Financial industry, if we shall even call it industry, as it is now, does less than contribute values to the general community. That much is clear.

I am not saying they cannot turn a profit. I really don’t mind them making profits, even off from me. We all need to make a living after all because money buys us food, shelter, and all. But moderation is always the virtue and what they had done and are still trying to do is by no way reasonable.

What is a concrete example you may ask? Well, look here.

This is the result of a transaction through Morgan Stanley Smith Barney (oh what a long name) that I must use in order to deal with company’s restricted stocks. Instead of one reasonable transaction fee, we got Commissions, Other Fee, Transaction Fees, and Service Fee. And this is not including the Proceeds Delivery Fee of $25 if I had chosen to do a wire transfer to my own bank account. Instead, I choose to be patient to receive the proceeds by mail.

My question is, why all the fees? And commission with service fee on top? How much did they do for me? We all know all these are done electronically now. Sure, you need to pay people to maintain the systems, but instead of being sensible charging one single reasonable transaction fee, we have all these. And this is exactly what our financial industry, our banking system does. On top of interest, they charge all sorts of fee for all sorts of occasions and transactions, or just about any time money passes hands, to drive up profits unreasonably and forever.

But we all know perfectly well that nothing in this world can go up and grow forever.

This is exactly what has driven the market to the ground. In a nutshell, the banks and investment firms make billions off transaction fee for creating/underwriting CDOs ranging from 1-1.5%. So they went nuts to lend out mortgages, and then hype up the demand and price of CDOs backed by these [unreliable] mortgages (bubble) to sell and exchange a shit load of them so then they get those fee. In between, banks and companies add financial products such as credit swaps and insurance for these derivatives which result in even more profits through fee while providing them the illusions that they are protected from the CDOs’ risk… But finally they run out of people to lend mortgages, plus unreliable lenders start defaulting, plus themselves and others realizing this cannot go on forever and BAM. (I may not be fully accurate and politically correct with these terms but this is the gist of it.)

Until CEOs, bankers, and all these investing “experts” and “gurus” and “managers” learn to be reasonable and sensible, or be replaced by ones who are, we are in it for a turbulent ride where they will do anything and everything to hoard and extract money.

I say in this blog title that they extract values not simply because they hoard money. They extract values from society because:

• They are hoarding money beyond enough for themselves, meaning either they have little to no values or they are destroying them in process of hoarding.
• To hoard, they would make others not have enough money, and how much energy, time, and money can people afford to develop values when they are preoccupied about surviving.
• Eventually, they would have destroyed money, wealth, values, and lives for everyone including themselves.

And let’s be honest with ourselves, beyond a certain amount of money for food, shelter, other life necessities, and perhaps some indulgence, what more do you need money for?

These are things that will never be taught or promoted by mass media, social institutions because as of yet, our so-called economy is kept alive by irrational and excessive consumption. Enough and reasonable be damned. Intelligent populace aware of how everything works and are inter-connected be damned.

Man, the media just will not stop about reporting Tiger Woods. Ah, so typical.

As all of us hearing about the news, it is so easy for us to judge, to criticize, and to draw defaming conclusions about Tiger Woods. It is soooooooooo easy for us to call him immoral. What’s the fun in that? So instead of all that, let us look at the news from another angle.

Let’s say you were in the exact positions of Tiger Woods. With his great golf skill, fame, money, look… and thus finally [and most likely] the admirations of many ladies. Given all that, and then given the opportunities, to sleep and have affairs with beautiful women. And perhaps sometimes seriously seduced. Can you with utmost honesty answer that you would not had done the same?

Now, you do not really NEED to answer that. And you may think I am, but I am not trying to defend Tiger Woods either.

But if you answered with “NO!!” right the way, you probably hadn’t given it sincere thought and thus miss the point of what I wanted to say.

The point I am trying to get at is the why for which we need to ask ourselves such question.

And this is not so different than the question, “What is the sound of a one-handed clap?”

Reality is actually very simple. It is so simple that almost all of us miss it all the time.

It is simply the experience of being in the now. Really, indescribable. Once you start describing it, it is no longer. However, continuing from past post “A World of Patterns and The Limit of Language”, patterns are a necessary facts of the human life for convenience, for communication.

Most fundamentally, we can view everything as a play between 2 sides of a coin (or more eastern and traditional, the symbol of Taichi including the yin and the yang).

The key to remember, is that it is ONE coin. But we forget, so we play against ourselves saying, “crap, the head is going to beat the tail”, or vice versa. So it is said, we live among illusions [that we created].

Thus, once you have full realization of the said key, you can see through illusions and learn to observe the play between 2 sides of the same coin. And ultimately, begin to see through most things in life. What you do with such realization, it’s your choice.

