Sir Mix A Lot's & Britney Spears--Innovators and Pioneers

"Oh my god Becky. Look at her butt... It is so BIG. I mean...."

So, I have a confession to make. I definitely was listening to "Baby Got Back" this morning as I was getting ready for work...made famous by that (amazing) beginning line (and let's face it, the many shout-singing memories from school dances starting at age 13).

And then I came to work and found out that some of my news feeds were buzzing about some very interesting topics around women. It was too much for me to pass up. So things that I learned today: apparently, according to the Washington Post, the ability for a woman to accept her body is culturally rooted (duh) but the facts behind it are very interesting, particularly in the comparison between black women and white women (as an Asian woman, I can't help but wonder why I wasn't included in this study, but that's fine...I'm sure they'll hit me up next time). So the perceptions of beauty are changing.

So first, some facts. In a survey by Kaiser, they found that 90% of black women say that living a healthful lifestyle is a priority for them, outranking religion, career and marriage. However, two-thirds of black women also admit to eating fast food (on average) at least once a week, and only slightly more than half cook dinner at home on a regular basis. In talking with a trainer in the Washington D.C. metro area, the trainers claimed that it was interesting because white women come in and are specific about their goals in terms of weight "I want to be 120 pounds, I want to lose 30 pounds", whereas black women are more likely to set goals based on dress size "I want to be a size 6, 8, 10...". In 2009, the CDC claim that 43% of black women could be classified as obese, compared to 25% for white women.

This difference I think is interesting because it indicates that black women are less fixated on the number-- a goal for goal's sake, and place more emphasis on a more comprehensive goal of how they would look in clothes. For example, as a woman with mostly male friends, I can tell you that if I lost 5 or 10 pounds, not many would notice. On the other hand, if I wore a well-tailored suit to work and it fit well-- regardless of my size--I would be more likely to get compliments on my clothing. It's normal to not notice the details on a daily basis of your friends-- more likely to notice how, as a package, changes in appearance. Probably came from our tree-swinging days when it was more important to know that a tree was too low to the ground to provide safety than to notice the shape and color of the leaves.

In the other article I read from the New York Times, linguists have identified that young women are typically the pioneers of vocal trends. Everyone is well acquainted with "uptalk" (aka Valley Girl Speech), where everything is a question? And your voice goes up at the end? It's usually like, sprinkled with lots of "likes" for no reason? The newest trend that they've found among girls is "vocal fry", which is the throatiness that is injected at the end of sentences. Think of Mae West's "You should come up and see me sometime", or if you want a more modern example, the growliness of Britney Spears in every song ever or Ke$ha's "Blow".

But what do these things mean (other than the fact that apparently pop stars are changing the way we communicate with each other on a fundamental level *shudder*)? The claim is that, because women are generally more attune to social cues, vocal variation has been used as a tool for women to regain authority or to project power in a society where they are pressured to be demure or passive. Uptalk is seen as a way to convey friendliness or casual-ness in potentially uncomfortable situations. Which makes sense because asking questions instead of telling others to do things conveys mutual decision-making and sub-consciously establishes buy-in to all parties involved.

"Vocal fry", on the other hand has multiple uses, some say that it indicates disinterest because, apparently, this sound can only be made when the vocal cords are in a lax state. (And, let's be honest-- only teenage girls would want you to know how completely uninterested they are in whatever you're doing as to go so far as to make a whole new tone for it.) Others claim that because it creates a lower pitch, its typically used in situations where women want to convey authority. I personally can buy either of these situations, I imagine that I use it in both ways without thinking about it. Working in a male dominated field has made me a little numb to the nuances of conversation-making (Just give me the facts! Now! No! Yesterday!), but I can think of many examples with friends or on conference calls where I probably have used both methods.

The funnest facts from the study? Men are more likely than women to use "like" in casual conversation. Moreover, fathers are more likely to use uptalk than any other demographic.

So what have we learned today? Black women are better at seeing themselves in a more comprehensive way, and are really challenging the accepted norms of what being "healthful" means. However, there is a danger here of being so "proud" that an entire sub-culture in America fails to see the health risks. Oh yeah, and Britney Spears is apparently a pioneer for linguistic trends in our society...And I should pay more attention to things that I say and how I say them if I want to be hip! Apocalypse to commence in 3...2...1...

