qui tacet consentire videtur

life, liberty, and economics

January 5th, 2009

Game theory and the Beijing subway


(Beijing subway) Lost in an ocean of people…

Despite the frequent exhortations of station attendants to “先下后上” (let passengers get off before you board) and to respect “中华人民传统美德” (traditional Chinese values), taking the Beijing subway at peak hours is like an epic battle.

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January 3rd, 2009

Beijing’s dogs and the one child policy


(Beijing) Nick loves dogs!

Despite the ‘one dog policy’, Beijingers still have a lot of dogs. There must be at least a million small dogs in the city - maybe there are more dogs than kids. I walk by dozens every day on my way to work, and usually none of them are leashed. They just roam around while the owner walks behind. You have to be careful because they leave plenty of deposits everywhere (surprising for their size), and dog owners don’t seem to pick up after.

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January 1st, 2009

Pyongyang Diaries: Why I went


(Arirang Mass Games, Pyongyang) I wonder what they thought seeing all these fat Chinese tourists.

I try to avoid telling my Korean friends in school that I went to the North, because they always look at me strangely and ask why I would ever want to go there. I don’t blame them – some have family histories and bad memories of the place. The immediate assumption is that I’m some kind of sick tourist that delights in seeing the suffering of others, or worse, that I perpetuate it. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

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December 31st, 2008

Practical Languages


(Yonghegong road, Beijing) Actually, I prefer menus with pictures.

I had a conversation with an entrepreneur friend who told me he had hired a Beida grad to join his AI-development team, and I jested that his Mandarin must be much better than mine to have cross-lingual collaboration, to which he replied that he was also learning Spanish. When I asked him why Spanish, he proceeded to list languages in order of the number of speakers worldwide.

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December 30th, 2008

Ivy Leadership Summit IX

Now I have an excuse to visit my friends at Brown:

Congratulations! This e-mail is to inform you of your official acceptance to the Ivy Leadership Summit IX, which will be held at Brown University this year, February 6-7. This year’s theme is “Leading in a Global Community,” and will feature panel discussions ranging from sustainable energy, to civic engagement, to cultural leadership. This will be a wonderful leadership development opportunity as well as a chance to meet and form connections with your peers from other Ivy Institutions.

This will be a good time to try out the ‘conference commando’ chapter from Never Eat Alone.

December 23rd, 2008

The backdoor to Zhongnanhai


(Zhongnanhai, Beijing) The red sign reads “Long live the great Chinese Communist Party”. A similar sign on the other side reads “Long live the undefeated Mao Zedong theory”

When I was in Washington DC last summer, I really wanted to join a White House tour, but it never materialized – our internship coordinator put one together before I had joined the think-tank. Instead I got to see the Capitol and various congressional buildings through the course of the summer. The closest I got to the White House was with all the other tourists on the South side of the park, peering through the fence, trying to identify which little speck in the distance was the oval office.

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November 29th, 2008

Thoughts on Slumdog Millionaire

At the Business Today conference, the first keynote speaker, a c-level exec from Universal Studios, said the best movie of the year would be Slumdog Millionaire, and he wasn’t just talking his book - it wasn’t even their movie. I had heard about the film a while back when there was a free screening in New York, but the tickets disappeared quickly and I hadn’t found the time or the company to go to AMC with. Until today. And yes, it is the best movie, in a long, long while.

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November 23rd, 2008

Business Today International Conference, day 1

I woke up late and rushed downtown to the Marriott to register for the conference, and I got there just in time for lunch. I enjoyed the strawberry parfait and talked to some of the other participants before the keynote speech, which was quite interesting.

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November 20th, 2008

J-dramas, politics, and industry

Yes, once again it’s my not-so-secret obsession… my addiction to soap operas. According to the girl next door, watching dramas has been very unhealthy for my psychological well-being, and I’m inclined to agree. So you may have noticed that my drama consumption has been somewhat reduced of late. Pity I just can’t give them up for good. Here is what I’ve been watching:

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November 18th, 2008

Spring 2009 Course Shopping

Registration was today, so here’s what I picked.

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