The Economist, sadly, made a text book case out of California. (Try click on link for the full article. Sorry that non-subscribers may not have access.) It feels like the worst case for a democratic political system.

The California Correctional Peace Officers Association pushed through “three strikes” laws. Today, California spends more money on prison inmates than educating its young generation. The prison “industry” is thriving at the expense of the general population.

The voters, that’s you and me, want more services and not paying for them. Giving them ballot initiative power, what you end up is every special interest groups passing laws to guarantee their interests at the expenses of the entire society. Since the entire society eventually must absorb the sum of all those vested interest, it sinks.

California is interesting for one final reason. Throughout most of the West, people are in denial about the consequences of wanting both more government and lower taxes. In California ballot initiatives have actually given voters a direct say. Generally they have made government worse, protecting bits of spending yet refusing to pay for it. Having voted for Mr Schwarzenegger in 2003, they deserted him the moment he tried to introduce structural reforms in 2005.

Unfortunately, it also seems the entire United States is heading the same direction. If you look around the world, the gloomy outlook is that all democratic systems are moving toward the same direction, only in different paces.

Today, California is ungovernable. Would the USA be the same tomorrow?

GE made $14.2 billions last year, $5.1 billions in the US, and paid $0 in US taxes. This seems hardly fair.

Next time you have a nothing to do in a rainy weekend, get some annual reports from several Fortune 100 companies, those largest in the United States, and check how much taxes they each paid. You should find many of them pay zero, or much less than you would expect.

In China, the highest personal income tax bracket was 45%, far higher than the US. But many perks are not considered income. Many would then accept a lower salary and have company to pay for part of transportation, rent, kids education, and meals. In fact, for certain jobs, a percentage of salary can simply be deducted as business expenses and not taxed.

We are try to pay less taxes mad when others do not pay their “fair” share. If the laws allow it, why would anyone, or corporate, pay more than they need to. The legislators that we elected passed those laws for GE to exploit. Anyone who thinks GE is wrong just go file 1040EZ and forgo all itemized deductions on April 15th.

And I will be TurboTaxing and keep all tax savings to myself. Thank you very much.

Management are suckers for Change Management techniques. We have been trained and brainwashed that the most important job we have is to be an agent for changes. Then there are consultants, Exec MBA programs, short courses, and books on this very subject: all shouting that change management is hard. In fact, there are statistics proving the over-whelming failure rate. This feels like the great American weight-loss initiative: a goal that will be certain to suck up lots of money and guaranteed to fail.

Is Change Management really the most important task for a manager? No. The far and beyond #1 job for any manager is to deliver to the planned objectives. By definition, a manager has a pool of resources under his or her command. Then there are those goals he or she must achieve. The goals will be unreasonable and beyond the capacity of his or her team. (Why bother if otherwise?) Those who did not fail get to advance to the next level. Yes, more daunting objectives with even thinner resources.

This is life, like everyone else. If you have sufficient resources, talents, and time, of course you can do it. The winning and losing are decided when you don’t. Hmm, if you don’t, how would you do it?

Think about it. There is really only one answer.

You need to do it differently: not by the book, not after you have secured the resources, and not by the proven and true methodology. Everybody knew how to do it that way. If you do the same, you be mediocre. You may not lose, but you will not win. That’s why Change Management becomes job #1.

This book gives some practical tips, and some not so practical ones. I recommend it as among the first books a new manager will read on change management. If you are already a seasoned one, skip it.

In the old days, software creation was intensively geeky. Myriad of minutiae required total concentration and focus to keep track in one’s head. One mishaps and the whole program crashes. It takes days to find that proverbial needle in the haystack: sometime a misplaced punctual mark or an extra character, else a subtle inconsistency in the logic or data format. End of the work day meant blurry eyes, sore shoulders, stiff neck, hunger, and mental exhaustion.

The concentration meant isolation: close the door, turn off the light, unplug the phone, get comfortable with the chair, and just submerge yourself into the code. A good software engineer will lose social skills and touch to the reality. As time progresses, the most talented became the most eccentric. We, the normal, tolerate them as we do weird scientists. They are the necessities of the modern society, but normal people need not play with them.

This changed around the Internet bubble time (1998~2001?), then again during the out-source craze (2004~2008). Heavy duty algorithm development is still cool, but large sum of money can be made by putting together a program with readily made modules and give it a nice skin to appeal to the mass. New tools enable amateurs to create software that looked professional, although with a crude engine. New generation of script languages encourage applets that glue together a system with many simple and single-function small programs that are easily doable by people with little or no formal programming trainings. Soon, some very serious software, such as the software behind this blog site, were done with one of those scripting languages.

