CAN DUMAN • WEBLOG

THE ROOTS OF JAPANESE CORPORATE SUCCESS

2011-06-23T12:19:00.000-07:00

It all started with their mastery of the entire tea experience. The Japanese, sometime around 500 years ago, perfected the brewing, serving and drinking of tea. As it is common knowledge today -which it wasn't at the time-, tea contains a great deal of caffeine, which elevates one's mood. And it is in such an elevated mood that one is inspired to such bold acts as building the world's greatest automaker (Toyota) and putting a printer in every home (Canon) and redefining gaming (Nintendo).

The question that arises is whether other nations can catch up by increasing their tea consumption. I'd say they are certain to get caffeine itchiness and that this strategy would probably backfire, as the great tea master Sen No Rikyu pointed out:

Though many people drink tea,
If you do not know the Way of Tea,
Tea will drink you up.

In a post to come, I'll talk about the introduction of coffee beans to North America and link it to the rise of American auto industry, Hollywood and Silicon Valley.

2 YEARS

2011-06-23T12:16:00.000-07:00

The following is an excerpt from an interview with Jonathan Hoefler, a celebrated typographer:

Host: If you are going to sit down, Mr Hoefler, with your elevated taste, and write a letter to the Internal Revenue Service saying "You are wrong!", what typeface would you choose?
Hoefler: I think I would try to find a typeface that is as unexceptional as possible. I'd choose probably Courier. It's hard to say, I mean...
Host: Courier is the one that looks like typewriter script...
Hoefler: Exactly, yeah. Not especially economical, it is like a very very short letter filled with many lines as necessary, would look business-like, probably wouldn't call much attention to itself, which I think might probably be good...
Host: And if you are going to sit down and write a letter to Penelope Cruz?
Hoefler: Oh, I'd probably work on my handwriting for about 2 years.

ARTIST

2011-06-23T12:12:00.000-07:00

I like the sense in which Steve Jobs employs the word "artist". It may come across as loose, even diluted. But knowing what I know about SJ, I'd say that's not the case: On the contrary, I believe he refers to a very elite set of people (by all means including himself) when he uses the word: People who craft extraordinary "things" that may happen to bear commercial value and be available to the masses. Akio Morita, whom he's known to have visited -not so much to
talk business as to make his pilgrimage-, was, as far as SJ is concerned, an artist. Dr. Edwin Land, whom he deeply admired, was another. Paul Rand, whom he paid 100000$ for the Next logo, was another true artist.

I suppose if we rethink the definition of "art", SJ's use of the word "artist" will begin to make much more sense and not sound like the product of an artist's idiosyncratic thinking.

YOUR OWN SETTING

2010-06-30T10:17:00.000-07:00

Words of wisdom from Leyla Gediz, a Turkish painter:

"Our world is overwhelmed by the desire to gain more and be the most powerful, rather than stay alive and share what life has to offer. If you feel that all the good things belong in the lives of others, you can't take pleasure in life. You have to insist on your own setting."

BEAUTIFUL THINGS HAVE BEAUTIFUL NAMES?

2010-06-29T14:05:00.000-07:00

Univers, Avenir, Futura, Akzidenz Grotesk, Helvetica, Filosofia... I might have a little bias in thinking these are beautiful names. Yes, only a little. Because these are beautiful names, if not great. I have been thinking if it might be a coincidence that more often than not, typefaces have beautiful names. I've concluded it is not: Savoir-faire, which must be common enough among type designers, implies saying the graceful thing as well as doing the graceful thing. Hence small wonder typefaces, which are the products of finical eyes and skilled hands, have graceful names.
A quote from Romeo and Juliet goes like this:

"What is in a name? That which you call a rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet"

Not knowing the precise context of the work where this line appears, I will have to say I don't agree to the statement per se. Names definitely matter. Names impart character to their owners, even if they happen to be people.
I have done some thinking on naming issues (mostly in the case of businesses and products) lately, and it strikes me how unremarkable, haphazard or even degrading some names are. Many seem to be oblivious to the value in a name, while there are some cases where the exact opposite is true: All Sidney Frank had done before he set out to create a new vodka was think up a name: Grey Goose. Could it have been any better?
Branding upon a wrong name is bound to be impaired. I have two examples of this, both from Turkish companies. One is Casper, the Turkish equivalent of Dell Computer (except that Casper makes only make laptops and PCs). I think it was a great mistake on their part to pick a name laden with irrelevant and degrading connotation. The first thing Casper calls to mind is the friendly white ghost, and it could make an apt name for a product targeted at the 0-12 range. The other is Arbella, the pasta manufacturer from southern Turkey, which aspires to become a national brand. The logic behind the choice was, I presume, something like this: "We have to pick a name in which there are two of the same consonant in a row so it sounds Italian". I could accept that if they had tried to align the rest of their branding with this Italianness, but it they don't seem to have any such intention.
One exemplary case is Amazon. It simply says: "I'm so vast that in me you can find anything and everything". Herculean efforts must have gone into living up to this promise, but speaking with the benefit of hindsight, the name Amazon is a neat choice. Back to typefaces, "Helvetica", says graphic designer Henry Steiner, "wouldn't have been nearly as successful named Germanica or Neue Haas Grotesk".
When asked "What are some mistakes you wouldn't do if you were starting up your business today?", Kenan Şahin, the professor-turned-entrepreneur who started Kenan Systems which he eventually sold to Lucent Technologies, says: "Choice of a name". Some people name their businesses and educational institutions they helped build after themselves out of a narcissistic tendency or a lack of care. I think one had better think twice before doing so.
So, to wrap it up, it definitely matters what you call it, whether it be a product, a service, a company, a boy or a girl.

