Review on “Strengthening Health Care’s Supply Chain: A Five-Step Plan”

In the article, “Strengthening Health Care’s Supply Chain: A Five-Step Plan“, the authors tackle several high-level issues facing the supply chain of pharmaceutical and medical device companies, specifically: stricter regulatory standards (e.g., increased # of drug recalls and costs dedicated to quality and compliance), inefficiency (e.g., long production lead times and inventory days, increased inventory costs, drug shortages, expensive costs relayed to consumers), and security breaches (e.g., counterfeits and gray-market vendors).  Ultimately, these issues not only cut into the company’s bottom line but more importantly, present risks to patient safety. The authors go on to point out three areas that pharma and medical device companies should strengthen to combat these problems.

The first is to segment a one-size-fits-all supply chain model into multiple customizations based on fields such as product type, demand and customer service expectations.  An on-going, large scale example can be observed in Pfizer’s recent decision to restructure into three separate business units by product type.  While the reasoning extends beyond solely improving its supply chain, Pfizer’s decision is certainly a step towards more flexible supply chain management. The second area is increasing agility, which would decrease lead times and inventory costs by better aligning the production cycle with that of demand. The paper specifically points out the supply chain model employed by fast-moving consumer goods as a leading example as it reflects improvements in several key operational metrics.  Lastly, the authors recommend increasing supply chain transparency and employing metrics for visibility and tracking.  As we’ve all experienced often times, simply being aware of potential issues and specific pain points is a key towards an effective resolution and preventing them from becoming more debilitating.  Overall, I am excited by the growing industrial trend favoring the growth of IT from a commodity or utility to the business into a partner or business-enabler.  As companies realize the value that tech-enabled solutions can bring to their businesses both in the short term and for long-term sustainability, it is personally exciting on an individual-level to be a part of shaping the future IT-strategy, business, and management landscape.

Duke in Review: 10 Lessons Beyond a Degree

On the day of Duke’s graduation (congrats Class of 2013!!!), I want to give pause and reflect on some of the noteworthy experiences I’ve had and lessons I’ve learned over the past two years.  When I graduated from UNC, I was just coming off the realization that pursuing medical school and becoming a doctor wasn’t (or at least, may not be) the most fitting career choice.  On top of that, I wasn’t sure that attending Duke would be the right decision.

Unlike a 4-year degree like a Bachelor’s or getting a PhD (4+), I felt that a Master’s degree was more appropriate for people who wanted to increase their technical skills in a field they already identified as the direction of their career or at least had an idea as to what they wanted to do after.  For me, getting an M.S. would have been simply a way to delay having to look for a job and to buy two more years of time to figure out what I wanted to do.  For that reason and many more (including the price tag and for me, a UNC guy, the fact that it was, well, Duke), I wasn’t completely sold.

Luckily, any doubt or ambiguity I felt towards my decision was calmed fairly early on.  I felt privileged to work in one of the best research labs in the country for neural engineering and blessed for having the opportunity to learn from world-class leaders and professors. Additionally, joining a community of hardworking, dedicated, and incredibly sharp peers provided personal motivation to reach beyond the scope of my undergraduate education and taught me to not regard mediocrity as a choice.

Looking at the past two years, again from the viewpoint of a newly-minted graduate, I’m somewhat speechless –not because I have little to say, but because I have so much to say that I don’t know where to begin.  The past two years have been special, not simply because of what I feel I’ve accomplished but because of the many lessons that the journey has taught me.  Most of all, the past two years have been incredibly meaningful, because I chose to redefine who I am and redirect my long-term career direction.

My motivation for writing this is that for a lot of major personal achievements or accomplishments, our families and friends, who, granted, care a lot about us, often only get to see the final outcome: to attend graduation, to hear about a job offer, to read (or try to make sense of) our research, etc. For this reason, I hope to share a few of the many invaluable and priceless lessons I’ve learned over the past two years.

