F*ck the system & focus on your success

Yes, I got this kind of question pretty often: "how do we educate our students better?"

...and yes, every time we discussed this topic, we ended up talking about students with bad life attitudes...talking about students lacking EQ... talking about students looking for well-paid jobs, rather than pursuing their passions or giving back to the society.

...and then we talked about training better teachers..making better environment in school & university....reducing bureaucracy.. .giving more money and freedom to talented scholars...
....Yes, we all agree on that.

..then, we go back our work, knowing that the system's not gonna change the way we want it to be.

Recently I interacted with quite a few friends, both Thai and non-Thai, who are passionate about tackling education problems. These folks are really serious and they do "build" things...organizing camps, teaching workshops, starting schools, tutoring online, writing books, making app, pushing policies, etc. I have a lot of respect for them. While the success of their approaches remain to be proven, at least they take actions...rather than sitting around and complaining. I'm honored to them as friends.

For my part, I have my own little agenda too...regarding education.
I called it a "megalomaniac approach."
The idea is simple: I will try to make students growing up wanting to be like..ME
(..yeah, see? that's why I call it a megalomaniac approach).
        I think it's much easier for me to first, of course, focusing on my own success..which I did have some decent track record...but there is a lot more to do. And, of course, the word success for me is not limited to academic and career..but also include all other aspects of life...financial security, health, community, etc...all aspects allow a person to live a happy life and share that happiness with people around him. I take this mission to "live a happy life" as an experiment..with myself as a guinea pig. Rather than debating over the philosophy of happiness and meaning of life, why don't experiment on different ways to have one? Of course, sometimes I succeed..sometimes I failed..but that's the nature of experiment..any experiment.. in the lab or in real life..hopefully we learned something about it.
        Then, there is a storytelling component...by words..and by actions. The point is I MUST appear to be really really AWESOME.in front of my students..(yes, many people will oppose this thinking that it's another pompous megalomaniac attitude I have). No matter how successful I am... no matter how much I have learned (and willing to share) about my recipe of success.., unless I look 'cool' enough..no one will care and no one will benefit from my personal success. No, I'm not talking about going around bragging about achievement..that's a stupid way to present success. One tip I learned over the past year was to tell plain stories..with great excitement...stories about really cool works I do..stories about great friends and colleagues I have....I don't have to mention any trophy..I don't have to use big words describing my codes of ethics.... just plain stories..with great excitement.
         So, who are my students? I'm not a professor yet ...and I don't have a school or workshops..yet. I think we all students and teachers of one another in everyday life. We're inspired and learned from those we interact with..through work, social gathering or other random activities. If whatever I do inspire or teach anyone around me..if my excitement and positive energy lit up anyone curiosity and passion ..even just a little bit....I counted that as a one small step of my educational achievement...and I do try to meet more people. I think I have quite a few good stories to share.
        For me, the best model of education is a small group of people..with a least one inspirational individual.
        I think our educational system is in a pretty bad shape now..and it's not going to change soon.
        My plan is: f*ck the system, focus personal success...
        ...and inspire other to do the same.


   












  

Grad student life

Except for a pressure to publish & graduate, I really like my job(s) these days. 

I'm in the lab roughly seven days a week. Of course, I'm not working at the bench every single minute. It's kinda like back and forth between office and bench; I'm mostly at the office actually, reading/documenting stuff, listening to music, sketching out random ideas. I'm pretty lucky that most of what I do don't require that much time to set up and implement ..and also don't cost that much relative to the lab budget. To be honest, many experiments I ran just because I'm curious to see what happen (oh, yeah my advisor has to remind me from time to time to stay focus). When things don't work, I joked about it with folks in the lab; when things do work..well, we celebrate. Early in the morning, late evening and weekend are my favorite time in the lab, actually. It's so quiet..the building (Y2E2) is locked..I can sit, lay down, roll around anywhere..any meeting rooms..any whiteboard..any table any couch ..from the basement to the third floor. Let imagination go wild.

 

Surreal week & amazing people - Part 4

Wednesday Nov 14th

   By the time I returned to Palo Alto Tuesday night, I got an email reminder from SynBioBeta (synthetic biology startup conference). The conference was just 20 minutes away from my home..that's not a problem.
The problem is..I got another email..reminding me that I have signed up (months ago)..for an investor pitch session.

Oh shit!
"I don't have any synthetic biology business to pitch," I told the organizer.
"That's ok..you can just pitch whatever idea you think interesting," he replied.

...so, I pitched.

"Alright, guys..I'm not gonna talk about businesses.. I'm gonna talk about market opportunity for you guys..".. and I talked about molecular cost&speed problems for molecular biologists in Thailand....and that these biologists could be (overlooked) early adopters of many technologies developed by new companies in that conference room..
(* you can read more elaborate version of this idea in my earlier posts.)

During the break, two guys came talk to me.
The first one was a founder of Desktop Genetic, a startup in London working on cheap DNA oligo printing..now interested in providing their DNA printers to lab in developing country.
The second one, even more interesting, is guy from Biocurious,
"I wanna move to Asia and start a private biohacker lab there," he told me.
He's probably around 40-50 year old, used to be a software developer. The company he founded, back in 1990s, was among the first that make video streamline possible on internet. He sold his company four years ago ..he didn't say for how much ..but apparently, he doesn't have to work anymore. He traveled around the world for three years..been to several southeast Asian countries like them a lot. He learned molecular biology for fun at Biocurious starting less than a year ago. He also told me about his spirulina project at Biocurious.
"..seems like a lot of interesting papers came out from Thailand," he mentioned.
"..oh yeah.. I knew these people.I gave a talk at their university last December." I said.
"Great! we should talk more; do you have a card?" he said.
  
..I handed him my business card. He looked at it and said,

"Oh, you're the bike rental guy from Endy lab! I called you couple weeks ago for bikes!"

Surreal week & amazing people - Part 3

Sunday Nov 11-Tue Nov 13

"So, what's in the box?" I asked.
"Our gizmo... Spherical drive system..you know, like the wheel of Batman' motorcycle," the guy sitting next to me answer. His friend opened the box showing a weird looking wheel entangled with power cords and wires.
"..it took us sometime at the airport check point to explain that this is not a bomb"
I was in the Limo bus from the Washington Dallas airport to the hotel. Sitting next to me were three undergrads..one Chinese, one Indian, one Russian. They were one of CIC finalists from San Jose State U.

      For nearly 20 years, an organization called Invent Now put together CIC..a national competition of student inventors across the US. This year there were seven teams of undergrads and seven teams of grads selected for the final round judging at USPTO in Virginia. The "inventions" can be anything..from biotech..to electronic..to medical device..to robot...to aviation control systems. I and my colleague in the lab were lucky enough to in the final round..(for our work in DNA data storage..I'll talk about that in the blog sometime)..it was really an eye opening experience just to interact with these folks from totally different research areas. I'm also very surprised that we made it to this round given that almost all other contestants have taken their works very far toward application: a Turkish guy from UCSD already patented his drug delivery system..and raised money to start a company around it, a Egyptian guy from Wynes State U already got interest from GM for putting his autonomous combustion devices to automobile. .. Well, I'm still debugging these E.coli in the lab.
     The judging session was one Monday. Each team needed to present their work to the judge panel..it was a close room..with one big TV screen..the team and the panel..an the camera man...no one else (that gave me the same feeling as Qual). Most of the judges, for grad and undergrad sections, are "distinguished senior inventors"..well, I can't think of any more fancy words for that...We had Dr.Fogarty (inventing balloon catheter), Dr.Hoff (inventing first Intel CPU), Dr.Langer Keck (inventing fiber optic)..Dr.West (inventing electret microphone)..Dr.Sasson (inventing digital camera)..Mr.Starkweather (inventing laser printer) ..etc...What impressed me even more was how carefree these people are.. After judging session, we all went out for dinner together..contestants and judges. On the bus and around dinning table, we chatted random stuff and joked around.. Without reading their Bio, I wouldn't be able to imagine these funny grandpas & uncles were among the greatest inventors of our times.
     We had a ceremony on Tuesday at Newseum in D.C., host by NPR's Neal Conan. ....and yes, we did had a round table chat with Dr. Holdren (Obama's science advisor) at the Whitehouse.

    I did't get a medal...well but that CIC trip was one of a lifetime experience.

