This is fairly common for Wall Street too, so lets not pretend it's not happening here.
Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)
141–150 of 258 posts
Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)
#142I'm a foreign CTO working in Bangkok and being fully fluent in Thai showed me that it's exactly the same practice in SEA regions: Got to close a deal with a government official? They'll head to the "bathtub massage" area Huai Kwang. Need to bond with a local Business man? Deal closes there as well. Bond with male work mates? On to the bathtub place! Everyone knows it, there's jokes about it and this particular busine…
FWIW there is much disapproval in East Asia of these antics, and the guanxi culture emanating from China.
Sadly American business culture seems to be also drinking these guanxi- and gravitas-obsessed kool aids, and less disapproving (from what I have seen) than East Asia.
Others who are more connected and experienced would know more than I do.
Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
For me it personally, stories like this make it impossible to buy the theory that the world or work are meritocracy or fair. It is not so much that it is politically incorrect, it is more that you can't simultaneously claim that this is how it is and is ok while also claim that everything is totally fair and demographic composition is not influenced by any of this. Not just gender, also religious as it selects people…
Anyone claiming we live in a fair and just society is either asleep and in a fairy tale land, or is pushing an agenda. World is a dangerous place, full of things you may not like, not approve or are simply disgusting. We should certainly work towards improving ourselves but I dont think we can grow unless we learn to respect each other's differences, even when we dont like them. Certainly nobody is coercing anyone in…
Nobody is coercing you to go, but people will gladly claim that if you are poorer as a result then it is surely because you was lazy or less talented then those who went. And they will celebrate those who went and virtuous and if you dare to point out dark side, you are lazy and jealous.
I used to believe that people dont have right to try to change rules of the game, but not anymore. Rules are tilted towards those who are willing to change them and this ideology equals ideology of passivity and submission.
Certainly, people are entitled to try to change rules, because current rules are result of human activity - someone else setting rules in his favor in the past.
Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's always easy to tell someone they have it good when we all live on a power law. Just tell them to look a notch down and see someone half their height, just as long as they don't look up at you and see your waist. The entire structure of the American economy and the attitudes it uses to keep its subjects in check are of this form. In many ways, the US is advanced but in many ways it also lags other places, namely…
A premise that there's less racism in Europe than in the US is just wrong (I'm a European who've spent a lot of time in the US for work and school). US is the PC capital of the world (for better or worse). There's just not a whole lot of non-white folks in Europe even now.
You seem to have a better perspective on this than me, but isn't it also a question of how much people talk about race issues in the US vs. Europe? To me it seems like a bit of a mixed bag:
* US Americans are generally very sensitive to the issue and try to be PC as much as possible.
* Europeans are rather insensitive to it, which shows in two ways: A lot of people seem to be more color-blind, which IMO is the upside, and a smaller but very visible bunch of people are more openly racist.
* This also applies to public discussions - the skin color of immigrants or inhabitants is rarely mentioned, people and the media rather just differentiate between natives, people with immigration background and immigrants - here in Switzerland maybe with special mentioning of Germans, French and Italians, as those three originating countries tend to be the most prevalent. Thus, it seems much less a race-, than a nationality issue.
* On the topic of numbers, I gotta say I think it depends. Here in Switzerland roughtly 30% of inhabitants don't hold Swiss nationality, tendency rising rather quickly. Of those, roughly half come from neighboring countries (i.e. culturally close), the other half is mostly from Ex-Yugoslavia, Middle East and Northern/Central Africa. Switzerland today seems much more like a melting pot than it was a decade ago, which is something I actually appreciate (I married an Asian immigrant myself and my son has two nationalities, which is actually a majority phenomenon in the whole greater Zurich area now).
Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
It doesn't necessarily mean that they're bad people, but it's certainly a good indication that they're bad people at least on a personal level. Of course this is assuming that they operated in an environment with the same ethics as my own.
Men are not wired for monogamy. It is like saying you might be bad person because you breathe. In a relationship this is a mutual effort to resist those needs, but failing to do so doesn't make you bad.
