This is the last Friday email for this semester as the exam period starts next week. I hope you have enjoyed this past academic year 2022/2023 in which we had to start with online lessons, nucleic acid test and wearing mask everyday, and then finally ended with opening up everything, with a lot of us catching the virus, recovered, and back to normal lives. Two-thirds of our third year HCers are able to go study abroad or on exchange programs at the beginning of this year.
Besides opening the borders again, the other big news at the beginning of 2023 is ChatGPT. It is the fastest growing user base, reaching 100 million users within two months since its launch. Instead of talking about it, I would like to share with you the following graph from Statista (a Website that includes a lot of statistical data about everything: https://www.statista.com/chart/29174/time-to-one-million-users/)
Hope you have enjoyed at least some of my Friday emails this academic year! Please feel free to send me your comments and suggestions!
Good luck to your exams!
As a follow-up of last week’s mail, the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2023 held in Davos in January actually identified five key takeaways that leaders from governments, businesses and civil societies conclude:
- Because of global disruption, companies must be more resilient to be prepared for the future.
- In the midst of deglobalization, the future of globalization is more about diversification rather than decoupling.
- Net-zero future means companies will have to balance between energy transition and energy resilience.
- Inclusion of underserved markets are the niches for global companies.
- Space economy has brought about a lot of changes and opportunities to the world where innovation is good.
As contributors of the future, you should think of how you can help improve the society, and perhaps the world, in any of the above. No matter which faculty you are from, there is always one or more ways that your knowledge and inspiration could help.
Have a great weekend!
The Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group was held last week. Some major agenda items include of course economic growth after the COVID pandemic, geopolitical stability, and environmental sustainability. While sounding simple and straightforward, I would just like to share a quote from Nadia Calvino, the Chair of the International Monetary and Financial Committee:
Let us learn the lessons of the past and not forget that peace and multilateralism, as opposed to war and fragmentation, have brought progress and prosperity to millions of people all around the world.
The world has never been this divided since WWII…
Hope your weekend will be enjoyable!
Guess you have recharged yourselves well after the Easter break!
The topic of this week is definitely useful for all of you, although some might find it arriving too late because you have already completed your course presentation (Oops! Sorry!). It is with reference to “Nano Tools for Leaders” from the Wharton Business School of University of Pennsylvania. We all know that it is important to speak with confidence. But what if we are not confident? Here are four fixes that would work:
- Ditch the hedges: People use words like “arguably”, “I believe”, “generally”, or “maybe” as hedges to express uncertainty. But if you are uncertain when you speak, as leaders for example, you are suggesting that your thoughts are not worth considering. That is, you are not confident that you are right.
- Use definites: Related to the above, you should therefore choose words to show confidence and certainty, such as “definitely”, “clearly”, or “obviously”.
- Don’t hesitate: Related to point (2), imagine hearing someone saying “De..de..defin…definite…ly”. How do you feel? The person is not confident at all, and it is not “definitely”! But, more than that. Do you talk with a lot of “um”, “eh”, or “uh”? It is usually OK to use these in between lines when you have to think. But using too many too frequently again discounts your confidence. A better alternative is perhaps actually pause for a second. It not only allows you to think, but also provides room for the audience to digest and think.
- Turn pasts into presents: Consider “worked well” versus “works well”. Which is more convincing? Verbs in present tense often imply future too.
Hope you will remember these fixes for your speeches in the future!
Have a good weekend!
I have been sharing about the World Economic Forum (WEF) held in Davos every January with you over the past couple years. Not surprisingly, this is the theme for this week, albeit a little late. Although WEF was held in the week before our Lunar New Year this year, I would like to summarize some takeaways from some intelligent government and business leaders all over the world. You can always google search for their speeches.
First, climate change and population aging are two very profound phenomena in the coming years. How does aging change the world? Think about healthcare, pension, and jobs (or lack of them). If you see it as a problem, some leaders see it as an opportunity. In the years to come, we will see five generations working together, younger generation learning from the talents and experiences of older workers, and the world becoming more productive.
Second, artificial intelligence (AI) is in every dialogue, from ESG, climate, financing, government services, to war, which would create both lots of concern and opportunities. Both good and evil!
Third, 2023 is the year for managers. Employees want to know what is to be expected from them and whether they are doing well. Note the great resignation and therefore shortage of staff everywhere during the pandemic period. Managers play a crucially important role in engagement levels to help retaining employees.