The points range from light-hearted to sentimental, but overall, I hope they can be enlightening and practical.  Together, they encompass a spectrum of values which represent a reflection of the emotions, experiences, and interactions that I’m thankful I was a part of.

1)      A degree is no substitute for validation or credibility. It’s hard to emphasize this point, because it sounds so simple and intuitive, but it’s still a habit that is so prevalent, especially in conversation.  Look around and notice the instant attachment or stereotype that you and I attach towards a person when that he/she states his undergraduate or postgraduate institution and degree. Prior to Duke, I had always held the belief that knowledge and technical skill triumphed over all other “soft” skills (leadership, communication, personal, networking, etc.). While this may be the case for semester projects and very limited scenarios in academia (which certainly emphasizes technical backgrounds), I’ve found that those people skills are so incredibly important for career advancement.  I now firmly believe that I am more likely to hit a career ceiling, because I lack leadership/management skills rather than technical experience or formal education.

2)      Be more inquisitive.  For some bizarre reason, I went into my research position and even classes at both Duke and UNC with a feeling that people expected me to know everything, which is certainly not the case.  It’s not that I wasn’t curious or couldn’t formulate questions, but I was almost scared to speak out of the fear that people might think I was an idiot. I honestly can’t explain why this was other than me thinking I was hot s*** after high school. I’ve learned that the smartest people and those who advance fastest in their career are those who excel in communication skills and aren’t afraid to speak up both when they know or don’t know about a topic.

3)      Career Services.  So many things made a big impact while I was at Duke.  Besides the obvious ones, which one might find on a resume (i.e., lab and school work), Duke’s Career Center was incredibly awesome, and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how helpful they were for me from start to end.  From resume revisions to mock interviews, I’m certain that I wouldn’t be where I am without their help.  The lesson for me is, wherever you are and whichever school you go to, utilize your university’s resources, because you’ll likely never have such a diverse group of knowledgeable experts at your disposal to help you out.

4)      Build your network.  How big you need it to be differs from one industry or job to another.  However, having or building a bigger network is always going to be better (you’ll likely never regret knowing too many people), regardless of your field.  The older I get, the more things I want to accomplish, the more I realize the importance of networking.

5)      Learn to code (and exercise your brain).  Bill Gates, other tech entrepreneurs, even Chris Bosh thinks so (video: What School’s Don’t Teach). In this case, you learn to think logically, to systematically analyze problems AND you’re learning how to think like the people who created those languages.  I’m guessing they were probably pretty smart themselves.

6)      Analyzing an approach to and coming up with a structure for addressing a problem is more important than the time tackling the problem itself.  Again, the more experience I have, the more I realize how much this cuts down on time, increases efficiency, and I ultimately learn more throughout the process, which ultimately, leads to better results.  So many times, whether it’s solving a problem or troubleshooting code, the majority of the time I spend is on figuring out what I need to do rather than the actual “doing” or time spent solving the problem.  I treat this as more of a life lesson than just in my career.  For example, how do you best express an idea to someone else (e.g., explain a situation or create a presentation)?  One approach is to put whatever points or thoughts you have in your description or on that presentation.  Another more careful and effective approach would be to first consider questions like who your audience is, what is useful to them, and how long of a presentation you can make before they get bored.  Not only does the big picture become clearer, but you realize what is important and what is fluff, again, by being audience-oriented.

7)      Common, motivational phrases or posters like “push your boundaries” often make sense, but merely stating them without justification tend to only produce mental compliance without physical action.

…not that this dude isn’t a baller.

source: tomorrowstheme.blogspot.com

Like everyone else, I’ve heard or seen so many of these phrases growing up.  Even though we nod and agree with these statements, they rarely stick (much like making a superficial New Year resolution). For me, I was only able to understand why we should push our boundaries through experience.  Personally, when I was applying for jobs, a lot of times, I realized how little direct control I had over how others viewed me as an applicant.  I can make myself presentable, revise and re-revise my resume, practice what I want to say, but nevertheless, nothing was a guarantee.  From this, I began to appreciate those things that I could directly control that did make me happy (so put yourself in tough, challenging positions!).