Surreal week & amazing people - Part2

Saturday Nov 10th,
     I had three bikes to pick up: one from Creeside hotel next to my home, one at Arastradero apartment, one from at a house in Palo Alto. I walked to get the first one, stop-by to get the second one on my way to lab, and picked up the third one on my way back from lab. Besides lab and bike, I had a script to write for CIC and an MV appointment with Dusit. I'll talk about CIC in the next post.
     So, as many of you know, I have a youtube channel..with hundreds of random videos of me..playing guitar, giving a talk, acting, snowboarding, cooking...etc. The channel has nearly 20,000 view each month..mostly thank to a controversial political speech of a famous Thai actor I impersonated. I got pretty decent amount of  views from playing guitar/singing..but to get good viewer comments/rating, I need help from guest singers.
     Dusit has a deep & sexy voice according to many friends...also a serious singer..performing all Stanford Thai events as far as I remember and..actually went to the Star audition once. .this guy is available almost 100% of the time I called him out for singing.
      I stopped by Dusit's dorm that evening after finishing up CIC presentation script. There was a party next door from the music room..people were walking by and wondering wat-da-fak there two Asian guys were doing ..it 's difficult because we had a flip camera..but not tripod.. we put it on the piano..the field of view was narrow and the microphone was not perfect so we really need to find the perfect angle to be in the frame...and maximize voice quality. Oh by the way, we also wanna make sure that we look and smile at the camera most of the time. We worked on BeeGee's "How deep is your love."
      The final clip came out ok.. I think.

Surreal week & amazing people - part1

This blog post is dedicated to amazing people I have interacted with over the past week.
From time to time, I wondered how I ended up hanging out with them, given then I knew and contributed so little the world compared to what they did.

Friday Nov 9th,
      I and Abhijit had an appointment at 5 pm with Dr.Monique Lambert, a medical ethnographer of Palo Alto medical foundation. Yes, we were still trying to define the need and the scope our healthy food business. Thank to Abhijit creative mind and passion, the idea constantly mutated from group diet control app to grocery delivery service to non-invasive A1C hemoglobin analysis. Ideas were in the air and we didn't know how to move on. Monique is a friend Abhijit...and as an ethnographer she had interviewed lots of patients and extensively studied their behaviors in medical context. Talking to her, Abhijit pointed out, would likely to give us better picture of how these patients' problem (especially regarding diet) and where we might chime in.    
     We met her at a bar in Mountain View, about 20 min drive from Stanford. She did an excellent job explaining interview procedure..what to look for ..what common problems are and even offered help to run a group interview session if we like. We kept talking and talking..Abhijit spit out ideas after ideas..all of them are interesting but we didn't really know how to move on. Until when he mentioned grocery delivery service idea..and said that a female friend he pitched that idea too really hate it..
..That's when Monique' eyes lit up and argued that it was the best one so far ..she immediately laid out a series of possible plans to implement it.
"You guys gotta have me in the company if you wanna go with this idea," she said.
"Oh, we would love to! Wanna be our co-founder?" I said.
..and that's how we got a Ph.D. ethnographer ..with over a decade of experience to join the team.
      We continued talking for another 1/2 hr...all of sudden the next move become much clearer..we laid out plan, define MVP..set up regular meeting time. I'll have to keep the detail about what we plan to deliver secret for now (see my blog post in the future!) ..at least till after we deliver the first version.
      After the meeting, I asked Abhijit if he needed a ride home; he asked to drop him off at another bar (which I can't remember the name). He said he wanna go find some developers/hackers...there are many of them at that bar, according him.
       "what? you meeting you just gonna approach some random dudes in the bar and pitched the idea?" I asked. Apparently, that was his plan...I haven't asked him yet what the outcome was.
        I went back to lab a little after 8 pm, finished cloning before heading home.


     

User interview comment (for Startup Garage class)

Project: Redesigning the concept of neighborhood
Interviewer: Mike Duboe
Interviewee: David Liu

Like
-Starting with warm up questions that do not require much thinking, for example, by asking David to describe plain fact about the place he lives, without asking for any specific opinion (which requires more thinking).
-Very casual..lots of joking/laughing

Possible improvement
-When asking if David, as an EV RA, did anything to help people in the apartment to meet one another, David said he tried but it never worked. I think here is a good opportunity to dig deep into the detail about dynamics how people in the neighbor interact. However, Mike let go this opportunity and went back to sort of warm-up question again about time allocation. Mike should have asked follow-questions right away about when David actually did and how, specifically people responded (what kind of people showed up? what are their opinions..etc.).
-Noisy background in the middle of interview...should be more careful about choosing the place for interview;
-When discussing the fact that people in the apartment formed small groups based on ethnicity or thier undegrad schools, David said "They are not open, they should be more open." Again, I think this is a good opportunity to follow-up with detail questions like describing examples that made David think the way he said. Then, once these details are uncovered, Mike can ask David about possible solutions. In this interview, Mike jumped directly to question about possible solution. I think it is difficult for David to think of solutions before he has a chance to recall more specific detail about problems first.
-Before asking if social network will help, Mike should have asked plain background questions about how David and his friends typically use it first.

Let go for public good

Anyone remembers my posts from a few weeks ago about DNA outsourcing idea?

In brief, I learned that doing basic molecular biology in Thailand is very slow and expensive compared to in the US (about 3 times or more expensive and slower).

The reason is that the place like Thailand does not have local companies that provides cheap, fast, high quality reagents and analysis services; things need to be shipped in and out of the country many times especially for mulit-step works  like putting a few pieces of genes on one DNA. I recognized that as a business opportunity: outsourcing such multi-step tasks from the place like Thailand to the place like US. From back of envelope calculation, it is cheaper and faster to do multi-step works, all at once, here in the US and ship to Thailand than to do multi-step works in Thailand (but you have to ship things in and out from Thailand to  Malaysia or Taiwan multiple times in the process). I also realized that this is a great opportunity for a startup biotech business in the US, especially those specialized in basic molecular biology: there are researchers over there who really desperately need cheaper and faster ways to work...much more desperately than their peers in the US..and no other big companies really try to serve that need, thinking that the market is much smaller than in the US. Yet, these scientists in developing world, in my opinion, would likely to be early adopters of any new services that help them cut down cost and speed up work.
...when there are people with desperate needs...there is a market opportunity.

I had that high-level idea above..I didn't really know how to get start.
How do I help my fellow biologists in Thailand reducing cost and speeding up their work?
...(and maybe get some money for that!)
Yes, I did pitch the idea in Startup Garage..but it didn't really call attention from classmates who know very little about biology research.
Yes, I did get in touch with DIY community..but they aren't in the position to put something together without a heavy push from my side.

Luckily (or luckily), there is a startup company near Stanford. It's brand new..just opened for business less than six months ago..and currently has only three employees. It sells something I do want to sell: ability to researchers to outsources mulitsteps molecular biology works to them..to save money and time.
I was freaked out a little bit when I learned about it...the same feeling as getting scooped as a scientist.
The only missing thing is that the company hasn't really looked outside the US (which is intuitively make sense to start small and local before going international)..and hasn't really aware of a huge market opportunity on the other side of the planet.

..what should I have done?..be quiet and continue working on my plan? I don't know.
...but here is what I actually did.
1) I emailed that company, explaining the problem of cost+speed of molecular biology in Thailand, asking if they can help..and pointing out market opportunity. ..
....and yes, they're interested.
2) I had a phone call conversation with the founder last week..then one-on-one meeting today...and he's convinced that the company can help make thing faster and cheaper there in Thailand..and there is indeed an interesting market opportunity he didn't see before there.
3) I helped connect him, the founder, to my biologists friends in Thailand.

..ok, yeah..I probably just blew away my own business opportunity..but probably also for a good reason: those in desperate needs will be served.

Sex education, personal finance and business

I remember that, not very long ago, many conservatives back in Thailand argued against teaching sex education to kids for fear of prematurely invoking their sexual desire. The problem is these kids then growing up learning whatever they think is right by themselves...and yes, you can imagine how likely they are to be wrong and what the consequences would be.

Interestingly, I notice similar trend regarding personal finance. It is the same problem of not teaching kids how realistic adult world will be like when they grow up and how they should properly deal with it.
 
How many of you remember being taught, as a kid, that we you grow up you will need money and you would be better mastering the art of making money? ...probably not many.

But how many of you remember being taught that money is the source of greed..evilness...that working for money is not right way to do.. that one should be better devote his career for the public good..not personal greed..follow what're noble..follow your passion..not the money?...probably most of you.

These kids will grow up..developing their desire for money..(yeah, and developing their desire for sex).
..then they don't really know what to do with that...
..all they remember being taught as kids is "this is evil...suppress it!"
Ok, good luck with that.