Think about it this way. The guy who, with his nature and peer pressure both strongly incentivizing him to cheat on his wife, and still not cheating on her, that person is much more likely to be trustworthy. At least predictable and dependable.
Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
~20 years ago I was a sales engineer to the extremely good salesman. We had submitted a substantial quote followed by invoice to one of the tier I carriers in US, but for reason or the other, it wouldn't get processed / paid. Rumor has it that the (now retired) VP blocking the payment at carrier in roundabout ways told to our sales exec that he will be going to Toronto at a given date and that he has never spent a ni…
Never spent a night with sisters? Just to clarify, was that literal?
I guess it was.
Sister prostitutes probably. Maybe not 100% legal.
Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
Men are not wired for monogamy. It is like saying you might be bad person because you breathe. In a relationship this is a mutual effort to resist those needs, but failing to do so doesn't make you bad.
We’re also wired for murdering, raping and pillaging. That’s not gonna stop me from judging people who succumb to their desires at the expense of other people
What expense does a person suffer if they are being cheated on? Some forms of cheating involve financial irresponsibility, but not all. Some forms involve health risks, but not all. So let's not generalize all cheaters as perpetrators of harm to their first partners.
Judge all you want, but if it ain't illegal don't shove your values down people's throat.
Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's always easy to tell someone they have it good when we all live on a power law. Just tell them to look a notch down and see someone half their height, just as long as they don't look up at you and see your waist. The entire structure of the American economy and the attitudes it uses to keep its subjects in check are of this form. In many ways, the US is advanced but in many ways it also lags other places, namely…
A premise that there's less racism in Europe than in the US is just wrong (I'm a European who've spent a lot of time in the US for work and school). US is the PC capital of the world (for better or worse). There's just not a whole lot of non-white folks in Europe even now.
I guess you haven't been to UK or France recently ;)
Being PC doesn't mean not being racist. They will keep their thoughts to themselves and will not let you know directly. But behind your back, oh boy...
Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
Men are not wired for monogamy. It is like saying you might be bad person because you breathe. In a relationship this is a mutual effort to resist those needs, but failing to do so doesn't make you bad.
Actually, cheating involves lying. A spouse is explicitly or at least implicitly expecting the other part no to lie about extra relations. If lying about those extra relations in this context doesn't makes you a bad person, then I don't know what is.
Logical fallacy. Doing one bad thing does not make one a "bad person" if such a thing even exists.
If the alternative is to break up a family so the cheater can be 'honest' with him-/herself, is a lie and a happy family worse than a broken family? Stop seeing things black and white.
Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anyone claiming we live in a fair and just society is either asleep and in a fairy tale land, or is pushing an agenda. World is a dangerous place, full of things you may not like, not approve or are simply disgusting. We should certainly work towards improving ourselves but I dont think we can grow unless we learn to respect each other's differences, even when we dont like them. Certainly nobody is coercing anyone in…
Nobody is coercing you to go, but people will gladly claim that if you are poorer as a result then it is surely because you was lazy or less talented then those who went. And they will celebrate those who went and virtuous and if you dare to point out dark side, you are lazy and jealous. I used to believe that people dont have right to try to change rules of the game, but not anymore. Rules are tilted towards those w…
> Nobody is coercing you to go, but people will gladly claim that if you are poorer as a result then it is surely because you was lazy or less talented then those who went. And they will celebrate those who went and virtuous and if you dare to point out dark side, you are lazy and jealous.
Again, you make your own choices. If it is more important what people 'claim' about you, instead of how you feel about urself then it seems to me like somebody needs to readjust his moral compass and drop the 'what they are doing is not fair and just'. The hard truth is that people are not really complaining about the morality of the game, but about the fact that they don't get to play it because they have to keep their politically correct appearances.
> I used to believe that people dont have right to try to change rules of the game, but not anymore. Rules are tilted towards those who are willing to change them and this ideology equals ideology of passivity and submission.
You are absolutely right, I expressed myself poorly. What I meant is that that's the game they are playing. You are welcome to try and change it, but don't go crying (and claiming the moral high ground) when you are kicked out and defeated anyway.