Experiencing this pushed me to be more proactive.  When you’re faced against a tough task where success is in someone else’s hands (be it their decision to accept you into a program or simply their decision to reply to your email), you realize the nonlinear relationship between your efforts and the result (“x” amount of hard work doesn’t translate into “x” amount of success).  From this, I found myself ready to embrace other things I could pursue, where “all it takes is effort” applied.

“Pushing personal boundaries” not only helped me accomplish or learn from the task directly, but also taught me to appreciate, cherish, and therefore act upon all opportunities in life presented to me, hidden or in plain view. Using this perception, actions and pursuits become more of a straight line rather than a convoluted, indecisive path.

8)      This may push the envelope, but there are no standards that define “right or wrong” and “good or bad”, only decisions we make that we can live with both in the short and long term.  A potentially “good” decision benefits me in both cases, a “bad” choice violates both, and the tricky part is deciding between short term benefits and long term risks.

For me, public perception and social norms change, not to mention our own personal views and standards.  Thus, when making a choice, what’s important isn’t to ask what’s right or wrong but whether we can stand behind that decision now, a year, or 10 years down the road (if it is that impactful).  This way, it forces us to look completely inward for that answer instead of a being distracted by outside influences, which tend to complicate and cloud the situation and consequently our judgment. Ultimately we have to live with ourselves.  Social acceptance is undoubtedly important, but there’s a fine line between living for ourselves and living for social approval.  The former is often both an easier and more effective way of analyzing a situation.

9)      Young, wild, and free.  There’s a quote that goes, “No one on their deathbed regretted not working enough.”  I think there are certainly exceptions or regrets, which extend from not working enough, but for most people, that does apply.  The best memories I have of the past 6 years in North Carolina are those that I created with friends.  Though all the Friday nights which ran well into Saturday morning may be hazily mashed together, there is no doubt that those were some of the best times I’ve ever had.  For me, UNC and North Carolina will always be my second home, not simply because of the cloudless skies, the beauty of UNC’s campus, the sudden appearance of sundresses with warm weather, or even being part of a men’s basketball national championship, but because I enjoyed all of those things with people I consider as my best friends.  I will never regret the (few) classes I skipped (sigh, oh engineering…), the miserable hung-over state I was in when stumbling into Friday morning classes, or the number of less-than-satisfactory grades I received as a result, because how many people can say they were lucky enough to experience what we experienced?

10)      Luck is an afterthought. Luck is one of those tricky terms in our lives that we struggle to define.  When can you appropriately use it to describe a result? For me, I use luck to describe situations for which the source creating or initiating an accomplishment or event has no real attributable reason for happening.  For example, meeting the right people, coming across certain material or literature that inspires, being in the right place, the list goes on and on, but all of which occur or happen at the right time.  You can’t know that you are or something is “lucky” in the present, only when you look back.  Personally, it took a heart break to wake me up, a book which I read around that time to inspire, and a chance I took (to go to a McKinsey recruiting presentation) as well as a myriad of other events which occurred for the pieces to fall together and for me to “find luck”.

source: cartoonstock.com

Therefore (if you’re at least somewhat convinced), when we hear people describe their success and attribute it to an “xx %” of luck, we should not feel entitled to luck ourselves or look for luck or rely on “good karma” to hit us later in life.  Similarly, we can’t simply say that we didn’t accomplish something because we aren’t lucky by nature compared to someone else.

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So there it is. Ten things that took me 2 years to learn and understand.  Certainly, I would not be in a position to experience these lessons without the cast of people around me, especially my mom and dad, who have guided me, helped me, inspired me, and never quit on me while I was a student at Duke.  I hope that by sharing this part of my journey, that it can be used to inspire, motivate, and push others to find their calling card in life.

And as always, go Heels!!

Is College Worth It?

