The Historian

Some said that this is a better Da Vinci's Code. I sort of based my purchase on that comment, but I would have to say that Da Vinci‘s Code makes a better reading than this. By itself, it's not a bad story, I at least had the patience to finish all 900 something pages. I just expected more, perhaps more backstories on the antagonist and his minions. Also with 900 odd pages, I didn't expected the ending to be so sudden. A lot of pent-up suspense in the first 2/3 of novel sort of went to waste, in my opinion. Overall, I still marginally recommend this book. Won't disappoint you but won't thrill you either.

New Game!

最近迷上的棒球遊戲...
プロ野球チームをつくろう！ONLINE 2

記得3年前來日本的時候
在arcade看到了這個遊戲：
Baseball Heroes

馬上就迷上了... 瘋狂的玩
去年在日本intern的時候也是一直玩
回去甚至有用這個idea做了一個feasibility study.
(結果是可以做， 可是我沒人沒錢...)
不過Baseball Heroes麻煩的是卡會一直累積，處理上很麻煩
而且只能上arcade玩， 今年有了家室之後就很難自己在arcade混個一天

這次發現了野球つく。 其實去年我就有看過了， 可是那時候只會日本版， 又是會員制
一時裝不起來就沒興趣再研究
這次在銀狐家發現野球つく已經變成freemium. 就決定抓下來玩玩
一玩不得了， 已經掉入錢坑了。。。

不過現在的工作多少也跟web services有關
就把他當作是research吧

野球つく的freemium model我覺得做的不錯
在某個地方看過， freemium 的priciple是 not pay for access, but for service.
Free user基本上可以access所有的球員，
而paid user可以購買一些特別的功能， 重要的是這些功能不會upset the game balance too much. 所以free user不會感到太挫折而不玩
Payment Methods 也很容易(以日本玩家而言), 金額也不高。
應該是可以吸引到很多Players
能不能賺錢的重點應該是"顧客群"
日本用PC上網的人跟其他先進國家比起來是(比率)低的, 那是因為日本手機上網太發達， 日本人反而沒有incentive待在家裡上網。 可是日本broadband的品質是一級的(BT隨便跑就是1.5MB/sec)
所以對野球つく來講，PC的顧客群到底夠嗎， 還是需要go mobile?
如果有mobile版的話， 我只能確定我會花更多錢 XD

Christmas is almost here

Time for some reflections...

During the 2 months of inactivity, lots have happened around the world. Stock markets free-fall, companies bankrupt, my laptop broke 2 times, governments screw-up and many more. Good thing is that I am still fully employed.

Work keeps moving at its own pace. I am slowly discovering the bureaucracies of a multi-national corporations, and it's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just that in the time of change, how quick can it change?

Personal-wise, I am realizing my limitations as well. Everything boils down to communication: I need to improve my Japanese to a level that I feel comfortable enough to engage in internal discussions. Though English-speaking colleagues say whenever they speak in English, they win the argument, and whenever they speak in Japanese, they lose the argument, to me, I don't mind winning or losing, the important thing is that I can get some new perspectives, no matter how right or wrong they are. This will probably be my most important thing to work on in the coming year.

The apartment is filling up with craps nicely. Recently I have had the nagging feeling that our apartment is too big and rent is too high. but we are still hitting our monthly savings target (or maybe it's set too low?), and I keep rationalizing, telling myself that smaller living quarters = more stress = more arguments, but seriously, I need a second tv... there are too many funny shows on TV to catch, even with a TV recorder. The bottleneck then becomes the TV because it can only be on 24 hours a day, and 2 people need to compete for TV time. That leaves little time for my PS3 and Wii...

Replying someone's MBA questions

你好，

也許你可以先解釋一下你自己的想法。 我問你一些問題看你可不可以試著回答

1. 為什麼你覺得你現在的工作不能做一輩子？
2. 你認為的MBA是什麼？
3. 如果你拿到了MBA， 你要怎麼選擇你畢業後的第一份工作？
4. 你認為MBA可以給你一個一輩子的工作嗎？

關於你的問題

1.回來台灣的薪水會比我現在的工作要賺的多嗎?
2.轉換跑道真的能越換越好嗎?


很不幸的， 這兩個的答案都是"看情形"
我可能要知道你現在的薪水才能給你一點更明確的建議
不過最後的答案應該還是一樣

MBA的特性是師父(學校)領進門， 修行在個人。
所以師父有高低， 自己的修行也有高低
跟其他的碩士比起來， MBA自己的修行重要很多
如果你不喜歡這種不確定性， 還是建議你再多想想
不過如果你是一個有計劃/目標的人(計劃跟目標不是不能改), 你會念的比較快樂

Keeping up the pace (1 post per month)

Another month flew by... It's not that there is nothing to write, but too many things happened that I don't know where to start.