TYCHO BRAHE

2010-06-29T11:22:00.000-07:00

I have never been fascinated by astronomy. I am not going to get into the reasons. The notion that our world is a tiny spot in the entire universe and there might be other forms of life than the ones we know of is mind-boggling, but astronomy, as a science, has remained uninteresting for me. Yet the name Tycho Brahe, for some reason, has lingered in my mind since I first heard it back in 2008 in my history of science class. I vaguely remember the wish list of a scientist (who I had been thinking was Tycho, but I did some research and that scientist may have been someone else) from his prospective patron, which was intriguingly spartan by today's standards.
Anyways, Tycho, the 16th century astronomer, was only 17 when he decided what he would be doing for the rest of his life. He saw a lacuna in astronomy, he was bothered by it and that set him off on a lifelong quest. Tycho, judging from his last words, was concerned that he might have led a futile life. His was certainly not a futile life: Apart from his own work, he paved the way for Johannes Kepler's coming up with the laws of planetary motion. Kepler, who was an assistant to Tycho, made use of the data Tycho had long been collecting to produce his theories, and thereby complete Tycho's mission.
Another intriguing aspect of Tycho's life was that he could have chosen to be a man of influence, - not that he wasn't, but not of as great an influence as he might have achieved as a statesman - but he became a scientist, an unusual one in fact, in that he wasn't a loner. He assembled a large tribe and worked collaboratively. As for his private life, he married a commoner. I don't know if that was a common phenomenon at the time, but it seems Tycho was seeking after meaning in his private affairs, too.
Tycho's life might be inspiring in some ways, but it certainly doesn't constitute a typical story, because he was really rich. He was not of humble birth, which, to some extent, accounts for his success.

FEAR

2009-04-25T06:19:00.000-07:00

Jim Cunningham, who is found to be a despicable person late in the movie, proposes a continuum, the extremes of which are fear and happiness.
I have come to think that this is indeed an accurate model of life. The lesser you fear, the happier you are.

MAGIC

2009-04-17T09:34:00.000-07:00

Restoration, or replenishment, if you will, of health and appetite are two things I've thought of as magical. Especially the former. You get sick and feel bad. Sometimes indeed bad. You don't do anything yourself, and actually you can't, apart from taking medication and seeing a doctor. Nature takes its course and you get back to how you used to be, typically to cherish it for a short while.
Actually, repletion can be likened to sickness: You eat a lot and feel stuffed. Other than vomiting or downing a mineral water, you can't do anything. Well, maybe regret. But that doesn't quite help. You let nature take its course, and a while later you get hungry again. There's hardly any contribution from yourself. Which makes the process magical.
The bad thing is, as its inner workings are unknown to us, magic is not quite something to lean on. Hence, better if a need for it never arises.

IMITATION

2009-04-15T12:54:00.000-07:00

Why do sales personnel in stores wear badges reading their names? It is almost certain that they will feel uneasy and give the customer a "Are we that intimate?" look if addressed with their names.
Some business practices (there are likely ones that are on higher levels than wearing name reading badges, which can be considered below-operational) are simply adopted because "everybody else" is engaging in them. This one is pretty innocuous, but it may be wise to think twice with regard to more serious decisions, I think.

SCRAPPING

2009-03-22T16:27:00.000-07:00

It is easy to get carried away when the end of a tedious task looms. One gets hasty, because the reward is close. Things get done fast, and voila, the outcome that has been worked so much for. Satisfaction overcomes, and one feels triumphant, stronger. I am skeptical of this satisfaction, though. Its pursuit induces one to get the work done, however it may turn out. It leads to mediocrity, by having one make a habit of shooting for less, getting by.
"What if I had a chance to start over? Would my work be any better?" This thought is very unsettling to me. And equally beneficial actually. Because mediocrity, in some cases, may indeed be dangerous. So I would recommend never holding back from scrapping what's in hand. Starting over - maybe by setting all else aside, if the work is important enough - is sure to take one closer to a well-deserved satisfaction.

MAKE MONEY DOING NOTHING

2009-02-09T14:19:00.000-08:00

I have seen a great many ads online. If I am browsing a site that I think benefits me in some way, I deliberately locate the ads on the page and click on them. The ads that come up while I am being redirected to another page or the ones that precede a video stream don't bother me. This is how the web works after all. I believe clicking on ads although one is not really interested in them is a reasonable behavior as long as it is done for the sake of the symbiosis between the website and the user, but of course not as part of a systematic effort to make a particular site lift its revenues.
Until lately, I had been thinking text-based ads were inefficient, as I hardly remember any of them catching my eye. Well, as it turns out, selection of the text matters. The text may be such that one is compelled to click on the ad in question, as in this one. Too bold, most probably untrue, but why not click on it and at least discover who this audacious (or should I rather say humorous) site owner is? I did so. He claims to be a rich jerk. I doubt the "rich" part, but he may very well be a jerk.

CRAP

2009-02-04T07:47:00.000-08:00

Crap: Something that does not have or make sense. (Thesaurus)

Think of the things you label crappy. When I do so, I am surprised that many of them are in high demand.
I want to distinguish between crappy and lousy, though. Crappy is costly, although it is no more worth than lousy. Lousy, on the other hand, is cheap; giving one a good reason to consume it. There is no substitute for lousy that comes at a lower cost, that's.

