The Fortune Cookie Chronicles

incomplete...read up to p91 middle...

good book but felt like i wasting my life as its not too relevant to my cooking or career...
- good bit of asian american history i didn't know about
- writer is good, not great
- would not mind finishing it on vacation or sometime when i don't want to be so focused

p75 1/2

First of all: Chinese restaurants in America tend to shy away from anything that is recognizably animal. Mainstream Americans don't like to be reminded that the food on their plate once lived, breathes, swam, or walked. That means nothing with eyeballs. No appendages or extremities (no tongues, no feet, no claws, no ears). Secondly, opacity. That means nothing transparent or even semitransparent (this eliminates certain kinds of fungus and all jellyfish). There is also a limit to the textures Americans will allow in their mouths: nothing rubbery or oddly gelatinous (no tripe and, again, no jellyfish or sea cucumber). There is also an acceptable color palate. Nothing organic should be too black (black seaweed or black mushrooms). Nothing made with flour should be too white (steamed white buns have the undone look of the pillsbury doughboy; toasty brown is better).
But perhaps most important in American eating is the idea that what goes into the mouth should never come out. That is, there should be nothing where you have to chew on something and then spit out an inedible part. this means no chicken feet, no fish with bones, no shrimp with shells. Peanuts come shelled, and even watermelon is preferred seedless.
In China, however, the aftermath of most restaurant meals is a pile of bones, shells, and other detritus on the table at every place setting: the casualties of a personal battle between the diner and the items on the plate. In particular much of the debris is due to the Chinese love of seafood, and the love of that seafood in its God-created entirety. Chinese buy their fish whole.
The meat nearest the bone is the most tender and most flavorful. So Chinese like chicken feet and legs (lots of bones) and are confounded by the American's preference for chicken breast (boneless and bland).

Trade your way to Financial Freedom

by Tharp, Van K

Chapter 1 - the legend of the holy grail

One of the Grail legends starts out with a short poem that states: “Every act has both good and evil results.” Thus every act in life has both positive and negative consequences-profits and losses, so to speak. The best we can do is accept both while leaning toward the light.
Think about what that means for you as an investor or trader. You’re playing the game of life. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, so there are both positive and negative consequences. To accept both the positive and the negative, you need to find that special place inside of you in which you can just be. From that vantage point, wins and losses are equally a part of trading. That metaphor, to me, is the real secret of the Holy Grail.

The One Minute Manager

by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson

one minute meeting
- i listen while my people review and analyze what they accomplished last week, the problems they had and what still needs to be accomplished. then we develop plans and strategies for the next week
- meeting once a week for 2 hours
- decisions made here are binding by both parties

"People who feel good about themselves..Produce good results"

Once he has told me what needs to be done or we have agreed on what needs to be done, then each goal is recorded on no more than a single page. the 1 minute manager feels that a goal should take no more than 250 words to express. He insists that anyone be able to read it within a minute. He keeps a copy and i keep a copy so everything is clear and so we can both periodically check the progress.

The old man believes in the 80-20 goal setting rule. That is, 80% of your really important results will come from 20% of the goals. So we only do one minute goal setting on that 20% that is our key areas of responsibility - maybe three to six goals in all.

One minute goal setting is simply:
1. agree on your goals
2. see what good behavior looks like
3. write out each of your goals on a single sheet of paper using less than 250 words
4. read and reread each goal, which requires only a minute or so each time you do it
5. take a minute every once in a while out of your day to look at your performance
6. see whether or not your behavior matches your goal

"help people reach their full potential....catch them doing something right"

when you first start work here or when you begin a new project or responsibility, he is constantly around trying to catch you doing something right. then after you get to know the ropes, he is rarely around

One minute praising works well when you:
1. tell people upfront that you are going to let them know how they are doing
2. praise people immediately
3. tell people what they did right - be specific
4. tell people how good you feel about what they did right, and how it helps the organization and the other people who work there
5. stop for a moment of silence to let them "feel" how good you feel
6. encourage them to do more of the same
7. shake hands or touch people in a way that makes it clear that you support their success in the organization

