Random – Minh Quang Duong

Early 2023 musings

March 19, 2023by MQDuong1 Comment

Almost 25% of the year 2023 is already gone. I have a few observations that I’d like to share.

Immigration headaches remind me that freedom is expensive

My wife is going through the permanent residence process with me. Two weeks ago, we went to the DMV so that my wife, who doesn’t yet know how to drive, could get a learner’s permit. We were told to go home. The reason is that the DMV staff couldn’t, on the spot, verify the status of someone who is applying to change her status. They told us to wait for a letter from the DMV, affirming that they already work with USCIS to confirm my wife’s case. We haven’t heard anything yet. The lesson here is: get your learner’s permit, state ID or driver license done before your i140 is approved.

Before this year, I filed my taxes using an online service, such as TurboTax or Credit Karma. This year, I had to use a tax agency. Because my wife is an independent who doesn’t have income yet, we decided to file as a married couple to get the maximum deductions. The problem is that my wife doesn’t have a Social Security Number (which is because of her immigration status), meaning that she must get an ITIN. There are two ways to get it. One is to apply for an ITIN electronically directly with the IRS, but it will require us to submit the hard-copy version of her documents, including the passport. That’s not a risk we wanted to take. So we went with the other option: to use an IRS-approved tax agent. It took 1.5 hours and more than $300. I got more deductions this year, but it will take at least 6-8 weeks to hear from the IRS and get my money. If you didn’t know, now you know.

That’s the life of an immigrant. We labor and work for freedom. Free from all the anxiety and administrative troubles. Such freedom is hard and expensive, but it’s not an option to live without it.

Marrying the right person is immeasurably important

My wife has come to the US to live with me for half a year. She is still waiting for her work authorization so that she can land a job and show folks what she is capable of. To a person that used to make a nice living in Vietnam and has 10 years of experience, that must be hard. But I have never heard her complain about it once. Instead, every day, I see her spend time getting fit, taking care of our cats and me, learning 3D design and polishing her portfolio. I can’t describe how much I appreciate that. My life would be much more miserable if she were not who she is.

I came to realize that as a married person, I take a longer time to make decisions since I need to consult with my wife and take into account her preferences. I have more responsibilities daily and as a result, a bit less time for myself. I am OK with all that because I feel that I have grown to be a better person and my life has become happier since.

They say that marriage is an asymmetrical bet that can change your life. I agree with that and so far have been very happy with mine.

In-person should be a must for new hires during the first two years

The debate over in-person vs remote working/work-from-home (WFH) may never stop. Each side has valid points, but I have grown to believe that new hires at a company should go to the office as much as possible during the first two years.

Remote working is a relic of the pandemic. Stay-at-home orders and the fear of infection during that time left companies no choice, but to allow workers to work remotely. Two or three years ago, it was all about survival and getting the best out of a horrible situation. Now that Covid-19 is behind us (knock on wood) and corporations are in a much stronger position, what was changed before can be changed again.

I am not arguing for permanent back-to-the-office requirement for everybody. I know that we can’t pretend that WFH never exists. That ship has long sailed. For tenured staff who already forged working relationships with coworkers and accumulated enough knowledge, WFH or hybrid should be sufficient and may continue. For new hires who need to learn their ways around and establish relationships, in-person should be mandatory.

New hires must learn their new ways around in a new environment. The higher the learning curve, the more important it is for new members to be in the office. My current team had our fair share of new interns and full-time employees in the past two years. My observation is that those who went to the office more often had an easier time to scale the learning curve. It’s not about intelligence and I am sure there are folks out there that are smart and self-motivated enough to succeed in any job while working remotely. But if in-person is more likely to yield results, that’s what organizations and teams should do. Additionally, it’s not just about working knowledge. Knowing those that you work with is as, if not more important, than knowing what to do. I strongly believe that as human-beings, we forge stronger and better relationships through face-to-face interaction than through Zoom or Teams meetings.

There are some positions out there that are agnostic when it comes to working mode. Sales is probably on the top of my list in that category. And if a company’s primary working mode is remote, then this argument of mine is moot. But apart from those cases, I believe new hires should come to the office as often as they can in the first two years.

Does anybody actually know anything?

CEOs have unparalleled access to information in any organization and their job is to turn such information into informed decisions. For the past few months, we saw a host of CEOs admit that they were wrong with their hiring practice in 2022 and had to lay off thousands of workers to cut costs.