It's A Crazy Visa World...We Just Live In It

So since I was a slacker yesterday (I'm trying to re-coup from the trauma that is packing up your entire life and moving), we're going to double-dose it today. Let's get started.

Oh Visa. You temptress. I looked away from just one hot second and you're busy doing all sorts of things that I almost missed. So, on top of being "in it" with da ISIS (DA Bears. 'Nuff said.) that I mentioned in the last post, Visa is continuing to push forward in its mobile capabilities by capitalizing on its existing solution in its proprietary PayWave technology. But how? You know, by doing what we do every night Pinky, creating the world's largest mobile partnership. In their press release, they report that,

Visa will provide the payment network, product suite, and branding, while Vodafone contributes its 398 million customers in 30 countries on five continents. The companies are calling the result the world’s largest partnership between a global payment network and a mobile operator.

So basically, what I'm hearing is that this is kind of like the 16th century when there was a huge amount of colonization and a major land grab is occurring before my eyes.Tata and DoCoMo are all over this business, capitalizing in India and Japan, Motorola (mobility) and Google are getting in bed together to try to attack it by controlling the baseline functionality (which, I think, might be more effective) and  MasterCard is trying to make in-roads into Latin America with Telefonica with Wanda. But where is American Express? What's Discover doing? My prediction: American Express will use its existing relationships with international processors/issuers that are part of their network to acquire/buy into the mobile payments game. Discover, who has brought back the old-school black card of my mom's era, seems to be more interested in exploring some options-- most recently working with OboPay to increase the volume that they can process on Discover rails. Wholly interesting to see where the second-tier (in terms of size) players will be going-- here's looking at you Capital One.

But really, back to my infatuation with Visa. Visa apparently, when I was distracted, has also partnered with Intel to develop mobile solutions for developed and developing countries. In the statement that was released, they basically agreed that Visa would (again using PayWave) offer the functionality and Intel would be providing the hardware (mostly terminals,but also the Intel Smartphone Reference Device (ISRD)). The one cool thing about this is, if a user is using a ISRD equipped smartphone (and is Visa UICC compliant of course) they can provision their smarpthone over the air by downloading and encrypting an existing NFC chip within the phone. Slightly more convenient than sending away for one I suppose...I also want to point out that this is very interesting as it's also becoming a trend-- ROAM recently announced its partnership with Ingenico, another example of a payments-oriented firm partnering with a hardware-focused firm. They took it a step further though, as Ingenico is now a majority shareholder in ROAMData, which could benefit ROAM by allowing them to expand more aggressively internationally (Ingenico is based in France).

Visa is also getting into the white-labeling business (for those non-nerdy/ consultants out there, this basically means that one company, Company X say, will build and provide a functionality that it will then sell to a different company (Company Y). Company Y buys it, and works with Company X to brand it so that no one is the wiser that it wasn't a homegrown functionality). Visa recently announced that it will be providing a mobile suite for FSIs. It will offer basic functionality (checking balances, transfers of money, real time alerts, etc), but is still interesting in the sense that I can see Visa really expanding beyond typical issuer roles and edging into roles typically reserved for technology companies or start ups like Kony or Monitise..But oh wait. For perfect transparency, they developed this suite with Monitise, so... in some ways, they're really just stealing the capabilities Monitise has always provided. Sneaky-sneaky Visa. Still, leveraging the best practices and strengths of their valued partnerships could be a legitimate component of their growth strategy (Translation: they could be way more productive by stealing the work done by smaller companies they acquire).

I know, I know, it's a lot of mobile-related stuff today. But mobile is apparently important. It's expected to grow exponentially and, particularly in tablet, estimates indicate 19% of households already own one and a 20% increase will occur int he next year. Fiserv says so.

Final question: is this for real? Talking about p0wning some n00bs. Haha... this could take nerdiness to a whole new awesome level. Rocksaurs!

I Can Haz ISIS?

