Gloria's Blog

Well, in the first place, why this obvious fact is worth questioning? It's like, why bother prove 1+1=2? I will let you know later. Let's say, Cherry is a career switcher. The difficulties are multi-layer. First, as a career switcher, Cherry lacks an ocean of knowledge and experience that the guys in her destination industry almost take for granted. So she has a lot of gaps to close. To make things worth, when she reaches out to people, trying hard to close gaps, in all these coffee chats and phone calls, as an outsider, it can be hard for her to provide "useful" stuffs in return. This makes their relationship shallow, and conversation dry. It's very like the nature of a Product Manager job in Tech: PM needs to lead without authority (PM has to "lead" designers, engineers, and other stakeholders, but these stakeholders are not obliged to work for him); a career switcher needs to obtain help with little stuff to exchange. So, how can Cherry ma...

I am a Chinese. I was not a typical humorous person. (No racism. Don't get me wrong.) When I went on a Chile trip 3 month ago, with a group of fresh American MBA students, I was shocked how funny they are, and how easy they burst into laughters. I still remember there was one time when we 16 people were having dinner together, Adam sit beside me. He was about to say sth, but stopped. I asked, "What's that." He said, "Nothing. It was not funny, not worth saying." I didn't realize humor is so valued in American culture. That moment was so memorable to me that I kicked off a secret project of "learn to tell American jokes". This learning process was quite classic: 1) I interviewed "experts" (my American friends who are good at telling jokes, and nice enough to explain to me how they do it) 2) I summarized the theories and examples, and did reflection 3) I tried out in real life. That was about 1.5 months ago, I told a joke by aski...

It's almost today that I feel I am an (somehow inferior) minority for the first time in my life. It sucks and not comfortable or joyful at all. It's like holy shit why am I here. But after a random talk with a gay friend, I suddenly realize that it's one of the most meaningful parts of getting an MBA in a foreign country. If my life goal is to make positive impacts in society, or to create value from a business angle, there will be way more situations where I am a minority, which will be even more uncomfortable than now. And if I have never been in this position, I will never know how to deal with it and leverage it. I reflect nothing about people talking about it until I experienced today. Now I have deeper understanding why many lgbt are so achieved. #feelsoalive

We have the 2nd Operation Management class today. At the end of the class we chatted with the Prof, Chris. Chris said, "I mentioned I have never been in business before teaching here. Because to me, sincerity is important. But it's also costly. I saw several people dropped my class. In life and business it's similarly costly. But that's fine - I am sincere and now I have a crowd of people sincere back. It's better let people know who you are than being judged who you are not." I said, "You made it. I dropped my another class to save morn time for yours." You made my day.

The first time I went to gym before 7am, I was shocked that 10+ running machines were all taken. And I realized that there is no such thing as social norm. Go to bars you will find everyone partying; go to libraries will find everyone studying. The so called social norm is biased by your perspective. At the end of the day, nobody cares about whether you are truly happy whether you achieve your ambitions. You must be the captain. Make firm decisions then take it easy.

Today is a big day. Too heavy to share them all. A light part: Late afternoon today I was waiting for uber with several local students. One of them said I did PMO (project management officer) roles before, it sucks because you never have control of anything never own anything you are always just a coordinator. I would like to say sth. like 都是围城, and when it came out of my mouth, it's, every job has many shits. You just need some different shits. There are subtle differences between cultures, practicing putting things in locally favorable way is fun...