Banking executives at Silicon Valley Bank or Signature Bank are undoubtedly paid handsomely to manage risks and run their respective banks competently. Instead, their recent seizure by the Fed shows that they did neither of those things.

Smart venture capitalists and millionnaires like David Sacks usually pride themselves as libertarians and vocally push for less governmental intervention. Until their interests are at stake, that is. Because these VCs actively called for the government to step in and insure the uninsured deposits at Silicon Valley Bank. There must be folks out there who saw through the insolvency of Silicon Valley Bank before the recent drama. But does anyone have a liquidity & mismanagement crisis in the financial world on their 2023 bingo card? I certainly don’t.

These are four actual covers by Forbes, which is supposed to be a trusted and renowned business magazine

Does anybody really know anything?

life, Random

Is Menadione – Synthetic Vitamin K safe for your pets?

December 13, 2021by MQDuong1 Comment

I have a 14-month-old cat that I love so much. He has been eating Purina Pro Plan Focus – Sensitive Skin & Stomach for over a year. Lately he has seemed to be fed up with the food so I looked for an alternative last weekend. That’s when I came across the controversy of Menadione and started to read upon it. I’d like to share what I have learned so far.

What is Menadione? It’s the synthetic version of Vitamin K, an essential vitamin for humans and animals. The natural version of Vitamin K (K1 and K2) are proven to be harmless, even with high doses. Menadione, on the other hand, can cause several health issues for humans, particularly liver toxicity. In fact, the FDA has long banned the use of Menadione as a supplement for humans, a decision echoed by several studies in Europe.

Although allergic reaction is possible, there is no known toxicity associated with high doses (dietary or supplemental) of the phylloquinone (vitamin K₁) or menaquinone (vitamin K₂) forms of vitamin K. The same is not true for synthetic menadione (vitamin K₃) and its derivatives. Menadione can interfere with the function of glutathione, one of the body’s natural antioxidants, resulting in oxidative damage to cell membranes. Menadione given by injection has induced liver toxicity, jaundice, and hemolytic anemia (due to the rupture of red blood cells) in infants; therefore, menadione is no longer used for treatment of vitamin K deficiency. No tolerable upper intake level has been established for vitamin K.
Source: Oregon State University

Since Menadione is cheaper to produce, pet food manufacturers have every incentive to include this substance to make their products nutritionally complete (on the surface) and commercially cheaper. The question is whether it is legal to do so in the first place.

Here is what the FDA says on the matter, as recently as April 2021:

Although vitamin K is an important nutrient for animals and several sources are available, not all of those sources can or should be used in animal feed. Many have not been approved for use in the United States.
Menadione dimethylpyrimidinol bisulfite and menadione nicotinamide bisulfite are vitamin K active substances that are regulated as food additives for use in animal feed. Federal regulation 21 CFR 573.620 lays out how menadione dimethylpyrimidinol bisulfite must be used in feed. Menadione dimethylpyrimidinol bisulfite is a nutritional supplement for the prevention of vitamin K deficiency in chicken and turkey feeds at a level not to exceed 2 g per ton of complete feed, and in the feed of growing and finishing swine at a level not to exceed 10 g per ton of complete feed.
Menadione nicotinamide bisulfite is also used as a nutritional supplement for both the prevention of vitamin K deficiency and as a source of supplemental niacin in poultry and swine. Federal regulation 21 CFR 573.625 states that this substance can be added to chicken and turkey feeds at a level not to exceed 2 g per ton of complete feed, and to growing and finishing swine feeds at a level not to exceed 10 g per ton of complete feed.
Before either menadione dimethylpyrimidinol bisulfite or menadione nicotinamide bisulfite could be used in a manner different from that specified in the appropriate regulation, a new food additive petition would need to be submitted and approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
According to NRC’s publication, Vitamin Tolerances of Animals (1987), based on the limited amount of available information, vitamin K did not result in toxicity when high amounts of phylloquinone, the natural form of vitamin K, are consumed. It is also noted that menadione, the synthetic vitamin K usually used in animal feed, can be added up to levels as high as 1,000 times the dietary requirement without seeing any adverse effects in animals, except in horses. Administration of these compounds by injection has produced adverse effects in horses, and it is not clear if these effects would also occur when vitamin K active substances are added to the diet.
Source: FDA

The fine print clearly says that the FDA only allows the use of Menadione in chicken and turkey feeds. Any other use of the substance will have to be reviewed and sanctioned by the agency. The last time I checked, my cat is a cat, not a turkey or a chicken. Therefore, if a cat food label doesn’t clearly show that it’s approved by FDA, it’s safe to say that from the agency’s perspective, the product is not legal.

