Author Archives: sinyaw

Competitive Strategy Examined

Back in the 1990s, the dominant web browser was Netscape Navigator. I tried to negotiate a “bundle” deal that included a copy Netscape with every copy of the software we developed, Netscape wanted to charge me a commercial licensing fee. … Continue reading

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Seattle Eats

When the jet touched down, you thought of all those years you spent living here, not quite your home town but enough to call yourself a local, what foods do you rush to get? When I was living in Beijing, … Continue reading

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Point Reyes

For decades I have lived in the SF bay area, and have never visited Pt. Reyes. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of times I have crossed the Golden Gate Bridge. This reminded me of a … Continue reading

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Home Made ZongZi Recipe 粽子食譜

Like a pasta dish, every home cook that makes them has his/her own recipe. When asked, they can’t tell you. These are both family traditions and spontaneous creations. ZongZi is the same. There are restaurants famous for it, and homes … Continue reading

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Grape Arbor

I couldn’t sleep, thinking of how to construct a grape arbor in an imaginary backyard. Months later, over a weekend, two of us did a version of just that. With the remainding wood stock, we then made two benches. The … Continue reading

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RSU in your paycheck

Say you are a highly coveted skilled worker in a hyper-competitive industry. This is a good day. You received two job offers for similar jobs. Both seem challenging and fun. Two companies are both publicly trading. They are comparable by … Continue reading

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Trust them, or Fire them

There are two ways to achieve success: hire the best people for the maximal responsibilities, or hire with just enough skills and supervise them at depth. You would think most executives will go for the first and you will be … Continue reading

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To be right or effective?

Google the title. My browser returned 650 million hits. Decades ago, an executive tossed this question to one of my colleagues. She was stunned and stumped. So was I. Since then, I have never asked this question to anyone, since … Continue reading

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Sadly, this is already a gun country

I know so many gun owners (myself not being one). When a long-time acquaintance dined with me in Austin, TX, he was carrying: a 9mm in a pancake holster, concealed. A colleague, in Seattle, told me he had over 20 … Continue reading

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Life is full of filters

An epiphany came when we were cleaning our dishwasher, after almost 10 years of blissful neglect. GE engineers failed me. To clean the dish washer, I needed to remove the top rack first. That required two plastic stoppers with the … Continue reading

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