晚上和室友就着烤地瓜聊high了。唯有跑个5mile才能抒发情绪。 我以前认为追求进步是不断变得更好。现在发现“变得更好”是一个意义很复杂的词组，而很多时候是不对的，例如是由于外界环境让人自我怀疑自己的一些性格特点是不是不对，是否需要“转型”，从而有了需要“变得更好”的想法。在这个过程中，人会变得越来越迷茫，因为丢了原来的自己也不知道是否能到达新的自己。 那么问题来了，难道因为外因而让我感到自己需要“变好”的情况下，我就不应该去“变好”吗？ 近年来很多成功学说要“做自己”，可是“做自己”，正如大部分至高哲学思想一样，最多么简单而深刻，是一个何其抽象晦涩难以实践的道理。需要桥梁。简单粗暴地说，我现在认为做自己，就是追求一种很爽的感觉。比如一位西餐厨师经过三个月的尝试调制出完美的意面酱配方，比如apple的工程师历时数年攻克了手机电池寿命的难题，比如收集控集齐美国所有州的图案的quarter硬币。 回到上面的问题，有一种判断方法是这样的，如果这个因为外因让我感到自己需要“变好”的行动的结果会让我感到很爽，那它就重要，值得，会build up myself，会加入进来让我变得更“我”。反之，它就没那么重要，可以自己权衡是否要去做。这个世界上的别人没有那么care你。 本级彩蛋：大家跑步的时候都在想啥？前段日子我发现由于手机功能越来越强大，两位数乘除法的心算变得吃力了。于是我跑步的时候常常在计算现在跑了这点mile，乘以1.6等于多少km。然后昨天早上跑步时候顺便做了两年MBA生活费的预算腹稿。 脑内小剧场过于发达的奇葩们吃地瓜时并不是在吃地瓜，跑步的时候并不是在跑步。明天是开学的第一天，以这样的方式开启新学期，我觉得爽。

Right after picture 1, I was pushed into the center of the tub, asked to rate level of meanness of everyone, and give examples (0 is very nice, 10 is very mean). I don't know what the hell happened I need to do this. Maybe because I am a minority. It's not easy to be both entertaining and not hurting people, in a second language, in front of a crowd of super smart Americans. Although I did say sth improper maybe, I think I did a fairly good job . People got crazy . In the end, language is not a problem at all. Your experience your background are not important either. What makes you different, what makes people remember you, what you create value with, is your personality. I have been an observant and authentic person for years, good at catching subtle emotions, synthesizing complication into simplicity, and they all came out and made that moment happen. That's why sticking to who you are is so important. I started to like Americans, and look forward to the life here! ...

I don't understand 80% when they chat about sports, play never have I ever (seems all sexual related things ) and catch phrase. But the key point is not understanding as much as possible, but rather learning how to react and behave when you cannot understand, and be comfortable with that, then enjoy yourself. It's quite similar as reading comprehension in GMAT test. The crucial part is performing well with tons of cold vocabulary. And you literally cannot get this skill without practicing, just like skiing, etc. The best is yet to come . #Skiing for the first time

给父老乡亲们更新一下过去两天发生的事。在飞机上看了巴拿马人如何从美国人手上夺回巴拿马运河的所有权的故事，一团人飞了14个小时到了智利。第一次划皮划艇，智利的冬天大概5度的水直接往胸口灌make me totally awake。发现所有美国人都会但正常人都在夏天玩 #If skiing in August is just unusual, then rafting in the mid of winter is totally outrageous # 午饭的鸡肉大概是我一周的quota 智利神奇的水果做的冰淇淋 吃晚饭不小心说漏嘴说my father has been a wine distributor for 20 years，玩cup flip 出人意料地擅长，第一次喝吐了断片儿被运回酒店 早上问室友几点回来的她说4:30 团友送来叫Gatorade powder的东西冲水据说可以缓解宿醉 好喝。与其说这是旅行，不如说是种探索。cannot say I enjoy every part of it, but I know every minute counts. 16个人中13个美国人1个加拿大2个中国人，参与美国人的聊天不容易，尤其是一大堆美国男人，but I am making progress everyday 。昨天其中一个半开玩笑也不算特别友善地说，Gloria why r u so quiet, seems like u r going back to China tmr. #People are generally friendly and straight forward# 我觉得一个tip是，keep trying new things in local culture, contribute using your unique perspective and be proud to be different because that's why you are here.