The lack of explicit approval from FDA doesn’t deter pet food manufacturers. These companies argue that Menadione is safe for pets because they follow guidelines from AAFCO and that the substance is used in amount that is so much smaller than what AAFCO recommends. Let’s analyze that. Firstly, AAFCO is an NGO that consists of state officials with responsibility for passing and enforcing state laws and regulations with regard to the safety of animal feeds. AAFCO sets the standards and guidelines that these officials often adopt, but the organization itself has no regulatory authority.

Second, when it comes to the role of AAFCO in this debate, it’s important to separate its opinion on Vitamin K from the one on Menadione. The organization does require that “Vitamin K does not need to be added unless the diet contains more than 25% fish on a dry matter basis“. What this requirement means is that if a diet doesn’t contain fish at all, there is absolutely no reason to include Menadione. When I found out that my cat’s chicken paste from Purina contains Menadione, I was furious. They put a controversial substance in the food even when they don’t have to! And even though Vitamin K is mentioned, AAFCO doesn’t refer specifically to Menadione as an approved source. In fact, here is what the Pet Food Committee Chair of AAFCO had to say on the matter:

Nowhere in Dr Kashani’s response did he mention that Menadione is approved for use in pet food. He clearly relies on the FDA guidelines, which, as mentioned above, only regulate the use of natural Vitamin K sources K1 and K2. Like the FDA, AAFCO only approves Vitamin K3 for poultry feed, not for pet diets. Sadly, pet food manufacturers muddy the waters and use it as a blanket excuse for their inclusion of this supplement in commercial pet products. In a response to a customer’s question, the owner of Weruva said: “according to AAFCO, cat food that contains at least 25% seafood on a dry matter basis must contain a certain level of vitamin K, and according to AAFCO, the only approved source of vitamin k is menadione“. As you can see from the screenshot below, it’s not exactly what is in the rule book.

Among the items discussed in the AAFCO meeting in August 2021 was the use of Menadione. An expert panel commissioned by AAFCO concluded that this ingredient was safe for use in pet foods. Here is the catch. The panel came to this recommendation after reading a white paper written by Purina Pet Foods, which, you may guess, is a pet food manufacturer. The white paper is miraculously deemed confidential and not available to the public eyes. This blatantly flawed process is frustrating and calls into question the recommendation of this so-called expert panel. Without knowing the rational and evidence behind the conclusion, who can say that it’s thoroughly studied and scientifically proven?

I visited a Petsmart and Petco store last weekend. There are a lot of products with Menadione. Apparently, the ingredient has been used in pet food for decades, yet the exact legality of the practice has barely been questioned. Just because something is a long-standing practice without any regulatory approval doesn’t mean that it’s legally allowed. Rules are rules. And if that’s not enough, consider this. We don’t often change our pet diets without cause. The consistent consumption of food with Menadione, albeit with a tiny dose, every day may also accumulate over the long term. And who knows? It may cause serious health issues for our pets. I don’t know about you, but I am not, in good conscience, willing to do it to my beloved cat.

Random

What remittance providers you should NOT use

September 4, 2021by MQDuong1 Comment

For many immigrants such as myself, remittance is part of the life living overseas. We work hard here and send a bit of help back home whenever we can. In normal times, such assistance is a nice touch. In times like this when many parts of the world such as Vietnam are in strict lockdown because of Covid, it becomes even more critical and appreciated. In times like this, it matters more which remittance providers we entrust with our money to family and loved ones. In this post, I’ll tell you which ones I’d use myself, what I’d not and why.

When it comes to choosing a provider through which I can send money back home, these are the main selection criteria:

Are they reliable? This is money we’re talking about. Of course, we want it to be safe and secure. Luckily, the most popular services on the market have a good reliable track record. If not, they wouldn’t service in this business.
How long will it take for money to be deposited? Nowadays, it takes much less time for recipients to see money show up in their bank accounts than it did just a few years ago. A transfer can arrive at the receiving account in a few hours or within a day. My experience is that the top providers can transfer funds at pretty much the same speed.
How much does it cost in total? This is THE deciding factor. Influencing the net amount that recipients receive are the fees and the exchange rate. The best way to evaluate different services is to look at the final amount that will be credited to the destination account.

