Venture Capitalist

It sounds like a really cool profession, and I've been told that it brings you a lot of money, so I did some research on it. My general impression on it has a huge tradeoff: risk. Venture capitalists, although equipped with certain analytical, statistical methods to evaluate new companies and products, would always need to take the risk of losing their investments. The risks are often high compared to other types of investments. Also, I've come to realize that a lot of people don't like them because they think venture capitalists are just a bunch of rich people making profits out of others' hard work. I think their role is important because it brings new service and products to the society, that it funds such process so new things can enter the market. Without it, the market would be drastically different and inadequate.

Americans are renouncing their citizenships

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323977304579002780562003814.html?mod=trending_now_3

The number of Americans renouncing their citizenships has been steadily increasing and mostly due to taxes. With certain legislative reform, the wealthy would need to take an additional look at their tax returns, because a fraud or noncompliance would lead to a penalty worth 50% of one's account balance.   Although it is technically a civil duty to pay taxes, I personally think it's undesirable to see such a trend, especially when the rich are important sources of the tax money. The idea of taxation is redistribution, yet if the ones who are giving in more stop doing so, the system itself will deteriorate. Difficult situation here I hope I were able to help, but some people in our school don't even file their US tax reports. ;)

WIll the Oil Industry remain as a free cash generator

Two major American oil companies, Exxon and Chevron, have published their net profits in the second quarter, and both of which are negative. Exxon spent 2 billion more than its income, while Chevron spent a billion more. There is no guarantee that there extra spendings will turn themselves into profits in the future, as the global oil supply is dwindling and the costs for reserve discovery and extraction are skyrocketing. This would mean so much more than a crisis for the oil industry, for it's so so fundamental that even a slight change in oil price would greatly affect the market. In the era where green technologies are hitting a ceiling in R&D and traditional energy sources are becoming scarce. A lot of the factors in the most complex economic model we call the real market are changing drastically and unpredictably. The world is crowded and the resources are scarce. The equilibrium has shifted and the people will be the one to face the consequences.

Oil Sand and Energy Supply in America

So I read an article bout the topic agrees with its claim that a steep increase in the production of oil through hydraulic fracturing (from oil sand) would probably restructure the current supply and demand equilibrium, turning the North America into a long-term energy exporter. This might actually bring the economy back on track and be a possible solution to north america's energy independence. I'm not sure what the major oil-producing countries are going to respond to this but apparently a lot of businesses are coming back to America, which is a form of America's growth in its power. Now America has more cards to play on the table of international relations. Another important point mentioned in the article is that the technology of fracking is what made all these possible, and currently most of the countries haven't acquired this technology. Once China and Russia get it, the market will definitely change agin.

Rationality

Although it might sound paradoxical, I wouldn’t hesitate to admit my love for rationality. In the beginning, the feeling of enlightenment  rationality brought dominated my attention, reminiscent of how I felt as a kid when I unraveled the labyrinth of a paper maze. Falling in so deeply, I subliminally killed my emotions and gradually detached myself from the surrounding physical confinement. The world of rationality somehow outshined the world of reality and became the center of my life. Rationality was my needle that weaved my understanding into a belief that made my uncertainty certain and elucidated my wonders guiding me to live a life I understood.

However, my belief had rendered me vulnerable as it isolated me from my community. I became uncomfortable with being myself and interacting with other individuals, not because I didn’t know them, but because I didn’t understand them, not completely. I thought I was rational, but I was afraid of uncertainty, of oblivion, of the intangible future in which each of my actions would lead to countless unpredictable ramifications. I was able to speak to the public; however, I wasn’t able to speak for my own self but on the behalf of someone else or just ‘righteousness’, and so I joined Model United Nations, in which I could represent a country instead of myself. Model United Nations, surprisingly, continued to amaze me as I witnessed arguments seemingly falling in accordance with the rules in my world of science, and I liked it.