INTRODUCTION TO TURKEY

2008-11-12T09:58:00.000-08:00

To help inquisitive folks get to know more about Turkey, I prepared a small list of suggestions. If you are making such a list, deciding on what to leave out among the countless things that come to your mind is hard and hence brevity is not quite easy. And if time is limited, the outcome may look haphazardly prepared. Nonetheless, I think if you are able to give a good starting point (one that is moving and has good references) to the clueless, you will have done a good job.
You may find the list here.

GETTING PREPARED

2008-11-06T16:57:00.000-08:00

It is important to be prepared for some moments. (I know this is a vague argument. For one, importance is elusive and subjective. Second, I have to clarify what those some moments involve, which I shall attempt to do in this post. To define the former, though, is well beyond my sophistication.) And there are not many of those moments, indeed. Which is probably why they are important. They are "the vital few".
There are moments that you have to be impromptu and yet convincing.
Moments that you have to look sure although you severely waver.
Moments that you have to remember the best course of action that you thought up priorly and execute it, which may as defining as they are rare.
Moments that a great accumulation is likely to bear fruit. (Equally important to create such moments, by existing in the right setting.)
Moments that you are better off acting as though an outsider, unbiased and cold-blooded.
Moments that you have to choose between what you believe is right and what is prescribed, when these two significantly conflict.
I would end this post with an ellipsis, as I didn't mean to make an exhaustive list. But they may delude one into thinking there are a great many others. Therefore, again: I don't think there are quite a few of those moments.

ADANA KEBAP

2008-10-25T03:51:00.000-07:00

It hurts to find out that what your nationality evokes in foreigners' minds is related to cuisine or something else that you can't quite take pride in. When I pronounce where I come from, a great many people utter this word: Kebap. You can imagine my frustration. I don't attempt to say "We have offered the world things outside of this, like...",though. And I have managed to set my frustration aside and written a kebap recipe lately. And I tried to embellish with cultural insights. It is a simple recipe, at least on the surface, but the ingredients - the right ingredients, that's - may prove difficult to gather. So good luck if you happen to give it a shot.

(Nov 2, 2008): Also read this post by an eminent Turkish food writer. Disclaimer: It may compel you to make your way to Turkey.

REKOMMENDABEL

2008-09-20T11:42:00.000-07:00

I have launched a new blog that is meant to serve as a recommendation exchange platform. The content, as you might guess, is going to be user-generated.
Setting up a weblog is child's play, although getting people to contribute is really not that easy. The target community in Rekommendabel's case is very well defined and accessible on paper, but as it turns out, it is not easy to urge them to write. I'm thinking out means of spreading the word about the blog and eliciting inputs from those who hear about it. If all goes well, this will give me more insight on what drives people on the web.

CHOOSING

2008-08-29T13:26:00.000-07:00

Whereas having a lot of options options entails higher freedom in choice, it may not really be desirable for some people in some cases. If whatever is to be chosen inherently has multiple features that all matter in some way, things are even worse. Chaotic, I would call it. One may even be led to wish that he/she were confined to something, rather than make painstaking comparisons. Having a lot of options entails the possibility of picking something inferior along with higher freedom in choice. Think about it: Ending up with something that is not as good as what you could get. Formidable, isn't it?
The argument will prove more lucid the next time you set out to buy an electronic device, possibly a PC or an mp3 player. You will probably hate the challenge you face, and will be led to decide based on a single attribute that you are pushed to think outweighs the others, though you will suspect you are not getting the best and say if only I didn't have that many options.

TALENT+HARD WORK?

2008-08-20T07:34:00.000-07:00

This post may not look worthwhile, as it has to do with something/someone highly publicized (and naturally widely discussed) already. But I have a point to make: A man of my age (I guess I am taking pride in this), Usain Bolt, came along and set world records in the most prestigious track events: 100m & 2o0m. By doing so, he belied the conventional wisdom that tall athletes are at a disadvantage in sprinting. He is fairly tall as compared to his peer athletes, by the way. (1.96, strictly speaking.)
You might not agree to this, but there is one other belief that he challenged, if not abolished (in the realm of athletics, at least): This talent+hard work formula, that was supposed to work for anyone who was to pursue grand achievements. Roughly speaking, it looks talent alone can help one achieve great things. Careful, because I'm not saying Bolt (what an appropriate surname) didn't work hard. Given his age, he just didn't have as much time to work as his rivals. And authorities point to his unrefined running style, which signify that there is possibly ample room to improve. Therefore his 9.69 and 19.30 can't quite be explained by talent+hard work. The moral of this story is, perhaps we have been overlooking talent, the frontiers of which are not quite predictable.
By the way, I hope he indeed works hard and perfects himself, so that he can attain 9.50s someday. It will be a real pleasure to witness such a thing.

EVERYONE WANTS THEIR PROBLEMS CURED-2

2008-07-27T07:48:00.000-07:00

Modeling human behaviour is as compelling as it is difficult. If your model makes sense and you can lucidly phrase it, that's adjust the argument to the understanding of the populace, (no need to say if you are famous enough) you are likely to grab a spot in quote collections. So it is always worth a shot, no harm done if you fail and a great pay-off if you prove to be right.
I shall make clear why I set to writing this post. This "Everyone wants their problems cured" keeps coming to my mind. (By the way, you could be misled and say "Of course noone would want to get along with his/her problems". The point behind this quote, which should have been clear if you have read this, is that all human action boils down to it.) Generally speaking, an idea that strikes me at the inception begins to lose its value as I keep thinking over it. This one, on the contrary, has begun to make more sense, since I have been seeing that it really holds good.
As time goes by, we ruin things we have or they deteriorate by themselves; and we somehow acquire things that are defective. Then we look for a remedy, ready to pay oodles for it in some cases. Essentially, we look for nothing but magic. ("Magic" may sound an inaccurate way of characterizing our perception, but that's exactly it. Take medications, for instance: We usually don't know the least bit what's inside them. We don't know the healing process the least bit. Neither do we know the cause of our unhealthy condition. We merely recognize the symptoms, how the ailment manifests itself. Isn't resorting to medication simply expecting magic?) And we are able to delude ourselves repeatedly, though our experience tells us not to.
Perhaps in a biased yet unconscious manner to keep the theory intact, I'm striving to see things through this perspective. Perhaps not. Somehow, this quote managed to maintain its appeal to me. Whether or not this condition lasts remains to be seen.

