Too Long For a Tweet, Too Short for a Blog Post XII

Here's an excerpt from a book I recently read: "The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance," by Steven Kotler.

“Go back to Roger Bannister’s time and the most sophisticated equipment we had was a stopwatch,” says Michael Gervais. “Knowing how long it takes someone to do something is useful, but it’s still a gross metric that explains little about the why. The stopwatch told us Bannister ran a sub-four mile, yet we learned nothing about how he did it or how we could do it. But between then and now there have been six or seven measurement milestones. We moved from gross physical measures to more precise bio-data, from invasive bio-data procedures to noninvasive procedures. Until you get to where we are today—able to measure and quantify ATP (adenosine triphosphate—essentially cellular energy) levels in real time. This means that our ability to stalk elite performance has undergone a sea change.”

Dear Mom and Dad: You Succeeded

I had the good fortune of catching up with a grad school classmate of mine earlier this month.  Like me, he is a child of immigrants: Nigeria, in his case.  And, like me, he is a man of many pursuits: in his case, Ph.D., not-for-profit executive, and health care entrepreneur.

Invariably, the conversation led to our shared experience as children of immigrants, and how that shaped our sense of self and purpose.  Our families' life circumstances and reasons for coming to the US had many differences, but in both cases what they forged in our parents was a tireless commitment to doing whatever it took to provide for their children and make sure they had a chance to thrive in this country.

My friend and I both noted that our life pursuits, broader and riskier than that of our parents, sometimes engendered caution and disapproval from them.  When you are in a new country, don't speak the language, and have a family to provide for, there isn't much space for taking chances.  No, your best bet is to find a well-paying technical job, work your tail off at it, keep your head down, and live well below your means to make sure your family is set up.

Indeed, for both my friend and I, our parents followed this game plan to a T, sometimes to extreme and comical effect.  Oh, the stories we shared!

It occurred to my friend and I, though, that though that we were stepping out from the kind of career types our parents knew and encouraged, our parents ought to satisfied rather than upset.  Their whole lives were about scraping and clawing so we could have the opportunity to be exactly who we have turned into: hard-working, motivated, and free to choose the career that allowed us to thrive.  In other words, just like them in attitude and ethic, but with a whole horizon of opportunity before us, rather than the more limited paths available to them.

As a parent, I worry and fret and pray and work and fight and stress every day, that my children will turn out OK.  Everything I do, I do so that they will carry on what I believe in but have greater and greater freedom to express that in ways that are true to who God made them to be.  I long to hear from my kids someday that I have succeeded in accomplishing this.

I have told my own parents this before, but it bears repeating and I am making note to do so next I talk to them, which is that after all they have sacrificed and stressed and hustled and harangued, they too have succeeded in accomplishing everything that mattered to them.  I am carrying on the same ethic because it is deeply engrained in me by them.  I stand before a vast playing field of opportunity, and it is vast because of them.  And, I am going for it, thankful for my parents who made it possible and thinking of my children for whom I do all I do.

Lazy Linking, 137th in an Occasional Series

Stuff I liked lately on the Internets:

137.1 The humans who screen out genitalia and gore from your FB feed wrd.cm/10qAzwi @wired

137.2 The real reason for less scoring in baseball: ump evals mean bigger strike zones nyti.ms/1z1fzKO @upshotnyt

137.3 Detroit, hot new manufacturing hub for two-wheeled vehicles for.tn/1nDoT3o @fortune

137.4 Some of my favorite things at this link, incl: play, GIS, Design Collab, Azavea bit.ly/1pAK2a9 @nextcityorg

137.5 Ferguson got the way it was thru racist land use policies theatln.tc/1vpO5vL @theatlantic

Philadelphia Parks Alliance Annual Fundraiser at Reading Terminal Market

I am honored to be on the event committee of the Philadelphia Parks Alliance’s Celebration 2014, its annual fundraiser that this year will take place on Sunday, November 16 at Reading Terminal Market.  Parks are part of what make Philly great.  And the Parks Alliance are part of what makes Philly's parks great.  So if you are a lover of Philly and its parks, you should support the Parks Alliance.

