When Life Hurts

I would like to quote something that I learnt throughout the years of serving one of the government’s higher institution located in an isolated island. Despite reading motivational books by Stephen R Covey, Dale Carnegie, current reading on Emotional Intelligence by Goleman, I was mesmerized by a sudden remark of a person named Esmadi which concluded all in two words. “ABILITY” & “OPPORTUNITY”. Yeah, people would be able to apply the highest effective habits in their life, living with positive thoughts and having more than one type of intelligences but if you are not given any opportunities, you will never reach the best capability of your life. Ironically, you’ll find that you are not going anywhere and you can’t go very far to change your being.

The impact of these two words can be illustrated in a situation of a person trying to climb a ladder to reach the top of a building. The person might work on his behavior – he could try harder, be more diligent and double his speed. The person might work on his attitude – he could think more positive and probably he would be happy wherever he was. But, what if he leaned the ladder in a wrong wall? His efforts on behavior would only succeed in getting him to the wrong place faster. He wouldn’t get to the right place, but perhaps he wouldn’t care. But, the point is, he would still be lost. The fundamental problem has nothing to do with his ABILITY to behave positively. It has everything to do with having to lean the ladder on a WRONG wall. The first and the most important requirement is the accuracy of the wall.

It was hard. Even when you know that “management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things”. Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall. I am not talking about other people’s leadership. I am talking about my own leadership. I should be the leader of my own who climbs the tallest building, survey the entire situation and yells, “Wrong place!”. As an individuals, we’re often so busy and always responded, “Shut up!! I am making progress”. We don’t realize we’re in the wrong place. I looked at my role as a researcher and realized that I had never been given any opportunities to enhance my research career. I wrote several papers and those writing were accepted in the international conferences and called for presentation. I didn’t receive much support as I started wrestling with the financial issues and the management issues. I persisted. I absolutely convinced that I was never given any opportunity to even travel to any of those conferences. WRONG PLACE with no OPPORTUNITY (whether it is given or available for you to work hard for it). Some people say, in life, we can’t wait for doors to open for us. We have to get the doors opened by knocking on the doors. But what if there were no doors around us?

As I continuously observed, other people in the same place, who rarely turn up for work (only come in early morning for clock-in timestamp and later in the evening for clock-out timestamp), received poorly comments on their teaching methods from the end users (students) and lack of language & other abilities; received more opportunities to improve their personal skills. Worst is being promoted earlier than those whom heuristically are more competent. This is about the obvious and non-obvious. Hidden behind the cultures (as long as it doesn’t hit my nose script), people find it is natural and easy to say “oh, it’s their luck!”. Don’t they know that our perception is often colored by our expectations and beliefs? If we work according to certain requirements, definitely we would expect at least an acknowledgement or appreciation in any ways.

I’ve done so much; not that my intuitions are never useful or that my common sense isn’t sensible. Though at other times my intuitions are useless or misleading. Firstly I thought that this place could open up opportunity in terms of my career path; I make the assumption and inference so readily that I am scarcely aware of it. I know life is full of possibilities. In fact, the richness of life’s possibilities places limitations on the ability of us, as human to reason and act intelligently. Intelligent actions require informations and with current situations, I am faced with a chronic shortage of relevant information concerning the past, present and future. I would clarify what does it mean by information. It’s hard to filter through all information to focus on the part that is useful or personally relevant. To cope with possibilities, we have to prepare with certain biases or expectations, which make some things easier and other things harder. Deep inside, is the way I see things around me is part of my expectations, my likes, my dislikes? But, is there a chance that this place is the right place to stay on – spend my time, my life and my own nature?

How Smart Are You?

