About “The Great ScrumMaster”

“The Great ScrumMaster” was recommended to me during an Agile workshop I attended several weeks ago. The book is not thick which mainly introduces how to become a great ScrumMaster through building a self-organised team. As Linda Rising suggests in the foreword of this book, “this is a guidebook along the path, the way, for ScrumMasters and Agile coaches“. However, I reckon that it is not only applicable to the people who work as ScrumMasters but also to the entire Scrum team.

There are three parts of the content of this book I have divided into roughly as follows: the ScrumMaster role, team building and the toolbox including useful methods, models and techniques that can be employed to help the team become better. From the ScrumMaster’s point of view, “The Great ScrumMaster” interprets the responsibilities of this role explicitly which are all around team building. And it provides various relevant models and methods for ScrumMasters to analyse, plan and implement. The reason why this book could be applicable to all members of the Scrum team is that it can help members to understand the purpose of applying Scrum, clarify the goals of the team, and identify the current situations accordingly, so as to collaborate with the ScrumMaster efficiently and effectively.

At the beginning of the book, the author exposes a rather common but serious phenomenon that the ScrumMaster is usually deemed as a valueless role subconsciously. I suppose there are two situations that cause this kind of bias. First, the team does not have a deep understanding of Scrum. Second, the ScrumMaster does not help the team reveal any apparent improvements. As a result, the role of ScrumMaster becomes formalistic and bureaucratic and may even turn to be mixed with other roles. For example, there is a person who works as the ScrumMaster, in the meantime, as the Product Owner of the team. In this manner, there would be a great conflict between business needs and team self-awareness.

This brings up a quite interesting topic, whether the ScrumMaster needs to be responsible for delivery. In this book, the author states that the ScrumMaster only needs to serve the team and determines the team’s self-organization as the ultimate goal (while I have some different understandings on this point of view, and I will explain it separately in another post). However, I cannot agree more about that encouraging self-organization is the ultimate goal of the ScrumMaster. In the Agile Principles, it is mentioned that “the best architectures, requirements and designs emerge from self-organising teams“. Only if the self-organised team owns the competency to accomplish the work and meet its goals efficiently and effectively. Additionally, there is a fact that needs to be highlighted:

Every self-organised team is self-organised only inside the given boundaries.

As I mentioned in An Overview of Agile, Agile is a set of ideological values that can not only improve productivity but also contribute to a better working environment. However, we should be aware that it would be impossible for teams and organisations to become Agile without applying any rules due to the complex circumstances. In fact, the widely-used Agile frameworks, like Scrum, have been proven as the powerful approaches to contribute to Agile culture. Therefore, defining boundaries is necessary for any Agile teams or organisations in order to achieve the values of Agile. With regard to the boundaries of Scrum, Zuzi (the author of “The Great ScrumMaster“) suggests “Scrum boundaries are determined by the process – limited by Sprint Goals, Backlogs, and delivering working product at the end“.

Scrum is not a methodology – it is a pathway.

Ken Schwaber (2005)

I always believe that a great ScrumMaster can be deemed to a great parent who takes the right way to educate their kids. Normal parents only teach their children in a way that they understand or feel is correct, but great parents will guide and facilitate their children according to the different stages of the children and current deficiencies. Kids will always grow up. It is very difficult to face this world independently if they always live under the protection of their parents. This view also coincides with the author of this book.

Unless the ScrumMaster gives the team the opportunity to take over these tasks, she ends up as their ‘mother’ who is so loving and caring that her ‘kids’ are low-confidence grown-ups, dependent on her even in their thirties

So, A Great ScrumMaster should

  1. believe in Agile and Scrum.
  2. believe in people.
  3. be a servant leader.
  4. focus on observing and listening first.
  5. aim to encourage self-organisation.
  6. try to change the world to be better.

关于《黑暗中的笑声》

很高兴又认识了一位来自俄国的伟大作家,虽然他之后去了其它国家。这是我在书荒的时候不经意时在网上了解到的大师,几乎所有人对他的评价都只剩夸赞,就像所有俄国作家都对普希金一样毫不吝啬地赞美。我很喜欢这本书的这个第二个名字,虽然在还没翻开阅读前因为这个名字让我对故事产生了误解,我本以为是一个关于即将度过黑暗时充满希望的笑声,可它却讲了一个悲剧收尾的狗血三角恋。

故事从欧比纳斯的生活开始,他是个特别有钱的人,是一个天真且无趣的富二代,在遇见玛戈(女主)他的人生就像“坐在黑洞洞的大厅里,活像一只呆鸟”。因此他希望在平淡的生活里找到一点激情,另一方面又十分依赖稳定的婚姻所带来的安全感。当他第一次与玛戈互动时就有个很有意思的描写,欧比纳斯努力偷偷脱下手上的戒指,试图隐瞒已经结婚的事实,但在脱下之后又觉得手指又轻又空,而戒指上还留着余温。

女主玛戈,在我心里是个恶魔派来勾引男人的女人,那个骗夏娃吃苹果的蛇。不过这都是靠她一步步“长大”造成的。十二岁时又一次在楼梯上从一个捡到的破手提包中看到了一块粘着卷曲的毛的香皂和几张奇怪的照片;十三岁时“着了魔似的爱看电影”,也许就是这时候从心里萌生了当电影明星都梦;十六岁时因为受到一位认识的姑娘的影响,也希望能当一名模特,首先这份工作能养活自己,其次觉得这个职业是成为电影明星的一个容易的开头,但也在这一年,她被一个骑摩托车的西班牙小伙子侵犯了;十七岁时成功成为了一名裸体模特,在工作时间里会为了解闷而勾引好看的男子,为了找点乐趣会提前化妆甚至给乳头涂上口红,但此时她有点意识到这条通往影星的路并不好走;同年她恋爱了,准确地来说其实也不算真正的恋爱,看了场歌剧,一个星期之后就睡在一起了,睡了一个月之后她的男朋友就跑了,顺便给她付了房租,因为没钱还陪了两个日本人和一个老头睡觉。与欧比纳斯相识的目的是认为他能带来金钱和关系,让她过上好的生活并且成为电影明星,但对于这个电影明星的梦想并没有在她的身上感受到强烈的渴望,反而那种天生擅于‘玩弄’男人的特质十分显眼,去欧比纳斯家中,故意将他锁在房里,频繁给他打电话,写信到他家。然而在玛戈的美色之下,这些有明显目的性的举动却得到了欧比纳斯默认的原谅,就算知道小舅子知晓也觉得“他也是男人,应该理解男人的处境”,就算因为妻子可能看到玛戈写的信而悲伤痛哭时,也会因为玛戈的吻而解除烦恼。而故事中三角恋的另一个主角,雷克斯相比之下目的显得更加单纯而又坚定,他只想要肉欲和金钱。