ONE MINUTE REPRIMANDS

-he looks me squarely in the eye and lets me know how competent he thinks i usually am. he makes sure i understand that the only reason he is angry with me is that he has so much respect for me. he says he knows that this is unlike me. he says how much he looks forward to seeing me some other time, as long as i understand that he does not welcome that same mistake again.
- first of all, he usually gives me the reprimand as soon as i've done something wrong.
- second, since he specifies exactly what i did wrong, i know he is "on top of things" and that i'm not going to get away from sloppiness.
- third, since he doesn't attack me as a person - only my behavior - it's easier for me not to become defensive. i don't try to rationalize away my mistake by fixing blame on him or somebody else. i know he is being fair.
- fourth, he is consistent

one minute reprimand works well when you:
1. tell people beforehand that you are going to let them know how they are doing and in no uncertain terms

the first half of the reprimand:
2. reprimand people immediately
3. tell people what they did wrong - be specific
4. tell people how you feel about what they did wrong - and in no uncertain terms
5. stop for a few seconds of uncomfortable silence to let them feel how you feel

the 2nd half of the reprimand
6. shake hands, or touch them in a way that lets them know you are honestly on their side.
7. remind them how much you value them
8. reaffirm that you think well of them but not of their performance in this situation.
9. realize that when the reprimand is over, its over

why one minute goals work
- "now you can see what happens in most organizations. i believe that most managers know what they want their people to do. they just don't bother to tell their people in a way that they understand. they assume they should know. i never assume anything when it comes to goal setting"
- "when you assume that people know what's expected of them, you are creating an ineffective form of bowling. you put the pins up but when the bowler goes up to roll the ball, he notices there is a sheet across the pins. so when he rolls the ball, and it slips under the sheet, he hears a crack but doesn't know how many pins he knocked down.
- you really have 3 choices choices as a manager. first you can hire winnes. they are hard to find and they cost money. or second, if you can't find a winner, you can hire someone with the potential to be a winner. then you systematically train that person to become a winner. if you are not willing to do either of the first to, then there is only the third choice left - prayer.

"everyone is a potential winner. some people are disguised as losers...don't let their appearances fool you."

Why do one minute praisings work
- the most important thing in training somebody to become a winner is to catch them doing something right - in the beginning approximately right and gradually moving them towards the desired behavior. with a winner you don't have to catch them doing things right very often, because good performers catch themselves doing things right and are able to be self-reinforcing
- you see, that's what punishment does when you use it with somebody who lacks confidence or is insecure because of lack of experience. if inexperienced people don't perform (that is, do what you want them to do), then rather than punish them we need to go back to one minute goal setting and make sure they understand what is expected of them, and that they have seen what good performance looks like
- praising example - train a whale to jump through hoops by rewarding it for going through a hoop placed at the bottom of the pool and gradually raise it to above the water....cannot just wait for it to jump through it in the air from the beginning...impossible to tell them that is what you want or make them believe that they can do it.

why the one minute reprimand works
- feedback is so immediate
- unless discipline occurs as close to the misbehavior as possible, it tends not to be as helpful in influencing future behavior...thats why quarterly reviews don't work
- person receiving the reprimand can hear the feedback because when the manager deals with one clear behavior at a time, it seems more fair and clear.
- never attack the person's worth or value as a person. i reprimand the behavior only thus my feedback and their reaction to it is about the specific behavior and not their feelings about themselves as human beings. it doesn't cause them to be defensive about the reprimand.
- if you are first tough with the behavior, and then supportive of the person, it works
- before giving a reprimand you have to see the behavior yourself - you can't depend on what someone else saw. you never give a reprimand based on "hearsay"
- these three basic ingredients - telling people what they did wrong; telling people how you feel about it; and reminding people that they are valuable and worthwhile - lead to significant improvements in people's behavior
- there is a very simple rule when touching. when you touch, don't take. touch the people you manage only when you are giving them something - reassurance, support, encouragement, whatever

