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By Tai, October 8, 2009 6:25 pm

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1. Most books and academic articles follow this structure:

• Introduction including roadmap
• In a paragraph
  • Topic sentence
  • Evidences / supporting ideas
  • Concluding sentence
• Conclusion, summarizing main ideas

Paragraphs and ideas are connected with transition words.

So a skimming strategy can simply be formed:

1. Read the introduction
2. Read topic sentences which are usually the first sentences in paragraphs
3. Read concluding sentences
4. Optionally, pay attention to transition words

I’ve been subconsciously using this strategy for literature of social sciences, management, leadership, marketing, strategy.

Following this strategy can be help for around 100 points in the GMAT verbal test.

2. For non text-books I am more attracted to examples and case studies for the following reason

Many business and social science literature can be traced back to certain credible sources. For example, many theories on negotiation originate from Fisher and Ury’s work in Harvard Negotiation Project. The result is that different books in the same field end up discussing similar theory. What differentiates a book is how the author sees the issue and comes up with solutions. How Max DePree solves an issue is very different from how Peter Drucker does it. I learn more from the case studies.

The skill of thinking how an author would deal with an issue would give light to 0 - 20 points in the GMAT verbal test.

3. Eventually,  how I learned from a programming book was to think of a toy project and plug new coding techniques in. Getting my hand dirty was the best way for me.

How do you usually read books?

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By Tai, September 26, 2009 5:05 pm

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Facebook just formed alliance with Nielsen, in which the social network will offer its 300 million-user platform to Nielsen. The implications of this may include:

• Nielsen will have access to all Facebook users information. Curiously, is Nielsen the second after Microsoft?
• Facebook may restructure and improve their data mining process
• More market research utilities on Facebook can be expected
• Facebook has a source of income for three years
• Facebook accelerating their income from advertising

What’s in there for me

As a user, I would expect more relevant ads not only on Facebook, but on other instances where Nielsen reaches. It’s always useful to remember Nielsen now has my full profile and social graph, and yours too.

As a freelance analyst/consultant having services to provide, I would be glad to see value of my money spent on advertising on Facebook.

Update

A report by Nielsen confirms Facebook’s position in advertising.

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By Tai, September 23, 2009 7:08 pm

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1. They regain focus by releasing the new search with local search.
2. They put on the negotiate the crucial contract with Microsoft to prolong the search war saga.
3. They trim off “bad Yahoo!”.
4. They save costs on R&D by cloning Tumblr for their new service Meme.
5. They regained email market share with new improvements to Yahoo! Mail.
6. And they impose higher alpha than expected.

Welcome back on track, Yahoo!

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By Tai, September 18, 2009 11:06 pm

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Theoretically, it is sensible for a Profile to be the center of a wide range of social features and the social platform. Just why Yahoo! has Yahoo! Profile for its Open Strategy.

Nevertheless, major updates have been realized in Yahoo! Mail.

Firstly, the front page now includes updates from a user’s connections.

Then applications start to appear in Yahoo! Mail.

It is reasonable too why Yahoo! Mail is an ideal destination for such updates. People will more likely login their inbox than in their “profile”. Plus, Yahoo! Mail being the top email service is still Yahoo!’s ace in communication. Think about profiles, why would one want to login their profile while they are having a Facebook?

After all, it’s a bit confusing as to what kind of updates I expect to see in Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Profile. Nevertheless, should Yahoo! concentrate their efforts in just one. If so, may I suggest Yahoo! Mail?

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By Tai, September 11, 2009 11:27 am

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Why Twitter

1. Current events appear quicker than the press
2. Another channel for influencing the market
3. Efficiency and velocity of data publication
4. Many trend spotters and influencers
5. Mobile

What to do on Twitter

1. Monitor current events in real-time. e.g. a conflict in Middle East will affect the oil industry
2. Capture off-balance-sheet / intangible values
3. Perform market/equity research

How

1. Use Twitter search
2. Setup keywords for monitoring
3. Follow influencers
4. Then just tweet it