 

The event will run from 6pm to 9pm, with a special pre-event tour of Reading Terminal Market starting at 4:30pm.  Kids are welcome (my two will be there), and among other activities there will be a silent auction (always fun for window shopping or real shopping).  

I may be hitting some of you up individually, but here’s three big group asks:

      (1) Buy a ticket.  This is easy.  Tickets are $100, or $150 if you want in on the tour.  

      (2)   Donate an item for the silent auction.  If you or your company has access to in-kind contributions, like a gift certificate for your restaurant, a product from your store, tickets to a sporting event or cultural performance, or a vacation home, please consider sharing it with the Parks Alliance.

      (3)   Be a sponsor.  Sponsorships start at $500 and are a great way to connect your company to a great cause.  My firm is a sponsor.  

Click here for more information on the Parks Alliance, the event, and how to help.  Hope to see you there, and let’s come together and support our parks in Philadelphia!

Friendly Philadelphians

My first week in Philly as a college freshman, I remember stopping at the corner Wawa for a hoagie.  The person who took my order could not have been more disinterested in my food purchase.  Somehow, the order made its way to the back counter, the sandwich got made and wrapped, and then it sat there just feet from me.  I tried in vain to get my order-taker to transport my food from the back counter to me, and when I finally flagged them down they expressed so much disgust at being interrupted that I actually got embarrassed at their public harrumphing instead of being enraged at their lack of care.

Customer service was so scarce in the Philadelphia of my college days that I still recall picking up a movie from Blockbuster in California when I was visiting my parents over the holidays, and when I got home I noticed it was the wrong movie in the box, so I drove back to the store in a huff, ready to do battle with the whole staff if I needed to.  Only I got three words into my tirade and the person apologized profusely, leapt into action, recruited a fellow staff person to assist in getting me the right movie, and then apologized some more.  And here I was all wound up for a real fight.

Fast forward to the present, and the times they have a-changed.  Earlier this month my family stayed at a hotel downtown, and every single staff person there was absurdly friendly.  They were funny, cheerful, eager to serve, and genuinely engaged in making our experience top-notch.  I even got a great vibe from the cabbie who drove us home.

A lot has changed between the Philadelphia of my college days and today's Philadelphia.  For your own proof, hail a cab or stay in a hotel.  Or go back to that corner Wawa I went to way back when; I'll bet you they take food orders in a much more pleasant manner now.

Digital Killed the Analog Star

Since we formed Econsult Solutions in January 2013, we have been much more aggressive about our self-promotion.  One manifestation of this is our email newsletter and related blasts.  I like to joke that if I make it down the street without tripping, that's cause for sending out a mass email.  All kidding aside, though, we do want people to be aware of what we are up to, and impressed enough that we are doing lots of good stuff that they will want to hire us.

Obviously, so many emails can get on some people's nerves, and we have had our share of unsubscribes.  But the majority of the feedback, at least to my face, has been overwhelmingly positive.  People like receiving these news blasts, they admire that we are doing lots of good things, and they commend us for being active and consistent in our marketing.

It tells me that I can be less concerned about the possibility of "too much email."  Years ago, there were more people who did not like and in fact got quite enraged when their inboxes were stuffed with promotional messages.  Nowadays, people have gotten more comfortable with higher volumes of information.  We can choose to read, save, or trash any given email without feeling like it took a whole lot out of our lives.

From the sender's side, this is great news.  We want people to read our blasts, of course.  But even if they don't, the fact that they received it and registered in their head that we did something newsworthy is a plus for us.  And if they delete it immediately, at least they did not do so in a rage.  In other words: lots of upside, very little downside.

Perhaps we are finally moving into a fully digital world.  I've made this point before, but digital is different than analog.  It used to be that how much space an entry got in an encyclopedia set was correlated with that entry's importance, which made sense when you were physically producing the things and there were real costs associated with having to print more pages.  When Wikipedia first came out, and Britney Spears' entry was longer than St. Augustine's, people thinking the old way got upset, because that meant Britney Spears was considered more important than St. Augustine.  But in a digital world, a longer entry means nothing. 