我最喜欢的是玛戈主演的电影首映的桥段,几乎全部角色都出现在电影院里,除了欧比纳斯可怜的妻子。当玛戈与观众们观看她出演的电影的首映时(按书中所描述的场景来看,玛戈事先并没有看过电影,这也是她第一次看到成片),对自己的表现十分不满意,甚至觉得羞愧。其实玛戈是一个有正常判断力的人,虽然一直沉溺在明星梦中,但在电影中每个片段都无时无刻将玛戈粗糙、呆板的演技展现在观众面前时,她也做出了与大家一致的判断。电影中的玛戈更接近于现实中最真实的她,或者说是未来中的她。年华就像包裹着她的一层密不透风的精致包装,可能在几年后的某一天晚上就突然降解了,没了这层包装后玛戈只剩下与她母亲及其相似的外貌和身材,这时候她那单纯到愚蠢的内心像是没了保护罩一般完全裸露在所有人面前,虽然看上去可怜,但并没有人想同情。电影一结束,玛戈就哭着跑了,她可不能忍受如此真实的自己被这么多人围观了一两个小时。

就像之前说过的我最开始的误解,让我一度认为整个故事中的每一次有关于“黑暗”的描写都有一个共同的隐喻,因此我还特地计算了一下“黑”在小说中出现的次数。虽然这个黑暗最终被男主的失明所定义,但整个故事本身展现的是从一种“黑暗”到另一种更加“黑暗”的过程。欧比纳斯那无趣的生活是黑暗的,因此他在黑暗中被玛戈的手电筒照亮。可这光给他带来了是短暂的明亮,以至于将其指引到更加黑暗的地方 – 家庭破裂,女儿夭折,倾家荡产,车祸失明,以及最终的死亡。所有人心中总有一片黑暗出现的时候,也总会有“一束光”的出现,一束“贪婪”的光的出现。那些诸如欧比纳斯的人们抵挡不住它的诱惑,即使知道光的尽头是更加恐惧的黑暗,却总幻想在下一步时自己一定能坚定地停下脚步。这让我想到爱德华兄弟小时候的错误选择,不惜触犯禁忌打开真理之门来尝试复活自己的母亲,可最终面对的是真理之门前来自神的玩笑,并付出了惨痛的代价。书中最后也提到了“代价”,欧比纳斯认为自己最终承受的痛苦来自自己犯下的那个愚蠢的错误,这就是他所要付出的代价。如果他在第一次想一枪杀了那个女孩的时候扣动扳机该多好。

关于《罪与罚》

其实这本书在我的书架上已经有几个年头了,最近让我重新翻起这本书是因为另外一本诺贝尔文学巨匠鲍里斯·帕斯捷尔纳克的《日瓦戈医生》。虽然这是一本发生在上个世纪初的故事,但旧时代俄国的文学像一个充满魔力的世界不断吸引着我。

这本著作的灵感来源自当时的一起发生在法国的诉讼案,陀思妥耶夫斯基在自己主办的杂志上发表了对这起案件的看法:“卑劣的天性和对贫困的畏惧,使他变成一个罪犯,而他竟把自己说成是自己时代的牺牲品”。我想这也是他对《罪与罚》这个故事的主观说明。但在第一遍阅读此书时,直到我读到这本书的第六章(本书包含了六个正式章节以及尾声部分)之前,不知出于何种原因,我的内心一直不相信主人公是出于如此错误的且直接的观念。这种观念指的是书中所描述的拉斯科尔尼科夫提出“超凡的人”与“平凡的人”的理论。我想可能的原因有两个:第一,书中第一次描写罗佳对他的这种想法的内心感受是对于自己能有这种可怕的想法并且已经想了一个月感到“肮脏,下流,卑劣”。可与此同时他又被一股“无形的力量”所引导去将这种想法变成现实。而在这件事发生之后,他同样在自首和苟活之间摇摆不定。这让我觉得主人公可能是出于可能是出于其它更深层次的想法才会如此反复。可我未曾注意到的是,主人公的名字拉斯科尔尼科夫,俄文愿意是“分裂”,指具有分裂的性格。他不止善良,而且邪恶。第二,从拉斯科尔尼科夫的身上我看到了自己的影子。我想这是最重要的一点,我承认在自己的内心深处曾有过这种矛盾的想法,却不敢正视一个同我有一个想法的人竟会做出如此卑劣的行径。主人公所发生的故事就像是自己犯下的错,因此想拼命为自己辩解。有趣的是,最近深受大家喜爱的罗翔老师在前些天也做了一次关于这本书的分享,他提出了一个问题是:我们每个人是不是都有非常自我的时候。另外,当谈及这种“超人”主义理论时,大家总会想起尼采,可值得注意的是,这本书在尼采提出精英超人理论前就已经面世。其实有关这一类的话题常出现在各类动漫中,我第一个想到的是当年风靡一时并引起巨大讨论的《死亡笔记》,这是一个讲述在现实世界中一位男孩获得了一本一旦写上名字就会导致死亡的笔记,并借此笔记杀死那些逃避法律制裁的罪犯的故事。显然,从一开始的主观视角来看,这是一件大快人心的事情。但事实上这早已无视了人类的基本道德法则,任何一个人都不能拥有决定其他人生死的权利。另外一个类似的故事发生在近几年十分火爆的《复仇者联盟》系列电影中。但相比之下,《罪与罚》的故事更贴近现实,更能让我感受到那种身临其境的偏执和错误。因此,这本书给我最大的收获并不是让我意识到“超人”理论的谬误(至少虽然我曾有过类似想法,但始终认为社会基本道德是无法违背的),而是生而为人,对于理想的执着可以是偏执的,但在付出实践的过程中切勿忘记那些关心和愿意为你付出的家人和朋友,一个以自我为中心的、自私的理想和实现理想的过程是毫无意义的