Thinking back to a time when I was 17 to 18-years-old, having just received my driver’s license, when I didn’t realize (and still can’t fully comprehend) how complex and diverse our world is, I, like a lot of friends and classmates, was faced with a life-shaping decision regarding where to go for college.

With sky-rocketing increases in cost of tuition, and lack of concurrent growth in financial aid, answering the college question has become extremely difficult.  For families, making it possible for their child to attend college involves careful financial planning and opening of special savings accounts, sometimes before the child is even born.  Additionally, job placement has becoming increasingly challenging, and college graduates sometimes find themselves working at jobs in which they are overqualified for.

Performing a simple Google search for “Is college worth it?” returns hundreds of relevant articles, many written by reputable magazines and websites, and the contents of which may serve as guides or advice.  Many of these articles primarily focus on financial costs (tuition and debt) and returns (average salary with a 4-year degree vs. high school diploma), but in many ways, these articles are incomplete by only evaluating one’s decision based on what one gains rather than what one misses out on by not going.  Additionally, before we can answer the question, “Is college worth it?”, we need to ask ourselves a preceding question, which is, “How do we actually measure the value of going to college?”.  As a proud UNC graduate, I came up with 5 factors which have influenced the decisions I’ve made over the years at UNC and now at Duke.  To be clear, I did not ask myself these questions when I was first deciding on where to go.  In fact, my decision was based on what I am arguing against. I based my decision on the most sensible variables I could come up with at the time: financial aid, how much my family would have to contribute, and of course, how much I like that school and area (“Carolina blue would look good on me right?”).  At the end of the day, college is an investment, and this type of decision is, in its most basic form, a type of risk assessment.  Thus, the message I offer is purely in hindsight, and contrary to the common idiom, the points I make may not even be 20/20.

1)     Two important questions to ask are “What do I want to accomplish?” and “What are my goals?”.

Sadly, I did not know the answer to either of these questions outside of hoping that the major I chose would enable me to live comfortably after I graduate.  What was my passion? I knew I was somewhat good at science and math but had no idea what I truly loved.  I was guided into a field that I hoped would pay well and hoped that I would learn things that would make me a value to society. Luckily, it worked out, and I’m incredibly proud of what I’ve accomplished as well as the opportunities, which are now open to me.  However, having an idea of what you want to do, not just what you’re good at, is an important distinction.  At the same time, it’s important to realize what types of goals to set.  Rather than thinking “I want to become a doctor”, consider a broader alternative like “I want to work in healthcare” where you can set a target but are still free to explore a variety of options.  While hard work pays off if the career one chooses after graduation is profitable, it’s a real shame if that career doesn’t provide lasting happiness as well.

2)      How do you measure the true worth of going to college?  Should it purely be based on the salary you earn or the net worth you retire with?

Many people meet their future spouse in college, the best man for their wedding, future business partners, and most importantly, people discover their passions.  For those who have figured it out or see the big picture, they know that money should not be the main motivator.  Try new things that you might like, and focus on doing things that you love.  Be guided by that little voice in your head (and drop numbers from your thoughts for now).  What separates American universities from other countries’ and makes them some of the most coveted destinations for students are diversity and freedom of thought.  While not always positive, but nevertheless different, you meet people and see things you can’t find anywhere else –   things which shape you, change you, and make you more mature. Very few jobs that you can take on with just a HS diploma (outside of say starting your own business) will afford you those kinds of opportunities.

3)      H.S. diploma vs. Bachelors vs. Advanced Professional Degrees

As much as one may disagree, higher-level jobs generally require higher-level degrees.  Simply put, graduating from college allows you to do more.  Going to college is as American as apple pie.  It makes America, America by providing opportunities for social mobility.  For immigrants like my family, it gives us the opportunity to live a better life than our parents (a.k.a. the American Dream).

