal government know about your little enterprise. Filing with the secretary of state and getting a federal tax ID number are neccessary when there are more than one person involved in the businesss venture.

Anyway...an good entrepreneur is always forging new partnerships and dissolving old ones simultaniously. Putting all of your efforts into one company is a recipie for distaster.

Speaking Korean with an American spirit

안녕하세요,

So I asked my instructor how this phrase was translated into Korean

I speak Korean with an American spirit.

my instructor says it is
"저는 미귝적인 사고방식 을 가지고"

but after researching I think it should be
"저는 미국 적신 한국 말하다 을 가지고"

This is driving me crazy!!!!!

Nothing in this language is making sense enough to stick.

And yet, I stick with it....

안녕히가세요...

What area of the business are you in?

As I delve further into new trends in communication, I have to ask myself this exact question.

Personally, I'm in product design...Many of my collegues and associates are "in product design" as well... But we always want to know more after we get an answer like that.

Be more specific!...they say.

Many "in product design" are merely part of the propaganda machine that is constantly trying to improve the message of just what is product design. They are out lecturing, speaking at functions, giving interviews to journalists, planning presentations and other such communication activities. They are usually from very prestigious backgrounds or universities that have the ability to control the means of publication and information. They rarely design anything, but hire "labour" to do so. These are considered the "hands off" types and they are well compensated.

The "hands on" types are the labour that is highly skilled in a very specialized area of product design and are the ones doing the creative work. They toil away in the workshop, or over the drawing board or in front of the CAD monitor. They utilize all of talent they posses and the skill they picked up in design school and focus it like a laser in order to create new and innovative "things" that will change the world. Increasingly this type of skilled work is going elsewhere to cheaper labour markets like China and India. I look at the design students that I teach and feel sympathy for them as I realize the real challenge in their career will come after the rigorous training of design school.

It appears in the US, that the market values the ability to propagandize a value added commodity over merely making it or creating it. Whether it is sweet corn, high octane gasoline, ASIC microchips or bathroom tissue. That value is increasingly added overseas while the rest of the US market is focused on spreading the news about how the product will add value and happiness to your life. Consumers have the ability to be influenced by this propaganda or be critical of it. News is now even commoditized and if you are not able to read between the lines so to speak, then you have no idea whos poitics you are watching or listneing to or supporting when you consume the "news."

Which brings me to the new and novel idea of RSS feeds. RSS feeds allow you to aggregate the information that you like or are interested in, and have it sent to you. It is intended to keep you up to date on a specific issue that is being written about and published on the internet. RSS feeds allow a higher value of propagandization of news, products or services to be focused on the eyeballs of consumers. The "hands off" types love this because it keeps them up to date on what is being talked about in the industry which gives them something of value to give in their business.

There is no RSS feed for the "hands on" types. Creative energy is fleeting at best as you age. The ability to conjure up the inspiration to stay up way past your bed time toiling away on some project is harder and harder to do. You either learn a new skill, or you are not needed it appears because what you are offering is being sold at half the price overseas.

I maintain that if you do not actively apply your hands on skill and talent from time to time in the pursuit of good design, then you are a mere regurgitator of rumor and speculation. You are not adding anything new, but are merely talking about what others are doing. Unfortunately, this is big business, especially here in the US. Talking, swaying, persuading, coercing and forcing others to buy what you are selling is the business of the United States. Even though you had no "hand" in creating or making what you are selling, you still are out there trumpeting the merits of what you represent.

So think about what area of the business you are in today. Are you creating something new with your brain or hands, or are you out there hocking someone else's ideas, labour and creativity?

Negotiating with Ghana

So this guy I was chatting with online this morning wants to buy one of my old cell phones. He and I have been chatting on and off for a few months now. He seems like a genuinely nice chap and all, but the has no paypal account, no bank account and no money.

I want him to accept the phone from me, but I will not just give it to him without anything in return. So, I asked him what he could afford. He came back with the reply of..."Native sandals with wood toes"

Sounds interesting to me.

The gap between the modern world and the developing world is truly amazingly wide. But, no less I will see this deal through to the end.

He is sending me some images of the "sandals with wooden toes" this weekend. Which puts me in a negotiation with a man from Ghana that knows Tae Kwon Do and rides a motorbike to go shopping with his brother sometimes.

I wonder what it will take for the average guy in Ghana to have the capability to buy and sell online. Certainly not today as Paypal only allow transactions from only 55 countries, of which Ghana is not on the list. I ask myself what will it take for a guy in Ghana who knows tae kwon do and rides a motorbike to have a bank account that he can wire transfer money around the globe. Just think of how much faster he can modernize and materialize his life on his own terms.

the seed is planted...

Team Renault does it again...!

Zeke's bar and grill was packed to the ceiling with Formula one fans from around the bay area. I got their a few hours early to take a lay of the land so to speak as I had not set foot in the rather unique sports bar before.

I was lucky enough to find a seat at the bar right next to the owner and his court of friends and colleagues. I was able to eaves drop on all of the build up to the race as they discussed everything from describing the unique formula 1 crowd to taking his mother to Beijing for a holiday.

Once 8pm rolled around, all 17 screens were switched to the race in Melbourne. From the beginning the crowd was lively and animated as the cheers rang out for even the slightest bump of tires as the cars made their way around the course.

The organizer of the event even had the skills to alert the media in Melbourne, AU letting them know that we were gathered in such a unique way. Half way through the event, the announcers recognized our little event and shared with the racing world that the San Francisco Formula One group was watching with enthusiasm and passion. The crowd really went wild after that!

After several Budweiser beers in the bottle I donned my jacket and escaped out the door with just a lap to go. It was clear that Alonso of team Renault had the race in the bag.

A great crowd and a great time.