TYPOGRAPHY

2008-07-14T14:18:00.000-07:00

I haven't mentioned my finical consideration for typefaces. Nonetheless, you must have spotted the consistent use of Georgia in this weblog. Yet, Georgia is not my ultimate favorite. I love it but the fact that I employed it on my weblog is mainly because it is one of the most commonly available fonts, that's to say it is embedded on most devices, hence it can be rendered properly by pretty much every browser. And it isn't all about that; some others - say Arial or Verdana - are perhaps as common, but I opted for Georgia because it beats out them. Visually, that's. It is way more appealing. (OK, at least to me.) It looks sophisticated. Arial doesn't.
My ultimate favorites are Lucida Sans Typewriter (Size 10 or maybe 11), Letter Gothic (it is exquisite at just about every size), Traditionell Sans, Tuffy (better when character spaces are narrowed, no matter what size) and some others that I have had the pleasure to see and experiment, yet couldn't afford to buy. (See typography.com for some examples)
Apple Inc. is known to give importance to its choice of typefaces (not surprisingly, Wikipedia has an article on this issue), which is due to Steve Jobs' personal interest in calligraphy. Jobs, in his speech as the honor guest on a Stanford Commencement (must be around 2005), talks about his college years and gives special emphasis to the calligraphy course he took as a drop-out. He claims that very course is responsible for the properly spaced, beautiful typefaces used on Macintoshes. He also throws a stone at Microsoft, accusing their long time rival of being a wannabee. (Jobs is also reported to have characterised DELL computers as "black boxes", which led Michael Dell to point out that the net worth of DELL was higher than Apple. Yet DELL couldn't sustain this status: Apple surpassed DELL after launching IPOD and Jobs is reported to have humbly celebrated this by an internal e-mail posted to Apple employees.)
There are a myriad typefaces out there. But which is to prevail is (sadly) determined by Microsoft. Calibri enjoys a celebrity status because MS made it default. Yes, it sure is a nice type. But there are others that are way better. (Objectively. I concede this might be problematic: beauty vs objectivity) Being confined to just a few typefaces, out of a mere compatibility concern, hurts. The consolation is, there is a format called pdf. Pdf is handy because it facilitates conservation. And yes, I'm an absolute conservative, at least in this sense.

EVERYONE WANTS THEIR PROBLEMS CURED

2008-06-21T14:12:00.000-07:00

Some of us engage in observation in the hope of reaching a generalization. Because an otherwise insignificant deduction sounds catchy if it involves generalization. It thereby pleases its owner. Look at science: Popularity of scientific facts stems from their generalizing power. (Forgive my tendency, this very statement bears a generalizing tone.) Take E=mc² or DNA. E=mc² applies to all matters. DNA is known to be universal. Whatever finding they come up with, scientists look to somehow generalize it, in order to boost the merit of that finding. Scientific or not, generalizations - if they make sense at all - appeal to us. We think over them and test them according to our experience. A sensible generalization testifies to the observation power of who sets it forth, which accounts for our tendency to generalize.
Now, you may be curious why such a title for this post. Please go here to discover.

MIRACLE

2008-06-07T08:27:00.000-07:00

Muttering my name continually, the man picked a plastic bag from among a stack of identical bags and handed it to me. I inserted my hand into the bag and felt the fabric. It was a jersey, with my name and the number 33 printed on it. I held it to my nose and smelt the brand new fabric. (By the way, every new garment, I have come to believe, is a revitalizer. Duration of this revitalizing effect substantially varies from owner to owner, though.) I put on a smile that lingered all the way back to my room. A smile that very much reflected my mood, not one of those that I had to counterfeit against passing-by friends.
I know presents are meant to surprise. But surprise falls short of describing what I was filled with. What happened was miraculous, although ordinary on the surface. Yes, anyone would characterize this as "ordinary". What was it that I received anyway? A mere jersey. How material. It wasn't an immortality check or a sustainable bliss drug endowed by a supernal force.
I set to preparing for the "thank you" part. I wanted my voice to be sincere and my words to be direct; because the sender, the reason for all the novelty of this present, definitely had to know how blessed I felt.

TRAVELING

2008-05-23T12:54:00.000-07:00

In this post, I am going to convey a few reflections on traveling. For me, traveling amounts to joy. Well, this is not invariably so, but the exception proves the rule anyway. Is it the destination or journey itself that renders traveling so fascinating? I won't attempt to answer this, but maybe both, let me say.
Change of scenery gives one a fresh aura, virtually irrespective of the new scenery. The knowledge of there being other places and lives than yours is interestingly comforting. And every time you are away; new ideas, which fail to shape up and emerge in your well-defined, quotidian practices, are poised to pop into your mind. Traveling makes you look back and assess past things in a way that you normally would never do. And returning to your place, you have at least a few resolutions, regarding trivial or big things in your life. In any case, change and being open to change are both nice. Altering the parameters of your life and observing how your life, chiefly your outlook responds to this is an interesting process in itself. I regard this as an application of "design of experiment" principles to study your life. This may not be such a reliable way, though: What is measurable about human mood or outlook anyway, let alone the bias involved? Still, I can positively say traveling is a rewarding experience and a tremendous privilege.