I think the right way to do is to let kids know..at young age.. that they will grow up need more and more money...and there is nothing wrong with that (as long as they don't cheat, of course).  Then these kids should also be challenged, at young age, to figure out ways to make money. .something many of us don't really think of till we are about to finish school and get out to the the real world. Making money shouldn't be perceived as something noble, not evil..why? because, it means that one has successfully created goods or services that are valuable enough that other are willing to pay for. ..and once your personal finance is secured, you're free to do whatever you want.

Instead of preaching kids to follow their dreams, make other happy and forget about money..
..Let's teach them practically lesson to turn their dreams..whatever dreams..to something other will be HAPPY to pay for.

Startup 101: tale of Rent-My-Bike (speech script)

Below is the script I wrote two days ago in preparing for my 10th Toastmaster Speech.
=====================================================
(pick up a mock phone call from Emmie)
"Rent-My-Bike"
"Yes..we have that bike available; when do you need it?"
"Ok, I can drop it off at your house tonight"
"No, problem... see you soon, bye"
Imagine you just arrive at Palo Alto on Sunday night for one week business trip. You wanna cheap rental bike for commuting to Stanford or Caltrain station, starting on Monday. Who will you call?
(show slide#1: Yelp page)

My dear fellow toastmasters and welcome guests. How many of you here own a business?..raise your hand..
How many of you would like to own one..at least once in your life?..Great!
Let me tell share the story of my first adventure to a business world. ..the story of Rent-My-Bike.

Like many other business stories...my story start with a need.
(slide #2: ...with one word "Need")
Peter (slide #3: photo of me & Peter on youtube), a summer student in my lab, lost his bike only a few weeks before returning home. Don't wanna buy a new bike, Peter tries to find bike rental

...but he couldn't find a cheap one (slide#4..rental price page from Campus bike shop).. the cheapest weekly rental is almost the same price a new low-ended Walmart bike..which Peter don't wanna buy..given a few week left..

Trying to help Peter, I think what if.. (slide#5..with a single phrase "what if..").. what if I can rent out bike much cheaper than that?.. .(slide#6...rental price page from Campus bike shop again..but now cut all price by half)...will people rent them?.. will I be able to make some money?

.. so I run an experiment (slide#7....with a single word "experiment..")
..printing a few of this flyer (slide#8... a photo of Rent-My-Bike flyer) in my office...put them around campus. I didn't actually have any bike..except for the one I'm using..but I just wanna know how pp respond.
This is a scary step..when one translate an idea to an action..even a small one.I still vividly remember the evening (slide #9...a cartoon..a person sneaking with a flyer in hand)..I sneaked around campus to put on my flyers..a voice in my ear said "  “this is stupid.. this is stupid..you’re wasting your time…you’re wasting your time.”    

Luckinly, I got the first call a few days later ...(slide#10....with a single phrase "first sale.")..a Stanford grad student name Sankeet..broke his own bike...and happened to need a bike that day.... I gave him my bike, took $10 Not a lot… but I felt like winning a lottery.  It was like my self-esteem level bounced back. The idea worked! (yeah , at least once!). I remember waving  that $10 around and showing it to almost everyone I met that day...I actually pin that $10 trophy over my office bench ...(slide#11....a photo of $10 bills on Rent-My-Bike flyer).

..the same afternoon..I got the second call from Mona, an iranian visiting scholar..just arrived for the summer. (phone) "Hi this is Mona..do you have any bike? ..and where is your store by the way?" .."oh yes yes yes..uhh can you give me an hour?" ..(slide#12....with a single phrase "expand/learn")
..so I ran back home...you know..my bike's already at Sankeet....I drove to Walmart..bought the cheapest bike with a U-lock for a little over hundred dollar..my second bike (slide#13..with a photo of one bike to start with..then wipe in the second bike)....drove back to Mona....rent out that bike for a week..$35 
..then on the next day (pick up phone).."I'm Jakrit; my roommate and I want two bikes for a week"..."oh yes..yes.yes.. can we meet later this evening?" ..I drove to Walmart again..again.. (still at slide#13..but wipe in more an more bike photo..up to 10 bikes) ..Small detail I didn’t think of start to emerge..missing light? Missing helmet? Missing waiver form? No change?..every time I forget, I had to drive back to Walmart.. (still at slide #13..add photos of helmet..light..etc.)That was a good punishment that teaches me to be more careful. 
 
Soon I start to understood the sweet spot I just hit.
Stanford and palo alto is a very dynamic place with lots of shorter visitors..for conference..training..business visiting..etc.
Most people rent bike for a week..that's $35..about a third of a $100 cheapest new bike..people don't want to pay $100 for a new bike they'll use for only a week...but I do, of course, three week rental to three people..and I redeem the bike cost, what a great deal!
..there bikes are locked outside my lab..so no garage cost... I'm the office 7 days a week anyway..as a grad student...no office/cashier salary cost. ..basically after about 6 weeks..I redeemed investment cost..now every dime is profit..this way I can keep my rental rate low. less than half of other bike shop around...
what a great deal! I should let more pp know! so.. (slide#14..with Rent-My-Bike on Yelp, Facebook, google site..my business card..)

Many people asked if I made a lot of money. Well, $100 profit a week was not a lot but still much more than I expected when I started. However, for me, lessons from this small business experiment are very valuable. !.I learned that business could be a tool for connecting to people  (slide #15..with one phrase "human connection") (slide #16...handshaking photo)
…. an visiting scholar from Iran, mathematician from England, tourist from Taiwan,  an entrepreneur Sweden, a Attorney from DC, Journalist from German… It is amazing to think that I am graduate student working my lab at the basement …and all these customers from all over the places came find me, gave me money and said something like “oh I’m glad I found you!” or “thanks for doing this..such a great idea.” 

I told you bike start up stories ..but the underlying philosophy of that go beyond making business..
(final slide..a photo of person biking under beautiful sunset) 

...I learned to get excited hearing complaints

... to think outside the box..

...to have courage to give a short..

..to focus on small and concrete result..

..more keep moving up and learning..

..and to reflect upon human connection.

.

Rent-My-Bike is a just warm-up exercise..for much bigger things to come

Public Speaking

I just spent the past few hours practicing my 10th Toastmaster speech.
Many people, especially new friends, are surprised to learn that I'm a big fan of public speaking.
You know, most people would expect that these public speaking lovers are the same group as those extroverts..who like hanging out in a big group, party a lot, and can talk all the time about anything.
I'm not (see my other blog about networking)...I spend most of time alone thinking about random stuff.
For me, public speaking is an artwork... like music performance ..or singing ..or acting..or movie. But even better, I can compose the whole content myself..choose prop..design every movement..when to turn..where to pause..when should the audiences laugh..or stunt. I probably also like the fact that it's one-way/one-to-many communication..something I can't do very well in casual social groups.. Some people ask me how I overcome the fear of talking in front of a lot of people...I don't really know. I fact..I usually feel more comfortable with more audiences.. There was one time I gave a "casual presentation" to group of 4-5 people...and I think that was awkward..The largest number of audiences I ever spoke to was over a thousand..and I was really energized. Like what I said..it's an artwork..you know..in front of big audience I can easily feel energy from the crowd the way a rock star feels energy from his fans in a concert.

Eating habit -Q&A

Abhijit and I have been working on developing business that helps people eat healthy food. We got stuck during our last few meeting possibly because we still don't know our potential customers well enough (who are they by the way? anyone? college students? retirees? moms with kids?)..we are not sure yet whom to focus on, what they want, what their problems and constrains are, etc. I think setting good interview sessions and reflect up them will help us move forward.
So what should we ask? Let me try this hypothetical Q and A interviewing with myself.

Q1. Tell me about what you eat today?
A1. I woke up late this morning ..around 10.20 am. and had a pretty tight schedule to today. I had two slices of toasted whole wheat bread..spread with orange marmalade. That's all for the morning because lunch time is only less than two hours away. I rushed to the lab and set up some experiment. I had a few pieces Trader Joe's dark chocolate raisin as a snack while I'm working on my lab book in the office. I went out for lunch after 1 pm to Tressider and got one foot-long Tuna sandwich on flat bread with spinach, tomato, onion, Swiss cheese, black pepper, lite mayonnaise + two glasses of water. I had a meeting from 2-4.30 pm, went back to lab and stayed there till about 8 pm. During that time I was back and forth between lab bench and office. I again had some Trader Joe's dark chocolate raisin as a snack while I'm in the office. I went back home, cooked dinner: fried rice (from leftover rice in the fridge with some frozen shrimp, one egg, leftover seasoned tofu, leftover deep fried fished, frozen corn, frozen green pea)..maybe a few glasses of water after that...I finished cooking and started eating around 9 pm... That's probably it for today.