Not to be hater (but haters gotta hate), but I kind of love the way that ISIS has become kind of an industry joke in mobile payments. Originally announced in late 2010, it promised the world. Partnering with Discover, BarclayCard and running on the networks of T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T, it was supposed to be the next big thing. It promised a payment system using direct billing, where all purchases could be aggregated to the user's phone bill--- partnering with all of the MNOs would allow it to run on any network and the combined power of Discover/ Barclaycard rails. (Yeah...I know that part isn't as impressive. But it gets better.) I will admit that amidst the haze of the exciting news that was spilling out on a daily basis, I was as excited as a hacker upon finding out that they were re-releasing Mountain Dew Code Red (p0wned!). Then, like a true love that you later find out has been saying "Bible Camp" or "studying with friends" when she really meant "Spearmint Rhino Gentleman's Club", "Little Darlings" or "Uncle Cappy's House of Ladies" (I'm copyrighting that last one for pure creepiness street cred), I began to see the flashing "Girls Girls Girls" sign in our relationship.

First, they pushed back their launch date. Their partners began to get a little restless-- and the rumors began to spread that ISIS potentially wasn't what it had promised to be. By summer of 2011, due to the increasing pressure from the industry stakeholders, ISIS released a statement that it was going to be changing its direction a little bit. It decided to move away from the direct billing and model and jumped on the mobile wallet train, promising NFC capabilities and an integrated loyalty, couponing and payment solution. It partnered with more issuers-- adding Visa, MasterCard and American Express. It began to feel a lot like a caricature of itself-- "Let's just throw out hot buzz words! Couponing! Location based services! NFC! Mobile wallet!!".

Now ISIS has announced that its adding more banks to its impressive (but completely non-functional as of right now) roster by including Chase and Capital One. Thus far, ISIS is still planning on launching its pilot in Salt Lake City and Austin towards the end of Q2 of 2012.

So I get it. A lot of people want to jump on the band wagon, I mean, now that almost every single major player in FS (and in the Mobile Network Operator space) is in on it-- you don't want to be the odd kid out! So the MNOs-- understandable. American Express has always prided itself at being the forefront of customer service, and accordingly it is entirely possible that ISIS would provide an additional convenience that American Express' increasingly hip (and affluent) demographic would gravitate towards. Visa and MasterCard, as the "other" two larger juggernauts in the space have the resources and the desire to be involved in anything that could seriously impact their business model. They're kind of like the kids that you have to invite to your birthday party because you're scared if you don't they'll give you a swirly and/or none of the other kids will come.

Discover and BarclayCard got in on the ground floor, and as the original partners, they deserve some extra love. They might be feeling a little angry right now because they thought they were boyfriend-girlfriend, and it turns out that they're more in a Big Love type relationship.

Now with the addition of Chase and Capital One I'm getting a little confused. Their public statements stay pretty consistently in the "say a lot of positive words that don't mean anything" realm. I know that Chase is one of those banks that, after having introduced the Quick Deposit mobile functionality is the new "cool" kid who has an innovative name to prove. Or, you know, they just are trying to make sure they're company stays competitive in terms of mobile technologies. You choose. Capital One, long thought of as a more regional entity with those cool (very very very very expensive commercials) with Jack from 30 Rock, is a bit of an interesting twist. I can't say too much about this other than Capital One seems like they're making strong moves to elevate themselves to become a big dog by playing out of their league. If ISIS ever does comes to fruition (the jury is still out on the probability here-- I imagine it'll happen, but for it to be as successful as the two years of hype promises, well that's probably closer to a 35% probability), this could really benefit Capital One more than any of the other partners that ISIS has on the docket.

My Analysis of Starbucks #firstworldproblems

I'm just sayin'... I would really like a larger green zone.Or to not feel the need to chug like a frat boy after finals.(This second part is probably within my control, but I like to enjoy that limited green zone to the fullest.)

Why Yes... HAH-vahd....Indubitably!

Really?! Really?! I hate to call it like it is (but I actually really love it), but I just get the feeling that Harvard, HBS in particular, is not even trying anymore. They've just recently announced their new curriculum known as "FIELD" (Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development). Nitin Nohria, who became dean of HBS in July of 2010 claims that, "if it works, the FIELD method could become an equal partner to the case method".

