Asian Americans

So I'm back in town, in the middle of the second session of the APA Ladder training that started at Hueston Woods back in February. We took a couple of other "personality tests" and I'm pretty well calibrated now. Someone asked me if my lack of "green" (which was planning, following procedures, etc) made it hard for me to be in my engineering role. I said heck yeah! I hate all the processes we think we do. So it got me thinking... I assume I'm an engineer because I was conditioned to be one from my parents. What would I be doing if I started over? I came to some conclusion that I might have some economics in me. But who knows, I could still be an engineer.

Speaking of Asian American type stuff... The speech went over very well on Sunday night. They left me to the end as the "featured speaker." I brought people back to 1996 with the stuff I blogged about last time, and all the requisite stuff about following your passions. The good thing is the speakers before me, who had graduated maybe 1-2 years ago, talked about the same. So I got to reinforce it, and bring up the point that I think 10% of the stuff I used at work was learned in school. I even got in the line about not necessarily needing a PhD or being a doctor to be successful. Then I asked each one of them why it was awesome to be Chinese American and made them answer on the spot.

Couple of funny tidbits... They were recognizing past OCA presidents at the dinner, and they had left off my dad. So in my speech, I took a second to recognize him by asking him to stand up. He was talking to someone at the table and didn't hear me, so it was one of those "Bueller... Bueller..." type moments. I mentioned how he wasn't even listening to his own son speak!

There was a running joke that all 5 of the graduates played the violin. It only made it worse when speaker #1 also played the violin. So I got up there and said "Hi, I'm Dale, I also play the violin." I wonder if it's because Chinese people are genetically predisposed to play the violin because of our physical structure, or if it's the "monkey see monkey do" syndrome.

All 5 graduates not only all played the violin, but were all girls too. I chatted it up with them afterwards, and got some pictures taken. One of them said something about me taking pictures with all these girls... and I said "Too bad you guys are all 12 years younger than me." So how many years would I need to wait for them to be in my age range? Thanks to Winston for providing the algebra. Recall the right age is my age divided by 2 plus 7.

x = their age
y = my age

x + years to go = (y + years to go)/2 + 7

18 + ytg = (30 + ytg)/2 + 7
11 + ytg = (30 + ytg)/2
22 + 2 ytg = 30 + ytg
ytg = 30 - 22 = 8

So, in 8 years, they will be in my wheelhouse. I will be 38, they will be 26. Hmm, sounds about right.