MAKING USE OF SCIENCE

2008-05-17T11:56:00.000-07:00

Is it natural or social sciences that is more vital? You may reasonably ask "vital to what?". Let's say humankind, or the good of humankind, to put it more explicitly. My feeling ( I had better say feeling rather than point; as I may fail to support it decently, though I will give it a try) is that it is social sciences that has the potential to make a real big impact. We have mostly marveled at the inventions and discoveries of natural sciences (same goes for applied sciences as well, which in this context I don't want to distinguish from natural sciences), which is clearly illustrated by how famous Albert Einstein is.
We have had enough of these breakthroughs in natural sciences, but problems kept surfacing, threatening a greater many of us. The ironic thing is that some of these problems have been born by the very science that was believed to bear our good, that we all pinned our hopes on. I'm not going to suggest that natural and applied sciences be terminated or paused, because I still see huge promises in them. I'm rather arguing that they really don't mean too much, unless coupled with proper policymaking, which relies on social sciences. Seeking the good of the earth and mankind solely in natural sciences has proven futile, and it looks to me like it is about time we turned to social sciences afresh, taking them more seriously.

IRRESISTIBLY CONDENSED

2008-05-15T14:14:00.000-07:00

My brother has been lured by some obscure company's ads promising to teach English in 5 days. He is now bugging me, seeking my approval and encouragement. He seems to have convinced himself and indeed this is his business, that's whatever is at stake is his. But why is he doing this? I suppose he is still haunted by a bit of doubt that is poised to grow and overcome him. Anyways, I feel like doing something to have him give up, because I don't want him to be defrauded. Yes, I don't believe in the veracity of that promise; and even if 5 days wouldn't be such a big loss, the course fee will definitely be. That being said, I am still able to empathize with him, especially after what happened today: Not long after I talked to my brother on the phone, I found myself browsing through an e-book titled "MBA In a Day". It seems fitting activities into tight timelines is a pervasive desire, which is fairly understandable, given the zeitgeist. Or perhaps my brother and I have hereditary tendencies to believe the unbelievable.

YET ANOTHER SEARCH ENGINE

2008-05-11T14:54:00.000-07:00

Remember the naiveness of Google I wrote about in the post titled "Search Intuition"? Well, it seems some tech companies are penetrating niche markets by drawing on this naiveness. The idea behind these efforts is that segmentation of users with respect to certain user characteristics may help to deliver more relevant results. In the case being reported in this article, a racial classification is said to be improving the quality of search results. Sounds shrewd, yet it raises doubts as to applicability, at least widespread applicability.

RESIDENCE TRADE-OFFS

2008-05-10T10:22:00.000-07:00

I don't remember my mother cooking artichoke. Artichoke was uncommon in Mersin, albeit not unheard of. It is a reason to be happy about living in İstanbul. Yet living in İstanbul has it downsides, as in access to indian fig or a variety of turban tomatoes. Indian fig (as known as Indian fig opuntia), which I know is also found in Morocco (thanks to Wikipedia), is not systematically grown in Mersin, but it is found in abundance in summer. Sellers store them in buckets filled with ice, peel them before serving and peel yet another as you are eating if you want to go on. You want a depiction? Imagine a midye dolma stand and just replace the midye dolmas with Indian figs. I don't know if midye dolma sellers do the same, but some Indian fig sellers try to get you to keep eating and they say things like: "I once had a customer who ate 25 in a row, and I didn't charge him from 20 on". You may not buy that, but it is for certain that Indian figs are real tasty and allegedly salubrious (learned the latter from a local newspaper, which said it is good for kidneys), so they don't need a sales pitch at all.

PROUST EFFECT & MAGNATUNE

2008-05-07T15:28:00.000-07:00

Not sure if you have heard about "Proust Effect" before, but it denotes a phenomenon that every single one of us experiences, perhaps quite a few times on an average day. On our mental map, we associate things, notions with other things and notions. We form organic pairings, or links so to speak. And this all comes about spontaneously. Isn't this amazing? Well it is, but not as much as the other type of memory, namely voluntary memory. I'm much more impressed when I try hard to remember something and I make it, especially after a long time: I once forgot the name of Ivan Campo, a former defender of Real Madrid, though I had such a high resolution image of him in my mind, and I even remembered his year of birth. It took my mind a short midday sleep to retrieve those two pieces of string : "Ivan" + "Campo". (I utterly like siestaing by the way.)
Back to involuntary memory, it looked to me like I was highly sensitive to smells. I found out that this goes for sounds to an extent. Certain tracks invariably evoke the same memories in me, which I - not that positively - attribute to involuntary memory. Anyways, our auditory sense is a real interesting sense in itself, and it has to be fed with good music. Having said music, I have a recommendation:
Magnatune, an online music store with the motto "We are not evil", is worth the attention for the sake of its credo, if nothing else. If you are wearied of sinister, greedy sellers; Magnatune will remind you that there are considerate ones not acting solely with profit motives. See this page where you will find information on its founders, the business model and the meaning behind their motto among many other things. And don't forget to browse the music they're offering, some of which may literally strike you.

