Larry Lin's Home Page:
My Advice
(This
page is -- Always under development!)
On Air Travel
- Earplugs.
- ALWAYS bring earplugs with you onto flights! Quite frequently you will have
near-by neighbors who are little babies, or very loud / very annoying adults. Also,
if you unfortunately get a seat near the airplan's engine, you will not have to bear with
hours of constant loud noises.
- Where to sit on the airplane?
- For short flights: Choose Window seat. This will be good because you will
not be disturbed by other people during boarding (specially your next seat neighbor trying
to get in), that you will be guaranteed at least one arm rest, that you can sleep easier
(lean against the side), and of course, enjoy the outside scenaries.
- For long flights: Aisle seat -- so you can get to the bathroom, walk around, get
your own soft drinks / snacks, get to your luggage, etc.
- Blanket and pillow.
- Whenver possible, you should consider getting pillow and blanket right when you sit
down. One extra benefit of a blanket is that you can take off your shoes can not
offend your neighbor, AND to cover up the luggage under your seat that does not fit
overhead or underneath the front seat.
- Bring something to read.
- Since you can not use any electronic items during take off and landing (e.g. laptop,
GameBoy, radio/CD), or they may run out of battery, something to read will always keep you
from becoming bored. Don't ever get bored during a flight!! It has negative
mental and physical consequences.
- Get a frequent flyer number!!
- Become a member as soon as possible. Obviously, frequent flyer status will earn
you free airline tickets, so it is good. But also, this means that you will not have
to wait in long lines, that you will have dedicated toll-free phone line to help you, and
you are more likely to have space to put your luggage on a flight (before other people
board to occupy your overhead space).
- Try not to check any luggage. (i.e. giving
luggage to airline to be shipped, instead of bringing it with you into the plane)
- Then you will not have to wait in the LONG line at ticketing counter, where up to
hundreds of people riding other airplane will be there too. Go directly to the gate.
Also, after you get off the plane, you will not have to wait another half an hour
to pick up your luggage.
On Career Development
- Document.
- Document a lot of what you do, and read a lot of documents! Documentation is not
bureaucracy or waste of time -- documentation serves wonders. It helps to protect
you from management's changing moods, set up precise goals so you can be recognized for
your good work later, pass on precious knowledge from one person to another, and puts
knowledge in a tangible form.
- There is something miraculous about putting your work down on a piece of paper: in
learning theory, if you simply "read" something, then it is hard to truly absorb
it. But if you type out what you do (similar to taking notes during a class), then
you can remember it much better.
- Understand the "Conversion of Resources" theory.
- Did you know about this theory? It is something that will change your life and
your career.
- Basically, there are several types of resources: financial (money), time, space,
people, tool, and knowledge.
- All resources are interchangeable: You can change resources into another or
several other resources.
For instance, when you go to college, you are converting time and financial resources into
knowledge and tools (notes, projects, books) resources.
- Most problems can be solved if we have "unlimited resource"!
For instance, if we plan to publish a new software, then we can use infinite amount of
money (financial), to hire the smartest possible people (knowledge) and lots of them
(people), and buy the fastest possible computer to do the development (tools).
- HOWEVER, most of the times, we only have limited resource, specially time and financial.
- Most resources are greatly limited. However, there is one that is most unlimited
and relatively easy to create: KNOWLEDGE. This is why you
should always be learning, converting your time into undepleteable knowledge!
- How do you perform this conversion? You need motivation.
There are people who have lots of money and time who do not care to read and learn.
Therefore they can lose it all. Motivation is the key enabler that makes
every success possible - from resources to success.
On Interpersonal Communications
This page Created on: October 24, 1999.
Last revised: October 24, 1999.