4)      Pride and Social Respect

As applicable as the “be yourself and don’t let others tell you what to do” cliché may be in life, it is human nature to want to be liked and respected.  Will a college degree necessarily give you these things? Maybe not, but I’m real damn proud, everyday, that I, along with thousands of classmates who graduated with me, can call ourselves Tar Heels.  There is no price tag attached to that emotion, but is nonetheless, something I will always carry with me (and is personally more valuable than the tuition I paid to go there).

5)      Social Contribution and Value

Perhaps the most important factor that is ignored by articles focusing solely on the financial implications of a college degree is the social impact and contributions that college graduates make on society.  With knowledge, you have the potential to change the world for the better and to impact and influence others around you.

Articles focusing on money place too much emphasis on “self” and “taking” while ignoring the “giving”.  Forget your future salary for a second.  An important question that should be synonymous with asking “Is a college degree worth it?” is “How much can I do for others around me with this degree?”

So what is the value of college?

The true value of college can only be measured by the transformation you experience during your time there.  The before-and-after comparison, when you find yourself with friends at the end of 4 years, when you reflect on who you were and how different that person is from who you are now, THAT is the “value” of college.  A college campus is a sandbox of resources, and a chapter in a book but not the climax.  On the same note, a degree is not a substitute for results and experience, much like the “You’re not special” commencement speech suggests.  Getting a degree is great, but using the 4 years to empower yourself to do something with that degree is the real value of college.

Putting a dollar sign on it

So what does this mean for students whose family can’t afford college, already have debt, and can’t afford to carry more debt?

There is no easy answer, but fortunately, there are scholarships and programs, like the Carolina Covenant at UNC, which provide financial support for high-achieving high school students from low-income families.  However, resources are in short supply, and only rewarding students who have accomplishments by the end of high school is discouraging for those who may be late-bloomers but nevertheless, possess potential and develop a vision and concrete goals in the future (after all, most applicants are just coming out of high school).  For these people, I believe the message is this: just because college may not have been the right choice or a possibility coming out of high school doesn’t mean it’s never going to be the right fit.  No one is a failure for being rejected from their top choices just like no one with a degree from Harvard is guaranteed success.  I think people, often times, too easily categorize themselves as one type of person, a habit which ultimately limits their future and potential.  Regardless of one’s decision, college is only a piece of the puzzle, and going to college is like putting on a band-aid: apply it when you need it, but don’t waste it if you don’t.

Don’t choose to go to college because it’s the norm, because all your friends are going, or even if you simply have the money.  Don’t go just to have a good time (but please DO have a good time once you’re there) and don’t go to college just to go to college.  At the end of the day, that diploma is still just a piece of paper, and the true “diploma” resides within you.

In summary, the points here are highly theoretical and very idealistic, but just like being perfect is impossible, shooting for perfection is often the next best thing.

“You’re not special” Commencement Speech

“Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air and behold the view.  Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.”

I may be a month or two late but this commencement speech given by an English teacher at Wellesley High School in Boston is too good not to share.  Why couldn’t UNC have gotten this guy when we graduated?

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Dr. Wong, Dr. Keough, Mrs. Novogroski, Ms. Curran, members of the board of education, family and friends of the graduates, ladies and gentlemen of the Wellesley High School class of 2012, for the privilege of speaking to you this afternoon, I am honored and grateful.  Thank you.

So here we are… commencement… life’s great forward-looking ceremony.  (And don’t say, “What about weddings?”  Weddings are one-sided and insufficiently effective.  Weddings are bride-centric pageantry.  Other than conceding to a list of unreasonable demands, the groom just stands there.  No stately, hey-everybody-look-at-me procession.  No being given away.  No identity-changing pronouncement.  And can you imagine a television show dedicated to watching guys try on tuxedos?  Their fathers sitting there misty-eyed with joy and disbelief, their brothers lurking in the corner muttering with envy.  Left to men, weddings would be, after limits-testing procrastination, spontaneous, almost inadvertent… during halftime… on the way to the refrigerator.  And then there’s the frequency of failure: statistics tell us half of you will get divorced.  A winning percentage like that’ll get you last place in the American League East.  The Baltimore Orioles do better than weddings.)

