似乎又回到了学生时代
    默默地听着海涛声     
    偶尔发现眷恋也是一种毒药     
    心中泛起的涟漪     
    却没法诠释情义的定理     
    风起的时候     
    人的心会变得脆弱     
    因为风是别的地方来的东西     
    也许有自己的过去存在     
    所以心的敲击开始清脆     

 

 

     

     

      从公园4实际至公元14世纪，历时一千年的开窟造像与丹青彩绘，使得莫高窟为代表的敦煌艺术
成为中国乃至世界佛教艺术的宝库。包括建筑、彩塑、壁画书法在内的敦煌艺术更是令人叹为观止。

虽然自己不算很懂艺术，不过还是为敦煌的神秘所吸引，遂忽悠宿舍好友一同前往中国美术馆参观。

     敦煌的恢宏气势恐怕只有身临其境才能感知，不过能有幸近距离参观全尺寸敦煌临摹艺术品，感

受一下延续千余年的中国佛教艺术，对于在实验室压抑已久的我来说无疑是一次高质量的身心放松。

     本次参观照片见space的pictures，内含美术馆展出的纪念周恩来110年诞辰图片，都是精品。

部分照片为同去同学所拍，我就“借花献佛了”。

Mao and the art of management

Dec 19th 2007

A role model, of sorts

Books on management tend to define success in the broadest possible terms—great product, happy employees, continuous improvement, gobs of profits, crushed competitors. Even when words such as “excellence” and “success” are omitted from the title, they are often implicit. A case in point is the book which many would say defined the genre, Alfred Sloan's “My Years with General Motors”, published in 1963 when GM was still an iconic company and Sloan correctly acknowledged as the architect of the well-run, decentralised, global corporation.

But focusing on how the best produce the best has its limits. Most managers, after all, do not stitch an industrial triumph from a vast bankrupt junkyard, as Sloan did. They do not delight their customer, crush competitors and create vast wealth. They struggle. They stumble.

Where is the book for them? Who can help the under-performing, over-compensated chief executive fighting to survive intrusive journalists, independent shareholders and ambitious vice-presidents who could do a better job? Where is the role model for the manager who really needs a role model most—the one who by any objective measure of performance cannot, and should not, manage at all?

An obvious candidate is Mao. Yes, he was head of a country, not a company. But he self-consciously carried a business-like title, “chairman”, while running China from 1949 until dying in office in 1976, having jailed, killed, or psychologically crushed a succession of likely replacements and therefore created the classic business problem: a succession void. He thought of himself as, in his own words, an “indefatigable teacher” and the famous “Little Red Book” drawn from his speeches is packed with managerial advice on training, motivation and evaluation of lower-level employees (cadres); innovation (“let a hundred flowers bloom”); competition (“fear no sacrifice”); and, of course, raising the game of the complacent manager (relentless self-criticism).

Mao still has at least a symbolic hold over the Chinese economy, even though it began to blossom only after death removed his suffocating hand. His portrait is emblazoned on China's currency, on bags, shirts, pins, watches and whatever else can be sold by the innumerable entrepreneurial capitalists that he ground beneath his heel when in power. No other recent leader of a viable country (outside North Korea, in other words) is so honoured—not even ones that did a good job.

It was not a nurturing management style that won Mao this adulation. According to Jung Chang's and Jon Halliday's “Mao, the Unknown Story”, admittedly an unsympathetic portrait, he was responsible for “70m deaths, more than any other 20th-century leader”. But why stop at the 20th century? In Chinese history, only Emperor Qin Shi Huang, who started building the Great Wall (in which each brick is said to have cost a life), was competition for Mao; and since the population was much smaller then, Mao is likely to have outdone him in absolute numbers.

Botched economic policies caused most of the carnage. Deng Xiaoping, Mao's successor, turned the policies, and eventually the economy, around. Yet he does not even merit an image on a coin.

The disparity between Mao's performance and his reputation is instructive, for behind it are four key ingredients which all bad managers could profitably employ.

• A powerful, mendacious slogan

Born a modestly well-off villager, Mao lived like an emperor, carried on litters by peasants, surrounded by concubines and placated by everyone. Yet his most famous slogan was “Serve the People”. This paradox illustrates one aspect of his brilliance: his ability to justify his actions, no matter how entirely self-serving, as being done for others.

Psychologists call this “cognitive dissonance”—the ability to make a compelling, heartfelt case for one thing while doing another. Being able to pull off this sort of trick is an essential skill in many professions. It allows sub-standard chief executives to rationalise huge pay packages while their underlings get peanuts (or rice).