Of course, if we send so many emails that any one email gets devalued to the point of nothingness, that's not good, either; that's the modern-day equivalent of the boy who cried wolf.  But I like that we regularly blast our honors and actions to our subscribers, because that's what I want in return from people and organizations I want to keep abreast of.  There are some things about this brave new digital world that aren't half bad.

Like or Unlike

My attendance at a regional planning meeting triggered a question that I'd like to pose to all of you.  Here's the question.

On the one hand, we are becoming a more tolerant society.  We are more comfortable with diversity of all kinds.  Younger generations harbor a fluidity in social norms, relationships, and beliefs that stands in stark contrasts to the stereotyping, mistrust, and self-segregation of old.  All of this argues for households making location choices that favor mixed settings, where you are neighbors with others who are different from you.  Sameness, after all, is boring and passe; diversity is hot. 

On the other hand, there is a growing gap between the have's and the have-not's, and the fork in the road is education.  So families with means are increasingly insistent on making sure their kids are in the best schools, which means sorting oneself with others like you.  Furthermore, we are becoming more politically polarized, so we are less and less likely to live in a politically heterogeneous neighborhood and rather more likely to dwell among others of your party persuasion. 

So which is the stronger force: the desire to be with others not like you or the desire to be with others just like you?  Obviously, for individuals and households, this is a deeply personal question, and furthermore one's answer may change over time as you go through various stages in life.  But, all in all, is one pull going to be stronger than the other?  Whichever it is, it will have profound implications for local government, land use patterns, school district budgets, and transportation infrastructure, to say nothing of the social influences we subject ourselves to.

So, what do you think?  Like or unlike?

Too Long For a Tweet, Too Short for a Blog Post XI

Here's an excerpt from a book I recently read: "Plastic: A Toxic Love Story," by Susan Freinkel.

I’ve looked at photos of dozens of dead Laysan albatrosses — pictures that capture in the starkest way the threat plastics pose to the natural world.  Every carcass seems a mockery of the natural order: a crumbling bird-shaped basket of bleached bones and features filled with a mound of gaily colored lighters and straws and bottle caps. The birds are dissolving back into the ground; the plastics promise to endure for centuries.

Reading for Success

Running a business means two more things more than just doing the work of the business.  First, it means actually running the business: HR, payroll, office stuff, etc.  I dig this kind of stuff because I think of it in terms of systems and enjoy having a role in making those systems and making them better.

Second, it means sales.  Ruh roh.  Not that I don't like networking and making the case and closing the deal.  In fact, I quite enjoy these tasks.  It's just that, as an introvert, I find them incredibly tiring.  So I do them, but I need to make sure I recharge afterwards. 

Usually, that recharging is through reading books.  There's something about the silence and solitude of reading that is comforting, energizing, and fulfilling for the introvert.

What a pleasant surprise, then, to read in The Economist earlier this month that business leaders ought to do more solitary reading.  The article takes a dim view of what often counts as personal development for the business leader: inane retreats, gab fests, and pep talks by the industry's latest gurus.  It argues instead for time with Plato, Confucious, and Dostoyevsky.  It elevates Gates and Welch for carving out time to read and think without interruption.  And it touches on this contemporary notion of "mindfulness," which is usually some combination of meditation, centeredness, and deep breathing.

At last, some business advice I can get behind.  So, I'll still go out and press the flesh some evenings.  But, other evenings, when I crawl into bed and put my nose between the pages, I can consider that time well spent too.

Love and Marriage...and Parenthood...and Depression and Dysfunction and Disaster?

For introverted, inquisitive voyeurs like me, Facebook is a godsend.  Here is sanctioned stalking of friends and family, with a big assist from those very same friends and family who so helpfully post constant updates and pics.