I conducted two experiments in which I looked at what would happen if I transferred $1,000 to Vietnam and India using the most inexpensive method through 6 select providers: Xoom/PayPal, Money Gram, World Remite, Ulink Remit, Western Union and Wise. Here are the results:

	$1,000 from the U.S to Vietnam	$1,000 from the U.S to India
Wise	22,544,180 VND	72,450 INR
Money Gram	22,537,350 VND	72,663 INR
Ulink Remit	22,226,000 VND	72,565 INR
World Remit	22,140,076 VND	71,930 INR
Xoom/PayPal	22,348,000 VND	72,034 INR
Western Union	22,468,068 VND	72,606 INR

Figure 1 – Net amount received when $1,000 is sent to Vietnam & India using different remittance services

In both cases, Wise, Western Union and Money Gram are very competitive. Ulink Remit should be considered if the destination is India. Both World Remit and PayPal should not be considered. I don’t know about the value of a few Rupees in India, but if I have to lose a couple of thousand Vietnam Dongs on every $1,000 sent back home, I’ll be put off. Personally for me, Western Union, Wise and Money Gram will be the go-to services to send money to Vietnam. What is yours?

Figure 2 – Net amount received when $1,000 is sent to Vietnam through different providers

Figure 3 – Net amount received when $1,000 is sent to India through different providers

Figure 4 – It’s weird to see WorldRemit is the recommended provider here

Random

A couple of Afghanistan veterans sharing their experience

August 15, 2021by MQDuong1 Comment

I came across a candid post by an Afghanistan veteran, on what she thought of the U.S pulling out of the country. You should have a read, but here is an excerpt:

We use people up and throw them away like it’s nothing.
And now, finally, we are leaving and the predictable thing is happening. The Taliban is surging in and taking it all back. They were always going to do this, because they have a thing you cannot buy or train, they have patience and a bloody-mindedness that warrants more respect than we ever gave them.
I am Team Get The Fuck Out Of Afghanistan which, as a friend pointed out to me today, has always been Team Taliban. It’s Team Taliban or Team Stay Forever.
There is no third team.
And so I sit here, reading these sad fucking articles and these horrified social media posts about the suffering in Afghanistan and the horror of the encroaching Taliban and how awful it is that this is happening but I can’t stop feeling this grim happiness, like, finally, you fuckers, finally you have to face the thing Afghanistan has always been. You can’t keep lying to yourself about what you sent us into.
No more blown up soldiers. No more Bollywood videos on phones whose owners are getting shipped god knows where. No more hypocrisy.
No more pretending it meant anything. It didn’t.
It didn’t mean a goddamn thing.
Source: Laura Jedeed

Another vet shared this on his Twitter

The Afghans we were with in February, were all executed outside their homes in Kandahar on Thursday. pic.twitter.com/SdTkM7qzmJ
— James Glancy (@jaglancy) August 15, 2021

What weighed heavily in my heart today and what angered me is that when a minority group of people have the influence and power to change other lives for the better, as it often is the case around the world, the outcome is usually that generations of innocent people suffer. Why does that have to be the case?

life, Random

Dark days in America. What’s next?

May 29, 2020May 30, 2020by MQDuongLeave a Comment

Do you even remember how this week began? Do you remember that we are still in the middle of a deadly pandemic that killed more than 100,000 people in America?

What has happened in the last few days is scary, infuriating and sad. It blurred that happened before earlier this week or almost many events that occurred. A black man was arrested by four police officers in Minnesota and brutally killed after one officer put his knee on the victim’s throat for a few minutes. The offender, ironically a police officer in this case, continued his act even after George Floyd repeatedly pled for air. He died at a hospital shortly after. The whole episode was filmed by a few folks that happened to be at the scene and were kind and brave enough to ask the four policemen to stop. It sparked anger and riots across the country that called for justice for the victim. Violence took place. Destruction of properties happened. Police intervened. Politicians voiced opinions and of course, the President poured gas on the fire with his controversial tweets. The whole country is in chaos and suddenly, arguably the worst pandemic ever seems to take a back seat in people’s mind.

As I have been following coverage on this tragedy and the aftermath, I feel sad, angry, scared and worried about what comes next for America. The country is increasingly deep into chaos. The problems that America faces seem impossible to overcome. Let’s go over a few

The government is in disarray. The two parties are more willing to win at all cost than to do what’s best for the country. The current administration rolled back a lot of regulations that the previous one put in place. The next administration, if from the opposite party, will install back what was removed. The cylce may continue on
There is no longer a uniting, calm and compassionate leadership at the helm. Whenever the current leader gets involved in an issue, things tend to take a turn for worse
The trust in authorities is seriously eroded. Scandals, misinformation, corruption, cover-up, violence, ineffective policies, unkept promises
Courts seem to be politicized
Racism is still alive and well in America. What happened with George Floyd is just one of a few that were caught on camera. It’s 2020 and we still are having to deal with this
High unemployment rate amid a pandemic that doesn’t seem to end soon
Voter suppression
Income inequality

Those are just a few significant challenges that US faces. Can you imagine even with the new leadership and Congress things will change? Can you imagine the divisiveness that we have right now will be lessened with a new administration? Can you imagine racism will go away when it hasn’t after decades? Can you imagine the trust in authorities will be regained soon?