But Mao did not just get a stamp from a compliant board and eye-rolling from employees. He convinced his countrymen of his value. That was partly because, even if his message bore no relation to his actions, it expressed precisely and succinctly what he should have been doing. Consider the truth and clarity of “serve the people” compared with the average company's mission statement, packed with a muddle of words and thoughts tied to stakeholders and CSR, that employees can barely read, let alone memorise.

Deng Xiaoping's slogan, which he used in his campaign to revive the economy, had similar virtues. “Truth from facts” is a sound-bite that Sloan would have loved and every manager should cherish, but you won't find it chiselled on a Chinese wall. It doesn't have the hypocritical idealism of Mao's version—nor was it pushed so hard.

• Ruthless media manipulation

Mao knew not just how to make a point but also how to get it out. Through posters, the “Little Red Book” and re-education circles, his message was constantly reinforced. “Where the broom does not reach”, he said, “the dust will not vanish of itself.” This process of self-aggrandisement is often dismissed as a “personality cult”, but is hard to distinguish from the modern business practice of building brand value.

Yet within China economic growth was pathetic and living conditions were wretched. So why did a vast list of Western political, military and academic leaders accept the value of Mao's brand at his own estimation? Even Stalin, no guileless observer, believed in and, to his later regret, protected Mao. The brand-building lesson is that a clear, utopian message, hammered home relentlessly, can obscure inconvenient facts. Great salesmen are born knowing this. Executives whose strategies are not delivering need to learn it.

Chief executives are not in a position to crush the media as Mao did. Nevertheless, his handling of them offers some lessons. He talked only to sycophantic journalists and his appeal in the West came mainly from hagiographies written by reporters whose careers were built on the access they had to him.

The law constrains the modern chief executive's ability to imitate Mao's PR strategy. Publicly listed companies have to publish information, rather than hand it out selectively. But many, within bounds, emulate Mao's media management; others, determined to control information about them, are delisting. Burrow beneath laudatory headlines on business and political leaders, and it becomes clear that the strategy works.

• Sacrifice of friends and colleagues

“Who are our friends? Who are our enemies? This is a question of first importance,” Mao wrote. Sloan agreed. He worried that favouritism would come at the expense of the single most valuable component of management: the objective evaluation of performance.

Mao had a different goal: he did not want people too close to him, and therefore to power; so being Mao's friend often proved more dangerous than being his enemy. One purge followed another. Promotions and demotions were zealously monitored. Bundles of incentives were given and withdrawn. Some demotions turned out well. Deng Xiaoping's exile in a tractor factory may have helped him understand business, and thus rebuild the economy, but that was an unintended benefit.

This approach makes sense. Close colleagues may want your job, and relationships with them may distract you. Mao's abandonment of friends and even wives and children seemed to be based on a calculation of which investments were worth maintaining and which should be regarded as sunk costs. Past favours were not returned. According to Ms Chang and Mr Halliday, a doctor who saved his life was left to die on a prison floor after being falsely accused of disloyalty. Mao let it happen: he had other doctors by then.

Enemies, conversely, can be useful. Mao often blamed battlefield losses on rivals who were made to suffer for these defeats. The names of modern victims of this tactic will be visible on the list of people sacked at an investment bank after a rough quarter; the practitioners are their superiors, or those who have taken their jobs.

• Activity substituting for achievement

Mao was quite willing to avoid tedious or uncomfortable meetings, particularly when he was likely to be criticised. But maybe that helped him avoid getting bogged down. From the Anti-Rightist Movement of the late 1950s to the Great Leap Forward, a failed agricultural and industrial experiment in the early 1960s, to the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s, Mao was never short of a plan.

Under Mao, China didn't drift, it careened. The propellant came from the top. Policies were poor, execution dreadful and leadership misdirected, but each initiative seemed to create a centripetal force, as everyone looked toward Beijing to see how to march forward (or avoid being trampled). The business equivalent of this is restructuring, the broader the better. Perhaps for the struggling executive, this is the single most important lesson: if you can't do anything right, do a lot. The more you have going on, the longer it will take for its disastrous consequences to become clear. And think very big: for all his flaws, Mao was inspiring.

In the long run, of course, the facts will find you out. But who cares? We all know what we are in the long run.