I hope that didn't sound too creepy; I'm half-joking.  In all seriousness, though, Facebook is a wonderful way to keep in touch in your relationships.  It is delightful to be able to follow the people that matter the most to you as they go through the seasons in their lives: falling in love, getting married, having babies, raising kids, kindergarten, soccer games, prom, and so on and so forth.  It may sound corny, but it makes the world seem smaller and cozier, that I can see how my friends and family are doing and I can keep them posted on what I'm up to.  And all the cute baby pictures and to-die-for vacation pictures and yes even the annoying fancy dinner plate pictures, all of that makes me smile because I am able to share in other people's happiness.

Of course, sometimes we use Facebook to vent or rage or wallow or lament.  But usually if something is really going wrong, we find it hard to share in a setting like social media.  Not that that's a bad thing: there is such a thing as sharing different things to different people in different ways.  It's just important to remember that when we scroll through our news feeds, that everything we see is real but it is not quite all of reality.

In life, in marriage, in parenthood, we have our great days, our so-so days, and our awful days.  Sometimes, we have a season of awful.  And sometimes, we have unending phases of truly awful.  It can seem dissonant when all we see when we check in on our friends and family is the great days.  It can atrophy our ability to share when all we share is the great days.

This all seems so obvious.  Plus most of us have real relationships outside of social media so there are ample opportunities to be real, to share about cruddy times and to hear about cruddy times.  But I find myself having to remind myself that life isn't just the stuff you post on your Facebook page.  There are seasons of sorrow, and we can make it through them.  And there are people struggling and scuffling all around us and all around the world, and we can be people who are available to be confided in and cried on. Through love and marriage and parenthood, and depression and dysfunction and disaster, I hope to have good friends and be a good friend, smiling at the happy shares but also mindful of the fact that life also consists of unhappy seasons too.

The Hardest Thing About Being a Christian

In church and amongst believers, being a Christian is fun and easy.  We can encourage one another with words we all understand the meaning of.  We can sing uplifting songs.  We can recollect together great things our God has done in the past and hope together for great things our God will do in the future.

Out in the world, being a Christian is often not fun and not easy.  We are mocked for not accepting evolution.  We are chastised for being intolerant or hypocritical.  We seem to have no satisfactory answer for why there is so much suffering in a world made by a loving God.

Out in the world, it can be hard to be a Christian.  In response, we can choose to stop being Christians.  I know many people who have chosen this route.  We can also choose to stop being out in the world.  I know many people who have chosen this route.

As for me, I choose to continue to be a Christian.  I also choose to continue to be out in the world.  I also believe that the hardest thing about being a Christian has nothing to do with evolution or homosexuality or hypocrisy or suffering.  I believe the hardest thing about being a Christian is that I want to be my own god.  I want to make my own sense of the world, I want to make my own world, I want to figure out the rules and behaviors and ends and means that work best for me.  And I want these things as deeply as I could possibly want anything.

There is a lot of language in the Bible about self-denial.  Many people far nobler than I have responded to this language with extreme forms of self-denial.  They have forsaken physical comforts, disciplined their eyes, mastered their stray thoughts.

The hardest thing about being a Christian is that being a Christian is even harder than all of those things.  Because being a Christian means truly dying to self.  It is the hardest possible thing to do.  It is the opposite of what I want.  It is the last thing my body and mind are predisposed to do.

And it is the gateway to truly living, truly becoming who we were made to be, truly shining like you can't even imagine.  People think of God making them the way they are and that they are therefore free to be and act however they choose.  I believe in something even more freeing and even more exalting.  But following the path to that is the hardest thing you will ever do.  And it is the easiest choice you will ever make. 

A Romantic Getaway, Philly Style

Growing up in suburban San Jose, when my friends and I talked about the perfect date (and, since we were all losers, it was mostly talking and not a whole lot of actually going out on dates), it always involved a car.  You needed a car to go to dinner and a movie.  A car was how you got your date to the, um, scenic vistas in the area.  And what car you drove was how you impressed a girl enough so they would date you.  (I drove a barf green Buick station wagon.  Again, loser.)