Q2. Tell me about your current goals regarding you diet?
A2. Well, I have general goals that we all know..like..more fiber, less processed food, more fruit and vegetable.. less sodium.. etc. I probably have another specific goal of having food often enough to at least keep my weight. I'm pretty skinny and in the process of building muscle through exercise..I would probably need to have more food to do that. From my experience, I easily loss weight (e.g. loss muscle) if I leave my stomach empty for too long.. say, skipping breakfast or lunch of a few days.. I probably loss weight. I have no idea about my level of blood sugar, cholesterol, BP or renal function so I don't really know if i have should have any other food restriction.

Q3 Tell me about the time you eat healthy
A3..mostly when i had lighter schedule..you know if have time to think about different menus...have time to stroll through supermarket looking for interesting fresh recipe..you know good food needs lots of planning!
Oh and of course another time is when I visited home and my mom took care of all the food ..haha. Luckily she's a big fan of healthy food.

...what else?
11.50 pm, October 2012 Palo Alto CA 94306

A science lesson for kids

Do you remember what they taught you in science classes..back in your primary school?
For me, I vaguely recall something about nutrition...about cold blood/warm blood animals...positive and negative charge.... something about stars and planets...
These are all interesting stuffs...interesting products of scientific discoveries. Yet, I barely remember being taught about the most powerful (and probably the most useful) things in science: the methodology for testing hypothesis. Well, to be fair, we did study "scientific method" in school..but in a very narrow sense. We did learn that the process start with making observation, creating hypothesis, designing experiment..(with all those control and free variable things to think about)..running experiment..and concluding the finding. Nonetheless, it has never been emphasized enough that such methods could be ..and should be applied to nearly every hypothesis one wanna test in life. Let's say I want to know whether selling strawberry cupcakes or chocolate cupcakes will make more profit..or whether playing soccer with barefoot would score more than with shoes. Also, I think we should teach more statistics and probability..not just how to calculate mean and variance...but also give enough real life examples of pitfall resulted from misunderstanding statistics. Let me give you one classic example.. say. I have thirty students in my class room. I ask all of them to stand up and toss a coin. Those who get a tail have to sit down while those who get a head can toss one more time. About half of the class probably sit down after the first round..then another half of that..and another half of that. Here comes an interesting part when we have a very last student who got  like 4-5 heads in a row. It's very tempting to think that there is something very magical about this student. Wow! how can one get like 5 heads in a row, right? ..but if you think carefully ..oh of course..there are so many students in the class so the probability the one will get 5 head is not so low. If you put this example in a larger context..it's actually pretty similar to many other "magic" we have seen out there..many of these superstitious believes. .follows pretty much the same logic here...There are many people out there try to claim that they have magic...they can do something that has very low probability of success..yet..given how many people try this..the chance that once person will get it working..by pure chance is not so low.
 The most valuable thing kids should learn about science is such methods that allow us to create new body of knowledge about whatever they are interested in doing in the future.

1.50 am. 28 October 2012, Palo Alto CA USA

Zen of the lab bench

         Back in my primary school in Thailand, I had a mandatory 5 minute mediation session before class and after lunch at school, plus 1 hour meditation class on Wednesday.There are different variants of practices, mostly classified by where to focus our mind and how. The simplest one is probably to focus on the flow of air in and out from our noses through the bottom of our lungs..by counting our breathing cycles. Other variants focus our feeling at our feet as we walk in a circle..or at the moving flame at the tip of a candle.
          Meditation is like working out (but for the mind rather than the body); it is kinda torturing for the first few minutes..then after awhile.we no longer feel anymore pain..then after we finish we are tired but also feel so relaxed. The common thing I found across different types of practices to reach the "meditative state" of mind is that we keep doing simple and repetitive task over and over..you know.. breathing in and out, walking in a circle, staring at a flame, chopping woods, sweeping the floor, punching air..swinging a sword (you probably see the last three in typical kung-fu movies). We just keep focusing on that simple thing..at that moment.. and nothing else in the universe.
            Well, I recently found that I reached such meditative state of mind while I'm doing my routine tasks in the lab...preping DNA, pouring media plates,  inoculating cells, transferring small amount of liquid around with micro pipet. For almost every single days over the past 4-5 years (or more if you count my undergrad years which also involved these kinds of routine works), I have done all these over and over to the point that sometime I don't have to think about them..Athletes would call this "muscle memory." Many people found all these routine tasks very boring and waste of "valuable brain time" researchers should have spent mulling over higher level questions..like designing experiment or analyzing data. Yet, from time to time, I found that spending some time each day doing such routine task some how help me focus. Of course, I believe that designing experiment or analyzing data are probably more "important work" for researchers in the sense that such work cannot be outsourced to lab boys or robots. Still, it occurred to me pretty often that spending too much time at high level thinking make me feel like my brain is on fire. Sometime, even seemingly entertaining  activity...like meeting a bunch of friends at lunch..or joining networking events (see my other blog about networking) could also be very tiring... to much to think about impressing other people and all these etiquette bullsh*t...you know. Switching back to these so-call "boring and stupid tasks" help cool down my brain. It's the time when the whole world stops.. there are only me..a micropipet in my hand..and small amount of liquid to be moved around.

00.40 am, 27 October 2012, Palo Alto, CA USA

Stargazing

Calvin: If people sat outside and looked at stars each night, I'll be they'd live a lot differently
Hobbes: How so?
Calvin: Well, when you  look into infinity, you realize that there are more important things than what people do all day.

          I was lucky enough to get to do that often as a kid. I grew up in Phitsanulok, a small city up north of Thailand . I remember my parents regularly drove me off the city at night in the weekend..to the countryside far away from light pollution. We did sat outside (just like Calvin said) looking up to twinkle stars. Astronomy was one of my first favorite subjects so I was a little tour guide for a family outing like this. I could describe all constellations up there...and not only their names..but also how far they are in light years.. how big ..how hot these different starts are ..and whether they would quietly die out as white dwarfs or explode as supernova in the next so-and-so billion years.
          Like what Calvin said, learning about and looking into the vast universe makes us (well, at least me) humble and also feel detached from all other "trivial things" in regular human life. I think this the most amazing aspect of science..but also the most disturbing part of it. We, human beings, are to some extent megalomanic by nature. We like to think that we are very important..we are at the center of the whole universe which was somehow created..just for us... by some loving supreme being up there. Again and again throughout history, science told us that such intuition was dead wrong. Science told us that we were merely product of mindless evolution...we are just little creatures..living on a little planet..which is one of many planets around the sun...which is just a star...one of many many other stars within a galaxy..one of many many galaxies.. well...length of our lives is just a blink of an eye compared to the age of the universe.. and the size of our impact..no matter how hard we work..is like a tiny grain of sand in the cosmic ocean.
...That's really disturbing.. even for those who're in love with science like me.
 10.50 pm 25 Oct 2012, Palo Alto CA USA
 

Building leadership and life-long network in 5 days

      This morning, Tong, Tarn, May and I had a conference call with Chris Bradford (the co-founder of African Leadership Academy) to seek his advice for launching Asian Leadership Academy. We were again reminded of a big challenge we face: building leadership and life-long network of empowered individuals (which are supposed to be the goals of both academies) takes time. African Leadership Academic is a boarding school where top students from all over Africa live there, days and nights, for two years. Asian Leadership Academy, at least for now, was not intended to be a school (unlike Africa, we probably already have too many schools in Asia) but rather to be a program to adding missing components (leadership, entrepreneurship, etc.) to existing schools. Students come, stay with us for a limited amount of time and then get back to their normal life. Moreover, with limited resources we have to start with, we cannot make the pilot program very long, for example, we plan for only about five days program in Spring 2013. Five day program is probably not enough to change someone's life. Still, it is essential first step toward any other bigger programs. Now the question become how can we get the most out of this five days.
         I don't have an answer for that but let me recollect different camps or retreats or other short programs I have been to in my life and try to pull out different components I think are related to leadership and network building. Off the top of my head, I think of
         -Thailand science week camp 2001, 4 day long, I was in grade 12
         -Biology Olympiad camp 2000 and 2001, 3 weeks long, I was in grade 11 and 12
         -Thai scholar summer orientation 2003, 2 months long, I was in my first year in the US
         -Siebel scholar conference 2012, 3 day long, ..this one just happened less than two weeks ago.
        For all programs above, I made a number of good friends whom I still keep in touch up to today. Will I ask these people for help if I want to start a company or running election? Very likely. I would say that I'm even more close to these people more than many friends I know for years in my primary school or high school. Interestingly, I think the reason why we are connected so quickly has little to do with formal programs provided by organizers. There is more to do with the "free time" we had here and there together... in the bus.. during dinner.. and late night before we went to bed. Another important factor is the sense of mission or external pressure putting up us. For the science week camp and olympiad camp, we knew we would have exams or contests near the end of the program. For Thai scholar orientation, we knew we would soon end up living alone for the first time in our life in a boarding school in the US. ..Everyone was stressed out one of way or another..someone broke down.. someone acted like a jerk.. but most of us.. we understood one another more.. It's like a group of soldiers who end up getting along well knowing that they have a common enemy. Yet, the other factor, I think, is the sense of mutual respect. For almost all programs above, we had to compete to get in. We entered the program knowing that each and everyone of our peers was the cream of their schools, districts, provinces...and that's really true. On one hand, we were intimidated by the long list of achievements these people have of their resume. On the other hands, after we joked around together a little bit, we realized that they were also just regular kids like us...sometimes they were stressed out..sometimes they didn't know what they wanna do next with their lives..sometimes they were "afraid of" us the way we were afraid of them. I think that is one very important moment of truth: to learn that all these so-and-so elites are just human beings..like us. None of these camps directly tried to teach leadership but the realization of self-respect and mutual respect, to me, is probably the most fundamental foundations of leadership.