Finally, speaking of AI, and not related to WEF, there have been commentary documenting that the longer the Ukraine war is, the more deadly robotic fights would take place. Fully automated drones have already been attacking places. AI has been widely applied in different military weapons. Read the following news and you will understand perfectly that technology can be “both good and evil”!
Have a good weekend to reflect how fortunate we are in this part of the world!
Life is always full of ups and downs, like weather. But with a not-so-cold and very short winter this year, and we are already fast approaching summer even in March, I can’t help asking myself “Am I happy?” For me, the answer is almost always a “Yes”! This week, I received the World Happiness Report, prepared by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, powered by the Gallup World Poll data, with several universities participating in the project.
Guess what? China (including Macau) is ranked 64, while Hong Kong is 82. The top is Finland. Here’s the report (please go to Chapter 2 for the list of country happiness ranking): https://worldhappiness.report/
The interesting part is, as extracted from the Statista website (click on the word “Statista” for the link),
Latin American countries such as Paraguay and Guatemala would have been considered the happiest if the index was based on the amount of positive emotion people experience, while African countries including Togo and Senegal would have ranked higher when based on whether citizens experience their lives as “meaningful.”
No matter how you measure your happiness, staying positive and being kind always help make you less unhappy!
Enjoy a happy weekend! 😊
Following last week’s mail, I would like to quote a paragraph from the Washington Post about how you could “exercise” your brain (Click on here for the link to the article).
The brain is wired to respond to art, …. Dance, music, and other cultural pursuits are an important part of mental and physical health. When people create or appreciate art, they often enter a calm, focused state of mind, which can lower stress. One way to enjoy the health-boosting benefits of art is to establish a daily arts practice, whether it’s 20 minutes of coloring, dancing, knitting, or playing a musical instrument.
In another source from Mckinsey & Company (again, click on “source”), it was said that
Every time we respond to a challenge, we get a little baggage. We get our scars. … This anxiety also has some associated effects. You are less likely to eat healthy, you are less likely to exercise, you probably end up not sleeping that well, and this has a price. … Your mind has a practically unlimited capacity to interpret something as stressful or fear-inducing, but you can also interpret the same context as calming, joyful, and welcoming. That’s what our brain can do. There are a lot of exercises that can help you chose the more favorable and optimistic perspective. These kinds of exercises help to train your brain to choose the more constructive and positive interpretations of a context, and they have been shown to relieve anxiety disorders.
The authors suggested that in addition to thinking of “Green space” such as grassland and plants, you can also think of “blue space”, that is, ocean and sky.
Wish you a peaceful and stress free week!
March is usually the month filling with midterms and assignments, or discussions for group projects. Filling stressed? Just slightly? Not enough to be bothered?
Microstresses are small moments of stress, which I am sure all of you have encountered one way or another. They are micro because we often think they are perhaps trivial, and certainly manageable. For example, you have been working relentlessly on an idea, which your team leader said was good, so much so that you even skipped your lunch, and you have not even had your breakfast. When you were about done, the team leader said it is no longer a priority.
You should know that these microstresses are not trivial. They could be harmful. They could stay in our minds for a long time. When more are piled up, little by little, they will drain our energy, impact our health (both physical and mental), and affect our overall well-being. What should we do? It’s not as hard as you might think. Just take a look at the following (from Harvard Business Review):
Wish you every success in your midterms and other work!
I have heard from several students in the past how they planned to start up their own businesses as entrepreneurs. You might want to be one of them. If so, please consider reading the article by an MIT Sloan School of Management professor of management, Scott Stern, and his coauthor, Erin Scott, which is four choices that matter in setting startup strategy (click the title to access the link).
Basically, they said that When it comes to designing a business strategy for startups, choices made at the outset are crucial. The following is a summary of the strategy (direct quotes from the MIT newsletter):
- Choose your customers. The choice of customer impacts what the first product and follow-on products will be, what team should be hired, and how stakeholders will view value creations.
- Choose your technology. Focus on how you develop that technology, so you can give your idea and your innovation the best chance of success.
- Choose your competition. Startups don’t get to choose whether they have competition, but they do have the ability to choose who they want to compete with and how they’re going to do it.
- Choose your organization. This is not only a decision around a co-founder or founders, but a choice about which capabilities and resources you’re going to build and what stakeholders can expect from your company.
Hope this helps!
Enjoy your weekend!