What’s next for America? I think about this a lot because this is where I intended to reside for a while in the future. While China is still growing as an economy and a global power with a less democratic yet effective and stable leadership, America has too many structural challenges to deal with. Do a quick research and you can see America’s standing in the world also slipped over the past 3 years. The anti-immigrant policies make America less attractive to foreign talents. A couple of my friends who wanted to do PhD in the US already ruled out coming here. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend anyone to study here any more.

Perhaps, I am being pessimistic. But if right in the middle of the worst pandemic the social and political issues can dominate everyone’s mind, and we know that given enough time (a few weeks) there will be a bigger scandal, what’s the future looking like for the country? I hope I am wrong, but I don’t see too bright a near future

A word on the fight between the President and social media

It started when the President sent out a tweet about mail-in ballots. Twitter put a note below the tweet to suggest other content to fact-check what the President put out there. Trump took issues with it.

He then sent out a tweet on the debacle in Minnesota with language that seemed to call for violence. Twitter warned users of the content, but didn’t take down the tweet (see below)

Trump, his fanbase and allies accuse the company of violating First Amendment Right and censoring him. He was supported by Mark Zuckerberg, who disagreed with Twitter’s approach. Trump signed an Executive Order to curb protection for platforms like Twitter.

Now, I won’t get into the debate whether First Amendment Right is infringed here. I do want to talk a bit about the fine line social platforms are walking now. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter want to do both:

Enable expression and access to information, including what politicians say
Promote an impression that they are a safe place for users and that they contribute positively to the world

The challenge is difficult, but it’s not impossible. It becomes much more difficult when bad actors want to distribute misinformation for their agenda. Leaving misinformation intact is detrimental to our society; which contradicts one of the two things platforms want to do. Censoring misinformation will cause outcry over infringement of First Amendment Right and contradict the other. As bad actors want to take advantage of social media to aid their propaganda, the disregard for truth intensifies. Platforms like Twitter are stuck in a dilemma between censoring harmful or false content and abiding by free speech and expression.

In the case of Twitter, they are doing the best they can. They didn’t take down the President’s tweets despite repeated requests from many other users. They did put a label on two of his most egregious tweets recently. But that’s not enough, from both sides. Concerned users want a complete removal of some of Trump’s tweets while Trump is using his popularity and power to arm-twist the company not to.

When the two sides cannot compromise, platforms like Twitter, as some sort of a middleman, will soon have to pick a side. Eventually. The walking-a-fine-thin-line will likely not work for much longer.

life, Random

5 things I wish I learned/knew sooner than later

May 28, 2020by MQDuongLeave a Comment

What do you wish you knew sooner or later? I ask myself that question all the time. Here is what I came up with for myself.

Know how to curate what to read and how to read

A popular and widely cited stat reads that 90% of the world’s data is generated in the last two years. Regardless of the figures, I think the premise is true. We encounter a lot of information and data every day. News, social media, photos that we take, tweets that we write, new movies or shows that streamers release, songs that artists launch. The deluge of information makes it incredibly challenging for a person to know what information to absorb and from what source. There are days when I spend hours reading and there are days when I get information fatigue. What makes it more tricky and challenging is misinformation. It’s harder than ever to distinguish between accurate information and false information. The accuracy is only just relative, depending on how you look at things. For instance, somebody may claim that the government did a good job with the economy prior to Covid because the stock market hit all time highs and unemployment rate was rate. Well, that may be true, but it’s only part of the story. There are other serious issues to look at including but not limited to federal budget, minimum wages or income inequality. When you take those into account, the assessment won’t look as rosy. Additionally, while there is value in being informed in many areas, specialization into a few may serve you better. It would be valuable for us to learn how to curate what to read, how to read and how to say “no” to information.