This past weekend, Amy's siblings took our kids and she and I got to check into a hotel in our neighborhood for a romantic getaway.  As we reveled in this rare extended period of one-on-one time, I couldn't help but think how different our time together was than the dates of my teenhood.  Namely, we didn't need a car.

On Saturday, we walked to our hotel, dropped our stuff off, and took the trolley downtown.  From the trolley stop, we walked through Chinatown and Reading Terminal Market to Franklin Square, where we enjoyed 18 holes of mini-golf.  We trolleyed back to our hotel area, partook of a fancy dinner at Pod, and then bought candy bars at Wawa before retiring to our room.

The next morning, while Amy slept in, I took in a run in the early light.  I hit the new Boardwalk, took Schuylkill River Trail north to the Art Museum, looped back into University City, and ran through the Drexel and Penn campuses back to the hotel.  Though the sun was barely up, already there were lots of people biking, running, and walking.

When our kids get old enough to date, I assume they will hit some of these very same places, and will be able to do so without a car.  What a wonderful city we live in, full of fun date night activities that are there for the enjoyment. 

Wistar

Late last week I had the honor of hearing from, sitting next to, and being introduced by Dr. Russel Kaufman, head of the Wistar Institute in University City.  We were at a CEO Council for Growth meeting at Wistar, I was presenting on a report we are working on, and Dr. Kaufman was tasked with teeing up my remarks.

I live less than a mile from Wistar, but most people aren't familiar with this mighty little engine. They were the nation’s first independent medical research and training institution.  They happen to have developed the vaccines for rabies, rubella, and rotavirus.  And I think it's an even bet that if we ever beat cancer, Wistar is going to be where the case is cracked. 

To me, it's remarkable how incredibly rich and dense is the intellectual firepower just blocks from my house.  Within one mile of my humble abode you can find, in addition to Wistar:

1. An Ivy League school (Penn)

2. The world's best undergraduate business school (Wharton)

3. The #1 children's hospital in the US (CHOP)

4. North America's first pharmacy college (USciences)

And you wonder why I'm bullish on Philadelphia and long on my neighborhood.

Economic Analysis of Detroit’s Food System

Shameless plug for my firm slash public service announcement: a study we worked on last year on the economics of the local food system in Detroit is now available online. Click here to get a copy. Big ups to co-author Urbane Development and senior advisors Catherine Timko and Greg Heller. 

By Design

Tomorrow kicks off 9 days of design events - 125 in total - throughout Philadelphia.  Yes, it's Design Philadelphia, and it is awesome. My firm is a sponsor and I plan to make as many gatherings as I can.

Though I haven't a design bone in my body, I recognize the importance of design in, well, everything.  Especially, more and more so, in branding cities as destinations for new residents, new businesses, and new activity.

It is remarkable the transition we are living in now here in Philadelphia, as it refashions itself from manufacturing giant to post-industrial wasteland to knowledge center to design mecca.  If you're in Philly, add to the buzz by hitting an event or ten.  And if you haven't been to Philly in awhile, come back and you'll be surprised at how we look now.

One Man's Opinion of Schuylkill Banks Boardwalk (Philadelphia) vs. High Line (New York City)

The Schuylkill Banks Boardwalk opened last week to great fanfare.  Billed as a "floating boardwalk," the place was soon overrun by joggers, bikers, and pedestrians taking in the gently curving path that juts out from the Schuylkill River.  Between this and well-used public space on the Delaware River waterfront (e.g. Spruce Street Harbor Park) and on the Ben Franklin Parkway (e.g. the Oval), Philly is hopping with great places for recreation and people watching.  As a consumer and a Philly booster, I'm pleased as punch.

I did find jarring, though, some claims that the Boardwalk is better than New York City's High Line.  Given how many accolades the High Line has received, it seems an audacious statement.  I figured I ought to check out the Boardwalk myself and then chime in with my opinion.  Fortunately, last weekend my family had a one-night staycation downtown, at Sheraton Center City, so I snuck out first thing in the morning and headed for the Boardwalk for a jog.  Here is my assessment, and it goes without saying that this is just my angle on what matters and how the two public spaces stack up.