MISSING THE BIG PICTURE

2008-04-28T12:21:00.000-07:00

Our heads stuffed with formulae (how magical formulae are, aren't they?) and firmly conditioned to detecting prospective exam questions, we frequently fail to capture essential ideas that instructors are (hopefully) trying to convey. One way to make up for this is doing reading outside class, be it textbooks or other sources. I personally adore textbooks, most of which are well outlined, carefully worded and indeed tailored to my level of sophistication. Textbooks are compact, their main attraction lies in their unstated promise of containing everything I need. Although erroneous, I can't strip myself of this perception, which actually doesn't lead me to turn my back on other material, mostly websites.
I got acquainted with the JIT (Just in Time) concept thanks to my accounting textbook. And there was an emphasis on it in a senior year course titled Supply Chain Management. It had always looked to me like JIT was a virtually unattainable thing, and it was a panacea for manufacturers and retailers alike. Irrespective of the nature of the business; inventory, I was thinking, was something to be extirpated or reduced to the possible extent. Then I happened upon a nice weblog, with this nice post on JIT. It was only after I borrowed an operations management textbook from a friend who is one year my senior that I realized the same ideas, with somewhat more formal wording, existed in that book. It turned out that JIT may be of little avail in some cases.
What follows will sound non sequitur, but it definitely is not, although it is neither a summary of what I have been saying:
Things we do, if a bit of self initiation and voluntariness is involved, give us a lot more than we could get when we are imposed to do them.

WHEN WE DON'T KNOW

2008-04-18T12:09:00.000-07:00

In "Tokens, Tokens" I argued that we use tokens in making decisions , which may put us on shaky grounds. I have just learned a new theory (a scientific one, given who is setting it forth) relating to the outlook of people in the absence of adequate information as compared to the case when they have information about someone or something. For the sake of brevity, let me phrase the theory as follows: When people are devoid of adequate information about something or someone, they are inclined to make up for this inadequacy quite optimistically.
The example cited for this kind of phenomenon is the rise of Barack Obama. Americans knew virtually nothing about him up until very recently, yet he has managed to spark great excitement in the society. I suppose it is not this theory alone that can account for the support and excitement Obama has garnered, yet given the situation Hillary is in, being somewhat of a black box may obviously be beneficial.
Lend an ear to Dan Ariely, a professor of behavioral economics, who voices the relevant theory.

DAYDREAMING IN CLASS

2008-04-09T08:45:00.000-07:00

I'm waking up, more vigorous than ever. The bed I have slept in, the entire scenery is unfamiliar; though peaceful. I'm looking at things around me; briefly at most of them and thoroughly at some others. Something drives me to get out and unaware of what is awaiting me out there, I obey the urge.
A pleasant breeze strikes my limb, arms and face. I see a crowd. People in varicolored, casual raiments. Sipping vital colored drinks from their glasses. People with smiling faces. Do they know me? Obviously they do.
All the hassles are gone. Even the fear of being disillusioned. I'm overcome by the feeling of being welcomed. The sun is tepid, the breeze is consistent; both as though to boost my vigor. People look candid. Have I started anew?

TOKENS, TOKENS

2008-03-26T09:39:00.000-07:00

We need tokens to make decisions. In choosing a mate, scientists say men look for tokens of fertility. In choosing friends, we tend towards approachable people. Is it because we think they will be good friends? I don't know. In choosing a garment, price and label say a lot to us, actually much more than the fabric and motifs on the garment. For some of us, what we eat hinges upon the place, not the food itself. The fact that we resort to tokens is all because we can't know beforehand what the upshot of our decisions will be. And trial and error may be prohibitively costly. Cost in this context may amount to waste of time, loss of self confidence, detrimental effects to our health or simply financial loss (money, that's) or many other things that I can't think of at this writing. We all have that fundamental instinct (at varying levels, of course) that drives us to be on the safe side.
Now, I could conclude by saying "How pathetic we are to rely on...". I won't. Actually I have come to terms with how things work. I do rely on tokens when I have to decide, wittingly or unwittingly. The thing is, I'm skeptical about the soundness of my tokens and it is dawning upon me that I have to assess and perhaps revise them.

DIVERSITY

2008-03-16T14:52:00.000-07:00

Persimmon is a great fruit. It has a distinctive taste that invades the palate for a long time. It is tender and juicy, it has an enticing color, it is easy to peel and slice. It goes great with walnut. What more could one want? Well, perhaps a certain variety of it. I know one, which has a brownish center and leaves a literally indelible taste. My mother said that variety was indigenous to Hatay.
Now, what does the word "extinction" call to your mind? Most probably dinosaurs. And you are most probably envisioning an absolute disappearance, an irreversible process. I don't know if the implication of extinction in the case of vegetables and fruits is that strict. But it might happen that farmers lose interest in growing a certain type of plant or animal, or producers cease producing a certain type of food (not talking about industrial stuff), which makes it commercially unavailable. The good thing is that some people care about this. Perhaps we all should. To have a feel for the criticalness of the issue, take a look at these statistics.
I'm considering to build up on the introduction that I provided in "Slow Food&Carlo Petrini" by writing more and presenting concrete cases. Here is one that has to do with this entry. Browse the website to read other similar stories.

