knowledgeEntrepreneurs

The knowledge entrepreneurs have the following characteristics:

They read a lot, are hungry for new ideas, and are always inquisitive.

They have strong research skills. They know where to go to find information, and don't depend on a single content source. They know how to cope with information overload, and are able to quickly tell good information from bad.

They write well, and know who they are writing for. They have the ability to synopsize what they have found and turn it into new content. They have the skills and the ability to collaborate with others in the creation of new content.

They are able to turn their content into persuasive presentations, and are comfortable making presentations in front of a group.

(They) know how to commission new content and (are) able to quickly judge its quality. They... know how to manage writers -- to encourage them and get the best out of them. They must know how to select the most exciting and relevant content and position it appropriately on the home page.

webGrabit

I discovered a wonderful tool called WebGrabit yesterday. It’s a tool which can automatically grab and update whatever HTML on the web. Imagine you want the most updated news about the Internet. You can just search the news on Google and use WebGrabit to grab that information automatically for you every hour. How great is that!

The most important thing about this great tool is that it’s very easy to use just like the Microsoft products. That may be the most important attribute for any IT product that can sell.

ActionToTakeWhenBeingMisunderstood

Shift your paradigm
Communication is two-way. You have your part to play in making people understand you. If you play your part well, that's good enough.

Seek first to understand
Try your best to understand what and why other people don't understand with their perspectives.

Then to be understood
Use simple language to explain.

growQuickly

Look for someone, who’s willing to think and exchange information. Ask what he has found out lately and discuss with him. The best way to grow is to find a mentor and learn from him what he has learnt. Make every conversation meaningful. It’s up to us to do that.

tightSchedule

Negotiate for a better schedule, and then you won’t be behind the schedule.

responsibility

Being responsible means knowing what you are responsible for and takes care of it. It doesn’t mean you have to carry other people’s shit.

chat

Chatting is a means to socialize. But most of the chats are meaningless. For how to use chatting to gain more knowledge, I have the following habits:

Find out more about the opponent’s background by asking questions, such as “What university did you go to? What was your major and why? What’s your best subject? What do you love to do most in your spare time?”

Discuss the subject that’s both interesting to the opponent and you. Ask open-ended questions. Allow information to flow and be absorbed.

discussion

Ask questions instead of making conclusions and defend the conclusion with facts and logic. Communication depends on the other party. Give them a way to open themselves up and ourselves a chance to “seek first to understand”.

powerPoint

After reading The perils of PowerPoint slides, I realize that it’s a common pattern of people misuse or overuse a new technology. Many times, when a new technology comes out, we use it as the vendors advocate without seriously thinking whether we really need to change our old habits. People are too lazy to think and ask the question, “What can this new technology bring to the table?” And eventually one former of laziness transforms to another form of inconvenience.

Question every behavior before it becomes a habit. What are the habits that I take for granted without thinking about it? What about you?

dellChina

Dell Computer retreats from China's low-end PC market. One thing that I admire Dell is its ability to react fast. It’s a huge company, but it can change its direction in a couple of month based on its market statistics, which I think counts on its powerful digital nerve system.

But why did Dell lose the low-end PC battle in China is a question I want to ask.

askQuestions

How to generate more creative ideas and thoughts everyday? I find the answer in the question. The answer is to develop the habit of asking better and better questions about everything occur around us.

If something is totally new to us, be it a situation, a person or an environment, we always can ask the question, “What can I learn from this? How can I use this? What should I do next time so that I can achieve better results?”

I also discover some of the why questions are very powerful. “Why do we do it this way?” is a wonderful question to challenge conventional thoughts and make us really understand things around us.

Questions are the key to conversation as well. Ask open-ended questions begins with What, Why, Where, When and How about other people or things they are interested in can certainly stimulate any conversation.

Ask questions! What questions have you asked today?

BetterFasterLighterJava

Lately, two authors have written a wonderful book about Java namely “Better, Faster, Lighter Java”. I picked it up for the sake of better my programming habits. But then I discovered that this book offered some simple but profound principles that we can follow in almost everything we do.

Keep It Simple
“Good programmers value simplicity.” In my opinion, everyone’s life needs simplicity. The way I do it is to focus on the essence. Discover patterns for repeated problems and provide standard, well-formatted and most effective solutions.

Do One Thing, and Do It Well
“Focus is the second principle, and it builds upon simplicity. This basic premise has two underlying concepts: concentrate on one idea per piece, and decouple your building blocks.” One of the most beautiful ideas I have every known in computer science is “Divide and Conquer”. From the wisdom of the ancient Chinese, this strategy gives us incredible power to overcome complexities and difficulties by focusing our energy on a single aspect of a huge problem and solve it bit by bit.

Strive for Transparency
“When you can separate the primary purpose of a block of code from other issues, you're building transparent code.”

This principle is highly related to the first two. You separate other issues by seeing the repeated pattern and solve the problem only once, which is a way to achieve simplicity. And now you can focus on the primary purpose of the block of code.


Allow for Extension
This seems to have little connection to life but design. But to me, it is. One thing leads to another. It’s about choice. For example, when you choose to study computer science, what are the possible “extensions” of your later career? For every choice we make, have we think about what kind of “extensions” we can have?


You Are What You Eat
“Applications build upon a foundation. Too many developers let external forces easily dictate that foundation. Vendors, religion, and hype can lead you to ruin. You've got to learn to listen to your own instincts and build consensus within your team. Be careful of the concepts you internalize.”

“You've got to challenge conventional thinking. When you don't, bloat happens.”

So think before you swallow. ;)