Nitin sees this as a solution to the hordes of MBA-ers that graduate knowing a massive body of knowledge but fail at the actual application of this knowledge to... you know.. tangible things. (Any one feel like MBA-ers are getting a bad rap for their inability to perform in real life? I feel like MBA-ers are like the consultants of the academic world.) Any way. So let me summarize what I've learned from this article, HBS has not defined what the second year will look like (I swear this is what it says in the article), but they have decided that the first year will have three elements: team building exercises ("Students take turns to lead a group engaged in a project such as designing an "eco-friendly sculpture". They learn to collaborate and to give and take feedback"....what?), students will be sent to work for a week with one of more than 140 firms in 11 countries (pretty standard and existent in most MBA curriculi), and finally, the students will be given eight weeks and seed money of $3,000 each to launch a small company. The most successful ones, as voted by their fellow students will get more funding.

Okay, so this last component is pretty interesting, although it doesn't seem that radically different than the existing case competitions out there (which give a lot more seed money, btw), but this component is a little bit more interesting because it is an obvious ploy of Harvard's to lure away the VCs from startup/braintrust/black hole of VC funding that sits across the way.... a little school called MIT's Sloan.

I have to be honest, I don't know whether or not to laugh or cry when I read this article. In some ways, Harvard is obviously trying to keep things exciting and "cutting edge", so I have to give them a little respect for that. On the other hand, I just really don't know if half-heartedly recycling other concepts and then combining them into one "program" (because let's be real only half of the program has actually been developed) is the way to do it. So, more than ever my dear fellow MBA-ers, good luck!

Motherland and Homeland

Sometimes, I get a little paranoid. I remind myself that it's completely natural to be curious about what others think/say about you, but I feel like my need for "continual feedback" (consultant lingo for "please tell me what I'm doing wrong or right so I can stop doing/keep doing those things") has gotten exponentially worse since I've started consulting. Any way. As the dollar declines, the economy struggles and America as a whole also gets a little more paranoid about how it will stand against the other rising superpowers of the world, it is also natural that collective eyeballs turn toward China. As a Chinese-American, I can't help but feel a little collective-consciousness here with the motherland, and voraciously read the analyses of what China is and what it could be.

On the international playground, stereotypes have already begun to spring up, and for good reason. Brazil is the relatively harmless and easy going kid, due to their strong relationship with the U.S., existing acceptance/assimilation of American culture and abundance of resources that the U.S. wants. Russia is the shy kid who usually hangs out by the tetherball courts-- quiet but open to playing with others. Not much is known about her and we may have had disagreements before (so our relationship is tenuous) but due to her abundance in oil and gas, the U.S. will continue to half-heartedly offer its friendship (just in case we want to play tetherball one day). India is the confident kid, becoming more popular by the day due to their open, welcoming personality, eagerness to assimilate to American culture, exploding middle class and pure, unadulterated manufacturing strength (ROI on developing products and services here could be one, but they have actually significantly improved their standard of living, hence the exploding middle class).

China is different. They are the nerdy, misunderstood kid, slowly making everyone a little nervous because they alternate between quietness/mercurial moodiness and boisterous grandstanding. (Think of them almost as an unpredictable significant other-- you never know what you're going to get-- so you're options are to stay away or get rid of them.) Again with an exploding population, particularly within the middle class, they have the luxury of throwing bodies-- relatively educated ones at that-- towards any problem. Add in their growing emphasis on internal investment (in infrastructure, education, etc.) and suddenly, America's unease makes sense. I honestly believe that its a fear of the unknown. I'd like to reference the "uncanny valley" here, which usually refers to the point at which human-like entities become suddenly too human-like, and it makes the audience uncomfortable (see: Polar Express, Heavy Rain, L.A. Noire). Similarly, China seems so familiar, yet because of its distinctly eastern values, it's still kind of a wild card. It's a culture that emphasizes the collective over the individual (yet is becoming increasingly "American-ized" as demonstrated by the personal ambition/greed of the younger generations), that places a premium on education, encourages meritocracy-- where humbleness and obedience are characteristics of pride.That being said, it is a culture in flux. As the younger generation becomes more accepting of more "capitalistic" traits, a cultural clash has already begun to take place. The result of which is wholly unpredictable.