What I disliked was the fact that my arguments, or in the world of MUN we call them ‘clauses’ and ‘resolutions, were never fully accepted, even when the other delegates seemed entirely unable to repudiate my words. At first I attributed my failure to my possible logical flaws or ineloquence, or even to my unintended mispronunciation, so I worked so restlessly to fix them all that spending hours practicing speaking in front of a mirror and repeatedly questioning my own arguments were just a few things I didn’t even think of grumbling about. But my second MUN conference confirmed that it was something else that simply disallowed the expression of my belief as I failed to even join a discussion group during lobbying. Despite knowing I had all the knowledge and information needed, I still couldn’t speak out with my own voice. Sweating, eyesight roaming over the entire conference room and shunning any direct eye contact so impulsively yet counter-intuitively, feet faltering and finally stopping in midstride, for the very first time I noticed my social seclusion so directly that I felt lost. I didn’t understand. It was like a barrier, or a wall, standing in between me and the other delegates, we speaking the same language but incommunicable.

And so it was, a wall. I had subconsciously built a wall separating myself from the community. Along the way of pursuing a sense of security and averting uncertainty like kids insisting on keeping the lights on at night, I have burnt up the wire fuse that at once connected me to the society and the humanity. I had forgotten how to show my true self to people and be one of them.

I had to break the wall, and I made my first stride in my third MUN conference with an awkward smile and a clumsy introduction of myself, which took me tons of effort and didn’t show much result. It wasn’t easy to weld the broken fuses back in connection. For some reasons the ‘rational’ person in me never ceased to impugn my urge for a sense of communality, but this time I decided to let my emotion and intuition guide my way. As I started opening up myself to other people, I realized that I understood each stranger more than I used to, piece by piece, and found that we had so much in common. I noticed that I could feel what they were feeling, and I could understand what they were thinking and why they thought in certain ways. My words were valued in a different way, an intimate one, and I was one of them! The lost child didn’t need the light on anymore, because he could cuddle with the other kids and feel safe.

Ever since my epiphany I have always allocated my time to be with multiple groups of people, let they be orchestra, research group, tennis team, or MUN club. I also found a way to make my belief compatible with communality and emotion; I co-founded our school’s first debate club, hoping to create a cordial environment for people who share my belief to learn from each other and most importantly understand each other. Starting from the summer of 2013, I have been helping to organize local MUN conferences for Taiwanese public high school students who would otherwise never receive a chance to experience what I have experienced and to learn how to speak not only for the member states but also for themselves. There was a time that I could only know but not feel, but now I am truly aware and connected. 

What immigration means to me

Immigration means Republican and Democrat to Congress, votes and election to elected officials, and statistics and a macro scale identity change. Yet immigration, to the immigrants themselves, means jobs, personal identities, security, hope, opportunities, and sometimes lives. I am an immigrant, or at least about to be. Yet I, or my family as a unit, has encountered many obstacles during the process of application. There were moments at which we thought there wouldn't be a chance to succeed, yet we went through it and moved on. We have invested so much, both time-wise and financially, and we are having so much hope for our futures. Yet now a seemingly insurmountable problem has come to us and we have thought through pretty much every single possible way to get around it. And yet it remains insurmountable. Immigration to me is to have a chance to do what I want, be independent, have a good life, and be able to help the people I want to help. Yet at this moment it seems no more like a permission to simply be 'legal'.

Looking at human relationship from an economic point of view

I read the post on our AP economics blog that compares friendship with consumer mindset and entrepreneurship. I found this interesting and started to think about how human nature, as we perceive it, would be used in economics and what the limit of it is, because I did find the concept of connecting the motive to form a friendship and the nature of economics, or I call it greed, odd at the beginning. Furthermore, the blogpost points out that a virtuous, true relationship goes beyond the scope of economics, meaning that forming such kind of friendship would be considered 'irrational'. Is the economics theory here right? Or is the assumption of human nature that the economic theories are based upon missing something?  And to link all these questions to myself, is rationality really 'better'? or 'fairer'. I am aware that I have been rambling a bit, and I do think I need to take some time to think this through.

Hsinchu Weather

Today's such a good day. It's sunny but not scorching, and there's wind that would keep my body dry when I'm out. I usually sweat a lot. I learned that it's raining like crazy in Neihu, where my home is, yet there were barely any clouds in the sky here in Hsinchu. This scene reminded me of California and made me really relaxed. I walked through the Hsingda campus to get to the gym, which is on the other side of the campus. There're trees along the away that blocked some sunlight and created some amazing silhouettes on the pavement. With some chirping sounds in the background, I felt that I was in a place where new age pianists would usually have their CD's cover photos taken to show some sort of serenity kind of feeling.