Thursday, August 26, 2010

Creative Expression, Persistence, and Self-Fulfillment


"There is nothing you can buy, achieve, own, or rent that can fill up that hunger inside for a sense of fulfillment and wonder. But the good news is that creative expression, whether that means writing, dancing, bird-watching, or cooking, can give a person almost everything that he or she has been searching for: enlivenment, peace, meaning, and the incalculable wealth of time spent quietly in beauty."

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

New York's 'exceptional sense of self'


In my preparation for my move to Beijing this fall, where I'll be participating in an exchange program with the business school at Tsinghua University, my Asian and Asian-American friends have been preparing me for life in Beijing, including gearing me up to negotiate for everything. The 'rule of 1/8ths'-- whatever the price is quoted, pay 1/8th that. It sounds tiring. It is, they say, but negotiation is just part of the culture.