But this ceremony… commencement… a commencement works every time.  From this day forward… truly… in sickness and in health, through financial fiascos, through midlife crises and passably attractive sales reps at trade shows in Cincinnati, through diminishing tolerance for annoyingness, through every difference, irreconcilable and otherwise, you will stay forever graduated from high school, you and your diploma as one, ’til death do you part.

No, commencement is life’s great ceremonial beginning, with its own attendant and highly appropriate symbolism.  Fitting, for example, for this auspicious rite of passage, is where we find ourselves this afternoon, the venue.  Normally, I avoid clichés like the plague, wouldn’t touch them with a ten-foot pole, but here we are on a literal level playing field.  That matters.  That says something.  And your ceremonial costume… shapeless, uniform, one-size-fits-all.  Whether male or female, tall or short, scholar or slacker, spray-tanned prom queen or intergalactic X-Box assassin, each of you is dressed, you’ll notice, exactly the same.  And your diploma… but for your name, exactly the same.

All of this is as it should be, because none of you is special.

You are not special.  You are not exceptional.

Contrary to what your U-9 soccer trophy suggests, your glowing seventh grade report card, despite every assurance of a certain corpulent purple dinosaur, that nice Mister Rogers and your batty Aunt Sylvia, no matter how often your maternal caped crusader has swooped in to save you… you’re nothing special.

Yes, you’ve been pampered, cosseted, doted upon, helmeted, bubble-wrapped.  Yes, capable adults with other things to do have held you, kissed you, fed you, wiped your mouth, wiped your bottom, trained you, taught you, tutored you, coached you, listened to you, counseled you, encouraged you, consoled you and encouraged you again.  You’ve been nudged, cajoled, wheedled and implored.  You’ve been feted and fawned over and called sweetie pie.  Yes, you have.  And, certainly, we’ve been to your games, your plays, your recitals, your science fairs.  Absolutely, smiles ignite when you walk into a room, and hundreds gasp with delight at your every tweet.  Why, maybe you’ve even had your picture in the Townsman!  And now you’ve conquered high school… and, indisputably, here we all have gathered for you, the pride and joy of this fine community, the first to emerge from that magnificent new building…

But do not get the idea you’re anything special.  Because you’re not.

The empirical evidence is everywhere, numbers even an English teacher can’t ignore.  Newton, Natick, Nee… I am allowed to say Needham, yes? …that has to be two thousand high school graduates right there, give or take, and that’s just the neighborhood Ns.  Across the country no fewer than 3.2 million seniors are graduating about now from more than 37,000 high schools.  That’s 37,000 valedictorians… 37,000 class presidents… 92,000 harmonizing altos… 340,000 swaggering jocks… 2,185,967 pairs of Uggs.  But why limit ourselves to high school?  After all, you’re leaving it.  So think about this: even if you’re one in a million, on a planet of 6.8 billion that means there are nearly 7,000 people just like you.  Imagine standing somewhere over there on Washington Street on Marathon Monday and watching sixty-eight hundred yous go running by.  And consider for a moment the bigger picture: your planet, I’ll remind you, is not the center of its solar system, your solar system is not the center of its galaxy, your galaxy is not the center of the universe.  In fact, astrophysicists assure us the universe has no center; therefore, you cannot be it.  Neither can Donald Trump… which someone should tell him… although that hair is quite a phenomenon.