Buyology

by Martin Lindstrom
- boring read
- did not learn much
- expected a lot more insight

ch 2 - product placement
- brand needs to play a fundamental part of the storyline of a commercial or TV show for it to be effective. or else we won't remember the item.
- think about american idol's coke (effective) which is drunk by the judges and on the set all the time. same with cingular (effective) which is used to vote for the contestants
- and Ford which does not play a role on the set and only shows traditional ads on tv...(not effective)

ch 3 - mirror neurons
- what we observe triggers emotions in us as strong as if we did it ourselves
- example: abercrombie mannequins wearing nice clothes, famous actors smoking in movies, and virtual shopping on Sims.
- have ads that show someone else doing it and your mind will automatically feel the sensation of doing it yourself.
- think of mcdonalds adds where person on tv eats burgers or coke commericals where they sip the drink

ch 4 - subliminal messages
- subliminal messages work and associations drawn from products + activities work well
- think about marlboro and its presence in nascar...it is automatically associated with being cool and the power of the race cars
- logos alone are not effective

Least effective to most effective:
1. ads without warnings / danger - logos
2. ads w/ warnings - tobacco ads saying it can kill you
3. Merchandise - hats and shirts worn by
4. subliminal images - advertisements in nascar and formula 1

ch 6 - faith religion and brands
- emotions we experience when we are exposed to ipods, guinness and ferrari sports cars are almost identical to the motions generated by religious symbols such as crosses, rosary beads, mother teresa, the virgin mary, and the bible.
- 50% of all purchasing decisions by shoppers are made spontaneously - and therefore unconsciously- at the point of sale

Somatic marker examples in advertisement:
- tissue + cute dogs (tv ads associating them both so u think the tissue brand is soft)
- pink bank + piggy bank (color bank interior pink makes u feel like a childhood piggy bank)
- blendtec + "will it blend" videos (blenders and its strength in the youtube videos)
- colgate + no brushing = gum disease
- michelin tires + michelin guide of best restaurants (associate tires with excellence)

Chapter 8 - selling to our senses
- consumers are equally seduced by the sight of a product as by its scent (including perfume)
- combo of the image + smell of the perfume is stronger appeal than just the smell or sight of the product
- when a pleasant fragrance matches up with an equally appealing congruous visual image, we not only perceive it as more pleasant, we're also more likely to remember it but if the 2 are incongruous, it will be forgotten easily
- odor activates many of the exact same brain regions as the sign of a product or logo
- ex: smell a donut andu are likely to picture the krispy kreme logo or smell the abercrombie fragrance and you see the logo of the company in your head
- when people make a subconscious judgment about a person, environment, or product within 90 seconds, between 62 and 90% of that assessment is based on color alone.
- power of sound: classical music has been found to deter vandalism, loitering, and even violent crime in canadian parks, 7-eleven parking lots, and subways.

idea: buy a mango scent and spray it in WUD to draw up sales of lassi

chapter 10 - sex in advertising
- we respond more favorably to "real" or "ordinary" people in print and tv ads more than models.
- real people suggest an authentic backstory
- because they don't look like models, we feel like they really believe in what they are selling
- despite supermodels being glamourous and seductive to the human eye, we feel that whatever they claim about the product is phony. they are not telling a story, they're acting in one.
- mirror neurons allow us to imagine ourselves as being equally cool, attractive, and desirable and that works especially well with sex appeal
- observing a victoria's secret model wearing sexy lingerie helps women imagine the feel and touch of the underwear against their own skin and equally feel sexy and seductive as the woman in the ad
- sexy ads are effective more because they have shock value and causes controversy more so than because it shows sexual images.