Just a sentence to share this week (from “Lessons Taught” by Life):
To be kind is more important than to be right. Many times what people need is not a brilliant mind that speaks but a special heart that listens.
Please be reminded that winning a trivial argument might mean losing a dear friend!
Enjoy a meaningful weekend!
One and a half months of the semester has already passed. Guess most of you are already starting to be very busy and overwhelmed by a lot of work.
I attended a seminar about “The Power of Meditation” by Lawrence Freeman OSB, a Catholic priest and a Benedictine monk, organized by the University of Hong Kong yesterday. I do not intend to preach religion nor meditation. Rather, OSB mentioned one point which I think everyone of us should alert ourselves time after time.
What is the difference between Attention and Concentration? Concentration requires high degree of focus, often making you very stressful, sometimes feeling immense pressure. Attention on the other hand is plain realization of existence of something, in a relaxing way, without much pressure. Attention often comes with ease, and therefore some sort of enjoyment subconsciously.
Now think about doing assignment and studying for exams with attention and not concentration. Will it work? It will be great it if will, because you will feel less fatigue and feeling more pleasure in learning. But unfortunately, it doesn’t always work.
So what is the point? In reality, we need both. But the skill of balancing between both will distinguish us from enjoying lives to feeling tired and miserable. So, try to relax a bit after your concentration. I wrote in the past about how long you could focus. It is about 25 minutes. My suggestion is for you to focus on your study for 25 minutes, and then do something totally different, just for a break for at least 5 minutes (not too much though, or you won’t finish your work in time). You will find your next 25-minute concentration much more effective!
Good luck! Enjoy learning, not just studying!
This week was filled with the heartbreaking news of the Turkey-Syria earthquake on Monday (Feb 6) morning, when most people were still asleep. The Seismic magnitude scale of 7.8. Many buildings collapsed. Different countries have sent rescue teams to Turkey to help find survivors in the freezing temperature. You will almost always hear the good news of finding a woman or a child being found. Good news! But almost all from Turkey! Why? No country sent any team to Syria. Why? Syria is considered to the sweet bed for terrorists. For the past few days, only the White Helmets, a volunteer organization, were helping Syria, bare handed. No tools, no machinery! Why can politics come before aid? (read this from DW, a channel with quality documentary, for more details: https://www.dw.com/en/earthquake-victims-in-syria-politics-first-aid-second/a-64644697)
Think of someone you know being buried under the rubbles. How will you feel? Sad! Now imagine someone really close to you. How about your beloved? Now, at the extreme, how about imagining you seeing the dimmest light ever, freezing cold, hungry, and finding yourself not being able to move? You could not even shout out for help because either you have no more energy or there’s no one around. Politics come before aid???
Let’s pray or hope more survivors could be found, and the number of casualties will not continue to skyrocket. Please embrace how lucky we are! Stretch out to help whenever you can!
Happy Chinese New Year again!
Guess you have had a very enjoyable break before putting on full gear for this spring semester!
This week, I would like to share a book, “Open to Think” by Dan Pontefract who works for a Canadian telecom company. If you are not interested in digging in the book, at least think of the following takeaways from the book:
- People and organizations often leap to conclusions and make decisions without careful consideration.
• An “open thinker” takes time to reflect, weigh evidence and reach informed conclusions.
• Open thinking balances “reflection and action.”
• Open thinkers use creative, critical and applied thinking.
• They question everything and remain receptive to new ideas.
• Open thinking has three aspects: “creativity, judgment” and “action.”
• Creativity depends on careful deliberation and bold ideas.
• Judgment requires informed reasoning, analysis and decision making.
• Take action only after you apply thoughtful consideration to solving problems and making decisions.
• As an open thinker, include time to dream, decide and do every day.
How many of the above have been practiced by you?
The semester has just started, and I am already here to wish you a happy holiday!
Before you head for your Chinese New Year break, I suggest you to give a few moments thinking about some world issues. That includes:
- the very big impact of China suddenly opening up the borders for travelling on the whole world; countries happily welcoming Chinese tourists, and then setting strict restrictions on entries, without warning, in prevention of another COVID contagion;
- the continuous war in Ukraine where people had to sadly pass their Christmas and New Year under fear of shelling and yet having the positive attitudes for living and family gathering;
- the impact of climate change on countries, such as Switzerland, that rely a lot on winter tourism; there is not enough snow in many of these places; so tourists cancelled their hotel bookings etc., and those who went saw only grasslands instead of enjoying skiing; imagine somewhere in Switzerland having a temperature of 20 degrees Celsius on the New Year’s Eve;
- back in Macau, over 500 people passed away in 20 days, a number that would normally fill up only in one season, all because of the pandemic related illness; imagine the pressure put on members of the medical sector; imagine how one had to work on 12-hour shift nonstop even when he/she was sick; imagine how family members of the deceased had to cope with the huge loss, ironically in a period of Christmas and New Year when there should be a lot of laughter!