“But, Dave,” you cry, “Walt Whitman tells me I’m my own version of perfection!  Epictetus tells me I have the spark of Zeus!”  And I don’t disagree.  So that makes 6.8 billion examples of perfection, 6.8 billion sparks of Zeus.  You see, if everyone is special, then no one is.  If everyone gets a trophy, trophies become meaningless.  In our unspoken but not so subtle Darwinian competition with one another-which springs, I think, from our fear of our own insignificance, a subset of our dread of mortality – we have of late, we Americans, to our detriment, come to love accolades more than genuine achievement.  We have come to see them as the point – and we’re happy to compromise standards, or ignore reality, if we suspect that’s the quickest way, or only way, to have something to put on the mantelpiece, something to pose with, crow about, something with which to leverage ourselves into a better spot on the social totem pole.  No longer is it how you play the game, no longer is it even whether you win or lose, or learn or grow, or enjoy yourself doing it…  Now it’s “So what does this get me?”  As a consequence, we cheapen worthy endeavors, and building a Guatemalan medical clinic becomes more about the application to Bowdoin than the well-being of Guatemalans.  It’s an epidemic – and in its way, not even dear old Wellesley High is immune… one of the best of the 37,000 nationwide, Wellesley High School… where good is no longer good enough, where a B is the new C, and the midlevel curriculum is called Advanced College Placement.  And I hope you caught me when I said “one of the best.”  I said “one of the best” so we can feel better about ourselves, so we can bask in a little easy distinction, however vague and unverifiable, and count ourselves among the elite, whoever they might be, and enjoy a perceived leg up on the perceived competition.  But the phrase defies logic.  By definition there can be only one best.  You’re it or you’re not.

If you’ve learned anything in your years here I hope it’s that education should be for, rather than material advantage, the exhilaration of learning.  You’ve learned, too, I hope, as Sophocles assured us, that wisdom is the chief element of happiness.  (Second is ice cream…  just an fyi)  I also hope you’ve learned enough to recognize how little you know… how little you know now… at the moment… for today is just the beginning.  It’s where you go from here that matters.

As you commence, then, and before you scatter to the winds, I urge you to do whatever you do for no reason other than you love it and believe in its importance.  Don’t bother with work you don’t believe in any more than you would a spouse you’re not crazy about, lest you too find yourself on the wrong side of a Baltimore Orioles comparison.  Resist the easy comforts of complacency, the specious glitter of materialism, the narcotic paralysis of self-satisfaction.  Be worthy of your advantages.  And read… read all the time… read as a matter of principle, as a matter of self-respect.  Read as a nourishing staple of life.  Develop and protect a moral sensibility and demonstrate the character to apply it.  Dream big.  Work hard.  Think for yourself.  Love everything you love, everyone you love, with all your might.  And do so, please, with a sense of urgency, for every tick of the clock subtracts from fewer and fewer; and as surely as there are commencements there are cessations, and you’ll be in no condition to enjoy the ceremony attendant to that eventuality no matter how delightful the afternoon.

The fulfilling life, the distinctive life, the relevant life, is an achievement, not something that will fall into your lap because you’re a nice person or mommy ordered it from the caterer.  You’ll note the founding fathers took pains to secure your inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness-quite an active verb, “pursuit”-which leaves, I should think, little time for lying around watching parrots rollerskate on Youtube.  The first President Roosevelt, the old rough rider, advocated the strenuous life.  Mr. Thoreau wanted to drive life into a corner, to live deep and suck out all the marrow.  The poet Mary Oliver tells us to row, row into the swirl and roil.  Locally, someone… I forget who… from time to time encourages young scholars to carpe the heck out of the diem.  The point is the same: get busy, have at it.  Don’t wait for inspiration or passion to find you.  Get up, get out, explore, find it yourself, and grab hold with both hands.  (Now, before you dash off and get your YOLO tattoo, let me point out the illogic of that trendy little expression-because you can and should live not merely once, but every day of your life.  Rather than You Only Live Once, it should be You Live Only Once… but because YLOO doesn’t have the same ring, we shrug and decide it doesn’t matter.)

None of this day-seizing, though, this YLOOing, should be interpreted as license for self-indulgence.  Like accolades ought to be, the fulfilled life is a consequence, a gratifying byproduct.  It’s what happens when you’re thinking about more important things.  Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air and behold the view.  Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.  Go to Paris to be in Paris, not to cross it off your list and congratulate yourself for being worldly.  Exercise free will and creative, independent thought not for the satisfactions they will bring you, but for the good they will do others, the rest of the 6.8 billion-and those who will follow them.  And then you too will discover the great and curious truth of the human experience is that selflessness is the best thing you can do for yourself.  The sweetest joys of life, then, come only with the recognition that you’re not special.

