Patten: Leadership in Beijing they may be thuggish dictators he (Percy Cradock) would say, but they are men of their word, now we know that at least one of the things is correct

Chris Patten, “My main critic when I was the last colonial oppressor (the MPs chuckled) … Percy Cradock, who used to say, …, the leadership in Beijing they may be thuggish dictators he would say, but they are men of their word, now we know that at least one of the things is correct.

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To tough bargainers:

This meme is spot on about my expertise in HP/Agilent/Keysight Infiniium Oscilloscopes. It might take me 30 minutes to put on the automation I’ve created to fix a specific issue, but nobody with just one non-functioning unit in front of them can figure out the right steps even if they worked on it for months. Writing the automation itself turns out to be the least of the bulk, and it’s still more time than one is willing to spend writing the scripts or performing the undocumented procedures manually.

Many of my know-hows were acquired to be used once or twice. I solve problems that are not seen before. I always start with doing due diligence researching what has been done, rather than jumping to reinvent the wheel. If I confirmed that it’s an unsolved problem, I’ll start inventing.

Once I figure out the details I often automate the workflow, document it, and move on to something else.

That’s why for consulting, I often quote high hourly rate for the first few hours and taper it down for more complex projects (keeping the project short). It’s to make sure we don’t have incentives to waste each other’s time and focus on solving your problem as fast as I can figure it out.

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Introduction to funny colloquial HK Cantonese phrases: 搵食啫,犯法呀 That's how we justify outrageous things we do that's still technically legal

This summarizes the cultural mentality in HK:

  • as far as profit is concerned, anything goes as long as it’s legal
  • schadenfreude

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l84ZMgwXRS4

The third quote in the video was actually taken out of context and therefore incorrectly translated. In the show, the word 精神 refers to (body) energy, not spirits (ideals). Dayo meant to say that HKers worked so hard in a prospering economy that people were constantly tired and lacked the attention span to appreciate art and culture. Just ignore it.

Nonetheless, I believe Mr. Siu made the mistake because we all subconsciously agree that the core values of Hongkongers is the lack of thereof, which the stand up comedian Dayo Wong also mentioned in his (supposedly) final standup comedy show. In fact, I’m proud of it: it simply means even the average HK people aren’t too stupid (see Dilbert and Rick and Morty and ye shall comprehend: values are for stupid people who cannot reason through the purpose of their actions)

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