- and many other issues.
Nothing should be taken for granted! Embrace and appreciate what you have!
Happy New Year of the Rabbit!
Happy New Year!!
What a strange way to end 2022! Have you become sheep (tested positive)? Please take good care! This COVID-19 virus is really good at affecting our health. So even though you are young, you should still rest well! If you have been negative all along, keep it up!
Too bad I cannot even say “welcome back” officially, because you have to do your lectures online before the Chinese New Year break! Really hope to see you in person soon! At least we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel now that we are much freer to travel!
It came to my attention that particular graduated HCer(s) expressed only in their exit survey that they do not think they have learnt anything from the HC program, because everything they did with HC was what they have already known. A big congratulations to those who think so! My take is that, if one ever feels knowing everything, one does not know oneself enough! First, how can a person think he/she knows it all? Even a Nobel laureate will not think so. Only either those who are still too naïve, or those who are really narcissistic will have such assumption. Second, I wonder why that was expressed only after graduation; it’s not like one cannot graduate without being HCer. If the person wants the HC certificate, and therefore hang on with HC, I assume that is a very strong signal of the value of HC. So, isn’t this quite counterintuitive?
So, my question for you: At HC, we have identified many attributes that a decent global citizen should have. The simplest ones are ELITE. Please ask yourself how many of these attributes do you think you have, or are good at. If you think you have all of them, you certainly are missing at least one – contribution! If you are that good, why don’t you share your skills, attributes, personality, experiences and knowledge with other HCers by joining different activities? If you think you should be asked, that means you lack “initiative” or “motivation”, which should also be attributes of HCers. Being leaders means being able to step up and stand out to volunteer, and to initiate ideas.
To sum up, if you think you have not learnt much from HC, I am more than happy to have a chat with you to learn about what you think you know. Otherwise, please pause for a moment once in a while and look back, look in the mirror, ask yourself why you think you know everything. Outstanding HCers like you should be able to find that there are a lot in life that you do not know! Please be modest! Being confident is good, but being overconfident is not. Being self-aware is good, being self-centered is not!
Happy weekend! Wish you a great and fruitful 2023!!
This would be my last Friday email this semester as you will have your last school day on Wednesday next week. Hope you have had an insightful and fulfilling semester. This time, I hope you can spare some time to think about what’s going on with the world these couple years. You may then find yourself sighing with “Something is wrong”!
In a recently published book called Restarting the Future: How to Fix the Intangible Economy, Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake, the authors, wrote about how the economies of rich countries have gone wrong. It does not matter whether you major in business, economics, or finance, or NOT, the fact that you live in this world, and in particular, in where you are and where you come from, you should think about what has gone wrong. The authors point out five symptoms: stagnation, inequality, dysfunctional competition, fragility and inauthenticity. It is very common for any economy to experience any one of these, but not all five together as where we are now. In fact, worse of, we are having stagflation! And by inequality, the authors meant “inequality of esteem”. Rich retirees felt left behind, while young and smart graduates are heavily indebted. Competition has become so unreasonable that even the rich feel that they have to work harder to keep up. Next, look at how fragile we have become during COVID-19. People were crazily hunting for masks. None of us had ever imagined that going to a neighboring city is next to impossibility. Finally, after all these years, economic development seems to have relied on “fakeness”. More and more people seem to ask to go back to “making things” (perhaps versus Metaverse?).
I hope you would dig out what these terms mean to the world, and try to understand what our economies have become. I am sure you would be able to learn something that could prepare you for your career development in the future.
Good luck to your examinations, and then a great Christmas and New Year break!
More quotes to share this week. I have previously written emails related to similar thoughts, about which I recap here before each quote. Please give them some thoughts, and hope they can bring you some insights!
1. Changes are always necessary for human advancement, but which we are always reluctant to make. I hope you as HCers will be change-makers!