有人说婚姻是1+1=2,因为婚姻是二人组合而成的；有人说是1+1=3,因为我们还会有一个爱情的见证；我认为更贴切的是1+1=1,因为婚姻使我们连成一体。虽然平淡风化了激情,但爱人却名副其实地变成了我们的亲人。经过岁月的沉淀,我们彼此的存在已变成了一种习惯,融入了共同的生活，不可分割。虽说现在的世界离开了谁都一样地生活,但活得质量不同,活得感觉不同,活的味道也不同。亲人是爱人的一种升级,亲情也是爱情的升华,这就是相濡以沫吧。激情是人人渴望的,但无法长久；爱情是人人向往的,但要学会呵护；亲情是平凡而厚重的,只需要我们去感受。我们常常会抱怨没有激情,恰恰是我们忽略了爱情，当爱情变成亲情的时候,或许也是我们成熟的时候吧。执手或许已不再有感觉,但断手肯定会有切肤之痛的,这就是因为我们的爱情已变成了亲情。

有很多人，在婚前并不认识，他们走上结婚的礼堂后却恩恩爱爱，白头偕老。他们在执起对方的手时，就已经把对方作为亲人，准备一生风雨共济走下去。他们的一生也有磕磕碰碰，但他们会越走越亲密，到最后心灵默契。也有许多人，他们在恋爱时，轰轰烈烈，心灵缠绕在一起，父母的反对，亲人的劝阻，都不能使他们分开。然而，婚后现实的生活，使他们互相怨恨，逐渐疏离，甚至最后分道扬镳。他们依旧用深爱中的目光去看对方，要求对方体谅她，一心一意地爱她，却不知他们已变成了亲人--世上最亲的人。在爱情中，爱要大声地说出口，在亲情中，爱要深深埋在心里。

在这个世界上，爱你的人和你爱的人肯定不止一个，但你最终选择的却一定是那个你坚信会一辈子给你亲情和温暖而不是浪漫和心动的人！生活没有浪漫也许会平淡枯燥，但若没有了彼此相依的温情，将是无法想象的。用偶尔的浪漫时不时点缀一下平静的生活固然是最美好的爱情模式，但那只是人们永远的追求......

看着那些在热恋中沉醉的男女，总想告诫他们一声，爱对方，不仅爱她的现在，而且爱她的将来。在爱中，不妨开始把对方作为我们的爱人。爱情如酒，过瘾伤身，但如果我们长久的品味它，斟酌它，会越来越芳香。

0. 现在对自己最重要的是什么？------- 健康，事业。

1. 你觉得远距离的恋爱会有结果吗？如果是你你怎么做？------- 的确有难度,两个人应该在一起。

2. 如果没有计划生育，你会想要几个孩子？-------不超过两个，其中至少一个boy

3. 你现在住在哪个城市，如果能够选择，你希望住在哪里？-------北京 North Euro

4. 如果现在可以让你随心所欲去旅行，你想去哪？------- 美国，想看看美帝为啥这么发达

6. 最不喜欢什么类型的人？------- 口若悬河唠唠叨叨没完的人

7. 会不会做饭？你希望你的伴侣（未来的伴侣）会做饭吗？------- 不会，想学；会

8. 如果看到自己最爱的人熟睡在你面前你会做什么？------- 给她盖上被子

9. 如果你爱的人不爱你怎么办？------- 会失落一阵，不过该咋样还咋样

10. 你msn现用的“名称”是什么，有什么含义? -------小胡，我爸是大胡。

11. 在北京，你觉得多大的房子你觉得可以了？ ------- 90-100

12. 你最怀念的一段时光是什么？-------- 高中毕业那个暑假，完全放松

13. 你最喜欢你伴侣的什么？如果没有，你希望你的伴侣具有什么品质？------- 人品

14. 谈谈你最近在听的音乐？------- 不固定，喜欢轻快一点的

15. 你会选择你爱的人还是爱你的人？------- 互相爱的

16. 你觉得自己哪方面性格特征对别人最有吸引力？------- 乐观，幽默（贫气）

17. 最近最让你迷惘的事情是什么？------- 以后工作咋找

18. 如果暗恋她（他），你敢说出口吗？------- 暗恋就是暗地里的恋

19. 你的身高和体重？用数字说话------- BMI=22.02

20. 说一件最近让你最开心的事 ------ 晚上实验室加班，被突然造访的主任发现，夸我用功

21. 当你对很重要的事情感到力不从心时，怎么处理？------- 如果力不能及就放弃

22. 你认为怎么样才算幸福的生活？------- 知足者长乐

23. 你最喜欢吃的五种食物是什么？------- 话梅，开心果，羊肉串，刨冰，冬枣

24. 如果发现自己的另一半出轨了会怎么办？-------  批评与自我批评，如果不奏效--->离

25. 最近在看什么书？------- 看休闲书的时候不是很多，希望有人推荐一本

26. 你喜欢你现在的工作吗,为什么? ------- 希望老板给安排点实际的项目，别老让看boring的paper

27. 最喜欢的电影是哪部？--------- forest gump

28. 你当前快乐吗？为什么？ --------- 可以打8分，不过现在还没经济独立，很多事情待定

29. 知道假设其实都是没有意义的，那你还会总是假设吗？ ------------ 当然，人总得有点理想吧