Types of Intelligence

What does it mean to say that someone is or is not intelligent? Intelligence is certainly not a concrete entity that can be quantified, like the amount of water in a jug. Psychologist have come out with many definitions of intelligence and the closest to the standard dictionary definition: Intelligence is the ability to solve problems well and to understand and learn complex material. Researchers also typically stress that a key aspect of intelligence is the ability to adapt to the environment. (Source: “Psychology”, Kosslyn & Rosenberg)

Psychologist developed a very influential view of intelligence which is known as multiple intelligence and it takes more than one way to shine. Basically there are 8 forms of intelligence (however, I came across latest findings that researchers discovered 9 forms of intelligence. I will keep it update in this post).

1. Linguistic intelligence: The ability to use language well, as relied on by journalists and lawyers.
2. Spatial intelligence: The ability to reason well about spatial relations, as relied on by architects and surgeons.
3. Musical intelligence: The ability to compose and understand music, as relied on by audio engineers and musicians.
4. Logical-mathematical intelligence: The ability to manipulate abstract symbols, as used by scientists and computer programmer.
5. Bodily-kinestetic intelligence: The ability to plan and understand sequences of movements, as drawn on by dancers and athletes.
6. Intrapersonal intelligence: The ability to understand oneself, as used by clergy (people in religious duty).
7. Interpersonal intelligence: The ability to understand other people and social interactions, as used by politicians and teachers.
8. Naturalist intelligence: The ability to observe carefully, as used by forest rangers.
9. Existential intelligence: The ability to address “the big questions” about existence (the newest findings by Gardner)

What is IQ?

IQ is a short form of Intelligence Quotient, a test score used in the Western countries as a general measure of intelligence. To understand the IQ test, and the meaning of IQ scores, it will be helpful to see how this test has evolved over time. In Malaysia, the tests include UPSR, PMR, SPM, STPM. However, local communities under government pressure to produce results, it is worried that the essential nature of intelligence is grossly distorted by the political influence.

Intelligence definition is different between cultures. The difference between East and West may be due to the differences in the kinds of skills valued by the two kinds of cultures. Western cultures and their school emphasize what might be called “technological intelligence” and things like artificial intelligence. Western schooling also emphasize other factors such as generalization, or going beyond the information given, speed, minimal moves to solution and creative thinking. Moreover, silence is interpreted as a lack of knowledge. (Source: “Wisdom, Intelligence and Creativity Synthesized”, Robert J. Sternberg).

Malaysian need more usable designs

This blog meant to broadcast the important of usable design and educate Malaysian about bad design characteristics. Thus, protects users from making mistakes, facing design that leads to errors or accidents and prevent losing money from buying poorly designed everyday things.

Picture shows student’s leg was stuck in a poorly designed spillway grill. (Source: Harian Metro Thursday, 4 March 2010. pp.6)

When engineers fail, people can get hurt. However it is not easy to become the engineer or the designer. The manufacturer want something that can be produced economically. The store wants something that will be attractive to its customers. The repair service cares about maintainability: how easy is the device to take apart, diagnose, and service. Nonetheless, the designer may be able to satisfy everyone. In Malaysia, most decisions were made by those in authority/political influence or financial power. The needs of these people are different and always conflict.

Malaysian user focuses on the price and appearance, and perhaps on prestige value. At home, we will pay more attention to functionality and usability. Unfortunately, most of us do not have the power to influence such decisions. We are only the end user of Malaysian product. Supposed that we buy any products from the supermarket, we should be able to construct the self-building products or operate the things without any instructions or assistance, although we have never seen them. This is what we call “affordance”. Affordance refers to the perceived and actual properties of the thing, primarily those fundamental properties that determine just how the thing could possibly be used. Example: A chair affords (“is for”) support sitting and affords carrying (Source: The Design of Everyday Things, Donald Norman)

Secondly, everything should be made visible not only to the eye (visual system), ears but also the mind (mapping). Mapping is a technical term meaning the relationship between two things, in this case between the appliances or the things that you wanted to buy  with their design characteristics or functions and the result in the world. The mapping should be easily learned and always remembered. It takes the advantage of physical analogies and cultural standards, leads to immediate understanding. For example, a water tab – the operation of water tab should be visible physically. Unfortunately, to the context of Malaysian giant markets, five-star hotels and many other public places, it took few minutes to identify how to use a water tab since the design is very high class but do not provide a clear mapping on how to use it the first time.