“We as a society seem unequipped to recognize transformations just as we lack formal processes — other than monetary settlements — for those who have harmed others to make reparations as part of their repentance or transformation. Don’t stop believing that people can change. Most of us have changed with the times — often in increments too slow to recognize until something brings us face-to-face with something we once believed or accepted and now no longer do.” —Rebecca Solnit, author
2. What you chose as your major of study is important, but not always crucial. The very purpose of your university education is to train your logical and critical thinking, and the ability to think outside the box.
“Richard Franke — who for many years served as chief executive of John Nuveen & Co., a Chicago-based fund manager specializing in tax-exempt bonds — was a history major at Yale before earning his MBA degree at Harvard in 1957. He considered his history degree at least as important as his business training. He was more apt to quote Sophocles or Montaigne than any financial guru. He hired people with degrees in philosophy, English, or theology as well as those with financial skills. The humanities, Mr. Franke argued, were the best way to learn communication and critical thinking skills, understand other people, and stay open to adopting new ideas as new information emerged.” —James Hagerty, journalist
3. Teamwork is essential! Be a good teammate!
“With thousands communicating on our behalf daily, no one can whistle a symphony alone. We must operate like an orchestra.” — Purdue University Senior Vice President speaking of the challenge to create community —Ethan Braden, senior executive
4. What can you do as a decent human being?
“There are three things in life you can control — your actions, your efforts, and your attitude.” —Stephanie Linnartz, hospitality executive
As HCers, you are expected to be more sensitive about the world, and about how to make our planet earth better, or how to restore it when it becomes worse.
The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP27 in short, was opened on Sunday, Nov. 6 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, and will last until Nov. 18. As I wrote about COP 26 last year, a major goal was for different countries, particularly the big nations, to promise a time line to reach Net Zero (click on the words for explanation). One year has passed. Unfortunately, because of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, carbon emission has not been improved at all because of shortage of oil and natural gas. For instance, some nations had to go back to coal to generate electricity. Just in April, the United Nations has issued a report on Climate Change and emphasized that “It’s ‘now or never’ to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees” (see Report). We are at the verge of no return!!!
This year, one main agenda item is “Governments are expected to evaluate progress on climate pledges centered around cutting emissions, phasing out fossil fuels, ramping up renewable energy use and ensuring that richer countries support poorer nations bearing the brunt of climate change.” (see Washington Post).
How is all this related to you? Do you think you are friendly to the environment? Think about how often you buy items online? How are the items ridiculously heavily packaged? How often do you ask for bags when you buy anything? How often do you walk up and down the stairs when you only go for one or two floors? How long do you shower? Do you know eating more meat that you need is really environmentally unfriendly? I know you only contribute to very little to the world as some of 8 billion human beings on earth. Still, we can make a difference collectively! Think of yourselves so luckily living in such a modern world when you can consume freely, but at the expense of those underdeveloped countries when they did not even have the luxury to have 10% of your consumption. Think of their high mortality, especially for children. No clean water. Drought in some, while serious flood and landslides in others. This list can go on and on.
Please do something! Improve your sense of awareness on climate change!
Did you have an enjoyable week? Or a busy week?
Today’s mail is a sharing of some quotes from some influencers and influential people, with which I also wrote my short interpretation at the beginning of each. Hope you will give them some thoughts. Please feel free to share your opinions with me anytime!
(1) Following my email last week, the length of your writing or speech could be a signal about you:
“Brevity is confidence. Length is fear.” — a paper stuck on the notice board of a startup company.
(2) Do not waste your time on procrastinating:
“There’s never a perfect moment to start. The more we see the beauty in starting small, the more we empower ourselves to get started at all.” — Supriya Mehra, Educator
(3) Can you imagine the Residential College you live in as your second home? This is what our RCs at UM have tried to provide:
“For an artist, home is not just a shelter. It’s a studio, a refuge, a cabinet of secrets, a site of inspiration. It’s where work gets done — work that will someday be released into the world but also — just as crucially — work that will end up in the trash: literally or figuratively. Home is a place to experiment, to make mistakes, to be vulnerable. Home is a place where you never have to defend your creations. There are just as many ways to make art as there is art itself — which is why there’s no prototypical artist’s house” — Hanya Yanagihara, Writer
(4) Do not keep wanting (or in economics term, non-satiated)! Life is not about always having more and more! :
“What do we want this Manchuria — or whatever it is called? There is sufficient land here.” — Leo Tolstoy, writer, the great Russian genius of literature and moral inquiry, on the perspective of concerning launching ambitious wars
(5) When you are down, or feeling lost, see if the following line can help you:
“Choose the least important day in your life. It will be important enough.” — Thornton Wilder, author
Happy to write to you again! Guess many of you are going to have, or have already had, a lot of midterms and work at this time of the semester. This is why I am sharing this topic. Professors from the MIT Sloan School of Management, among others, have done research on “toxic culture” at work. Workers often find their workplace disrespectful, non-inclusive, unethical, and abusive. Company executives often complain that they do not have enough time to upgrade corporate culture.