11 pm 24 Octerber 2012, Palo Alto, CA USA

Environmental preservation club (comments)

When I think of an environmental problem, I usually make an analogy to a shared kitchen problem.
Have you ever shared a kitchen with one or more friends in a dormitory or an apartment?
You know how difficult to keep it clean, right?
Now imagine sharing a "kitchen" with hundreds ..or thousands....or millions.. or billions other people!
It is not difficult to understand why it's difficult to keep the common space clean.. a one-time sloppiness of a single person has very little negative impact on the common space.. and problem has nearly zero immediate  negative impact upon  that person himself.. but, as we all know, because most people (or households, companies, countries, etc.) think like this...we end up with a dirty kitchen.

Most of us also know that an environmental problem needs to be tackled with both the engineering of new technologies (clean coal, solar cell, energy efficient buildings) and the engineering of human behaviors (don't use plastic bags, turn off light, drive less, etc.). Yet, while we almost always employ scientific approach for the engineering of technologies, I think the use of scientific approach in engineering social behaviors is still lacking. Yes, you may have read here and there about social studies of how to make people turn of light when they don't use..or not throwing trash on the street.. etc. Nonetheless, I think we haven't fully built upon such discoveries and made long-lasting changes in the way we "get people to do the right things" the same way we get machines to do the right thing. You may argue that human behaviors are much more complex than machines behaviors. Still, human behaviors are not fully random.. ask marketing people..they know a lot of about this kind of things.

Most environmental campaigns/clubs I see today are. unfortunately, not so different from those I saw five or ten years ago. They may have more options for communication ..Facebook, twitter, youtube.. however, we are still not very "scientific" about testing what strategies work or not work in changing people behaviors. We still go around..give people info about what to do..and hope that they do it. Can we do better than that? Can we make real and concrete and decisive discoveries..on how to change people behaviors...even on a small issue, say, turning of light when they don't use or not using plastic bags?..Can we also work on spreading that knowledge we discover to other places..other communities.. let them test our working strategies in their context..see if that works and to what extent? Can we iterate though strategies and make them better over time..the way we do for other type of engineering works?
I think it would be really cool if the products of the club are collections of scientifically proved strategies on how to "engineer" environmentally friendly behaviors.

10.50 pm 23 October 2012, Palo Alto CA USA.

Meet my customers!

Let me tell you something very cheesy.
"I'm not doing my business for money...but for connecting with people"

Well.. sort of.. I like having this additional income and like the fact that I can go around bragging about how fast Rent-My-Bike turned profit.  Yet, I have plenty of other ways to get much more money...TAing..working at the library..stock trading..etc.

What I like the most about Rent-My-Bike is that it bring to me all those people...whom I'm very unlikely to meet during my daily grad student life.
          Gaurav, my new customer today, is the founder of One Degree Solar, a company that designs/builds/distributes Solar energy in Africa. His wife happens to be a medical student rotating at Stanford for the next couples of week..and, yes, he needs a bike to commute. Typical bike rental cost is probably not the most important reason for him to choose my business..it's probably the fact that I offered to drop off a bike at his apartment in Palo Alto..on the first evening he arrived.
            Similar story for Steve, my customer last week, an attorney from Las Vegas. Steve is currently working on a number of projects in D.C. and San Francisco. Last week he rent a house in Palo Alto and would like to have bike to ride to and from Caltrain station in the morning and evening. Steve also got a bike the first evening he arrived; I dropped it off on my way from lab to home. He was impressed enough to give me 5 stars on Yelp...that was really something given that most of his reviews on Yelp are at 2 stars or below.
           Last Friday I also met William..I don't know what his profession is but he has an electrical engineer cousin in Redwood city. William lives in German and will travel area this week..and wants a bike with a back rack to put his small bag on.William showed up at Stanford two days before his appointment with me so I didn't have time to fix that only one bike (with a back rack)..back tire was expiring..two out of three gears didn't work..back brake was also loose.. I told him my bike was not really in a good shape and asked if he want to come back later in a day. William said "no problem ..I love working with bike!"..somehow .. a day after he changed back tire, fixed gears and brake. I ended up giving him back all rental fee plus a little extra money for fixing my bike.
            Two weeks ago we rented a bike out to Pleuni, a visiting scholar from Harvard...specialized in computation biology. I was in Thailand that week for a conference so I have Mike, my Thai undergrad friend, running the business. It turned out that Mike is also planning to study computational biology! Pleuni forward him interesting article in the field..also invite him to visit her lab at Harvard.
             I also got to know a few visiting medical students. It started from Eva..a forth year medical student from New York. I gave her a simple female mountain bike..she had problem with the seat..the basket ..etc. I remember spending almost half an hour trying to adjust the bike. It turned out that that half an hour paid off. I got a very good referral to a few others visiting medical students from New York..the same school as Eva.. yes! all of them need to be at Stanford for a month and look for bike rental!
Did I tell you about Robert, an investment banker from Mexico showing up at my lab looking for a bike?
Did I tell you about Mona, an Iranian computational sociologist working on ancient literature mining?
Did I tell you abut Jakrit, a summer student from Thailand?
...maybe next time.
As I told you, this is no longer all about money...

23 October 2012, Palo Alto, CA, USA



 

A boring person

Imagine a conversation between I and a new friend goes like this:

A new friend: "So, what's your favorite music band? what kind of music do you like?"

me: " umm.. not sure.. I don't really have a preference, I guess"

A new friend: "are you playing or following any sport?"

me: "umm not really"

A new friend: "..any favorite TV show?..newspaper columns?"

me: "I don't really watch TV..I don't read newspaper very often"

A new friend" "what's your favorite bar around here?."

me: "I don't know.."

A new friend: "..what do you do in your free time then?..any hobby?"

me: "not really.. I'm pretty busy most of the time"

...then that new friend leaves, thinking that I'm the most boring person he/she ever met.

Well, I tell the truth when I answer all those questions above...which turn out to be 'typical questions' asked when one tries to start conversation and look for possible shared experience with a new friend. Of course, in the real social setting,  I would swiftly move away from those 'boring' facts to more interesting parts..which I think I have quite a few... I probably talk about data storage in bacteria..talk about Rent-My-Bike.. talk about solo trip in Europe.. talk about eBebe..talk about the Dish hike.. talk about 400,000+ youtube views ..talk about toastmaster..talk about STEP..talk about Thais... talk about filipino dance troupe..talk about monologues..etc. (by the way, I consider most of what I'm doing as 'work'..so I tell the truth when I say I have little free time and no hobby) At least, I'm lucky enough to know how to highlight interesting parts. I also believe that everyone of us have all unique stories and facts. Unfortunately, many of us don't know how to convert that to good stories in a social setting like this..unless...our conversation partner(s) are patient enough ..and creative enough about navigating dialog ..next time you think a person you talk to is boring..maybe..you wanna open up your mind a little bit. 