Two points to be taken as to how we get lost in illusions.

1. We mistaken all the complex, artificial patterns that are derived from two sides of the same coin, or the coexisting opposite yin and yang, are indeed reality itself.

2. We forget the two sides are indeed the same coin, or that yin and yang exist only because of each other. Or put another way, we believe the seemingly opposing forces are mutually exclusive when they are really two of the same thing. And then we tell ourselves, “Uh oh, we cannot let tail wins. We must beat the other side”.

The results are — We forget reality. We desire illusions. Furthermore, we desire to make illusions real and permanent. And we desire so badly that we’d do anything, leading ourselves into a incessant losing proposition. And we feel unfulfilled and insecure.

Some of us had taken sides with the head, and some of us had taken sides with the tail. Now we battle each other. Over and over and over.

Imagine we keep this up, what happens to the coin? And what do you think will happen after what may happen to the coin? If you can sense the answer, you are getting warmer.

Today’s post is brought to you from my good friend D, who originally wrote it as an email to a friend. Personally, I love it. I hope you enjoy it too.

I wanted to share with you a story and a lesson I learned. This is a rare letter. It does not require a reply, nor any thanks. Just attention for a few moments.

A man was walking his path. Few days after leaving the comforts of his house he came to the bank of a river. He stood there for a few days drinking its fresh water, eating its fish, sleeping on the soft dry sand of the bank. But to continue his journey he had no choice but to cross it, since there was no bridge in sight.

So, one day, he decided to do so.

As he stepped into the ice cold water, his legs and feet start to hurt. The current was very powerful and he was submerged several times by the force of it. As he struggled not to drown, stones and sands were painfully hitting his body. As he started to lose his strength and thought all hope was lost, two men on the other side of the bank came to his help, throwing him a rope and probably saving his life.

With his body still battered by the crossing, shivering from the cold, sore and exhausted by the sincere effort, the traveler stopped and turn back and stare at the river. Looking at its tumultuous waters, he said “thank you”.

In the short path of our life’s, sometimes, we face adversities. We have to cross rivers. There are two choices we can make.

We can either be angry at the river because its a river. Curse its existence and its choice of path. We can decide to believe that the suffering that it gave is fruitless and meaningless. In such a case, as we are presented with many rivers to cross, life becomes a continuous source of endless hanger, pointless pain and consuming frustration.

On the other hand we can choose to notice the gifts the rivers carry. Often we drink its water and eat its food. More importantly, as we face hardship we have the opportunity to understand who we really are. What are we made of, our strength, the meaning of courage and our weakness. Each time a river is crossed, we grow stronger and wiser. The path of life becomes easier. What are rivers for some, become small creeks to us, and they don’t bother our minds as much. In the moment of hardship, when all hope is lost we have a rare opportunity to see who really is next to us. The people who genuinely care for us, who selflessly help, and who can love without reserve and without the desire or need to be rewarded. In such a case, life becomes a continuous source of blessings and joy is behind every struggle.

One day, not too long ago, I too was in a very frustrating situation. I felt betrayed, and humiliated. The hate for a person and bitterness of her actions was devouring my days. I did not enjoy that state of mind so I asked a friend for guidance.

He asked “Are you starving?”
“No, not really” I replied.
“So you must be really really thirsty?”
“…No, not at all” I replied again.
“Well, then it must be you have not been sleeping for days”.
“I am not sure why you say that, but I slept fine” I said.
“So are you really so fragile?…. It is what it is. If you really understand the source of it, you can only smile and move on.”

Suddenly I realized I was not fragile. My disappointment with others was misplaced expectation and, in a way, it was funny as asking a dog to be a cat. So, I smiled and moved on.

How do we create a perfect software product in no time?
(Inspired by some Dilbert moments in work meetings… though essentially, that is what managers, executives, and other so-called leaders want and ask for [implicitly] these days. Oooooh, if only they can get it.)

Some of the answers I got… (thanks to my friends)

• hahaha you write one line of code…hello world and that’s it *ROFL*
• not sure, probably the same way we fly without wings
• in the design….you state that your goal is to create an imperfect software product..and therefore it is perfect by definition
• tell ur bosses to wait til we die and go to heaven first
• Buy it from Japan.
• – fix the requirements and don’t change them
  – agile software development
  – reasonable sized team (I’d say about 5-10 people, but it depends on the size of the project)
  and the last requirement
  – STOP MESSING WITH THE ORIGINAL REQUIREMENTS
• answer is simply stop writing becase “in no time” means only crap can be created

What’s you answer? Go.