Jian Shuo Got His New Car

About 6 years ago, I posted this entry: Jian Shuo Got His Car. The little car (I gave it the name Goudaner) has been with me and my family for 6 years.

This week, we got our new car – a Nissan Teana 2.5L XL with V6 engine, and CVT transmission. Today, Wendy went to the dealer to get the new car back (I hope it was myself who went there, as I picked up Goudaner 6 years ago). I quickly had my dinner and rushed down to see it. Then I drove to the nearby department store with Yifan and Wendy – just for a test drive.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

© Jian Shuo Wang

So far, so good. – Did I say exactly the same thing when I got Goudaner?

The Change of A Normal Person’s Life

I spent few minutes to read all the blog entries of Goudaner. That articles brought me back to 6 years ago, when I was still an engineer in Microsoft, with a limited circle of friends, and a small world to handle. Obviously I had much more time to spend, have simpler life (no Yifan!), and surely younger than today. The life 6 years ago is very familiar to me (since it was my who wrote those articles) but at the same time, seems pretty distant from my current life.

The car is an example. It upgrades with the owner. With the arrival of Yifan and the change of our life, our need for cars also change. That is reflected honestly on this blog. Wendy and I am the type of person who are easy to get satisfied, and be happy. Our expectation to life is not very high. We buy things that we just need, and nothing more than that. Many of our friends bought Volkswagen Passat, or Honda Accord 6 years ago when we bought Goudaner (a FIAT compact car). Now, we finally upgraded to a bigger car, that is still just right for us, financially, and functionally. That is the type of life we enjoy.

I never shy away from sharing my personal life with my readers, with just one hope that people can have some real feeling about what the life in Shanghai, in China, or in the beginning of the 21st century looks like from an individual person’s view – his joy, his dream, his life, and his happiness. I am sure that differs from country to country, and from decade to decade. I hope my honest record of this fragmented, and detailed life can be of some value for others and for the future.

I hope the Jian Shuo 6 years later can get back to read what I am writing today, and still be able to feel the exact moment I am writing this.

Goudaner

I listed my first car, my favorite car, and my good friend Goudaner on Baixing.com to sell it. Quickly my friend saw it and we made the deal. Goudaner will find a new home next week. I am very sad that I cannot keep Goudaner with the new car.

The story with Goudaner started with a comment from my reader Nina in San Francisco:

Congratulations from San Francisco! It’s a very nice-looking car and I’m sure you will enjoy it.

Are you going to give the car a name? I don’t know whether there is enough of a car-owning culture yet in China to have developed the custom of pet names for cars. I think I’ve read that about 25% of Americans have named their cars and supposedly, cars that have names last longer and are more reliable, although presumably this is because the sort of people who name their cars usually take good care of them, rather than by magic. The most popular name is “Betsy” or “Bessie” and the speculation is that this was a common name for a cow back at the time when people first started owning cars, and the habit transferred over. Of course, this was when cars did not go much faster than a cow. You probably want to have a snappier and more elegant name for this little beauty.

Posted by: Nina on March 17, 2004 2:16 AM

That comment inspired me to give my first car a name. Nina is 100% right that when you give it a name, you treat it as a person, and then it becomes your friend. Goudaner was an excellent car, lasted very long, and never gave me hard time. Is it because I gave him a name?

What Nina didn’t told me, though, was it is so hard to sell it when you have given it a name – I do hope I could keep my Goudaner, which Wendy had told me to be not realistic.

OK, let me move on. I will spend time to give a name to this bigger white car.

What should I name it?

Time Matters in Communication

This week (May 11 to May 15, 2009) is my communication week. I talked with people. Today, I talked 12.5 hours in total (including 2.5 hours with Jack and Jim), and the other 10 with TL, and ZR. Yesterday, I talked about 7 hours with Joanna, and Bobo, and the day before, 5 hours with Vince… Nice to chat with everyone and to get fully synced. The last week, I also talked 9 hours + 7 hours in two days with Matt.

When we think about communication, we often think about how often we talk, but I realized that time is one of the most important factor for any communication. Many times, you have to spend the time together first, to allow enough information to flow between people. Time is so key that the depth of the communication is directly correlated with the continuous time spent together. Sometimes, you need several hours to warm up, to have all the routine, and surface problems to be addressed, before people mention about the real key issues. Total time spend in one conversation really matters.

Meanwhile, I am very happy to recognize my personality type ENFP – the idea people, and the people people. I am happy about who I am and what I am good at… I am a very unique ENFP.

When I talked with Jack, he mentioned that he don’t like Spring Airlines. I love it a lot. I joked with Jack, that they know who their customers are very clearly. If you keep complaining and if I were the CEO of the airline, I will record your national ID, and ban you from buying their ticket. :-)

Update May 15, 2009

Added another 8 hours for Gary and York. To include the 5 hour with PH, I spent 35 hours talking with my team members in this 40 hour working week, and 3.5 hours talking with Mark, Jack and Jim. Tiring week, isn’t it?

Friendship Binding vs Interest Binding

For a company, whether it should be bound by friendship (“I really love to work with these guys”), or should it be bound by interest (“I maximize my value in this company in any other company in the world”)? This is a key question in my mind recently.

The easy and simple answer is, sure, you need both, but if you have to decide, what comes first? When there is a conflict, which comes first?

I had my Wisdom Teeth Extracted

This afternoon, I went to a dentist my friends recommended, and had my right wisdom teeth extracted. It has some problem because of dental caries. It is very painful for me. These days, it started to affect my dining and sleeping. So I have to get it out.

I hesitate a lot before the operation, and it turned out to be painless – it is my first time to do anything with my teeth except daily brushing. Now, 3 hours after that, everything is OK. It is just as before the operation. Good. Now I have 31 teeth.

Preventional removal of Wisdom Teeth is not a very common practice in China yet (or to people like me). The dentist suggested to remove the other side, but I don’t want to do it before it causes any trouble. Your suggestions?

Business is Business

Business is an interesting game.

It is like online game, with strategies playing a role, with execution, with resources, with consistency, with strong minds, with sense of directions, with changes we have to make every day… It is just like a wonderful, interesting, powerful, but complicated game.

Business is really a game.

P.S. This is the fourth entry I wrote with exactly the same title: Business is Business.

The first time was in 2002: Business is Business. That was just before I started to run the ESS business for Wicresoft.

The second time was in July of 2007: Business is Really Business. That was a short summary of what business means to me.

The third time was in Oct 2007. Business is Business, but at that time, the term business really mean finance for me.

Today, the “business” does mean business.

1:22

Just sent out a PPT, and it is 1:22 AM. I usually do not stay so late – this is the rare occasion. To keep life and work balance is still my key philosophy. Going back to sleep now. There is no (actual) blog today.

I Want to Go to India

I am seriously interested in India now. I have never been there, and I hope I have a chance to visit the wonderful country of India.

India and China share a lot of things in common, like rich history, huge population, buddhism, diversified people, different local dialect, and good food. They also face many similar problems.

When I had conference call with my friends in India, the beep and horn of buses and cars seldom stopped. I can imagine how busy the streets are, and what the big cities like New Deli and Mumbai are. Of cause my imagination will be far from the real India.

I should go to India one day. Seriously.