No one knows everything all the time

Because we are overwhelmed by a lot of information every, as mentioned above, it makes everyone prone to mistakes in judgement. Hence, even established authorities in certain areas become wrong at times. Legendary investors lost money. Famous economists erred on their predictions. Analysts screwed up on assumptions and evaluations. Scientists’ claims were challenged and debunked. We often associate previous successes with the ability to be right all the time or successes in one area with knowledge in other areas. That often is not true. One tech founder that may succeed in building a billion dollar firm can make disastrously wrong claims on biology or sociology or even in other business areas such as fast food, hospitality or energy.

To figure out when an authority with credibility errs is tricky. How often do you read a scientific article from The Lancet and question it immediately? How often do you read a report from World Bank and pick it apart detail by detail? Or do you share them first? Past track record and credibility help, but they don’t guarantee accuracy all the time. Hence, although it’s good to respect and appreciate greatness, I think it’s valuable to learn to think for ourselves and be vigilant.

Focus. Focus. Focus

I sometimes have to stop myself from multitasking. Modern societies have trained us to constantly want to multitask. We have all been there. Listening to music or podcasts during work. Putting on radio while driving. Chatting while studying at night or doing homework. It’s incredibly difficult to stay completely immune from distractions. I don’t believe anyone can do that. Nonetheless, it is extremely helpful and valuable to learn to be “in the zone” more, even for just a few hours every day to do deep work. I do believe that the more a person can do so, the more he or she can succeed

Learn to write

I think writing is as important, if not more important, than coding which is touted as something we all should learn as early as possible. The ability to communicate in writing, even in the form of an email, a report or an article, is essential nowadays. First, writing is a form of communication with others. A well-written piece can carry a message effectively and there can only be good things coming from effective communication. Second, writing is thinking. When thoughts go into words, we think about the thoughts at hand more. We pick apart every aspect of our thoughts more to make them more refined. So when you come across some good content, it mostly comes from a vigorous thinking process beforehand. It’s not a coincidence that Jeff Bezos replaces the use of Power Points at Amazon with a 6-page memo. Therefore, learning to write is highly important

Learn to different yourself

Whatever you want to do, it’s impossible that you are the first or only person in the world to do it. If you want to launch a cryptocurrency hedge fund, there are hundreds out there. If you want to launch a newsletter, there are thousands already in the market. If you want to build an Asian eatery in the local community, it’s impossible that there is none already in operations. Modern societies and technological advances make it easier than ever to launch individual ventures. At the same time, it’s also exceedingly challenging to stand out from the crowd. What I think can make each of us stand out are individual uniqueness and work ethic. Nobody in the world can beat you at being you. Each of us has a different unbringing, life experience and personality. Infusing that uniqueness into our work, I believe, can make us stand out more. For instance, millions of people can speak English. If you speak English, it’s nothing special. If you add a foreign language such as Japanese, it narrows down the competition. If you add another such as Latin or a special specialty such as flying a commercial jet, it narrows down the competition even more. The chance of standing out from the crowd is now higher. Hence, capitalizing on our unique experience, personality and perspective can be very useful.

The second piece is work ethic. Even if you have all the talent in the world, it means nothing if you don’t put in the work. Athletes like Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Michael Jordan, Cristiano Ronaldo put in hours of work every day even after achieving success and fame. If you don’t have genius-level talent, like most of us, the ability to put in 12-15 hours of work a day will differentiate you from a lot of folks that are not willing to work beyond the required 8 hours. On the other hand, even if you work long hours every day, yet you don’t have a factor that can help differentiate you from others, it doesn’t mean anything. That’s why thousands of blue collar workers who work two or three jobs a day are not as famous or rich as others. The work they do deserves respect, but it is nothing different from the work of hundreds of thousands of others.

Learning about your uniqueness, deploying it and working hard is important and the sooner one does it, the better.

Learn to avoid jealousy and self-pity

I believe it is tremendously important to learn about controlling jealousy and self-pity early in life. Everyone in the world should be happy. Life is too short not to. Though we differ from one another in the things that make us tick, there are a few common factors that contribute to happiness such as being healthy, avoiding jealousy or feeling sorry for yourself all the time. While they seem obvious, they all require practice and learning. If you sit on the couch on the time and eat fast food every day, chances are that you won’t be healthy. If you don’t purposefully train your mind not to be jealous of others or compare yourself to others, chances are you may not be able to do it. If you are trapped in self-pity and don’t make effort to get out of that trap, how can you? I grew up in Asia where your parents subject you to comparison with other kids all the time. If you get a 9 out of 10 from a school assignment after putting in a lot of work, you may still be scolded if other kids get 10. I was trained and wired to be jealous as a kid. I worked really hard in the past few years to escape from that and I make concerted effort every day to stay away from the jealousy and self-pity. Does it make me completely happy? No, because there are other factors at play: work, family, relationship, goals. But it surely helps me not be unhappy.

