From nothing to nothing.

Life is about seeking value, especially one's own value. How is one's own value defined? When I was working for someone else, my value was defined by the need of my skills and time by my employer. However, my true value, as in what I really care about and want to contribute, was of no value to him - the person who signs my pay check and giving a value to how much I was worth.

I worked from 8-5, occasionally more hours a day. I got things done on time and to expected standards. That was my value, or rather, how others valued me. I was paid well, I felt like I was somewhat important. However, I was only important when I am spending my money.

Then I left the party, hoping to make something out of what I value. No one said it's going to be easy, I certainly didn't think it will be.

So I am here trying to create something positive out of my value. Being on my own, I do what I feel is right, but because I am alone, there's no one else to "feel the same right". You see, when you work for someone else, you don't really care what's really right because you are not doing it for yourself, you do as told. It's for the money. Ironically, when it's not really for the money, it's not right to anyone but yourself. That's what makes this journey so challenging. When everyone walks on existing paths, everyone doubts the path that doesn't yet exist.

So what is my value now? I have a clear vision of what I mean to myself, but what does my value mean to the others? Absolutely nothing. People's got to feed themselves and their families. That's right for them. So ultimately, does it still all come down to money? How much is my value worth then?

It's been a while since I've touched my camera, so there hasn't been new photos here to show off in a while, just whining from me. For those who come here to see photos, I guess this post is of little value to you. I doubt there's anyone here to hear my whine.

Customer Service?

Many companies pride their quality customer service. They like to talk about their SOP which is designed to make sure that everyone gets the quality service in the most efficient manner. Well, my experience with the so-called SOP has nothing but doubtful. In any case, there are definitely successful examples of good SOP. It's just that a 100% SOP based service essentially takes the humanity out of service, which means you may as well replace those service reps with robots, which will actually generate a lower expectation from the human customers and therefore increase the rate of satisfaction!

Ok I am not here to talk about that today. I am here to talk about the non-SOP customer service.

Taiwan's economy is not dominated by large corporations even though the media seems to paint it otherwise. Taiwan's streets are packed with small businesses and road side food stands. There are definitely some big-box retailers dominating certain market sectors, but there are plenty more to be served by individuals. Usually when we think about buying a laptop, we shop online for the easiest customization and competitive prices. The previous laptop I bought was off Dell's website. I kinds regretted it because the screen's color accuracy proved to be junk, which is a big deal for me. In any case, I felt that the process was painless and stress-free. Then my battery started to give up within my extended warranty, so I called them up, a human picked up the phone and said I will receive a brand new battery soon and just put the old battery into the same box and everything else would be taken care of. No charge whatsoever. That was clean!

But not quite so in Taiwan. We like to go to certain places for computers and laptops. In Taipei there's this area packed with businesses retailing all sorts of consumer and industrial electronics, from plain DVDRs to stuffs that only electric engineers will know. So here's the ritual. You go to this area and start to ask every store you come across that sells laptop. You tell them what they need and they will offer you a price. You tour the entire area to price match and eventually you will decide which deal is best for you.

However not everyone offers the same deal, even though you are technically buying the same thing.

So last week I did some research online for what I may want. I didn't find much, but thought Asus may suit my needs. I couldn't find detailed specs of laptops from other brands on their website, so I wasn't thinking too much about them. When I arrived at the area.... holy cow there were a ton of choices. And that was when that can of worms was opened. After getting a good idea of the Asus laptop price, I starting poking around with other options. Toshiba, Acer, Lenovo.... Oh Lenovo! Well I've heard good things about it, but have been doubtful about it's legendary quality since the IBM era. Anyways, the sales guy did a good job showing me around their offerings. I began to develop an interest in the T430. It's more than I was hoping to get, a bit out of my price range, but very attractive as a work laptop. So I continued walking around, and came to this tiny store that also carries Lenovo laptops. So I asked the first guy who approached me how much they are selling the T430. It was just a tad lower than the other store, but we sat down to discuss what my needs are and what options this laptop offers. He said this laptop is designed for customization, so I can literally change the spec however I want, even though the brochure doesn't say so. I asked about the warranty. He said no problem, the store will take care of it. After adding what I was hoping to include, the price came to be a bit high. I then said to him," Ok, so you know what I am looking for. Is there any other options that you can recommend." He thought for a while and said yes! "How about get the slightly older T420, save some money with a bit of sacrificed features that are not too important, and use the price difference for the upgrade?"

AWESOME! That's what I was looking for. BANG FOR THE BUCK!!!

Or at least, the impression of bang for the buck that he was giving me.

So I gladly bought it. So hear this. I wanted the laptop to have a SSD as the main drive, plus additional RAM, and swap the core from i5 dual core to i7 quad core. They did the upgrade in 20min, just enough time for me to go to the ATM to get cash and complete the deal. SOP my ass! It's the "out-of-SOP" feeling that made the service memorable.

A part of the deal was, since this older model doesn't have USB 3.0 slots, they were going to get me an expansion card that has USB 3.0 slots. The card was out of stock, and mine finally arrived today in the mail. I installed it, but it was physically loose, which means it comes out easily as I unplug my USB device. So I called the store and he explained to me that usually the cards should fit snugly into the slot, but it's a bit of luck to get the perfect one. He offered an exchange, but recommended me to do this : Try to thicken the card with sticky tapes or something to make it fit tighter in the slot.

At first I was kinda disappointed with the response, but I tried it anyways. It worked!

It was then I realized that would it be better if he asked me to send it back, following what would be the so-called SOP, and then he send me a new one, and perhaps it will work, or not, and there's no guarantee that my problem will be solved. Or do what he did, by telling me to do some non-SOP DIY patch-up and suck it up? It's definitely much better to do the latter.

Honestly, the whole experience has a certain degree of sketchiness, but without a doubt, it was efficient and most importantly, effective. I don't think even those geniuses at the Apple store can do this, mostly because they are not allowed to.

BTW it feels so good looking at 8 processors running simultaneously. Nerdy boner!