People
Singapore vs Hong Kong
0Thursday, 16th September, 2010
by Pushkar Sane
in People
Singapore vs Hong Kong rivalry is well known and I have seen emotions flying high every time this topic comes up. I can understand native Singaporeans or Hong Kongers getting emotional but even expats get carried away in that debate. I have lived in Hong Kong for over 8 years and have been traveling to Singapore on a very regular basis (including some extended stay during 2007).
I refused to get dragged into the debate but found these two videos – first one was created by some Singaporeans ridiculing Hong Kong and second one is the response from Hong Kongers.
I thought the first video was in a very poor taste as it was not an objective comparison. The script writer probably has never visited Hong Kong or doesn’t know anything about Hong Kong’s history, heritage, language, food, culture and most importantly the people who live here. Makes me wonder why people get into such petty things and I guess personal insecurities could be one of the reasons.
Training or Learning
1Monday, 30th August, 2010
I was chatting with a set of industry friends on importance of digital. My friends from analogue side of the business kept insisting that they all need more training to adopt digital. To that point I asked a very simple question – “how much more training is required before you’re confident in digital” – unfortunately none of them could give me a specific answer in terms of topics, number of hours, etc.
This conversation made me very sad. Advertising & Marketing industry is so much focused on receiving training rather than taking the initiative to learn. Most people give convenient excuse of ‘lack of enough training’ for not learning digital. What they fail to understand is no amount of training can make you confident unless you learn things and then practice to master them.
After having spent 20 years on the Internet I still wake up thinking ‘oh god so much to learn today’ and spend at least 30-60 minutes learning new things. I have never attended a digital training program but it hasn’t stopped me from learning all things new. And believe me I’m not alone as I see millions of professional learning on their own.
I think it is high time for the industry to ‘stop’ receiving training and ‘start’ learning.