In Chinese and Japanese there is a phrase that's kinda funny once you visualize it: the concept of "human wave" battle strategy, the idea of throwing as many people at an opponent as you can. It's a common strategy utilized by the Chinese in traditional battles and nowadays with trying to win the technological war (by raising as many smart people as possible to develop the newest technology), but also by others in history, think armies of attorneys from big law firms descending on a poor common person represented by a solo practitioner, or presidential candidates sending an army of volunteers out to campaign for them on the streets and knocking on people's doors, or Google hiring as many smart people as they could and just have then roaming around hoping to stumble across the next big idea, or even in Game of Thrones, the Night King using as many members of the undead to swarm the castle........In many scenarios, a wave-of-people sure sounds like a great idea (strength in numbers, unified we stand, etc.).....except the current society is getting away from that. The less people the more efficient, everyone is personalized, people can do what it took 100 people in the past to do before to do one thing (you can make a movie on your phone almost instantly!). People themselves are harder to work with to have an army of people; there's often "too many cooks in the kitchen" that lead to internal strife and dissension that actually creates more havoc than solutions. More and more, I think companies and other groups and teams will look less for "wave of people" strategy and more of the "find the best person and let him or do the work" kind of strategy. Which is why it's important to try to be the best in any field, to become elite.
May- traditionally a month marking my birthday, the end of the school year, the weather starts turning warm, people start making plans for summer holiday, the start of the summer movie blockbusters season (already kicked off by Avengers: Endgame this past weekend), it's also a time for graduations all around the country.....from elementary school to high schools to colleges to grad schools, education institutions everywhere are sending off their graduates into the world with positive ideas and inspiring messages, a lot of "spread your wings" and "follow you own path" and "seek your passions." Kind of a "wave-of-people" strategy too: send as many graduates out as possible into the world, some will eventually succeed and do well enough to give back to the school or at least do the school proud with some sort of achievement. I kind of miss graduation, as I haven't been in school since 2011, my last graduation, that one from law school. I think our commence speaker gave an inspiring speech too, but at that time all I could think of was "man I'm gonna have to start paying back all these student loans" and "how am I going to find a job?" much more than finding my passion .Graduation usually when reality hits: I'm no longer in the magical dreamland known as college, it's time to become an adult; no more excuses for being poor and making no money.
MJ has never been to any of her graduation ceremonies, and I personally don't take a lot of joy out of even being in one, much less watching someone else's........I think it's more for the parents who paid all that money for a piece of paper. I did feel a tiny bit of accomplishment when my parents did come too, knowing I could show off a bit that I accomplished something, I have some self-worth! Just like hopefully MJ will feel prouder if I am there when she graduates: On special occasions I will make an exception and go to graduation......like when MJ graduates from her nursing program in a year and a half, I will be sure to be there to support her!
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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