9.30 pm 21 October 2012

Lean Startup (comment)

I'm about half way through Eric Ries' Lean Startup.
What surprised me the most is that those ideas mentioned so far are more or less a common sense.
"Start small, make falsifiable hypothesis, built to understand, cohort experiment, etc."
I have never took any formal business course so I don't know much about what Eric refers to as "traditional way of starting business." I'm a scientist by training and basically what he describes as lean startup approach is basically tradition way we are doing science. We look around to find interesting problem, we define the scope of our studies, we make hypothesis, we design experiment..make sure that have good experimental control..we analyze data..gain new body of knowledge about the world. We praise the gain of knowledge rather than the validity of initial hypothesis..etc. Although not formally stated, we are usually taught not to invest huge amount of time & money on a project at its initial phase. We start with a small pet project ..some thing that's kinda work. Once, we are good at it, then we move onto a larger scale and more complex problem. One of my research mentors once said "as you take a step, make sure to have your back foot on a firm ground." ..
Maybe what's new about lean start up is simply an argument that such traditional scientific approach could be applied to understand human behaviors, i.e., customer - product/service interaction. If that's the case, I'll be surprised that "traditional way of starting business " ever worked at all in the past. The more I think about it the more I feel that good scientists would like to be also good entrepreneurs. The problem with scientists starting business is that sometime they are too obsess with their areas of expertise and so fail to deliver what potential customers really want. Once they learn to look outside the lab..once they learn to listen to random people out there..any apply scientific approach to solve problems..in a scaleable fashion ...then they will be soon "in business."

9.45 pm 20 October 2012, Palo Alto

Why I don't eat healthy food (personal reflection)

Earlier this week I agreed to work on a business with my new friend, Abhijit.
Abhjit comes from computer science/mathematics background but currently works on proteomic research at Stanford, focusing on using the patterns of protein expression to predict/understand health of patients in medical research. At some point he realized that while our scientific knowledge about how to live healthy is already pretty advance, the difficult part is to implement that at the level of human behaviors. For example, we already know long ago that food with high fat, high sugar, high salt and low fiber isn't good for our health, yet we still eat that kind of food everyday.

Is there any way to make people eat healthy food? (and can we make money out of that?), he asked.
To post this question differently, we could ask "why don't people eat healthy food?"..cost? taste?
At least for me, the main reason is that it is easier to get unhealthy food than healthy one. Usually, when I have lots of time to think and plan, I will definitely go for healthier options. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. Let me give a real example of what I ate today..and why.

I woke up late this morning and was in a hurry to the lab. After taking shower, I opened my fridge and saw left over potatoes soup..looked up the fridge and saw croissant (from Costco)..heated them up in 5 min and quickly gobbled them before rushing to work. ..high carb high fat..low protein..low fiber .low vitamin..yeah not a very good start.
Did I have any other option for the breakfast?..well, I bought a pack of strawberry on the same trip to Costco that I bought croissant. However I finished at stawberry pack within just a few days, worrying that it will turn bad. I had some broccolette in the fridge...but it will take some time too cook (plus I had a pile of dirty dishes and pans in the sink I need to clean before I can cook anything.)
I originally plan to get out from my office for lunch a little before noon. However, my today experiment was running late so I ended up getting out for lunch after 1 pm. I went to Tressider because I wanted to get one of my bike brake fixed at the bike shop. Now, what choices did I have? Chinese food truck? No, already close before 1 pm. Starbuck? Neh..not for lunch. Tree house? It would take too long if I order things..and I know that my other option, pizza, is unhealthy. CoHo..again that will take too long. Salad bar? Nope..last time I went there their dressing no longer taste as good as they used to be. Subway? ..umm I just had that yesterday lunch..Panda?..whatever..I can't think anymore.. I just gotta eat something at Panda (you know how unhealthy this fast-chinese-food is).
I worked in the lab till around 8 pm this evening ..very hungry but I didn't have any food left in the lab. I went home and had to rush to Walmart to get a bike light (because a customer of Rent-My-Bike just asked for one tomorrow morning and somehow I ran out of working bike light today). I got back home from Walmart near 10 pm...very tired. Yet, thought I should cook real food (rather than having frozen chicken pot pie or instant noodle).. I couldn't think of anything creative & healthy. I ended up with stir fry broccolette with some fish balls (yeah processed food >< ).. two fried eggs and some steam rices.

 See? that's why I didn't eat healthy food. I rushed through the day..and grabbed whatever I could grabbed. I did know which food is healthy and which is not. I had money to buy healthy food. In fact, from time to time, I carefully plan my meals days in advance and carefully select healthy items at grocery store. Yet, whenever my schedule become more chaotic (which I think very common to many other people too), such plan easily falls apart..fresh & healthy stuffs ran out.. plans no longer work.. and I ended up having to "grab whatever I can"

How do we solve this problem ..in a sustainable way?

(Some of the readers may wonder if I have time to work on so many thing at the same time.
No, I don't and I'm sure that I need to stop working many different things at some point in the future...I'm not sure when. This probably one of my weaknesses: I tend to get start on things quickly..but it usually take me very long to make reasonable plans for cutting things out. Anyway, I will think about that.)

Is that legal?

Probably not..
People asked me this kind of questions in many circumstances..mostly when I started doing something creative. I don't know why people are concerned so much about breaking rules..
well..I did mean to say that one should violate red light or throwing trash in the river or stab someone he doesn't like. It is kinda common sense that such behaviors will lead to undesirable consequences.
Yet, I would say that many rules are simply artifacts of bureaucracy and don't really benefit anyone.
In fact, if you're serious enough to look though all possible rules you might have accidentally broken over the past days or weeks, you probably find some.
My sense is, if you don't directly inflict a pain to someone, the chance that the law enforcers will go after you is pretty low. From my experience, I bureaucracy is slow.. slow to respond when you ask for a permission.. and slow to punish to you when you did break rules.
So, the bottom line is, if you need to break some rule to get your work done (I'm sure your work is important for mankind!), don't worry too much.

Startup - eCommerce for baby products in Mexico

I sent out 10+ emails yesterday trying to recruit classmates to join my DNA outsource project.
I got on one interested.
I still believe in that idea and will push it further..but that has to be done outside of Startup Garage class.
Desperately trying to find other interesting teams join, I attended networking dinner (organized by the class to help people forming teams before the deadline this Thursday). There I met Sebastian.

Sebastian is an second year MBA student from Mexico. He and one other MBA student and an MSE student started an eCommerce business for baby product in Mexico last July (around the same time that I started Rent-My-Bike). The business is still running..they have three employees in Mexico taking care of ordering/shipping stuff..has only one truck running around Mexico city delivering products...has a website (in Spanish) functioning like a one-stop-shopping place..showing varieties of baby products from diaper...toys..dresses.

Sebastian joined Startup Garage class, trying to rethink the way he runs this business and also to look for more business partner that can bring additional dimensions of experience/expertise to the team. Their core team right now has three guys..none of them has a baby before..Ideally, he said, he would like to have a Latino female with a baby on board..

..well, the only person left there at the networking dinner is a single Thai guy.

Anyway, I have joined that team now. With me as the fourth member, the eCommerce baby product project can now survive the recruitment phase of this class (any team with less than 4 pp needs to be dissolved).
I told him that I don't know any Spanish and I had no idea how young families choose products for their newborns..but I promise I will try to catch up as soon as possible.
To run a successful business, we gotta learn to think like our customers.
Alright..
..let's think like new parents
.....in Spanish

This gonna be fun!

1.30 am 18 October 2012, @ Palo Alto, CA, USA

recruiting email

Hi ..

I’m still recruiting more people to join my project described below:

High-level idea:

I believe I found a “reverse-outsourcing niche” in which it is more efficient for high skill workers in developing worlds to reverse-outsource their work to low skill workers in developed worlds.

Specific working problems:

Biotechnology research that help improve crop, medicine and environment requires manipulation of DNA. Without research infrastructure and local companies that supply cheap/high quality reagents, DNA manipulation by scientists in developing countries, say Thailand,  is least 3 time slower and more expensive than in the US..and typically required  lots of training. There is a need for cutting down cost & time to enhance research output and improve pp quality of life

Here in the Bay Area held largest DIYbio community, those who believe that biotechnological advance could be contributed by entrepreneurial business. With a number of local reagent suppliers, simple DNA manipulation can be done fast, cheap and doesn’t require much training. A community lab already exists. Excited individuals are already there. Yet, they have no marketable product thus far. There is a need to find short cycle, cheap, marketable project. 

 What if we can link these two together? What if some basic DNA manipulation work in Thailand could be outsourced to here...with the total cost &time less than their current practices?

Note: What I’m really interested in (and need help with) is not a biology problem but a management and supply chain problem. I picked DNA manipulation as specific working problem to start with because it is my area of expertise and I already have good connections with potential customers on each side. Nonetheless, I’m open to work other variant of specific working problems.