Work-wise, things are falling into a pattern, but it looks like there will be change soon. Aside from the organizational change, I am starting to think about what is the essence of my job function:

Before MBA, I was just an engineer. Taking orders from the boss/customer, and making something out of it. Being specialized in database helped somewhat on the autonomy issue, because I was the only one who understood the methodology, so I was pretty much free to design the structure as I wish. What was the reason I decided to leave? It seemed so long ago, but I remembered that I didn't dislike what I was doing，but I wanted to do something different, and 'bigger.' Didn't have a concrete idea, but thought MBA was a good way to try, so I did.


Then, life took me for a spin. First 2/3 of my first year in MBA, I had no idea what I wanted to do. Consulting was my short term goal in my application letter, but I found out quickly that I wouldn't like the style (and they wouldn't want me. ha). Then just before my first finance class started, I flirted with the idea of making corporate finance as my primary plan... I quickly scrapped that idea too... next I thought about the gaming industry, but the jobs are too few in between (in terms of MBA hires). Struggling for a long time, I finally set my career plan as: Business Planning/Development in Hi-Tech (Primary), and whatever I can find (Secondary). Realistically, I knew that my chance at a BD job was slim. My school didn't even have a BD-specific career lead, but Hi-Tech industries in general fit my background well. I was also prepared for worst case scenario where I wouldn't find an intern. Luckily, the opportunity came knocking and I was prepared for it. That's how I ended up here.

So what is business development? For the past 2 months, I think I am doing more planning than developing. Basically, it's doing a feasibility study. You look at the industry (ecosystem), need of customer, and propose a business model. The difficult part is not coming up with these models, but standing behind them. Not every assumption/business model will be true, but you need to have an explanation (not answer) to these and be able to change it when it actually comes to implementation. Looking at it, I still have a lot to learn.

obon holiday

Tokyo summer feels much hotter this time around. But I guess it's probably the same as last summer. Only the mindset is different...


The apartment is slowly turning into home. By the time I got back today, we should have sofa, curtain, and fridge ready to go. The TV is not in time for the Olympic opening ceremony, but it should be ready by the closing ceremony.

Things are falling into a rhythm work-wise too. Everyday is a combination of meeting, planning and researching. Most people are taking days off starting from this week. Don't really need to take days off, but since everyone else is, I just figured to use some of my holidays just so I won't have too many unused days by the end of year (muahaha)

So I have 9 consecutive days off. what to do.....

2 Week Update

It was a quick two-week... After touching down on the 12th. First priority was to find a apartment. I was going to spend just 2 days looking and decide before I started working on the 16th, but we couldn't find a satisfactory one until the 18th. We finally decided on an apartment near Meguro station. It was right about the upper limit of what I wanted to spend for rent, and it's at a pretty convenient location, so I think we made a pretty good choice.


The apartment took a week to be ready, so we actually just moved in this Sunday. Only half of our shipment from US/Canada arrived, and all the appliance we bought are out of stock. We managed to get a bed from ikea (no blanket), so at least we are not sleeping on the floor....

ps. I am stealing my neighbor's internet connection to write this blog... hehe

Marshall MBA 2008 Spring Term

Before I　forget, better write down some stuff for my last term as an MBA candidate


GSBA 556: Business Development in the Networked Digital Industry (NDI)

This course talks about the industry and technology trends of NDI, and introduced some methodologies to evaluate and forecast potential business ideas. Although the name has "business development," the methodologies are much more general.

IOM 522: Time Series Forecasting

A rather quantitative class. Basically, it introduces some methods to analyze data with only time as the x-value. It's also an applied course, so we didn't really had to touch any hard core math. Very interesting to be looking at different data. Our professor is actually an expert in the South California Real Estate, so it's even more interesting given the US　economy situation.

IOM 599: Special Topics

A multi-disciplined class. The topics basically investigate how technology trends affected different industries and shapes their future. It's a very dense course, but I　think it's one of the more interesting classes I have taken in Marshall.

MOR 565: Alliance Strategy

This class focuses on interactions between different organization and how to craft strategies to dealing with power balance, size, etc. Alliance is a very new topic, so there's no established methodologies for analysis. Still, it's a fun class

MKT 555:　Marketing Channels

This class focuses on the Channel strategies in marketing. Since I am not exactly a marketing person, this is pretty new topic. The other P's in marketing is also very much related, but there isn't much time to combine other P's in this course.

Japan, Again

It's been a while since I wrote here. A lot has happened since then... graduated, married, honeymooned, moved, and started to work. Like the title, I　am back to Japan, again.