The best embodiment of this transition was displayed in a recent article by Fast Company recently about how startups in China are changing corporate culture. In the examples given, they've highlighted Alibaba (eBay wannabe), Youku (YouTube wannabe) and Baidu (Google wannabe). The traits that they've highlighted (ways that they've "shaken up" the culture) are:

1. Belonging- 1:1s with your leaders are great... but whoever heard of your CEO performing marriage rites for his employees monthly? Welcome to the brave new world of hyper-integrated work/life integration (Alibaba)
2. Fun- Encouraging freedom of expression and following the idea that if you love what you do, it won't feel like work, therefore increasing efficiency. This company is a physical manifestation of the break from the conformist Mao culture (Youku)
3. Semi-Independent Thinking- Breaking from the collective mentality that rules most collaboration in Chinese culture (which in turn stifles creativity and increases risk of "yes-death"), they encourage "semi-independent" thinking through "creative implementation" that doesn't go so far as to be radical innovation, but focuses instead on a free-er form of fact-based innovation (Baidu)

The thing that strikes me is that these characteristics are not particularly revolutionary... I would argue that Chinese culture lends itself quite well to the startup culture due to its emphasis on the collective and accountability. Asian cultures have had a history with these types of management styles, since Japanese/American managers developed Theory Z and propelled the Asian economic boom of the 1980s. Nevertheless, I am interested to see that these Chinese startups, which are really spearheaded by what I consider the "new guard"/ new and emerging generation of Chinese, are moving in this direction. Although some would argue that this management style is simply closing in on a iterative cycle, I argue that this change in thinking is probably more indicative of what we can expect as China evolves culturally.

Having been raised in a relatively strict, traditional family, I was taught that I should always think of the group, then the "you" (whoever I was directly interacting with-- a friend, a partner, a significant other, etc.), then myself. As China evolves and becomes more materialistic, I fear that it'll fall into the same pitfalls of self-serving organizations that already exist when they have the opportunity to be more than that. Either way, I'll be keeping the motherland in my thoughts-- maybe not on the forefront, but I'll be keeping an eye out.

And Now a Few Words from a Guy Who Probably Embrasses His Kids a Lot

You probably don't recognize the guy in the picture above... but... he's kind of a big deal.. probably only to nerds like me, but nonetheless. His name is Lawrence Krauss, and if you have a strange hobby of being obsessed with theoretical cosmology and physics like I do, then he cuts a pretty impressive figure. in 1995, he and his friend Michael S. Turner (from the University of Chicago) theorized that there must be some sort of cosmological constant that was holding the universe together like a fly caught in honey-- moderating its expansion and (very slow) expansion/explosion into nothing. A few years later, they coined the term "dark energy" by discovering the cosmological constant that was very slowly accelerating the expansion of the universe as we know it. You know, no big. The important thing to take away from this discovery is that it proved that nothingness was, in a way, both nothing and a very big something simultaneously (I mean, it's exploding our universe, that's all).

Dr. Krauss is back now with some new questions to warp your mind. Maybe it's just because I've only just returned from vacation, but my mind has recently been consumed with a larger mix of big questions-- "Why am I here? How am I here? Am I making the right decisions?" along with my daily #firstworldproblems "How did my friend get nutella on my white coat? How did she get it on the inside armpit?!".

In a New York Times Article entitled "There's More to Nothing Than We Knew", Dr. Krauss introduces his new question to the universe (Ba dum dum! Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week-- tip your waitress). As a strong opponent of creationist theory, Dr. Krauss is asking "Why should we assume that nothingness is more natural than somethingness?"-- to put it in other words (from an equally reputable nerd, Alan H. Guth from MIT), "The universe could be the ultimate free lunch!".

The reasoning is this-- creationist theory is founded on the idea that the universe is so perfect-- a culmination of such precise and perfectly compatible conditions that there must be some sort of "intelligent design" or interference from an otherworldy source (you may have seen him around-- white robes, long white beard, had a nice kid named Adam...answers to "alpha and omega", and (if you're into the Old Testament) he also warned of fire and brimstone before his anger management classes). Dr. Krauss believes that there are three types of nothing: emptiness of space (a very ancient method of thinking popularized by the Greeks), a nothing that lacks even space and time and a third type where even the laws of physics are absent. Here, he asks another mind-blowing question, "Where do the laws come from? Are they born with the universe, or is the universe born in accordance with them?". To answer, he reverts to multi-universe (string) theory, where everything that has happened and everything that will happen are all simultaneously happening. So not to scare the OCD-ers out there, but maybe quantum randomness really is the root of existence...