Let me know if you are interested and chatting more,

-Ton

Networking...the way I usually do

Typically, in what people called "networking event", you go to a dinner or a cocktail party, chat with several new people, ask/answer the same questions over and over. Everyone is talking so it is pretty hard to hear clearly who says what. I found this activity very tiring and unproductive.You may end up exchanging business cards with these new friends..so you know them..then what? It's likely that there will be no further interaction what-so-ever for years to come.
For me, whenever I feel like building up more "network," I attend meetings...any open meeting that, in many cases, has nothing to do directly with my expertise. I go right to the front seat (which is usually empty). Regardless of whether I fully understand what are presented, I will attempt to come up with a question or as suggestion. I will try my best to be the first one who gets to say something during Q & A...(well just to get myself in the spotlight.) Usually, after the meeting a few people will come talking to me about my question or opinion (which they may love it or totally hate it). Then, I start conversation from there.
Another trick I usually use to keep in touch and strengthen my network is to ask for help..an make sure to give back a lot. If I don't need any help, I ask for help on behave of other people in my network. By helping and being help, I create the sense of interdependence which is, in my opinion, the key element of strong network.
12.40 am 16 October 2012, Palo Alto CA 94306

Asian Leadership Academy (comments)

        First, I would like to salute Tong, May and the rest of ALA team for having the gut to take on such an important and complex challenge of building next generation of leaders. I happened to attend a talk this morning given by Chris Bradford (co-founder of African leadership academy) and a South Sudenese who recently graduated from the academy. It was an amazing talk and I'm not surprised that many were inspired enough to try modeling after that success.
         As many of us know, especially from the first meeting with Thais today, the devil is in the detail. Leadership is an important ingredient of success; yet, it is an abstract concept (you can say the same for honesty, perseverance, etc.). Moreover, "building the next generation of leaders" is a huge project with so many moving parts and can span over a generation. I think the team made the right decision that it has to start doing "something" in order to move forward; keep discussion high level ideas forever won't get us anywhere.
        I have only one suggestion for now. Whenever I go after any project that is important (in general to many people) and has a lots of moving parts to take care off, I like to "build from past examples." If the project is important, many people probably have tried to do it to various degrees in the past..most of them were probably succeeded in some aspects but fail in others. Now the question is how we should tap into these past experiences that other people have already learned.  A big mistake many people make (including me sometime) is to only grasp the inspiration (and maybe some high level ideas from past works) and then start almost everything else by themselves from scratch. I think the right way to do it is to start from studying the concrete/detailed sets of actions that have been executed (some people call it 'history') of the past work. For example, as I have suggested  during the meeting, Asian leadership academy team should have in hand the calendar of what African leadership academy founders have done, especially the first year or two after the conception of the idea to the first few deliverable services. How did they test the idea? Did they make a camp? if so how? what did they teach the very first group of students? How long? What's the outcome? all such info, in my opinion, can serve as a very valuable concrete plan which we can then start tweaking here and there to meet our own constraints and goals. Also, I would suggest that we start from multiple examples..(not just African leadership academy). I bet there are tons for programs out there in the past aiming at building leadership to someone. None of them would match perfectly to what we want..but we can start to cut and paste the parts that we like. Also, I don't think we have to limit ourselves to those examples that explicitly say their purpose is "to create leadership". If ALA is decisive about having one week pilot program, why don't we gather any cool example of one week programs first? I bet most of them will at least inform us about how they create bonding experience among participants or encourage them to think differently. Most valuable info is probably not available online or through low level staffs; we gotta talk to those masterminds who conceptualized the ideas and turned into deliverable programs.  I have contact Chris and my other friend who ran LeAP, I hope we hear back from them soon.
           Practically, I think it should take a couple more weeks to gather relevant examples, get in touch and ask for advices from founders of past programs. Next meeting, maybe the core team can present a few most relevant past examples(not just ideas but series of executions + outcomes) and how they think these past programs should be tweaked to suit the goals of ALA. Then we can start a more productive discussion...with concrete "first version" of plan in hand.

   1.10 am 15 Oct 2012, Palo Alto CA 94306

       

10 year anniversary: DPST

Today marked the 10th year anniversary of the day I decided to quit med school and get IPST scholarship to come to the US. I remembered spent months after months weighting pros and cons of each choices. It turned out the the more people I talked to..the more info I gathered.. I got more confused and less decisive about each path. Yet, when it came to 13th October 2002, I got up, signed the contract, took a bus to DPST and dropped it off without telling anyone. I had absolutely nothing in my mind that day... I felt like just dropping off a regular mail at a post office..no joy..no regret..no concern.. All those months of hesitation seemed to be erased from my mind.
Did I made the right decision? Well, I don't know..and no one knows..and it doesn't matter anymore. The only useful question is what I'm going to do next.
But let's supposed.. I could go back in time right now.. that decision was probably be the same. The past ten years.. well I probably wanna take that to more extreme.. my life had been increasingly more adventurous over time..especially the last several months.. I wished I had started doing that from the first day I turned in that contract. Looking back in time, the most valuable thing I got from this 10+ year study abroad program was the security to take extreme risk..and to experiment with life. Let's think about that.. I was guaranteed a steady & decent income for 10 year... I was allowed to be almost anywhere on the planet.. I was practically allowed to pick up whatever skills I want (well... one fact I discovered.. and most young Thai scholars should know is that..once you're abroad, nobody really keeps track of what classes you take..or what areas of knowledge you try to be specialized in. Also, no one can really predict how the job market will look like in 10 years..so do work hard but go with your gut feeling..experiment on different things..). I could have, for examples, gone through a number of starting/failing/succeeding businesses or other enterprises..and become very seasoned by now!
I'm lucky enough to have happen to have this Siebel conference on this 10 year anniversary weekend. It was surreal to think about...having fancy dinner on cruise in the great Bay..chatting a billionaire investor over dinner..mingling with politicians, NY time columnists, music composers during cocktail parties..and by the way, I was invited here..and everything was paid for.
Well, I might have missed a bunch of stuff along the way..I have come pretty far..

@11.50 pm 13 Oct 2012, The Claremont Hotel, Berkeley, CA,USA

Pitch: DNA outsourcing for developing world

Biotechnology research that help improve crop, medicine and environment requires manipulation of DNA..the blue print of lives. (show pic)
Without research infrastructure, DNA manipulation by scientists in developing countries  is least 3 time slower and more expensive than in the US.
There is a need for cutting down cost & time to enhance research output and improve pp quality of life

Here in the Bay Area held largest DIYbio community, those who believe that biotechnological advance could be contributed by entrepreneurial business. A community lab already exists. Yet, they no marketable product thus far.

There is a need to find short cycle, cheap, marketable project. 

 What if we can link these two together? What if some basic DNA manipulation work in Thailand could be outsourced to here...with the total cost &time less than their current practices? This is not a biology problem..it's a management and supply chain problem.

 

Making getting started easier

Today I had lunch with Katie,  my classmate from Startup Garage (This is probably the last class I will take at Stanford. It's basically a project based class taught by GSB..with the end goal of having teams of 4-5 students launching businesses after two quarters). We spent some time discussing our background and sharing opinions about startup idea each of us has.

Katie would like to build a business that helps people getting start on "new things" (this term still needs to be defined)...biking, surfing, hiking, stock-trading..whatever new activities that newbies usually need to rely more experienced friends in their network to help them get up to speed. Generally, the problem is that it is not so easy to find such experienced friends, especially as one moves to a new place. Her team has yet to decide whether to focus on specific activities (biking, hiking etc.), specific group of people (housewife, post graduate, young adult, retiree, etc.), or other things.

I didn't have that much time to give her opinions on this during lunch (I think I spent way too much time telling my own stories..haha). Anyway, here is some of my thoughts.
(1) I think there is a lot one can learn from the way students clubs on campus operate. Basically this is an easy specific case of what "making getting start easier" (I will refer to it as MGSE from now) may want to do. Basically, group of people (i.e., students) come to a new place, want to learn new stuffs, and seek friendly experts for help. I'm not sure about Stanford but back as an undergrad at Caltech I was in a ballroom dance club..starting with no experience and knowing no one there. I made so many friends and went up the point that I was comfortable enough to compete in my later year at Caltech. What impresses me the most about that club was that it almost, I would say, become a real business.. so many folks from off campus (some came from as far as UCLA) join, participate, pay fee, compete. The bottom line is, although MGSE will end up operating outside university, there is a lot to learn from successful club on campus.
 (2) I think it might be useful to identify the "portals" where those newcomers to an area are likely to go through. My bike rental business, for example, is such a portal because any new visitor to Stanford will be likely to look for bikes (I would say 90+ % of my customers are "new" to Stanford). There could be many other portals: apartment for rent, housing office, international student office, IKEA.. If somehow MGSE can align itself near such portals, it might be more likely to catch more of those newcomers.
(3) I remember from the first Startup Garage info session last spring that one of the instructors mentioned a web application which allows people to "rank" experts in their online social network. For example, if I know that my friend S is very good at baking, I can give her stars (the way we rank businesses on yelp). Then, when people in my network want to look for advices in baking ..and see that S has lots of stars..then they can go find S.
(4) It might be possible to prototype different ideas quickly and cheaply by putting together BBQ parties, or fair, or something similar..to call out those who might be interested in or identify themselves in such and such categories MGSE want to narrow down..through such meeting it might be possible to do quick informal interview or survey..what kind of things people are looking for..and how much they want to pay for that.
(5) (This might be only distantly related to MGSE but I will mention anyway). I have read about an organization in Japan that helps bring together "experienced" elderly and "curious" youths/kids. One of the goal is to preserve "endangered" national heritages (like dance, craft, music, etc.) that are likely to die out when older generation passed away. Yet, I think another (and probably more important benefit) is that it bring back the sense of family/community...those elders feel that they still have some value (and not just let the time goes by in the nursing home)..those kids (mostly growing up in nuclear family...w/ busy parents..)..can feel connected to their roots.