What do you wish you learned/knew sooner than later?

life, Personal Growth, Random

Beautiful and inspirational speech by John Bradley on being comfortable with yourself

May 25, 2020by MQDuongLeave a Comment

John Bradley, who played Sam Tarly in Game of Thrones, had a beautiful inspirational speech on accepting himself and being comfortable with finding his own way through life. He used to feel shy and sorry about himself before Thrones, until the two Executive Directors chose him for a very important role in arguably the biggest TV show ever in history. They chose him because of his virtues or what he considered as his failures. I can relate to the shyness and the self-consciousness.

Like him, I often went to bed, thinking that when I woke up, some things about myself would be different. In the past, I got jealous of folks who were more famous and richer than me, especially my peers. The jealousy has been reduced over the past few years after digging into how to live a happier life and the harm of jealousy. Nonetheless, the trap of jealousy and self-consciousness is always there, lurking around and waiting to take over at any time. It’s a real constant struggle to keep it at bay. I am sure that I am not the only person with that struggle. It feels encouraging to hear from a real life case study, especially a famous celebrity bravely talk about it.

life, Random

Barriers to entry become liabilities during Covid-19 & remote working

May 13, 2020by MQDuongLeave a Comment

Barriers to entry become liabilities

For the past few weeks, I have seen people claim that Disney is doomed because it reported millions of loss due to the closure of its parks and resorts which, in normal times, bring a lot of revenue and margin to the table. In the same vein, airlines are called a horrible business since there are a lot of costs involved and it’s capital intensive, making it extraordinarily vulnerable in the face of a pandemic like the one we are going through.

They have a point.

However, it’s also important to remember that the current liabilities are what make barriers to entry in their industries so high. Restaurants have low barriers to entry, so it’s not unusual to see a new restaurant in town every day. How often do you see a new airline come up? Because the barriers to entry are so high, airlines at least don’t have to worry too much about a new competitor enter the fray often. Similarly, operating a park like Disneyland is no joke. It requires employing hundreds of employees and a tremendous fixed cost as well as maintenance expenses. How many parks at the same scale as Disneyland enter the market every week/month?

This crisis will blow over. It has to. It’s unfathomable to think that we will be in this self-quarantine forever. Once we get back to normal, whatever it may be, people will fly and go to Disneyland again. Although I don’t deny that what reduces new competition for those businesses now becomes sort of liabilities, it’s worth remembering that nothing good comes easy. The same logic applies to business

Remote working

Plenty of discussion online has been about how people will adjust their working style post-Covid19. Even in my company, talk has been going around on how folks will continue to work remotely for a while and how preparation should be looked into to accommodate that need. Personally, I think there will be a mixed working style moving forward. Indeed, working remotely saves everyone time from having to dress up and driving to work. Nonetheless, there is also value in face-to-face and human interaction. There is a reason why companies design common areas, hoping that folks will randomly bump into each other and creativity will spark. Plus, speaking from personal experience, I am sick of sitting at my desk, staring at the screen for hours and putting more time into work. I miss my workplace, my coworkers and casual conversations at work. So, even though folks will prefer working remotely 100% in the short term, in the long run, I expect it to be a mix.

life, Random

Absolute personal freedom – the power that must be exercised responsibly

May 2, 2020May 2, 2020by MQDuongLeave a Comment

Over the recent weeks, there have been disturbing reports on the protests across the country against stay-at-home order. In some cases, the terrifying scenes of a group of protesters carrying guns to local governments’ buildings or signs that stand for the worst of human hatred as below.

Those that are involved in the protests argue that the government has no business in restricting their personal freedom to go out and work. The underlying premise of the protests is that individuals have absolute freedom to do whatever they are pleased to. Extreme and absolute personal freedom is in the fabric of American life. It’s not that citizens in other countries don’t have freedom, yet here in America, it’s something that is almost sacred, non-negotiable and in some cases, regardless of what is the cost. I don’t dispute the merit of individual freedom. Coming from a country like Vietnam, I value a lot the ability to say and do things in America that wouldn’t be possible in my own hometown. Individual freedom is a great power given to us. However, like Spiderman’s Uncle Ben says, “with great power comes great responsibility”. Is this great power being exercised responsibly? I really don’t think that is the case.