So. Not to alarm anyone, but it is 2012, and here's this guy who is basically saying that although something could be a more natural resting state of existence than nothingness, nothingness will eventually get us at both ends. Think of time/space as a candy. The somethingness is the creamy nougat in the center which we are enjoying currently, but it's capped at both ends with nothing and wrapped in a whole lot of nothing. Once this brevity of existence if over, the universe could potentially revert back to an empty, chocolate-smeared nothing wrapper in an existential (nihilist? haha...) trash can. Add in the multi-verse theory and your mind should now be swimming in a container truck of these little existence candies...His depth of thinking is really quite succinct, and I can't articulate it better than the New York Times already has, so...

"The universe is the way it is, whether we like it or not," Dr. Krauss writes. It gets worse. If nothing is our past, it could also be our future. As the universe, driven by dark energy-- that is to say-- the negative pressure of nothing-- expands faster and faster, the galaxies will become invisible, and all the energy and information will be sucked out of the cosmos. The universe will revert to nothingness. Nothing to nothing. One day it's all going to seem like a dream. But who is or was the dreamer?

Can you imagine having this guy as a dad? This is how I imagine it:

Krauss: "What are you doing today son?"
Son: "Nothing, just hanging around."
Krauss: "Well, you've technically been doing nothing and everything haven't you?"
Son: "Dad!!! Can I just have my allowance?"
Krauss: "In another universe, I've already given it to you..."
Son: *grumble* "I'm going to the mall."
Krauss: "You're already there!"
*vulgar hand gesture from son*

They Never DO Give You Enough Space on the Plane...

I just had to share this picture that I came across the other day... mostly because its ridiculously true. Maybe back in the day, when the economy wasn't in shambles and teenagers didn't see sharing passwords as a form of intimacy (at least it's better than sexting? question mark?), consulting was a glamorous job. Nowadays, with all of the cuts and a lot of "efficiency analysis" (aka cost cutting, aka deciding what "fat" can be trimmed, aka making hard decisions about people's livelihoods-- you know, no big deal), consulting is really more of me crammed into a middle seat cranking on slides than the glamorous lifestyle that people would like to think... but that didn't stop them from making a show about it. House of Lies is quite literally a show where the entire goal is to make my life seem as ridiculous as possible. In the linked article from Fast Company, an ex-consultant sits with a bunch of writers and hilarity ensues. My favorite out-takes?

"So Marty," one of the writers began. "How much sex did you have...in your office?" I revealed the horrible truth: none. "None?!" "Consultants eat badly and often," I said. "We're not an attractive bunch. And it would have been a career-limiting move." "A what?" We were off to an interesting start.

...for all of its extravagance, the show nails consulting on an existential level. It's a brutal, nomadic, exhausting, morally dubious profession glued together with false intimacy and double talk. People say things like "We'll leverage these strong-form learnings into an impactful deliverable going forward," rather than "We'll use this info in a document." Consulting burrows into your psyche. It harms your ability to be straightforward with anyone.

Now this second bit, for all of its hilarity, is unfortunately true. Across the board in my super-scientific, very organized and completely legit casual survey, my friends all agree-- consulting makes you into kind of a robot. There are some pros and cons. Pros: You are a master organizer, incredibly efficient with your time, and you get a lot more done in your average day than a normal person. You can be an overachiever. Cons: You're constantly tired, you begin to forget how to empathize and you kind of bitterly resent everyone who has a normal 9-5. Both pro and con: You rack up points like a mother and can use it to treat yourself or the people you care about (you're welcome mom).

So, to shed some light on my life which has quite literally become a farce, I want to share some knowledge that might help others in life that I've picked up in consulting.