这本书最吸引我的部分是第一章和第六章,这章分别主要描述了罗佳(主人公的小名)在实施犯罪前以及认罪时的心理活动,以及书中的每个主要角色的刻画。正如此书的译序中所说,陀思妥耶夫斯基在这本书中的非凡功力体现在人物刻画上。因此,我想主要基于这两章的内容,从我的主观视角讨论其中几个我最印象深刻的角色。

马尔梅拉多夫

九等文官,马尔梅拉多夫,俄文原意是”水果软糖“。他认为贫穷和酗酒并非罪恶,而行乞却是。理由是乞讨是对自己人格的出卖,精神的侮辱。但于此同时,因为他对自身以及家庭的不负责任,导致他与前妻所生的大女儿索尼娅被迫获得“黄色执照”来赚取支撑全家的生活费,并且水果软糖还从她那索要金钱用来继续喝酒。这是多么讽刺的一件事情,马尔梅多夫的形象从很多方面的矛盾点中被刻画得十分可怜却可恨:他爱自己的女儿,但他却宁愿让自己的女儿做出比行乞更加罪恶的同时出卖精神和肉体的事情;他爱现任的妻子以及他们的孩子们,却每天只能给她们带来更多的物质压力和精神折磨,“一个月前,当列别贾特尼科夫先生动手毒打我妻子的时候,我却酒醉醺醺地躺在床上,难道我就不感到痛苦吗?”、一边夸赞着自己的妻子并且深受苦难一边拿妻子的物品换酒。他“总是尽力设法为自己辩白,如果可能的话,甚至试图博得别人的尊敬”。可能我的目光着实太过短浅,在我看来马尔拉梅多夫的形象是这本书中最令人厌恶的。

拉祖米欣

书中初次对拉祖米欣的描写是:“善良到了憨厚的地步”,“他的酒量大得没谱,喝起来可以不休无止,但他也能滴酒不沾”,“任何失败也从来不会搅扰他内心的平静,任何恶劣的环境似乎也无法使他感到沮丧”。或许他并不能算是罗佳的对立面,而是一种超凡脱俗的人格的存在,一种绝对理想化的人物。因此,在我印象中拉祖米欣是这本书中唯一一个只“活在”书中的人。他与罗佳相识一年半,却愿意为这个自甘堕落并时常恶语相向的朋友牵肠挂肚。不像索尼娅,虽然在书里她是作为“神的信仰”一方的存在,可她所做的事情,例如为了维持家中生计选择出卖肉体,为了罗佳自愿跟随到远东监狱等等,都是来自她所处的社会、她所生在的家庭等多方面因素作为铺垫。我想,唯一一个让拉祖米欣看起来像“人”的地方在于他对杜尼娅的爱慕之情吧。

波尔菲里

这位负责这起凶杀案的警察局侦查科长的戏份在第六章才多了起来,并且几乎每次都是以与拉斯科尔尼科夫的交谈或者对峙的形式出现。在我看来波尔菲里代表着罗佳心中对基本伦理道德的恐惧和对“超人”理论的质疑的一面。

罗佳在事件后依然保持着缜密的思维和清晰的想法在某些事件上,包括和妹妹原未婚夫的首次见面(虽然确实因为他的心理混乱导致粗鲁的相处方式)以及还是彼得,陷害索尼娅时现场他的说词等。但他与波尔菲里的每次见面都十分紧张,相比之下,波尔菲里却表现出如常的轻松(可在警局他的办公室中,虽然也是如此,但是最后被男主发现了他也紧张到哆嗦)。过程中一直没有从波尔菲里的角度透露他对罗佳的看法,并且都是从罗佳的角度刻画他内心是如何怀疑波尔菲里看穿这一切的。在作者不断描写罗佳精神上的强烈活动的对比下,以及他们每次交谈的过程中罗佳的愤怒和波尔菲里的圆滑,让人在阅读的过程中一直担心他说设想的一切会不会像上面所提到的那些事件一样正确,还是说他与罗尔菲里的对决只存在于他自己的脑子里。在波尔菲里提出关于罗佳逃跑的可能性时,他自答罗佳肯定不会做出这种事。只有“庄稼汉会逃跑,时髦的教派信徒会逃跑”,因为他们是别人思想的奴隶。与其说是托尔菲里攻破了这起案件,更像是罗佳自己内心深处的挣扎的结果。托尔菲里从毫不知情到最终的真相揭晓,他都像是一个倾听者和引导者,使罗佳一次次主动透露线索。

维斯德里盖洛夫

这是我最喜欢的角色。

第六章之前他基本上都是在别人的描述中存在的角色,从拉斯科尔尼科夫的母亲以及妹妹的信里、话语里开始。在罗佳的母亲的信中交代了杜尼娅所遇到的痛苦经历的经过,这让人先入为主的认为维斯德里盖洛夫是个彻底的混蛋。可最后提到正是因为维斯的“幡然悔悟”,才交出了证明杜尼娅清白的关键证据,一封杜涅奇卡为了拒绝维斯的信。维斯真是出于“怜悯杜尼娅”而这么做的吗?一种可能是他原本根本不想让杜尼娅遭罪,因为他是真的爱她。

在波尔菲里直接在他面前表明情况后,罗佳的第一个想法是去找维斯德里盖洛夫,有两方面原因,第一他将能为自己逃脱责任的最后机会寄托在这个混蛋身上,第二是为了警告他消除对杜涅奇卡的幻想,希望能在最后替妹妹解决这个潜在风险。这次见面没有过多的对罗佳的心理描写,不不像之前见面中那些气愤、憎恶等情绪不断的显露,就算听到维斯德里盖洛夫说起他混蛋的往事以及他和杜涅奇卡之前发生的纠葛。这显然对于通篇故事多数时间都在暴躁焦虑情绪下的主人公显得十分奇怪,如果说真是因为罗佳贪生,虽然说得过去但是这未免显得太低俗。因此在他们整个对话过程中我反而更希望罗佳能像第一次与维斯德里盖洛夫见面时宣泄着直接且饱满的厌恶。