DEEPAK CHOPRA

2008-03-01T13:01:00.000-08:00

I was once approached by a "self-certified" Indian fortuneteller. (Worldwide Famous Fortuneteller Singh Yoga read his card, which was a mere printout covered with pvc.) A professional conversation starter, he kicked off - without my consent - with a character analysis, apparently based on my appearance and facial expression. I was railroaded into listening to him out of my ridiculous courtesy. At one point, he wrote something on a piece of paper and asked me to keep the paper. Then he told me to think of a flower name and keep it in mind. Subsequently I was instructed to unfold the paper. Yes, his "guess" was on target. Amazed as I felt, I was afraid it would end egregiously. Singh Yoga insisted on being paid paper money, though he didn't specify how much. How lucky I was to have a 10 HKD banknote, which saved the day.
The reason why Singh Yoga popped into my mind and I am telling this story is Maharishi, whose name I hadn't heard until his death. One thing which is very common is that people ascribe the fact that such people - be it a Hindu wizard, some Tibetan doctor or an African shaman - may so easily rise to popularity to orientalism. Westerners are said to be open to exploitations, you know, there has always been this irresistible, curiosity arousing, mystical side of the Orient. Well, I sounded to myself like I am condemning this whole shebang. I am not. Indeed I'm part of this. I inquire about these people, try to learn what they have to offer, to me and to the world. So, the bottom line is what? I am going to cite another name, say a few other things:
There is a guy called Deepak Chopra, who holds an MD. People refer to him as the guy who brought science and faith closer. A best selling author, a real famous personality, he frequently appears on TV. His career peaked after his encounter with Maharishi, who highly influenced his outlook on many issues and obviously his job. He is known to openly say he is not in favor of the evolution theory. What makes his views to be reckoned with is that he used to be an endocrinologist, allegedly a successful one. I'm really curious to hear his ideas. If they prove to be noteworthy, I will be laying them out in an entry to come.

SLOW FOOD & CARLO PETRINI

2008-02-12T10:22:00.000-08:00

I vaguely remember a few references to the Slow Food Foundation, but it wasn't until this week that I took the time to find out what it was all about. First and foremost; they have an insipiring president, Carlo Petrini, who is also the founder. To tell it like it is, he has induced me to write this post. Also the stance of the organization, the values they claim they are sticking to appealed to me.
Let me warn you before anything else, Slow Food is not just about food. Or at least the topics Petrini talks about spread much beyond food; encompassing globalization, corporate greed, philosophy of science etc. Yet he cleverly manages to link them all to food. He is such a fervid and a well-informed speaker that even when addressing commonplace issues, he doesn't fail to impress his audience and raise applause.
A few excerpts: Somewhere along his speech, he asserts that food mustn't be cheap. And he makes his point by supplying data, as well as what cheap could entail when it comes to food. Perhaps equally importantly, he underscores the unjust distribution of income in the food business by indicating what an insignificant portion of the market value goes to the original producers; which in turn forces producers to quit farming and move to metropoles.
If you are curious to listen to the whole speech, which is delivered in Italian and simultaneously translated by an eminent food writer, go to Brightcove. A note of caution: Petrini swears a few times. You won't be offended though, if you don't know Italian. The translator replaces them by milder expressions.

IDEAS ON A PROFESSION

2008-02-06T02:35:00.000-08:00

In the realm of operations research (the acronym "OR" will be adopted henceforth), Franz Edelman Awards amount to unparalleled prestige, a mark of excellence. If you sift through the past winners of Edelman Awards on the INFORMS website, one thing will be obvious to you: Nearly all of the laureates are affiliated with American universities and companies. You might easily be misled to think that OR knowledge is proprietary to the US. It certainly is not. Remember, the world is flat.
Then why is it that such hugely successful applications of OR have arisen from the US? Perhaps a hint lies in the word hugely: They have got the largest companies with incredibly extensive and complex operations, which promise great cost savings or upsurge in profits if they are streamlined. I have somewhat oversimplified the picture, maybe even distorted it: The objectives might have nothing to do with money at all or/and it might be a non-profit organization deploying OR to bring a solution to its problem. In any case, OR is seemingly an American niche. If I try to predicate this fact on the above argument alone, I guess I will be missing a vital point: Isn't there any room to improve in the systems of non-US institutions, whether private or not? Let me presume there is, and set forth other questions: What's the level of awareness in the business community when it comes to OR? What is the criterion in taking a decision; wild guess, rule of thumb or real scientific basis? In many cases, the promise of optimization may not be as luring as it is in the US, hence the lesser impetus to deploy OR. That makes it sort of comprehensible, yet much less justifies it if those who oversee business operations in miscellaneous institutions around the world overlook OR.

P.S. Listen to a lecture by Leon Lasdon, a McCombs School of Business professor, on the importance of OR.

SOLARIS

2008-02-02T06:10:00.000-08:00

Stanislaw Lem published Solaris in 1961. It didn't take long for it to compel Andrei Tarkovsky, who made a movie based on the novel in 1972. Lem and Tarkovsky were known to have had a dispute because Lem was annoyed at Tarkovsky's adding adventitious characters to the story.
Steven Soderbergh came up with a remake of Solaris in 2002. I had to be content with this version, as I didn't have the guts to see the former, which runs some 160 minutes. His doctors advised Lem, who was 81 at the time, not to see the movie and he conformed. He passed away in 2006.
What a difficult state of mind it must be, for it made him refrain from such an experience.