• Always sign up for frequent customer programs. Even if its one trip a year, it'll add up
• Even if it kills you, try to pick a few companies you like and stick with em-- or pick ones that are parts of a larger conglomeration (like the One World Alliance for flying)
• When checking into hotels, the earlier you check in to your allotted check in time, the more likely you are to get an upgrade
• If you're trying to make status, almost all frequent customer programs have some sort of "challenge"-- for hotels its usually staying X nights in X amount of time, for flights its booking X segments/miles in a set period of time. If you know you'll be traveling relatively frequently in a short period of time, this is a good way to get status fast. Some airlines also let friends who already have status "sponsor" other friends-- so ask around
• Status is not the end all, be all of your life, but it is helpful-- not for the upgrades but because you wanna carry your bag on and not wait the extra 20 minutes for a checked bag
• Never convert points between programs if you don't have to. If you HAVE to, conversion from hotels to airlines is almost always a better conversion rate than vice versa
• Consider bartering points through a program like points.com if you have a couple extra thousand you don't want
• Moisturizer on the plane for girls, Airborne for everyone. If you get sick, Zi-Cam every 3 hours and Airborne every 4
• If you're still scared of getting sick, salt water on a q-tip and then rimming your nostrils at the end of the night before bed (I know, kind of gross) does provide some preventative qualities
• If your ears plug on the plane and won't stop, you can try the "plug your nose and blow" trick, OR a really hot steamy shower usually does the trick
• If you're sick and you HAVE to fly, get ready for serious pain due to the pressure. Nyquil is a good way to attempt to sleep through the whole mess
• If you get booked on a middle seat, checking available seats again once arriving to the airport is worth it because sometimes last minute cancellations open aisle or window seats
• Southwest offers a 24 cancellation policy, if you cancel within 24 hours of an un-taken flight, you can get a refund or credit for your next flight
• United has quite possibly some of the worst customer service (American is even better), Delta has the best, but you'll have to pay for it
• Hilton has the worst conversion for free nights from points, Starwood/Marriott are probably the best two for hotel stays
• If you get traveler's flu for long trips, ginger ale and bread helps...sparingly
• If you get jet lag, and you arrive in the daytime, keep your space as dim as possible until after noon local time. If you arrive in the night time, keep your blinds open while sleeping so the sun comes in at a natural time. Although you may be tempted to drink a ton of caffeine, do so sparingly

And finally, for all of you who may be friends with some of us consultants, you may find we slip into consulting lingo when nervous, anxious or tired. Here's some quick translations of commonly used phrases:

• "Leverage" = "steal"
• "Socialize" = "share in kind of a dictator-ly way"
• "Moving forward" or "for future planning" = "Let's do things differently next time because you really messed it up this time"
• "So what I'm hearing is..." = "I can't really understand/believe what I'm hearing, so I want to make sure I have this clear before I get emotional or frustrated with you"
• "Knowledge Transfer" = "Tell me what to do" or sometimes can mean "Let me tell you what to do"
• "I think there could be some opportunities here" = "This kind of sucks"
• "I feel as though...." = "I am uncomfortable emoting right now, but I'm going to try in sort of a third party way"
• "Best practices", "industry standards", "critical learnings" = "stuff people told me that I accept as a good way of doing things"
• "Currently, the status of the deliverable is red and the initiative has been delayed due to challenges that arose during the course of implementation" = "This may have been really poor planning"

To those of you who put up with us, I salute you! Keep fighting the good fight. One of these days, we promise to make it up to you.

When Am I?

Sometimes, we forget that we live in a world that is ever-evolving. Especially if you are part of the Facebook generation, it's sometimes really difficult to comprehend that sometimes, your expectations for what the world should be are very different than what the world actually is.

I was reminded of this today when I came across an article in The Economist entitled "Making Ting Tong Cool". If you missed the fiasco that was Alexandra Wallace, an undergrad at UCLA, making fun of Asian students in quite possibly the most insensitive way possible ("I mean, I know there's been a tsunami or something, but talk on your cell phone somewhere else!") you can look at it now, or enjoy one of the many hilarious parodies. I particularly like this one best... ("Ching chong.. it means I love you..."? Who can't like that?)

The point I'm trying is that... in order to get along in this big crazy world of ours, we probably should keep in mind that just because we've maybe not progressed as far as we would've liked, we have to be patient, or else we'll never get there. And although the olden days are filled of nostalgia of land lines, pre- Jersey Shore peace and when planking wasn't a thing, there are some things I could do without.

Oh, and for Ms. Wallace? There are (at last count) 695 undergraduates from China at UCLA. This is five times more than two years ago, and they represent a full 3% of the student body. Even The Economist is making fun of her now-- the caption for the picture above? "Annoying Ms. Wallace".