Of course, those brilliant algorithm developers are still highly valued and respected. But the mainstream software engineers now thrive on communication and coordination skills and agility. They need to reach out to someone halfway across the world to understand how to interface with a module to get things done. If they try to create that module themselves, they will find the company losing the market, even with arguably better technologies.

Strangely, this blurs the lines between software engineer, engineering manager, and program manager. All of the sudden, everyone in this industry must be cross-trained for all three disciplines.

The famed Netflix competition add another twist to this topic. World-wide talents, one sponsored by AT&T, tried many approaches. It was not possible for Netflix to recruit those talents of the winning team with traditional in-house development. The entire effort would have costed Netflix far more than the $1m prize money. And the winning team demonstrated that global communication and coordination was no less important than their raw algorithm development skills.

Nerds these days are sociable and smart. These traits also give them high earning power. Isn’t that just cool!

Pioneer Square is a must-visit for Seattle tourists. This historic downtown that is full of character and charm. The best way is to wander around on foot: check out stores and people, grab a bite or coffee occasionally. Try to schedule 10am to 3pm so that you can do a lazy lunch.

Begin at the corner of 1st Ave and Jackson and go east (away from the water) and check out the stores/galleries on Jackson. Proceed to 2nd Ave and check out Klondike Gold Rush Museum. This place is actually in a historical building and is a National Museum. Admission is free and it is worth about 20 minutes (but not more). Turn left at 2nd and find Waterfall Park at Main and 2nd. This is actually the birthplace of UPS. When you exit the Waterfall park, keep going on Main and you will find the Occidental Park. Those big totems are Seattle classics. The other side of Main has many interesting stores too.

This is probably time for break. If you are in the mood of coffee, go to Cafe Umbria near Jackson. If you want a snack, do Grand Central Cafe (behind an arch steel door). If you fancy something different, go New Orleans Creole. Il Terrazzo is a high-end Italian restaurant that you won’t regret the money.

After the meal, stroll to the corner of 1st and Yesler. There is no one location designated to be Pioneer Square. But if there was one, this will be it. Don’t miss the the steel terrace and street lights. They are antiques. There are also Chief Seattle’s bust and another totem. If you are in the mood, take the Seattle Underground Tour, a bit pricy but also entertaining.

Now go west and check out Seattle’s waterfront along Alaskan Way. There are many eateries. Elliott’s Oyster Bar will be a sure winner.

“Any good fictions lately?” I asked Kid recently; she read 150 books a year, mostly fictions. “I liked the Dresten Files,” she replied. Hmm… So I checked. If Jim Butcher published a series of 8 books, the first one must sold quite well. Kindle retrieved the first two chapters in seconds. Few hours later, I bought the book. Last night, 4 days since, I stayed up way too late to gobble up the finish.

Storm Front, volume one of the Dresten Files, is a whodunit with a twist of wizardry. Harry Dresten, the protagonist, is an openly practicing wizard in Chicago. More precisely, he is a mortal wizard: a flesh and blood with some unique talents such as manipulate energies like storms or emotions. Like a mortal, he needs money to pay for foods, water, and shelter. For that, he does private investigation.

Mr. Dresten was no James Bond, more a clumsy Indiana Jones. He struggled to get anything: paying rent, getting fed, brewing potions, or, of course, keeping relationships. The plot was also Indiana Jones like — ever more difficult hurdles leading to the final movie-like climax. Most supporting characters are one-dimensional. I kept on hoping to get to know Murphy better, but Butcher created too many female characters and diluted her.

I enjoyed this book and can see the justification for sequels. This sub-genre is clever and should attract a large enough population. But I will pass for the rest of the series.

“Since you like Vienna Teng, you should check Jane Lui out,” someone sent me a note with an URL attached. It was a YouTube video on her singing Jailcard . “Interesting,” I thought. And I went to her website. The song is part of her new album Goodnight Company. What? I can download for free? OK then…

As long as you promise to Facebook or Twitter her, Jane Lui would let you download the whole album for free. After the download, you would have the opportunity to tips the artist. The suggested tips was $8.

The opening song Goodnight Company just skip into Jailcard. Essentially, these are the same song with two titles. By far, it is the best one in this album. Jane has a good voice but I think she is still looking for herself and more sponsorship. The second song is the famous folk song Edelweiss. I liked how she did it. At this point, I was ready to tips her.

The rest of the album were more practices/experiment than performance. I do appreciate an artist trying different styles and sounds. But she is a newbie and let’s see her doing one thing well first.

Go ahead and download. You may even like her enough to tips.