Thirdly, the principle of feedback-sending back to the user information about what action has actually been done or what result has been accomplished. Imagine trying to talk to someone that do not even look at you or sending an urgent email to a person and there would be no reply. Or when you enter a lift which do not provide a display of where you currently are.

Pensyarah Malu Jika Universiti Tiada Kepimpinan Melalui Teladan

Pengalaman mengajar selama 9 tahun di salah sebuah Institusi Pengajian Tinggi Awam (IPTA) menjadi suatu yang manis tatkala melihat anak-anak didik menunjukkan perbuatan menghormati orang lain terutama orang yang lebih tua walaupun laporan akademik mereka mencatatkan Ijazah Sarjana Muda yang lebih tinggi berbanding orang tua yang mungkin hanya setakat darjah lima. Pendidikan formal dan tidak formal ini seharusnya diterapkan di dalam diri pelajar semenjak mereka berada di bangku sekolah rendah, namun, adakalanya, sistem pendidikan yang berteraskan kemahiran kognitif semata-mata ini gagal menerapkan unsur-unsur moral di kalangan pelajar kita. Yang amat menyedihkan lagi apabila berjaya melangkah ke alam universiti, anak-anak bangsa semakin lupa akan maruah diri dan kepentingan tatasusila, malah menjadi lebih sombong, bongkak dan takbur dengan ilmu yang kononnya ada di dalam dada. Sesungguhnya, semakin tinggi ilmu seseorang itu, semakin rendah pulalah suaranya, percakapannya dan perbuatannya. Bak kata pepatah “orang berilmu umpama padi, semakin tunduk apabila berisi”.

Sebagai pendidik anak bangsa, golongan pendidik adalah contoh kepada generasi muda masa ini. Jika baik penampilan kita, maka, baiklah hasilnya nanti, tetapi jika buruk pembawaan kita, maka, buruklah jadinya anak-anak muda ini. Isu air yang melanda salah sebuah IPTA semenjak dari bulan Jun 2009 membuka tirai bait-bait kata. Apakah yang perlu dilakukan oleh seorang pensyarah jika pelajar tidak hadir ke kelas dan apabila ditanya “Kenapa tidak datang kelas kelmarin?”, jawabnya, “saya cari air, encik”. “Kenapa tidak tadah air yang dibawa oleh lori?”, “Sudah encik, tapi air saya kena curi”. “Macamana boleh kena curi?” “Saya bangun lewat encik. Semalam saya tidur lewat. Saya angkat air lambat sebab ramai orang beratur dan berebut ambil air. Jadi, saya ambil keputusan untuk angkat air lewat-lewat. Tapi, saya terbangun lambat. Letih saya angkat air ke tingkat 4. Bila saya bangun, air saya sudah hilang.” Perkara yang sangat remeh tetapi jika dengan jujurnya diletakkan diri kita ataupun orang yang kita sayang di tempat pelajar itu mungkin barulah kita faham bagaimana peritnya kehidupan seorang mahasiswa yang ditempatkan di IPTA yang mengalami masalah air yang berlanjutan selama hampir setahun ini.

Kegagalan menyediakan infrastruktur asas manusia seperti air boleh menimbulkan pelbagai masalah. Air merupakan keperluan asas utama yang mendahului peringkat struktur keperluan manusia yang terdiri daripada beberapa peringkat. Jika manusia tidak mendapat keperluan di peringkat bawah ini, maka, manusia tidak akan mendapat keperluan lain yang berada di tingkat yang seterusnya seperti yang boleh dilihat melalui rajah berikut (sumber: Wikipedia).