..that's what I have for now.

12.20 am 11 Oct 2012 @ Palo Alto CA 94306

Bio-business idea

I would like to share a wacky business idea that might kill two birds with one stone.

I was in Thailand last week for a conference. Having spoken to several Thai researchers, I learned an interesting fact that the cost and the time for conducting even simple molecular biology researches are incredibly high. For example, cloning a few genes to one piece of DNA in Thailand could cost at least twice more money and construction time than in the US. Such extra cost and time result from lacking local providers for cheap and high quality basic molecular biology services such as DNA synthesis and sequencing. Consequently, reagents and intermediate construction products need to be shifted in and out of the country multiple times throughout the process, adding up to the total cost and time requires for construction.

Here in the Bay Area we have the largest and oldest DIYbio community, a group of biohackers who believe that biotechnological advance in the near future could be contributed by small, entrepreneurial business, rather than giant cooperates or academia. A community lab capable of doing basic molecular biology work already exists. Nonetheless, as far as I know, the community lab is currently only used as a teaching lab for amateur bioengineers, not as a place for running “bio business” as many of its early founders hoped for. The problem is that currently the community lab is not capable of producing something marketable. Biotechnology research still takes lots of time and money before one can start reaping profit; a small community lab is unlikely to be able to compete with giant biotech firms or well-funded academic labs.

What if, I think, we start a business in the community lab, not as a high-(bio)tech startup, but as “genetic engineering contractor”? What if we can take advantage of fast and cheap DNA synthesis/DNA sequencing services available in the US? What if we can build plasmids for researchers in Thailand (or other countries with similar cost + time problems)and shift to them at total cost and time less than two third of their current practices? I like a few aspects of this idea. First, we do not need any technological breakthrough before we can start making profit. Most of the work, especially in an early stage, is to optimize the supply chain (e.g., what to build in house, what to outsource to other companies, what and when to shift to customers, etc.). Later, if we like, we can try to find way to tweak the construction process here and there to drive down cost and time further. Second, most of routine lab work (cut & paste DNA, PCR, transformation, run gel) does not require expensive experts; it is possible to train high-school students to do that in a couple of weeks. Third, it is possible to prototype this business idea quickly at low cost. A few Thai researchers I spoke said they like the idea and are willing to give a try on some of their low-risk plasmid cloning projects.  Once we can demonstrate that we make things faster and cheaper (with enough room for profit), we can accept more order, advertise, scale up, etc.). Forth, we will be reaching out to larger scientific community and working on real problems people care about.

I still need think through this idea more carefully…

00.45 am 10 Oct 2012, Palo Alo, CA, USA

Routine

It is so difficult to keep a routine.
Today is supposed to be my third days of blogging. I almost gave up and went to bed about an hour ago. Thank to jet lag, I'm still awake and, so, no excuse for not blogging. For something that needs to be done on regular basis..even a simplest task turns out to be difficult to keep up. My 5.30 am morning run, for example, is still subject to my irregular traveling schedule and deadline driven assignments that came up from time to time the night before. I have missed quite a few of them over the past few months; yet, it is one of the routine I'm really proud of. Filling up lab book, cleaning up desk, checking bank account, meeting with adviser, all those things have been written down somewhere on my desk as so call regular missions..which are no longer exist.. actions were taken when only when some problems arose...Ideally, I would prefer prevention over treatment.

2.10 am 9 Oct 2012, Palo Alto, CA, USA

“Love” finding algorithm?

-->DISCLAIMER: This is a big topic that is a subject of discussion in so many psychology and self-help books. I’m not claiming that my opinions below are valid. They are ONLY OPINIONS of a 28 year old Thai male with limited experience in almost everything.

In an ideal world, you wake up one morning knowing the loves of your life (job, place, relationship, lifestyle, etc.). You work very hard on it, overcome one challenge after the other, eventually become a happy-successful person and benefit the rest of mankind.

Unfortunately, this does not happen to most of us. Instead, you wake each day knowing what you are “kind of like.” You start working on it for awhile and things get more difficult. Then, you start to wonder if we actually “love” what we are working on. Since you are in doubt, we hesitate to commit your full resources on it. Nonetheless, you have yet to “hate” it to point that you can decide to quit. Sometimes, you think “…umm maybe if I work a little harder for a little longer the situation will get better.” Some other times, you think “…but what if I pick a wrong target from the beginning?” You are left in an unproductive grey zone between “fully committed” and “completely quit.”  Without being fully committed, you are unlikely to be successful in your current mission. By not completely quit, you bear an opportunity cost of not pursuing other “probably right” targets. 

I still think that the general idea of “figuring out what you love --> working hard on it --> being successful” is still valid. The problem is many of us fail to realize that “figuring out what you love” and “working hard on it” are two different processes that should be done separately and iteratively. By executing these two processes separately you are less likely to be trapped the unproductive grey zone I mentioned above. By cycling through these steps iteratively, you break down the gigantic mission of “figuring out what we love in life and being good at it” to the smaller and manageable missions of discovering different features of things we love and getting trained in various sets of skills to handle them. 

Let me elaborate my idea by describing what I call “love finding algorithms.”

(1)    Figuring out what you're “kind of like.” The goal here is to detect your preference. For most of us, I think this much easier to do than to answer the question “what is the love of your life.”  All of us of some preference…  I may like biology more than accounting, like ms.X more than ms.Y, like drawing more than playing football..etc. Of course, I can’t really say biology, ms.X, and drawing are “the love of my life.”Of course, I can’t really say that I should be a biologist, marry to ms.X and open my art gallery. Nonetheless, I should keep in mind that there is “some features” within “these preferred things” that make them more special than the other. I probably don’t know explicitly yet what these features are.

(2)    Doing something right away. The goal here is just to overcome inertia. You don’t need much courage or extensive planning here. You just need to start doing something simple and new about what you are “kind of like.” Such action should be simple enough that you can do right away: go to biology seminar, one friendly call to ms.X, one simple drawing, etc. Starting something right away helps you overcome inertia (Never ever underestimate the power of procrastination! Many of us keep postponing such first step toward what they may like forever…at the same time, they keep complaining how boring their lives are). 

(3)    Working hard without doubt. The goal here is to simulate the scenario in which whatever you are “kind of like” IS “the love of your life.” Let’s assume, without doubt, that it actually is! Let’s put your full effort on it for a fixed period of time. Let’s perfect a biology class… Let’s try to be the right match for ms.X… Let’s try mastering pencil sketch technique…for a fixed period of time. I believe that only when we “work hard without doubt” we can test our full potential, maximize our chance of success, earn new skills and explore all features (and bugs) of what we are “kind of like.”

(4)    Letting it go. The goal here is to simulate the scenario in which whatever you are “kind of like” IS NOT “the love of your life.” It is said that “if you truly love someone (or something) let them go, if they belong with you they’ll return.”  Let’s assume that we no longer want to spend any time/resources on them anymore and we are now free to do any other things we want to do. Let’s take a break. Stop doing biology, stop pleasing ms.X, stop drawing.During this time ask what do you miss the most about them and what other awesome things we can spend our time/resources with. 

After completing step (1)-(4), you should go back to step (1) again, hopefully with somewhat different landscapes of what you are “kind of like” and “can do”. I think the most likely outcome would be: 

(A)    you discovered that you “love” what you were “kind of like” more than you think Although a few bugs exist, with all good features, you still decide to stick to this thing (or person) longer. You have also learned how to handles/avoids those bugs so you can live better with this thing you choose during the next cycles.

(B)         You discovered that you have more interesting thing to switch to. Hopefully, what you learn from step (3)-(4) will inform you about what features to look for and what bugs to avoid.  

3.30 am 7 Oct 2012 @ Suwannaphum airport Bangkok