HyperBored

How many ADHD brothers does it take to write a blog?

You Can't Make This Stuff Up: North Koreans Rent Chinese Soccer Fans and Chinese Business Men Rent White Guys in Suits

Again from the: You Can't Make This Stuff Up Department.

Rent a White Guy - Magazine - The Atlantic

“I call these things ‘White Guy in a Tie’ events,” a Canadian friend of a friend named Jake told me during the recruitment pitch he gave me in Beijing, where I live. “Basically, you put on a suit, shake some hands, and make some money. We’ll be in ‘quality control,’ but nobody’s gonna be doing any quality control. You in?”

I was.

And so I became a fake businessman in China, an often lucrative gig for underworked expatriates here. One friend, an American who works in film, was paid to represent a Canadian company and give a speech espousing a low-carbon future. Another was flown to Shanghai to act as a seasonal-gifts buyer. Recruiting fake businessmen is one way to create the image—particularly, the image of connection—that Chinese companies crave. My Chinese-language tutor, at first aghast about how much we were getting paid, put it this way: “Having foreigners in nice suits gives the company face.”

Chinese 'volunteer army' arrive to back North Korea | Sport | Reuters
Hundreds of Chinese soccer fans, including artists and well known singers, have arrived in South Africa to lend their support to North Korea in their opening World Cup match against Brazil on Tuesday.

Dubbed the 'fans volunteer army' back home, many stayed in Pretoria overnight and will meet up with fellow Chinese supporters in Johannesburg to back isolated North Korea in their mouthwatering first game at Ellis Park (1830 GMT).

"The Chinese will support North Korea," Wang Qi of the China Sports Event Management Group told Reuters in an interview through a translator, braving the cold morning air.

"They may surprise and we come here with a view that something magical might happen."

The North Korean sports ministry authorised a Chinese sports PR agency to sell tickets for the game as few North Koreans could afford the journey or receive visas to leave the country.


Silly Communists.

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Filed under  //   Business Stuff   China   North Korea   Random Stuff   Soccer   Tac  

Predicting or creating the future

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Can't you do both? MBAs vs. Entrepreneurs: Who Has the Right Stuff for Tough Times? - Bill Taylor - HarvardBusiness.org
"Causal reasoning is based on the logic, To the extent that we can predict the future, we can control it," she writes. That's why MBAs and big companies spend so much time on focus groups, market research, and statistical models. "Effectual reasoning, however, is based on the logic, To the extent that we can control the future, we do not need to predict it." How do you control the future? By inventing it yourself — marshalling scarce resources, understanding that surprises are to be expected rather than avoided, reacting to them fast.
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Filed under  //   Business Stuff   Focus group   MBA   Market research   Marketing and Advertising  

Yes! Manhole Covers are Round because Sewers are Cylindrical!

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I swear this was my answer the first time I heard the question: Round Manhole Covers, or: If Richard Feynman applied for a job at Microsoft :: hebig.org/blog
Q: Why are manhole covers round? A: We have to look at what is under the cover to answer that question. The hole below the cover is round because a cylinder is the strongest shape against the compression of the earth around it.
You have to read the whole article. It's great.
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Filed under  //   Business Stuff   Random Stuff   non-obvious   thinking  

Link Distractions 02/05/2009

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Image by Tac Anderson via Flickr
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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Filed under  //   Brainstorming   Business Stuff   Knowledge Management  

Link Distractions 02/04/2009

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  • Running the TechBoise site I found this article very interesting. I think most in the publishing world believe hyperlocal holds untapped potential but it remains elusive and as yet an unproven model. I agree with the article that regional or aggregation make the most sense. I actually believe that a mix of regional and re-aggregation hold the key.

    tags: hyperlocal, publishing, ncb

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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Filed under  //   Business Stuff   news  

Link Distractions 02/01/2009

  • A great post on the difference between content knowledge and process knowledge. Figure out your process expertise and then apply it to any content.

    tags: knowledge, process, Hyper

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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Filed under  //   Business Stuff   Knowledge  

Link Distractions 01/27/2009

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Cover of Working from Home
  • I don't know how people work from home. I find it infinitely distracting and I agree with the author that the lack of real time, face to face feedback is down right depressing and demotivating.

    tags: geeks, work, hyper

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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Filed under  //   Business Stuff   Working from Home  

Link Distractions 01/23/2009

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  • I definitely have highs and lows. Often, I’m at the high of a new idea–one that I think can be REALLY promising. This feels good. Really, really good. Mmmm. It’s so happy and life is worth living. But then, swinging to the lows, which are filled with disheartening moments of despair where I think to myself: it’s not worth it, everyone’s doing something, there’s no way to compete, even babies have their own pet projects, *kills self in self-hating moment* - Anonymous Blogger

    tags: entrepreneur, Hyper

  • Here's a good list of sites you may or not be familiar with. I agree with the author that many of these will see huge growth in 2009.

    tags: 2009, Web, sites, ncb, Hyper

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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Filed under  //   Business Stuff   Entrepreneur