(Rajah 1: Teori Maslow (1970). Namun, terdapat keperluan yang bergantung kepada budaya & kepercayaan individu)

Apakah perasaan anda sebagai ibu bapa jika anak-anak yang anda hantar ke universiti terpaksa bergelut dengan masalah air bukan masalah untuk menyiapkan kertas kerja, projek tahun akhir dan persediaan untuk peperiksaan. Ketiadaan air paip yang keluar dari pili, kekurangan bekalan air bersih yang mencakupi piawaian Jabatan Kesihatan Malaysia dan masalah kuantiti air yang tidak cukup berlarutan selama 9 bulan menunjukkan bahawa kegagalan pihak yang bertanggungjawab menjalankan tugas mereka. Pihak pentadbiran organisasi mungkin tidak memahami bagaimana keadaan pensyarah apabila berhadapan dengan pertanyaan-pertanyaan pelajar tentang isu-isu berlanjutan yang melibatkan mereka sendiri sebagai salah seorang daripada warga organisasi. Bilamana markah perlu diberikan kepada pelajar yang ponteng atau sentiasa lambat ke kelas, keadaan panas di bilik kuliah akibat ketiadaan air untuk menyejukkan penghawa dingin yang secara tidak langsung memberi kesan kepada persekitaran pembelajaran dan ketika pelajar menjawab penilaian-penilaian berterusan di dalam bilik kuliah. Apabila dipersoalkan tentang kredibiliti pentadbiran, pihak pengurusan terus melenting. Pensyarah dihina menggunakan perkataan “siapa kau untuk menilai kredibiliti organisasi?”.  “Bukankah aku kakitangan yang sepatutnya kau jaga? Bukankah aku orang bawahan yang menilai sejauh mana kehebatan kau sebagai pemimpin? Di manakah harus aku sorokkan mukaku yang saban hari memberi kuliah kepada mahasiswa jika tindakan pemimpin aku tidak menunjukkan karisma dan keberanian untuk menghadapi krisis seperti ini?”.

Penilaian kualiti pengajaran pensyarah dilakukan oleh pelajar dan apabila pelajar mengkritik pensyarah, mereka terpaksa menerimanya dengan hati yang terbuka walaupun kadangkala ianya agak parah. Namun, bagaimana pula dengan penilaian kualiti pentadbiran sesebuah organisasi? Siapa pula yang menilai ketua yang memimpin sesebuah organisasi ataupun ketua-ketua jabatan yang memimpin suatu jabatan kecil dalam organisasi? Adakah menteri yang jarang sekali berada di dalam organisasi tersebut berhak dan paling layak menilai kepimpinan ketua-ketua ini? Adakah ketua-ketua jabatan dinilai oleh ketua hierarki lebih tinggi yang mana mereka hanya bertemu pada masa-masa tertentu atau dinilai oleh orang-orang yang sentiasa mengampu pemimpin itu? Ketua sesebuah organisasi negara demokrasi sepatutnya dinilai oleh orang-orang yang dipimpinnya dan berada di dalam organisasi tersebut. Jika kepimpinan itu lemah, maka seorang pemimpin yang baik seharusnya bersikap terbuka melihat kritikan yang dilemparkan. Meskipun tidak semestinya menerima, bukalah mata, bukalah minda dan cubalah lihat kelemahan diri, bukan menghukum orang bawahan sesuka hati, menyuruh kakitangan serta-merta berhenti atau mengenakan tindakan tatatertib terhadap orang yang disyaki.