维斯德里盖洛夫可以算是一个普通人或者说普通读者,从他的角度看待罗佳的行为和想法属于浮于事实最上层的内容,即使他同样偷听到罗佳向索尼娅说述说的真是心理想法和变化过程。维斯将罗佳杀死她们的全部原因描述成抢劫财物,当然这是既定事实的一部分,罗佳在杀人之后第一件事就是搜寻高利贷老太太的财产和那些抵押品。不过这也是正常人以及现代正常社会对待一件杀人抢劫案最真实的想法表达,即使杀人犯有多伟大或者多卑微的理由,最终结果永远不可否认。这也是折磨罗佳的其中一个原因,他的心理状态在作为拿破仑和一只蚂蚁之间往复徘徊,而这不断变化的过程正是他本身对于是否有人能凌驾于社会法则之上这个问题的思考。
对于偷听来的罗佳的内心想法,维斯则理解为如果做一件坏事就能成全一百件好事的话,那么这便是无可厚非的。对于平凡的人和非凡的人(尼采)的分类的理解,维斯同样显得浅显且武断,而这只是罗佳在同波尔菲里的辩论中波尔菲里同样提出的疑问观点。最终,他把这些罗佳的自我理论归咎于虚荣心和自尊心作祟并且只是一个自命不凡的伪天才。

在与杜尼娅说明情况后同时提出了解决方案,可条件是得到杜尼娅。面对杜涅奇卡的威胁,他却一直在诉说往日与她相处时自己的感受。对于杜尼娅而言,他所描述的只不过是自己意淫出的情感,但从维斯的回忆中透露的更多的是他心中对美好的杜尼娅的向往。在得到坚定的拒绝后他选择从心里放走她。照着他过往的‘事迹’来看并不像是一个能做出果断放弃的人。在杜涅奇卡丢掉手枪后有一段对维斯的心里描写:“似乎有诗萌东西已下载从他的心头掉下来了,也是这不仅仅是死亡恐惧的重压,而且此时此刻他未必会产生这种感觉。这是摆脱了另一种更悲伤、更阴郁的感觉之后的一种心情,他自己也无法完全弄清”,我想正是因为他体会到了某种心情才促使杜尼娅能在关键时刻逃脱,而这种心情在后面维斯的经历中逐渐揭晓。在阿德里亚诺波尔酒店中的夜晚,维斯做了两个截然相反的梦。在前半夜的梦里,梦在温暖美丽的环境中中开始,各式鲜花占据了环境描写的一半笔墨,这些花儿象征着他这一生中所爱慕过的、追求过的、交合过的女人们。但在鲜花丛中却躺着一个心早已破碎的小女孩,这很容易和因为他而遭污蔑的杜尼娅联系起来。维斯对杜尼娅的感情早已超越他所经历的所有女人,可没想到却给心爱的女人带来灾难。第二个梦是关于照顾一个可怜的五岁小女孩,这在他心里是女人们纯洁而又柔弱的象征。在他心生怜悯伸出双手后,女孩却将俗媚和淫秽完全袒露在他面前。可正是这些他往常所沉迷的所享受的,在此时却极其抗拒和反感。过往的经历后,在维斯的心里更奢望的是女人所发出的单纯明亮的光芒。而在追求这个光芒的最后一次尝试失败后,他更想做的是尽早逃离这个充满诱惑而又恶心的世界。最后在阿喀琉斯的见证下顺利地去了美国。他的故事在书中末尾才算真正开始,可结束地十分利落。

拉斯科尔尼科夫

看了两遍后,我对拉斯科尔尼科夫的印象“大有改观”。现在我对罗佳的印象是:70%生气+胡思乱想、20%生病+睡觉+胡思乱想、10%善良。

这里我想特别说明一下我对罗佳“善良”这一品格的看法。首先先把我认为的占最少部分的善良罗列一下:1. 罗佳在送水果软糖回家后离开前给他们一家留下了一把铜币,虽然他马上因为考虑到自己的处境而感到后悔,但又想到索尼娅和他们一家的情况,最后还是认为自己的做法是正确的;2. 掏钱为差点被侵犯的年轻姑娘叫马车;3. 去找拉祖米欣的路上喝醉酒在灌木丛中做的梦:孩童的他遇见众人在折磨一只拉着大车的小母马,罗佳对于母马的遭遇十分不忍;以及在别人口中所提及的之前在火灾中救人等等。但在我看来,其中一半的善良并非值得称赞的事情,至少包括全部慷慨解囊的故事。正如书中所描述的社会背景以及拉斯科尔尼科夫的出身,他的家庭并非富裕,甚至可以说是贫困潦倒。他的父亲早已过失,母亲靠着政府一年发的一百多卢布生活,妹妹因为工作受到误解和诬陷,最后甚至差点被迫嫁给了一个彻头彻尾的混蛋,罗佳自己也只能苟活在一间“船舱”里并且长期拖欠房租。可反观罗佳,他拿着妹妹和母亲挤出来的钱不顾后果地救济他人,甚至施舍给一面之缘的妓女。我当然认为乐于助人是美好品德,也认为那些为了他人无私奉献自己的人十分伟大值得尊敬。但罗佳在帮助那些“需要帮助”的人时从未考虑过自己周围的人,并且每次的“帮助”都是那么不顾后果的“大方”。难道为了救助别人而理直气壮拖欠房租的人、为了帮助别人而让自己的家人受苦的人、为了帮助别人而连朋友的救助都不值得感恩的人值得值得称赞他的善良吗?