Because everyone is.

Congratulations.  Good luck.  Make for yourselves, please, for your sake and for ours, extraordinary lives.

Censorship and China’s Future

The Great Wall was built by the first emperor of China to keep foreign invaders out.  Thousands of years later, the PRC built the great firewall to keep its citizens from knowing too much.

While the firewall has not affect me as much as it does people who actually live here, this type of censorship paints a very limited picture of China, one that is falsely positive.  By controlling conventional forms of media (broadcast and print) and using the firewall to block internet websites which might stir dissenters, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tightly controls what Chinese people are allowed to see and hear.  Censorship of popular websites such as Facebook, Youtube, and WordPress limit freedom of speech while censorship of Google and news websites (ex. Wikipedia, The Guardian, etc.), which criticize China’s leadership (esp. those addressing political corruption and environment pollution) limit freedom of information.

Censorship in China is due to fear.  Fear of a repeat of what happened at Tiananmen Square on 6/4/1989, fear of political dissent, and ultimately, fear that the CCP will slip somewhere and lose its power.  But while the CCP might be able to control what people see and hear (and to a certain degree, what they do), the CCP will never be able to control what people think.  There will always be voices who speak out. We see is that when things get bad, protests still happen, and people still express themselves (Ai Weiwei and Chen Guangcheng).  Further, what China does not realize is that positive reform and innovation largely come from criticism from an informed community.  While the political organization in the U.S. results in slower reform and is often viewed as a power struggle, our system preserves a few important traits: innovation, quality control, and equality.  When a single party is given full control, the system eventually drifts to one where small groups of people benefit while others are left out.  This is simple greed in its most basic form – people are inclined to protect themselves and their wealth first.  In China, this is evidenced by the growing wealth gap where party leaders and their close network hold most of the wealth while the middle and lower class fight for what’s left.  Ultimately, this limits social mobility and eliminates the purpose that wealth disparity was meant to achieve by devaluing competitive incentives.  The firewall also leads to a wealth of other problems involving hackers, and China dedicates a large internet task force to ensure only specific content are allowed while constantly prowling for and shutting down new content that pop up. Additionally, this doesn’t even consider the fact that current censorship limits access to technology and services that the rest of the world use every day (ex. cloud storage).

China fails to recognize that a discontent population is a sign of dysfunction and highlights the most pressing problems.  China doesn’t realize that the most valued resource a country has is its people, not its natural resources or senior leaders.  Suppressing and ignoring social issues which interfere with hitting growth targets will not work as it is intended. By focusing on what the few feel are most important, dissatisfaction will continue to grow, people will cease to trust that the party holds their best interest at heart, and in the long run, will create what the firewall was meant to prevent: political instability.

Through censorship, we can also catch a glimpse of China’s current political structure, one that is secretive and dysfunctional.  “By the people, for the people” and checks and balances create a system that, for the most part, works as well in practice as it does in theory.  Though there are ultimately a few rotten eggs in any system, one which creates transparency and encourages input from the common man helps to weed out corruption while creating trust.  A lot of leaders in China, especially at the local level, have lost sight of their role and responsibilities.  Government positions nowadays are as often, if not more, associated with accumulation of personal wealth and power as it is with creating positive impact and improving quality of life, not just for themselves but uniformly across China.  The problem is not necessarily lack of vision of senior leadership at the top but in the local government who are given too much autonomy and power.

People here go through their day much like the rest of us, with jobs, kids, and actively pursuing happiness.  However, lack of peace of mind and trust loom much like the smog which clouds urban China every day.  In theory, all people in China have the same opportunities and resources to succeed.  But in reality, to quote Animal Farm, all people are created equal; some are simply more equal than others.