Sebagai peringatan kepada diri sendiri dan mana-mana individu yang memegang apa-apa jawatan, tampuk pimpinan yang disandang itu adalah jawatan sementara. Hidup ini umpama roda, adakalanya di atas dan ada ketikanya kita akan tersungkur ke bawah. Kepada mereka yang beragama Islam, kita wajib beriman yakni percaya akan Qada’ dan Qadar Tuhan. Diingatkan sekali lagi bahawa Qada’ itu bermaksud penggantian/pembalasan dan Qadar itu adalah ketentuan Tuhan. Dosa orang yang menganiaya orang lain akan menerima pembalasannya di muka bumi, bukan di akhirat sana. Ingat-ingatlah “Sesungguhnya Kami jadikan kesombongan dan keengganan mereka tunduk kepada kebenaran sebagai belenggu yang memberkas kedua tangan mereka ke batang leher mereka; lebarnya belenggu itu sampai menongkatkan dagu mereka lalu menjadilah mereka terdongak. Dan Kami jadikan sifat tamak dan gila mereka kepada hartabenda dan pangkat itu sebagai sekatan yang  menghalang mereka daripada memandang kepada keburukan dan kesingkatan masa dunia yang ada di hadapan mereka, dan sekatan yang menghalang mereka daripada memikirkan azab yang ada di belakang mereka pada hari kiamat. Lalu kami tutup pandangan mereka; maka dengan itu, mereka tidak dapat melihat jalan yang benar.” (Sumber: surah Yasin ayat 8 & 9).

What matters most: IQ or emotional intelligence?

A belligerent samurai, an old Japanese tale goes, once challenged a Zen master to explain the concept of heaven and hell. But the monk replied with scorn, “You’re nothing but a lout – I can’t waste my time with the likes of you!”. His very honor attacked, the samurai flew into a rage and pulling his sword from its scabbard, yelled, “I could kill you for your impertinence”.

“That,” the monk calmly replied, “is hell”.

Startled at seeing the truth in what the master pointed out about the fury that had him in its grip, the samurai calmed down, sheathed his sword, and bowed, thanking the monk for the insight.

“And that”, said the monk, “is heaven”.

The sudden awakening of the samurai to his own agitated state illustrates the crucial differences between caught up in a feeling and becoming aware that you are being swept away by it. Socrates’s injunction “Know Thyself” speaks to this keystone of emotional intelligence: awareness of one’s own feelings as they occur.

The high-IQ male:

• Have a wide range of intellectual interests and abilities.
• He is ambitious and productive, predictable and dogged, and untroubled by concerns about himself.
• He also tends to be critical and condescending.
• Fastidious and inhibited.
• Uneasy with sexuality and sensual experience.
• Unexpressive and detached.
• Emotionally bland and cold.

The emotionally intelligent male:

• Socially poised, outgoing and cheerful, not prone to fearfulness or worried rumination.
• They have a notable capacity for commitment to people or causes, for taking responsibility, and for having an ethical outlook.
• They are sympathetic and caring in their relationships.
• Their emotional life is rich, but approppriate.
• They are comfortable with themselves, others and the social universe they live in.

The high-IQ woman:

• Intellectual confidence
• They are fluent in expressing their thoughts, value intellectual matters, and have a wide range of intellectual and aesthetic interests.
• They also tend to be introspective, prone to anxiety, rumination, and guilt.
• Hesitate to express their anger openly (though they do so indirectly).

The emotionally intelligent woman:

• Tend to be assertive and express their feeling directly, and to feel positive about themselves; life holds meaning for them.
• Like the men, they are outgoing and gregarious, and express their feelings approppriately (rather than say, in outbursts they later regret); they adapt well to stress.
• Their social poise lets them easily reach out to new people; they are comfortable enough with themselves to be playful, spontaneous, and open to sensual experience.
• Unlike the women purely high in IQ, they rarely feel anxious or guilty, or sink into rumination.

Idyawati H.
Quoting Daniel Goleman (1995), “Emotional Intelligence why it can matter more than IQ”

Controlling figure and table placement in LaTeX

It can be frustrating trying to get your figures and tables to appear where you want them in a LaTeX document. Sometimes, they just seem to float off onto

via Controlling figure and table placement in LaTeX.