I am back to where I interned. I don't remember if I wrote anything about my intern experience as a whole, but I was very impressed with my intern experience. Sony is very different than I had imagined, for the better. So when they offered me a full-time position, I was very happy and excited to be back. Of course the pay isn't that bad either :P

So, I　am back, this time for 3 years at least. Will report back now and then on my "professional" life in Japan. Should be fun :)

My Last Class at Marshall

Before I knew it, another 2 months passed, and I just finished my last class at Marshall. Still a couple of projects and finals to be done, but I am basically in graduation mode...


The two years were a blur, it seemed like it was just a week ago that I arrived in LA. I still remembered how hot the day was when I first moved into my then barren apartment. The international student weekend when we were getting a first taste of a Harvard business case. Then the welcome weekend, the core classes, PRIME, internship, 2nd year classes.... Just like a snap of fingers, I am getting my MBA degree in two weeks, getting married in a month, moving to Japan in two months.... It seems like my life has been on the turbo mode ever since coming to Marshall. How do I describe my 2 years of MBA life? I find that I am asking myself these days. If I need to describe my experience in just one word, what would it be? The only thing I can think of right now is "Confusion." Seriously, I am confused.

I am confused about what exactly I did do in these 2 years. I know I did something. In a result-oriented perspective, I figure I did pretty well. A lot of people came to MBA looking for higher career aspirations... be a consultant, be a IBanker, travel the world, lose the mediocrity and the frustration behind. Yeah, in that sense, I did well. I pursued an internship I liked, I had a wonderful intern experience. I got a full-time offer with the same company, doing something I know I will love. I had a generous package. I am even moving to Japan, for god's sake. All these things I could not get had I not gone to MBA. But I am still confused. Was it just the luck of the draw, was it something that I always had in me? Questions beget more questions... I guess that's why I am confused.

Warren Bennis: On Becoming a Leader

Erik Erikson sees our development as a series of resolved conflicts, one for each stage of life. he further postulates that until each conflict is resolved positively, we cannot move to the next stage or conflict:


Conflicts -> Resolutions

Blind trust vs. Suspicion -> Hope
Independence vs. Dependence -> Autonomy
Initiative vs. Imitation -> Purpose
Industry vs. Inferiority -> Competence
Identity vs. Confusion -> Integrity
Intimacy vs. Isolation -> Empathy
Generosity vs. Selfishness -> Maturity
Illusion vs. Delusion -> Wisdom

Our lives are made less of small truths and falsehoods than of great truths and the truths that are their opposites, which is why the resolution of these basic conflicts is so difficult sometimes. It's almost never a choice between a right and a wrong. For example, hope lies somewhere between blind trust and suspicion, but so does its opposite, despair. Once you have learned to reflect on your experiences until the resolution of your conflicts arises from within you , then you begin to develop your own perspective.

MBA in Review: 2007 Term 1: Global Strategy

This is probably the class which I skipped the most but learned the most as well...


The course teaches some frameworks which you can use to evaluate companies in an international context, and then the cases are mostly related to developing countries, such as BRIC and a few others. The professor stresses a quantitative approach to case analysis, and we often need to examine the exhibits carefully to find supporting data. This is probably one of the more dense classes in Marshall, but it was definitely worth it.

What I will remember from this class:

International, Global, Multi-domestic, Transnational
Different modes of entry

If I have money.....

I will buy Apple Stock today:

Price today: 169.04

Let's check back in 1 month or so...

MBA in Review: 2007 Term 1: Applied Statistics

Statistics was the only course that I got an A in the first year, so naturally I wanted to take the follow-up course to keep my streak going...


The course covered a lot of advanced statistical methods, such as Cross Validation, LASSO, Splicing, Neural Network, and many others. It is about 50% lecture and 50% lab. Since many of the methods require complex modeling and calculation, we also learned to use a statistical package called R. The final project is about looking for interesting data sets and use the learned methods to look for trends and predictions. Overall it's a good course to learn to grasp trends through looking at data and identifying relevant variables. It's a good way to validate one's business intuition with numbers

MBA in Review: 2007 Term 1: Entrepreneurial Finance

Term 2 is starting soon... better finish up writing my review before I forgot all about it.

Entrepreneurial Finance is a class specifically about how to plan/deal with financial instruments/information in an entrepreneurial context. The class is mostly lecture-based with various guest speakers in entrepreneurship-related industries, such as Angel, VC, Entrepreneurial laws, Leverage Buyout, etc.


What was interesting about this class wasn't really about what the professor taught, but the time when it was taught. In late 2007, sub-prime crisis is just hitting the US market, and we got to discuss a lot about entrepreneur opportunities and issues in such a trying time.