I don’t believe that any politician wants to extend a lockdown more than he or she has to. After all, if you listen to every politician, they all want to sell you on “jobs, jobs, good paying jobs”. As a result, an existing or extended lockdown is put in place because they fear that an early reopen of the economy could bring the virus back into play and force us all to go back to square one. Singapore had been very confident in their ability to handle the pandemic. Fast forward to several weeks later, they now have the most confirmed cases in the area. Germany recently allowed football clubs to go back to training. Shortly after, Koln, a German club, reported three new cases. It’s entirely possible that scenario could happen to any US state. In fact, we have a case study. Several citizens in Wisconsin got infected after they went to vote in person because the Supreme Court kinda forced them to. If reopen isn’t managed carefully, we may go back to where we were at the end of March again. And that would prolong our march towards the normal life and economy as we knew several months ago.

The protesters have the right to voice their opinion. But instead of a peaceful civilized protest, they carry around guns and signs of hatred messages. Don’t we have the right to feel safe in community? As somebody who has never touched a gun before, I’d feel terrified by someone carrying guns around on the streets. I mean, if they use guns on a hunting ground legally, by all means. I am not bothered by that and I don’t honestly see anything wrong. But living in a community, why would some’s right to feel safe be inferior to others’ right to carry out guns needlessly just to make their point? Don’t some who lost family to Nazi in WWII have the right not to feel the pain from those messages? If protesters get infected by the virus by participating in these protests, would it be responsible to do so, come home and spread it among their family members and community? What do you think about the photo below? (Source: Twitter. I forgot to save the source link)

Admittedly, it’s hard to completely fault somebody for putting food on the table for their family. There have been 30 million unemployment insurance claims in the country and the figure isn’t likely going to stop there. Folks want to work and make ends meet. Even then, it’s our responsibility to consider what consequences our actions may lead to and whom those actions would affect. I’d argue that instead of what they are doing, protesters can feel free to sign online petitions. Call and write civilly to lawmakers to make their point. If a physical protest is necessary, Israel offers a valuable example

Several polls showed that the majority of Americans wanted to continue social distancing and not rush back to work. Hence, I am not sure an extreme irresponsible protest would change the minds of politicians whose interest is in listening to the majority of voters. Instead of disturbing and putting others in danger in the process, protesters may consider exercising their great power a little bit more responsibly.

life, Random

“Third-world country” label

April 14, 2020April 14, 2020by MQDuongLeave a Comment

Let’s play a little game. I have two unnamed countries and one of them is often labeled “a third-world country”. Country A has almost 600,000 confirmed cases and more than 23,000 deaths from Covid-19 as of now, and charges its citizens a significant sum to have tests and treatments. Meanwhile, country B has less than 300 cases and, thankfully, zero fatalities so far, yet provides FREE Covid-19 tests and treatments. Which one is the 3rd-world country?

Another clue is that in country A, there was almost, on average, one mass shooting a day last year while, in country B, the number of deaths from guns is minimal. In country A, children have to practice drills for shootings while that concept is foreign to children and parents in country B.

In my examples above, country A is the US and Vietnam is the other one. Yes, I did cherry-pick some aspects to make a point, but that’s THE point. I often hear politicians and citizens in the US use “third-world countries” and call out names like my country’s to talk about major existing issues here, usually ending with: we are not a third-world country. Frankly speaking, Vietnam has an endless list of problems, but we are aware of that fact and we own them. On the other hand, in the US, some media outlets, some politicians and many folks still don’t acknowledge that there are serious flaws in the current systems. They still make claims such as this: we are still the greatest country on Earth. Well, on what grounds though? Each country can cherry-pick some metrics to make a claim for themselves and it will be perfectly legit.

By no means am I implying that the US is a 3rd-world country, in any shape or form. My first point is that the term carries a condescending tone towards other countries and shouldn’t be used, especially in the context of discussing your own (often neglected at worst and under-addressed at best) issues. The second point is that we all know without self-awareness of our own issues, we, as individuals, won’t make progress or self-improvement. Why would it be different for countries? Is it even remotely possible that problems that have existed in this country for decades still exist because of a belief that no matter what happens, the US is still the greatest on Earth?

There are a lot of great things around here. My admiration for the US, not as strong as it used to be, is still there. I appreciate what it has given me. As a result, I hope that things will change in a more positive way in the future, that there will be less denigrating attitude towards other less developed countries and that people here, in the words of Sansa Stark in Game of Thrones, “look the truth in the face”.