A lot of these observations are applicable to our daily lives. Tessa West, professor of psychology at the New Your University and author of a recent book called “Jerks at Work: Toxic Coworkers and What to Do About Them”, made the comments that when a person feels overworked and overwhelmed, his or her tolerance for dealing with difficulties tend to drop. As a person could handle only certain level of stresses at any point in time, once he/she is overwhelmed, he/she will have dampened response, and will shut down. The person will lose the physiological resources to engage with people whom he/she thinks is difficult to handle. He/she tends not to evaluate the situations with high enough accuracy, and tend to lose the ability to regulate his/her own behavior.
So, remember, toxic level rises as your stress becomes more intense. When you are too tired, give yourself a nice break, even if short! When you are tired, wasting time by working ineffectively and slowly is not as economical as taking a half an hour break to refresh. You will see unbelievable efficiency and effectiveness once you get back to your work.
Hope this works for you! I once wrote about how human beings could really effectively work for a consecutive 25 minutes only. Please check out that article from our website for more on this issue.
Long time no see to “old” HCers! Welcome again to “new” HCers!
I have been waiting for two months to send this first Friday mail to you, as I hope to reach everyone of you. For newcomers, I have mentioned in a few occasions that I like to keep in touch with you with an email every Friday during school weeks. Please feel free to share your opinions with me on any of the topics anytime.
To kick off the Friday mails this year, I would like to share with you what some senior administrators of big companies and tech companies do when they reach out. Sometimes, this is because you have to write to people who do not know you, or only vaguely know you because you just met at an event with many people. Their focus is always “When reaching out, short and sweet is the key”. For example, the following are what a famous executive recruiter, Darrell Rosenstein, will do:
- When sending out initial mails/messages (i.e. the very first mail!) requesting for connection in NO more than three sentences or 150 characters.
- Do NOT ask for an appointment or include a calendar link in the first message. Appointments are for second mails onwards.
- Make sure you send out “well-informed” email/mail/message if you want a response. No one wants to receive a mail that is sent in bulk to many people, and with stupid messages.
The above applies also to your LinkedIn page. Use terms and words wisely. Please note that these are tips for “reaching out”, not for formal emails for applications or business deals, etc. Hope this can inspire you if you are thinking of setting up your own webpage. Ask yourself how much information should be mentioned. Ask yourself what you should say when you are connected on LinkedIn for the first time.
Welcome back! I bet the start of this new semester is quite special. First, COVID-19 hit Macau back in June and July. We are fine now. Still, we have to go on ZOOM lectures for the first four weeks due to many complicated reasons! Where are you now? On campus? At home? No matter where you are, I am excited that we should be able to see each other soon. Even better is that, I hope, many face-to-face activities and those that we could not do over the past 2.5 years due to the pandemic could be resumed soon.
I am sure you have had some nice summer vacation, even if via staycation. It’s time to gather yourself mentally ready for the new semester. Incidentally, I found this following article quite insightful. It is again from McKinsey. For those who have been with HC for at least one year, you know that I always find articles and reports from McKinsey quite useful. Hope you agree. The following is about how people find technology making them busier, or spending more time at work, than before. In fact, there have been many studies about how technology meant to help us save our time has dragged us to work more. So, in the following report, even though it is for people who have occupation, I think a lot of the ideas still apply to you. Let’s be honest! Is checking your mobile the last thing you do before you go to bed, and the first thing you do after you wake up (and you are still in bed)? As HCers, have you thought you still have time in between lessons and you were always efficient, and therefore procrastinate some work that you should have started? These are similar to what the article mentioned. It is about what a new book covers. But I guess you don’t need the book to understand the point.
Hope you enjoy it! Again, on behalf of all members of the College, my warmest “welcome back” to all of you!