再谈为何我对拉斯科尔尼科夫如此厌恶,仅次于对水果软糖的厌恶之情。这些都是发生在我看完第六章之后的想法。

在卢仁与罗佳的第一次见面时,卢仁为了彰显自己,表达了一段感言。其中他说到:“我仅仅为自己发财致富,实际上也是为大家发财致富”。虽然罗佳和拉祖米欣对他的言论,甚至从根本上来说,对他这个人从一开始就没有好感,但卢仁所表达的这一观点实际上与罗佳不谋而合。罗佳在谈话最后的结论是:“把您刚才兜售的那种理论稍加引申,结论就是:杀人是可以的”。事实上,我们看到的是罗佳将自己视为“超凡的人”,认为自己有能力改变社会现状,让广大民众受益。这表达在他对杀死老寡妇姐妹的目的上,他认为这个对社会毫无贡献的蝼蚁如果能死去,那么那些受她压迫的人们就有了翻身机会。可说到底,在我看来这只是他满足私欲的一个说辞,为了自己的生活,为了尊严,为了家人。并且罗佳在这自圆其说的大道理中越陷越深。

我对他为什么选择只向索尼娅倾诉一切,主观认为是在他心中索尼娅和他一样是在为他人而牺牲自己的,从另一个角度来说,他认为索尼娅是污秽的,有罪的,他们是同一种人。在杜尼娅在罗佳面前提到洗清罪行,罗佳的反应让我失望透顶。他认为“这只是一种笨拙的行为”。“我杀死的事一只可恶的、十分有害的虱子,是一个对任何人都没有益处的放高利贷的老太婆,一个饱吸穷人献血的吸血鬼,杀了她,四十桩罪都可以赎清,这也能算罪行嘛?”。“我干这件蠢事,只不是过想使自己赢得自立,跨出第一步,筹足经费,然后就用无数的好事来弥补”。此时在我眼里原本不愿相信的一个极端自我的人展露无遗,我并不认为他是一个可怜的人,而作为他的亲人朋友才是真正可怜的。维斯在他的对比下反而显得富有担当。与此同时有个疑问在我心中产生,为什么他在与母亲交谈时却请求母亲能在上帝面前为他祈祷,他想从祈祷中获得什么呢?既然并不承认自己的罪行,那也没有请求上帝宽恕这一说。

无论杀人的这个想法在罗佳最后的描述中有多么伟大,就像是自己在成为拿破仑的路上捏死一只蝼蚁一般,但其实部分原因总能归结到他的自私和偏执上。在看完母亲的来信后,从他的判断中得出的结论是不能让妹妹因为母亲的生活和自己的未来而牺牲这一生。可他也十分清醒地意识到当下自己对这一切的无力,他认为以现在的状态无法兑现对家人的美好承诺,不过我认为这是他“自以为的”。此时玛尔拉梅多夫的关于“走投无路”的问题像是在干燥森林中出现的那一点火星,让罗佳点燃了那个荒谬做法的决心。其实从这方面看来,罗佳和马尔拉梅朵夫的共同点显而易见。他们虽然意识到了当下的困境,却依然沉浸在过往的辉煌中;他们虽然从心里爱着自己的家人,但又无法做出因为家人而努力的进步,更不用说那份决心。所以,他们最终都选择了最为自私却又冠冕堂皇的方式,并认为这是“无路可走”时的唯一的选择。


2020年5月23日凌晨2点26分,吃完宵夜后。

关于拉斯科尔尼科的想法和行为我又有了另一种思考方式,这是一道电车难题

关于电车难题的真正了解的时间是在去年其中一门研究生课程,当时引起我极大的兴趣并且已经准备好写一篇关于这个问题的思考的文章,虽然由于各种原因至今还没写好。言归正传,我所理解的罗佳的想法的前提可以类比成一边是绑着年老体弱并且依靠放高利贷压榨百姓的老太太和一边绑着众多被生活所迫,被社会现状所迫,而且还被老太太欺压的人们,当然其中也包括了主人公本人。无论是出于道德主义还是功利主义的角度作出选择的话,其实罗佳的选择可以说是“最优”的解决方案。但我想罗佳的这一想法前提本身就不成立。首先,如果让电车驶向老太太的话,那么另一个轨道上的人们理应得到拯救。可现实并非如此,上方也提到,造成人们以及罗佳自己的生活困境的根本原因并非由老太太单方面构成,因此即使杀死了老太太也最多只能解决不用还高利贷的这个问题,可困苦的生活依然在继续。再则,依然是“超人”理论的不适用性。拉斯科尔尼科夫作为一个普通人,并没有权利从主观选择电车的方向。这也是我对电车难题的大致观点,对我来说这是一道我没有办法解决的问题。


书中一些有趣的观点

  • “人在病态中的梦境往往异常鲜明、清晰,并且与现实生活惊人地相似。有时会出现极其可怕的情景,但这情景及整个发展过程却如此真实可信,并且带着一个个如此逼真准确、出人意料而又很艺术地与整个情景十分吻合的细节,以致做梦着即使是像普希金或屠格涅夫那样的艺术家,在醒着的时候也无法构想出这样的细节。”
  • “只要喝一杯啤酒,吃一小片面包干,立刻就会精神健旺,思路清晰,意志坚强”
  • 谵妄:一种以兴奋性增高为主的高级神经中枢急性活动失调状态,在仪式清晰度降低的同时,出现定向力和自我认识障碍,并产生大量的幻觉、错觉。临床主要表现为意识模糊、注意力变差、定向力丧失、感觉错乱、躁动不安、言语杂乱、睡眠-清醒周期混乱,常常伴随着妄想(例如相信有人要害他)、幻觉(例如看到不存在的东西,过世的亲友)。这是卡斯科尔尼科夫在杀害伊万诺夫娜姐妹且昏睡醒来后的 状态。
  • “胡说八道是人类在所有生物中享有的唯一的特权。胡说八道是通向真理的途径!”
  • “最后便使出了堪称万应灵丹的一个征服女人心的最高明的绝招,这个绝少从不会让任何人失望,而且对任何人都绝对管用,无一例外。这个绝招五人不知,它就是阿谀奉承。” (21世界有一个新的词汇用来形容这种绝招:舔狗)