I've scored both places on a five-point scale in six categories, for a total of 30 possible points.  Note that I have been to the Boardwalk all of one time, and the High Line all of twice, so a lot of these will be incompletes.

Aesthetics.  The thing's got to look good, right?  High Line is pretty, though perhaps still a little sterile.  Boardwalk is, well, functional.  It's not ugly, but nor does it dazzle. Boardwalk 2/5, High Line 4/5.

Comfort. Meaning is the thing safe, easy, and relaxing.  Take my assessment here with a grain of salt because I haven't gotten a chance to see how the places feel at different times of the day. Both seem relatively well-connected with their surrounding environs. High Line's higher number of entry points is offset by the fact that you need to go up a lot of stairs to get to it.  We'll call this a tie and a "we'll see." Boardwalk 3/5, High Line 3/5.

Hyper-local real estate market stimulant. You can pay for nice things that a whole region can enjoy just by capturing the increased property taxes generated by the invariable bump-up in nearby parcels.  In fact, this is happening in Chelsea, which was already a burgeoning neighborhood but is now super-hot because of the benefit of being near this really cool public amenity.  Boardwalk has some of this potential, but it's hard to beat a path that is literally interwoven in and on top of a neighborhood. Boardwalk 2/5, High Line 4/5.

People-watching. Again, this is going to have to be an incomplete because I haven't had enough time to see these places in action. However, High Line has to trump Boardwalk in this category, given how many places there are to sit, congregate, and laze the day away.  Boardwalk 2/5, High Line 4/5.


Scalability. Meaning how easy is it to add to, replicate, and mutate into something even more complex and wonderful. I'm out of my element opining here, but it does seem High Line has a little more potential for growth, although this may be offset by the higher complexity (and therefore cost) of adding length. Boardwalk 3/5, High Line 4/5.

Views. I wasn't super impressed with High Line's view lines - not enough sight lines to water, too many direct looks into the tops of buildings - although I can't say I've examined every single nook and angle.  Whether you like Boardwalk's views depends on whether you can get past the ugliness right around you - the western bank of the Schuylkill is just a highway, the eastern bank includes a rail line that sometimes has a trash train just idling there in all its rancid goodness - and marvel at the skylines and cranes in Center City and University City.  Let's call this a tie. Boardwalk 3/5, High Line 3/5.

Final score: Boardwalk 15, High Line 22.  It's not close, obviously, but the fact that you can even make the claim is promising.  Nice to know that we can have nice things in Philly, and glad so many are already enjoying them.

Diversity and Commerce in Philadelphia

One of the great things about living in a big city is the diversity you encounter in its professional settings, leisure destinations, and residential neighborhoods.  I am excited to experience even more of that diversity as I am joining two new advisory boards, one called PHL Diversity (which is within the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau) and one for the local Asian American Chamber of Commerce.  (I'd be remiss if I didn't put in a plug for PHL Diversity's annual luncheon, which is in one week - join me by buying a ticket here!)


As a student of diversity and a lover of business, I am fascinated by the intersection between diversity and business.  I believe that diversity is good business, which is to say that diversity is an attractive and necessary aspect of succeeding in business, whether you are an individual business owner trying to grow your firm or a city trying to grow its tax base.  I also believe that business is a great venue for pursuing diversity, in that if you seek to pursue the socially admirable goal of diversity-related inclusion, you should and must include commerce in that pursuit.

So there you have it: diversity is both a means and an end.  I look forward to seeing this play out in these two boards, learning lots from my fellow advisors, and doing my little part to make Philadelphia better and brighter.

Huang Family Newsletter, September 2014

 We squeezed out the last drops of summer by going on vacation right before the school year started.  We spent four days in Williamsburg and three in DC, and reveled in roller coasters, hotel pools, and fast food.  Then we crashed right back into the school year: 4th grade for Jada, 2nd grade for Aaron, gymnastics and choir for Jada, and karate for Aaron.  Amy and Lee have been quite busy at work as well.