TEDx Seattle: Other Sides

I joined TEDx Seattle 2020. The event itself showed the other (bright) side of Covid, first ever virtual and free. I don’t know its past attendance # yet 1200 watching live would be a great # to spread worthy ideas, thank you TEDx Seattle hosting team. The theme was chosen well – to bridge and …

Staycation => Voluncation

Due to Covid, this holiday season will be staycation, no travel for me. I would enjoy reading, writing, and attending virtual activities yet I want to do something more and different. I read about Catch a Fire, a platform for skill-based volunteering, a while ago and decided to sign-up. I applied for two projects with …

Give a Gift that Lasts a Life Time

I met Heather Beem, founder of Practical Education Network (PEN) at an MIT social innovation event several years ago. I like her/ PEN’s mission to improve learning outcomes by building teacher capacity with locally available materials. We became friends. I reached out to her recently asking if anything I can assist with my voluncation (volunteer …

Buy-in => Believe-in

Change is never easy. I’ve learned that to be effective and lasting, we need “Believe-in” beyond “Buy-in”: people not only agree but also understand why and take ownership to drive it. When things go well, people feel proud to be part. When things get hard, people would persist, collaborate, and come up creative solutions to …

冬令進補,三喜臨門 Winter’s Coming, Triple Happiness

Winter is coming. According to Chinese tradition, people celebrate with tonic (warm, nutritious food). I celebrated with three good news this week: Biden/ Harris won the US presidential election. I hope that means integrity, justice, and opportunities for all. We completed the customer portal interviews: we built everything (process, material, relationship) from scratch and successfully …

Not Perfect but Always Get Better

I attended a virtual AI conference and several speakers/ hosts, based on how they spoke, were not native English speakers. One host kept saying ‘you know’, another seemed hesitated to choose word to use, and a panelist spoke on ‘n on in circles… At first, I was irritated then I felt bad for them (they …