关于《管理的实践》

其实在这两年的学习过程中,无论是学校中的管理课程,抑或是额外的项目管理、敏捷开发等课程,在教材或者案例中都会提及彼得·德鲁克所说过的话。很可惜的是直到现在才真正入门了这位现代管理学之父所构建的管理学知识。得知这本书是因为我很喜欢的一位老师,余亮老师的一档节目《从书说起》。其中一集的标题和封面非常让我想知道余亮老师是通过哪本书回答这个在2019年特别有话题性的事件。这集的标题是《遇到一个会管理的好领导,才是真正的“福报”》。遗憾的是余亮老师并没有给出他对这个事件的看法和解答,但很幸运的是我收获了这本书。

视频的刚开头,很多人都提出了一个相同的问题:管理不是领导的事吗?余亮老师的回答是:每个人都需要判断自己的领导是否是一个合格的管理者。他作为一位非专业的管理人员,从这本书中收获的是:如何做判断,如何判断他人,判断自己,判断事情,判断问题。正如德鲁克先生在序中所说的,他希望通过尽量简单通俗的语言让读者能深刻理解管理学在实践中的应用。显然,这本出版在上个世纪五十年代的著作不仅成功帮助了全世界的管理者和企业,也帮助了各行各业的人们,并且至今都非常受用。德鲁克先生使用了丰富的实际案例来解释他的理论,几乎穿插在书中的每一章节。例如余亮老师提及的“西部铁路恐怖案件”,“每天早上谁下楼买咖啡”和“IBM”的创新等。而给我留下最深刻的印象的是二战后某国如何保障就业的例子。这个故事讲的是由于战后经济崩溃,政府颁布了一项法令,规定除非企业面临严重的经济困境,否则严禁雇主解雇正是员工。这本是一项最直接的保障就业的方式,可结果却适得其反。由于这个政策,导致企业或者公司不敢雇佣员工,从而放弃了许多拓展市场、企业规模的机会。当我们对问题做出应对措施时,需要从目标入手,并且需要衡量解决方案可能带来的后果,而不是直观的认为从方法上最直观的方案就是最有效,有时可能会加剧了问题的严重性。当然,从这本书中我所收获的不止是管理学的入门知识,我想更多的是其它方面的感悟。

其中对我启发最大的是,如何思考问题。首先,正如德鲁克先生所说的“目标管理”,分析问题需要抓住核心,思考需要围绕问题要解决的目标。其次,应从多角度思考问题,正如在谈论企业的管理时,应当从企业、管理者、员工三方面进行剖析。我想如果以后有人问我项目管理是什么时,我应该会从对企业、项目以及项目成员等角度进行回答。

第二个启发是回答了一个现实生活中大家非常习以为常的问题:为什么要工作?在这之前,我所接触到的同事、朋友,对于这个问题的回答无一不是为了收入为了提高生活水平。但德鲁克先生非常明确地帮我从内心深处挖出了想要的答案:工作不只为了物质收入,还有在职位上发挥所长,建立地位、通过公平的升迁机会实现社会正义以及做有意义有价值的事。

再则,因为对自己未来的职业规划,这本书帮我系统地总结了作为一名合格的管理者需要的能力。管理者最应当具备正直的品格,分析能力,综合能力以及想象力。德鲁克多次强调了诚实正直的品格对管理岗位的重要性。‘管理者不只通过知识、能力和技巧来领导部属,同时也通过愿景、勇气、责任感和诚实正直的品格来领导’。并且想象力在决策过程尤为重要,由于决策的目的是解决问题,但决策人无法在获得所有信息而做出100%正确的决策。因此在基于最重要的信息获取后,决策人应当根据合理的想象制定可行性的解决方案。提及决策,决策(28章)不仅是管理者应当具备的能力,每个行业每个岗位甚至每个普通人都应当学习。这是一种分析并解决问题的重要能力。

最后,虽然现在的我也没有能力完整地阐述开头所说的对去年很火的那个话题的见解,但从这本书中我找到了不少对于这方面的明确表达。在此斗胆引用:

  1. “一个人如果‘只为公司而活’,那么他的人生实在太狭隘了”
  2. “管理者受企业委托管理,同样应当履行其社会责任”
  3. “针对每个政策和每个决定,企业管理者都应该自问:如果产业界的每个人都这么做,大众会有什么反应?如果这种行为代表一般的企业行为,会对社会大众产生什么影响?”
  4. 企业对社会的其中一个责任:“不可以对公民不当施压,要求员工绝对的忠诚”
  5. “公司不能自称(绝对不可自称)是员工的家、归宿、信仰、生命或命运。公司也不可以干预员工个人的私生活或者员工的公民权”
  6. 等等。

当提及如何解决此类问题时,德鲁克先生的看法是:“设法让能增进公众利益的事情也成为企业的自我利益”。我想造成这个问题的根本原因可能并不在于企业本身,还有国家、社会、文化等众多因素的影响。但不可否认的是所造成的结果的严重性。我们能做的是不断学习,不断思考,为自己的理想生活努力,为社会贡献绵薄之力。至此,我已看完了《管理的实践》的中文版本,接下来我将继续阅读这本著作的英文原版,希望能得到更多的启发和想法。

下图是我整理的书中主要内容的概要。

Efficient vs. Effective

One of the Principles of Agile Manifesto is:

The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face communication.

When I try to keep memorise these principles, it’s always the best way to understand the real meanings of each of them in practice before keeping them in mind. However, these two words, ‘efficient’ and ‘effective’, have confused me for a while. One reason is that they both represent the meaning of ‘with great effect’ in Chinese when I use most translation applications. So let’s grasp the distinction between them.

First of all, the definitions of them in Oxford English Dictionary are shown below.

Efficient:

achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense.

Effective:

successful in producing a desired or intended result.

We can see that ‘efficient’ is used to describe a kind of status of the process, while ‘effective’ focuses more on the result.

Then, based on it, these two words may be easily associated associate with ‘Doing the right things and doing the things right’ literally. In this manner, we can say ‘doing the right things’ is effectiveness and ‘doing the things right’ is efficiency. However, when you are doing the right thing, you cannot 100 per cent sure that you are doing it well. Also, when you are doing a thing well, it doesn’t mean that this thing is meaningful to you. There are some examples presented as following.

  • With his power, Mumen Rider could not transport all injured people to the hospital effectively, while organised rescue operations efficiently.
  • Genos can effectively defeat the monster with his trick, but he needs to spend a lot of time to accumulate energy to use the trick, which is not efficient.
  • Saitama has become too powerful as that he can defeat any monster in the most efficient and effective way – just with a single punch.