SEARCH INTUITION

2008-01-27T00:39:00.000-08:00

Frequently do we need to search the web. In some cases, it might be overly painstaking or impossible to track down the information we are after. I don't know what people resort to in such cases; but I have, though rarely, had to conclude that the web didn't contain what I had been looking for. But, let's be reasonable, we can't attribute it to that all the time.
One fallacy, which I believe is quite common, could be that we greedily expect to locate the relevant information on the first page of the results. Well, this is not necessarily the case; since the algorithm prioritizing the results doesn't solely relate to what we have typed in. (The premise here is that we are using Google). Google views the web as a chain, and the pages thereon constitute its rings. (This is not a perfect analogy, but an acceptable way to visualize the whole thing: Think of the connected rings on a chain, the difference is that connections are not confined to adjacent rings, one can simply jump to any other ring, though a well-defined distinction is made. Read on to find out.) At a given webpage, the user is highly likely to navigate to another that is being linked on that webpage; while others (those not being linked) hold an insignificant likelihood of being the next destination. The idea is indeed simple: The more links there are to a webpage, the better its chances of being browsed are. Google interprets this as an element of relevance, which some people deem naive. By the way, it would be unthinkable not to have people working to exploit this vulnerability: There are said to be a considerable number of startups trying to devise more viable engines.
Lastly, let's look to ourselves. If it is neither the insufficient web nor the naive Google, could it be us? Put another way, how effective are we in interacting with the black box? How many trials - whether changing keywords or clicking the listed results - does it take us to find it?
I have no idea how to determine if you have it, how to acquire it if you lack it or if there is a way to improve it if you have it; what I believe is that there is something that can be called search intuition, which can be helpful at times.

EVOLUTION

2008-01-20T10:24:00.000-08:00

Evolution has tremendously shaped my perception of nature; chiefly people, their physical attributes and even their behaviors. Recently I have come to realize that I'm lacking the necessary sophistication to make proper judgments based on the evolutionary paradigm. I took action to make up for that and I got Richard Dawkins' books from the library. As with most of the books I set out to read enthusiastically, I had to return them without even making it to the half. Let me tell why: Other things interfered. I have nonetheless acquired new ways of thinking thanks to the partial readings. And I'm still running into brief and interesting articles: The Edge asked prominent scientists the following annual question: What have you changed your mind about? Why? Dawkins is one of those scientists, yet he is not the one whose answer drew my attention. By the way, the arguments presented in the survey are not that technical - at least the ones I have read - they can very well be comprehended by anyone familiar with basic scientific concepts.
Marc D. Hauser, a professor at Harvard, is basically talking about a paradigm shift he has been going through. He puts forth interesting ideas - or suspects, let me say - in his article titled "The Limits Of Darwinian Reasoning". I suppose there are a great many equally striking answers on the website, all waiting to inspire us.

TOMATOES

2008-01-07T15:20:00.000-08:00

"Ordinary peppers" My brother said facetiously. Had he known how zealous I was to see them overwhelmed, I'm sure he would have put it another way.
Thinking they could get into gardening, I purchased a set of seeds for my parents around April last year. The set included silver onions (barletta onions, strictly speaking), radishes, miscellaneous peppers and two varieties of cherry tomatoes. They got delivered within 10 days as promised, in pretty envelopes. The package had been cut open at the customs to conduct legal checks. Apparently they weren't charging tariffs or something on the border and Paypal turned out to be a reliable service. Everything was just fine. The following day I immediately made my way to the post office to send the stuff to Mersin.
A little while later, we talked on the phone and my mother told me it was just late to plant the tomatoes but she would very soon take care of the peppers. Eventually we did that together, when I was at home for the spring break. I was chiefly excited about the tomatoes, yet it seemed I would have to be patient. "Good things come to those who wait", I reminded myself. The rest of the seeds would have to wait till the next winter anyway, so I zeroed in on the peppers, inquiring about them on every call.
The upshot was not a disappointment for the folks at home, yet it wasn't much of a success: Slightly fewer than half of the seeds grew to bear fruit and my father reportedly consumed it all. Yes, this was the only consolation. I was overly disappointed, which was due to the discrepancy between the "descriptive" pictures on the website and what we actually got.
Last month, I was informed that radishes were ok and the onions were on the verge of emerging from the soil. Mind you, we had given the seeds to my aunt; which was, as you might guess, because of the first "failure".
I am still excited about the tomatoes.

HOME & SPEED OF LIGHT

2008-01-05T02:07:00.000-08:00

I had been oblivious to how rejoicing, and even revitalizing a song could be. This week, I ran across two songs, both of which led me to rethink what makes a good song.
Some evolutionary psychologists argue the adaptive approach (which basically says those attributes that help individuals survive and reproduce have higher prospects of being passed on to next generations) is inadequate to account for human beings' musical appreciation. Well, I won't be talking on that, which is beyond my sophistication and indeed doesn't pertain directly to the kind of music one likes. Rather, I will be endeavoring to phrase what made me adore those two particular songs.
With the first one there sure was a bias; given that it was a Simply Red song. I had long known the band, and in point of fact, one of their songs had a firm place among my favorites. I can't quite tell why I didn't move on to explore albums thereof. Perhaps it was that I was afraid to find out others wouldn't be equally good. Bias, I said; yet this shouldn't overshadow the exquisiteness of the way he employs words: Not just for the sake of establishing rhymes, as it is evident from the congruous meaning Hucknall put behind them. Mick Hucknall thereby manifests that English, which is not based on suffixation, allows for rhymes while conveying the essential message.
As for the other one, I chanced on it as I was tuned in to Lounge FM. The tune was somewhat familiar, but this time it so struck me that I couldn't wait to find out who sang it. Alphawezen, it turned out to be. I looked up the song on Youtube and found its videoclip. Compared to the former, it had a much less professional video. That didn't matter, after all it was the tune that captured me, not the cute lady walking around with earphones. All in all, the catchy tune as well as the non-native (hence clear) accent of the singer presumably set it apart.
Next time, as I signaled, I'm considering to write a bit on evolution, which remains to be an utterly exciting topic for me since high school.