In addition, I also found the episode Effective – Efficient. They mean different things in English, which is very helpful to understand the meanings of ‘efficient’ and ‘effective’.

Risk Management for Bilibili(2019) – Exploring a Risk Management Plan

All reference resources used are before 2019, the ‘current’ mentioned below refers to the beginning of 2019, and the ‘future ‘refers to the second half of 2019 and beyond.


As I mentioned in the previous post, we can see that the company has always placed content in a critical position. On the other hand, there were many incidents in the online entertainment industry that suffered from penalties because of content quality issues in China. Hence, the quality of the content is one of the clearest and urgent risks that could be encountered for Bilibili. In the following content, I attempt to use BowTie XP to explore current and improved risk management plans to reduce this risk respectively. And only some typical threats and consequences in each figure are introduced detailly.

Existing Risk Management Plan

the BowTie map of the existing risk management plan

The above BowTie figure indicates the causes and results of the content quality problem, according to the data, news, laws, government policies, company terms and so forth I have collected. Consequently, the hazard could be defined as ‘Operating the content in the platform’. And the top event is ‘illegal or inappropriate content posted’.

Threats

one of the threats

One of the most obvious threats I set introduces that ‘content providers ignore or comply with the requirement intentionally’. In one of the cases that would lead to this situation, some content creators would like to have more traffic by posting illegal content. In order to handle the problems, Bilibili set up the membership exam from 2013, which means only the users pass this exam, then they can upload content. And another barrier indicates that only certified content providers can upload the specific type of content, such as political information.

Consequences

one of consequences

One consequence is if users saw inappropriate content, they may reduce their engagement and loyalty. For example, a well-known former poster of Bilibili was exposed in the video content and comments he posted in 2018 that there were several sexual harassments and homophobic inappropriate information. This incident caused many users to doubt the website’s review and management mechanism at the same time as they resisted this poster. As a result, the platform was punished by relevant departments and its reputation was damaged. There are three barriers I found for this situation. Firstly, deleting this content as soon as possible. Secondly, Bilibili provides the report system. And the last measure is content providers who have posted illegal or inappropriate content would be sent to Xiaoheiwu temporarily or permanently to limit them to use the website.

Improved Risk Management Plan

the BowTie map of the improved risk management plan

The new risk management plan above has been improved based on the existing plan and multiple potential factors. So the hazard and event kept unchanged. Some new threats, consequences and the barriers could be found in the map, highlighted by red rectangles, that are introduced as follows respectively.

Threats

Threats of the improved plan – 1

Laws and regulations changing could be a threat. But for most normal companies, they don’t have enough money to form their own legal departments. Considering the growing number of users of Bilibili.com and the huge potential of its marketplace as mentioned in the previous post, the company should consider the formation of an internal legal department in the future to handle the risks by business growth.

Threats of the improved plan – 2

And some techniques could help to improve the efficiency of content review, such as artificial intelligence. 

Consequences

Consequences of the improved plan – Part 1

For the consequences, in order to avoid losing money, the company could buy some business assurances, while the commercial assurance system is not perfect enough in China.

Consequences of the improved plan – Part 2

The worst consequence I can think of is Bilibili has to shut down the platform permanently. But I have no idea about how to make a barrier for it.

Risk Management for Bilibili(2019) – Identifying Risks

All reference resources used are before 2019, the ‘current’ mentioned below refers to the beginning of 2019, and the ‘future ‘refers to the second half of 2019 and beyond.


IRM

Based on the collected information, the four major risks of Bilibili are classified and shown as the mind map above. The arrows among them represent the relationship of influencing among each risk. The major risks have been identified and discussed as follows.

  1. Distribution of income. The company prospectus(2018) shows the percentage of profit from mobile games increased by year, which are 65.7%, 65.4% and 83.4%  of the total net revenue from 2015 to 2017 respectively. During this period, Bilibili did not invest much budget in the mobile games market, thereby the number and size of mobile games Bilibili owns were not large. In addition, all of those mobile games Bilibili owns were offered from third-party game developers and publishers. However, there were significant returns brought by mobile game products and services. Especially in 2017, two of the games have a particularly strong income, which accounted for 71.8% and 12.7% of the total revenue from mobile games. While revenue from mobile games fell back to 61.7% (103.7 million US dollar) of the total net revenue (168.1 million US dollar), it increased by 15% compared to the same period of 2017 (90.2 million US dollar) (according to the data from Bilibili Investor Home). 
  2. Technology competence. A recent study(Kang et al., 2015) shows that it is widely believed that the Internet is a simple service system due to the degree of cash technology education. This allows users to carry more privacy protection options in the absence of understanding. Hence, any mistakes in platform network security can have a significant adverse impact on our business, operations and reputation, given the extreme trust of such users. Technologies could support operations and review content, reducing risk due to operational errors or content non-compliance.
  3. Monitoring by the regulators. There were two events of penalties by the Chinese government in the history of Bilibili, which happened in 2012 and 2018 respectively (Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, TV, Film, Press and Publication Bureau, 2012 and The China Media Project, 2018). The reasons for them were both because of the violation of the regulations. Therefore, if the videos, games and other content formats in the Platform are deemed to be in violation of any laws or regulations of the People’s Republic of China, the business, financial condition and results of operations of Bilibili may be materially and adversely affected.
  4. Quality of content provided in the platform. the prospectus of Bilibili (2018) points out that the PUG content attracts more users to the platform. In 2017, PUG video views accounted for 85.5% of its total video views, compared with 74.5% in 2016. However, the quality and quantity of the PUG content cannot be controlled effectively because the content is produced by users. The quality of the content will affect the number of users. Once the number of users declines, the company’s revenue will be affected. Moreover, the quality of the content also affects the regulatory results of government regulators, community culture and brand reputation. These aspects will directly affect the company’s revenue and development.

SWOT

Internal

External

PESTEL

Risk Matrix

There are reasons for the positioning of each risk as follows. 

  1. Distribution of income. As mentioned above, the revenue from mobile games accounted for a significant proportion of the total net revenue from 2015 to 2018. However, Bilibili has built a partnership with a number of famous game developers since 2018, such as GREE and Tencent.
  2. Technology competence. The population of active users of Bilibili has been over 77.5 million per month since 2018 (according to Simple investor). If the service is unavailable or security issues due to technical reasons, the company’s revenue and reputation will suffer huge losses. However, Bilibili mentions that there is almost no such problems have occurred since the operation of the platform.
  3. Monitoring by the regulators. Two serious penalties occurred in the company’s history, resulting in property damage and platform rectification.
  4. Quality of content provided in the platform. Bilibili announced that the size of the content acceptance team would be increased. However, even with a large number of manual acceptance, there is no guarantee that the quality of a large amount of content will be fully guaranteed.

Risk Management for Bilibili(2019) – Overview

This is actually a study topic in my master’s period. The relevant course is about business risk management, mainly by learning methods, frameworks of risk management and practise on real business projects or companies. Secondly, Bilibili, as an Internet platform that I have been using all the year-round and one of the ideal employment companies for me in the future, has become my research object in this practice. So I would like to introduce and review the contents of this meaningful practice (All reference resources used are before 2019, the ‘current’ mentioned below refers to the beginning of 2019, and the ‘future ‘refers to the second half of 2019 and beyond).


Bilibili is the first iconic online entertainment brand for young people in the People’s Republic of China. The company has been providing a content community based on animation and professional user-generated (PUG) video since 2009 and went public in the US in 2018. Bilibili points out that their strategies are to improve the content offerings and user experience on the platform and to enhance technologies and other relevant capabilities. According to Bilibili’s only one clear mission which is to enrich the daily life of Chinese young people, their target market is the online entertainment industry and the user positioning aims for Generation Z, which refers to individuals born from 1990 to 2009 in China. iResearch shows that China’s online entertainment industry market arrived at RMB205.8 billion as of the end of 2016 and kept a growing trend. CNNIC presents the result that the number of Internet users who were aged 10-39 in China accounted for 75.0% of the total number of Chinese netizens by December 2017, which reached 579 million. Moreover, the market share contribution to the online entertainment industry of the major part of them who were born between 1990 and 2009 is expected to increase from 45.8% in 2014 to 54.8% in 2017. iQIYI is a leading online entertainment platform, operating the largest TV video streaming service in China. Alexa has revealed the result that the traffic rank of the iQIYI website is 30 in China, which is the closest rank to Bilibili website (17) as the online entertainment platform. Hence, iQIYI is one of the main competitors of Bilibili in the Chinese market.

Bilibili Inc. has been operating its main product which is an online entertainment website ‘Bilibili.com’. It mainly targets young users, with ACG(Anime, Comic, Game) as the main content in the early stage. After more than a decade of development, content themes now cover many areas, including music, movies, science and technologies, lifestyle, games, and more. Bilibili also offers live streaming services in the form of streamers. Typically the topic is anime, daily life, game strategy, etc. It is a remarkable fact that most of the content is created and uploaded by users independently, which guarantees the diversity and creativity of the content. Apart from hosting content, the core feature of Bilibili is a subtitle comment system which displays user comments as streams of moving subtitles on a video playback monitor which are visually similar to a shooter game by ‘Danmu’. That is the name of these subtitles in Chinese. These subtitles are simultaneously transmitted in real-time to all viewers and create an experiential chat room in which users want to watch and play together. This highly interactive viewing experience increases user stickiness greatly. Due to the good market positioning and these novel and attractive features, the number of users has kept growing year by year.

However, because of the continuously growing number of users and market demand, and other uncontrolled factors like the policy terms, challenges and uncertainties keep increasing as well. The company has a detailed discussion of these in the prospectus(2018). The following roadmap shows the structure based on the detailed content of the prospectus, and each node is indexed by the page number for reading easily.

The structure of Bilibili Prospectus(2018)

Common Communication Sentences in English

CASUAL

FORMAL

Greeting

  • Hello.
  • Hi.
  • Good morning. / Good evening.

Greeting Questions

  • How are you?
  • How are you doing?
  • How are you feeling?
  • How are things going?
  • How have you been?
  • How is everything?
  • What’s up?
  • What are you up to? / What have you been up to?
  • How do you do?
  • How do you fare?
  • How are you getting on?
  • Are you well?

Showing own opinions

  • I reckon…
  • As far as I can tell,
  • As I see it,
  • I would say…
  • To me,
  • I feel that…
  • Personally speaking,
  • In my view,
  • To my mind,
  • As far as I’m concerned,
  • It seems to me that…

Apologies

  • I owe you an apology for…
  • I take full responsibility for my action.
  • It was wrong of me.
  • It was thoughtless of me.
  • I sincerely apologise.
  • I hope you can forgive me.

Farewell

  • Bye!
  • See you later. / See you soon.
  • See you. / See ya.
  • I’m heading off.
  • I’m going to make a move.
  • I must be going.
  • Take care.
  • It was nice to see you.
  • Stay in touch.

About my impression of English education in China

This was a serious question for me how to use ‘though’ or ‘then’ at the end of a sentence.

Cos all of my English teachers did not teach me about it before. You can see that at least in the period of my studying in China, the education system, the schools and the society did not pay more attention to improving students’ oral English skills. I can remember that before I attended my college, there was only one very odd method to do oral English practice, which was reading the English articles, together, in almost every morning. And the teachers always mainly focus on teaching English words, grammar and even the skills for answering questions of exams. Cos there is a very important exam series happens every year and the English exam only consists of listening, reading and writing, NO SPEAKING. Of course, every student would like to have a high score, so speaking? how cares. Even in my college academic life, every English exam has the same situations. Until I was preparing the IELTS exam, I found that it was so difficult for me to speak English. Maybe it was my fault, I did not study hard, while the English teaching style in China was definitely wrong, even if there are several reasons which lead to this result I could understand.

Anyway, now I can grasp that

though: however

then: therefore

when they are placed at the end of a sentence.

E.g. I really like living in Xiamen; there are so few opportunities to find a profitable job there though.

Reference

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/1535_questionanswer/page29.shtml