I’ve got rather bored of work lately — long hours, few patients, repetitive life, … That’s why I decided to take a few days off. Actually, that wasn’t a very long holiday — just three days, but that’d be enough to recharge myself, hopefully.

And it was. I did nothing on Thursday, went to the countryside on Friday, and visited the museum on Saturday. The thing is, I found that I don’t have to go away from this city to recharge myself. I just have to forget about work, forget about being in the suffocating city, and forget about my repetitive life, then I’ll feel good about myself.

What is my “art of taking breaks” then? Well, it wouldn’t be art if we don’t literally have some art, so I decided to see a contemporary art exhibition at MoA that I’ve longed for. As always, my own site gets exclusive pictures. Here you go.

http://www.facebook.com/artmaphkcaa

I think I’ve said multiple times that I don’t comment on tech. But guess what? Amid all those adverse “news” against Apple, especially among the Chinese media, I’d like to talk a bit about tech today.

The Hong Kong media seems to be advocating a wrong concept that Apple is on its decline; that the iPhone 5s isn’t selling well because black market price doesn’t match that of the iPhone 5; no one is buying the iPad Air because it isn’t innovative.

But guess what? The fact is the contrary. Ask anyone who has got his hands on the new iPad Air, and you’ll get positive comments like “it’s extremely well built, unlike any iPads Apple has ever created”. And on the black market price? First of all trading iPhones on the black market isn’t right. Why on earth would anyone sell these lovely devices that are milestones of human civilization to people on mainland China who have no taste at all? And, the fact that price is governed by two factors — supply and demand — must not be forgotten. Why can’t the fall of black market price, and even the improved availability of the 5s from Apple be attributed to a matured supply chain thanks to its predessor, the iPhone 5, which essentially has the same industrial design, being already manufactured for a whole year? The fact that we get unprofessional and erroneous reports from journalists further mark the fact that #thiscityisdying.

No, I’m not a fanboy. I’m just a down-to-earth person who embraces the best technology available. For the past decade, and in the foreseeable future, the best technology (hardware and software integration) comes from Apple. Google deserves some credit for its excellent services. And Microsoft? It deserves a spot in hell. But if some day, Apple is no longer at the forefront of tech innovations, I’ll in no doubt say goodbye to Apple.

Written on my iPad

I’ve often wondered who my heroes might be in my ordinary life. I mean, I’m just an ordinary person working as a dentist, and I have little special interests. But thinking seriously I do have some. Let’s go over them one by one. I’ve learnt one thing though: to make a blog or newspaper column or whatever close to that sustainable, never write one long piece and then idle your platform for weeks. Split what you want to say and post them as a series. That’s exactly what I’m doing now.

First let’s define what a “hero” means to an ordinary person. A hero in a disaster movie, in short, is one who saves lives. So are heroes in our every day lives. Heroes save us from our boring routine. They change things, and by doing so our lives are enriched.

Steve Jobs is one great example. You may easily refer to his creations like iPhone, iPad and the Mac, or go further to the whole digital lifestyle he shaped. Yes, those are some examples how Steve enriched our lives. But there’s much more than that why Steve Jobs is a hero.

For one, Steve Jobs was “cross-platform”. Although Apple softwares and hardwares, and even its services, were not exactly cross-platform, Steve Jobs himself was. He’s interested in tech, and he had exposure in arts and music. It was this combination that inspired him to create such products as iPods and iPhones that could integrate deeply with our daily lives.

Second, Steve had OCD. He paid great attention to details. This character might have been inherited from his adoptive father, Paul. In his biography, it was mentioned that Paul Jobs refused to use poor wood for the back of cabinets, or to build a fence that wasn’t constructed as well on the back side as it was the front. Steve brought that love of details to the design and manufacturing process of Apple products. In my own work this level of care is also important. Our big boss at HH always says doing 10 per cent better at one thing may not be significant, but if you do 10 per cent better at everything, 1.1 x 1.1 x 1.1… is huge, and our patients would notice the difference. He may be a layman and doesn’t know much about Dentistry, but his words sometimes make sense.

One more. Steve had blemishes in his life. Yes, heroes make mistakes too. His greatest mistake was probably his delay for treatment of his pancreatic cancer. When he was first diagnosed with cancer, his doctor told him it was a curable form of pancreatic cancer. For unknown reasons Steve decided against having surgery, and resorted to some absurd herbal medicine before he finally did the surgery nine months later. Had he got that surgery sooner, his cancer might not have metastasized and he could go on and on to revolutionize industries, one at a time. The message of this story is that heroes make (literally) fatal mistakes too. When we make mistakes, just take it easy, and try to remedy our wrongdoings. In case there is no antidote to our mistakes, try to do other good things. In Steve’s case, he accelerated development of the iPad after his second surgery, the liver transplant, and formally declared the coming of the post-PC era in 2010.

[TBC]

Life and death. These are the last thing that a dentist deals with in his everyday practice. But we do encounter some every once in a while.

About half a year ago, a patient came in complaining about gum swelling and swollen lymph node. Although the clinical presentation did not conform with routine dental problems, we were taught to apply the routine management first because common diseases are far more prevalent than rarer ones. I reviewed the patient twice in two consecutive weeks, but the lymph node swelling did not resolve, so I decided to refer the patient to a hospital for further check up.

The patient came back today for dental check up. He wore a mask, which isn’t common for dental patients unless they’ve a fractured incisor, so I asked what happened. It turned out he was diagnosed to have acute lymphoma (a type of cancer) in June, and is on chemotherapy now. The mask is to prevent infection since he has compromised immunity during chemotherapy. He said he didn’t go to the hospital right after my referral, but two months later he had lymph node swelling in other areas, so he went to have a check up, and the diagnosis was made.

What’s the implication of this story? For one, I feel limited as a dentist. There’re many things that we’ve learnt to do in dental school, but diagnosing cancer is not one of them. Seeing this patient’s misery I can’t help but wonder, could I have done better? What if I insisted that he must seek hospital care sooner? The whole story may become different had we done things differently.

But I think the more important implication of this story is one that is easier said than done: we’ve got to get the job done. When others call you “Doctor”, it represents a trust and delegation of responsibility. We may not know everything, but we’ve got to do the best within the reach of our abilities, yet at the same time be fully aware about what we don’t know and try to improve on those areas. This doesn’t only confine to life and death issues; it also applies on our every day work, like simple fillings, tooth extraction, and the like. Yes, dentistry is not about money. It’s about enriching people’s lives. Let’s do it.

September 1, this is the traditional day for a new beginning. New school year, new friends, new schedule, etc.. I’m not in school anymore, but I do have a new schedule and some new colleagues. Yes, for our company Sept 1 every year means seeing newbie dentists anxiously doing many things for the first time. I was exactly in that role last year. And as I saw a new colleague work today, I can’t help but feel grateful how far I have gone through from my starting point, yet at the same time wonder what lies ahead in this endless journey of clinical dentistry.

At the beginning of September 2012, I started working as a dentist. I thought I was well-prepared, but I was not. It took quite some time even to make mistakes, and then to adapt to mistakes, and then to try avoiding mistakes. I remember the thrill of success when I actually helped someone, and the dreadfulness when I was stuck into troubles. And all of a sudden those uncertainties of being new was gone, replaced by getting tired of long working hours and heavy workload. But then when you get your pay cheque, you know your hard work has paid off. Looking back, it really was quite a journey.

And what lies ahead? I don’t know. But I’m glad some qualities of being new has not gone – curiosity, paying attention to the minutest detail, patient-centred (not money-oriented) and scientific treatment planning, I still do those things these days, and I hope I always will.

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Speaking of curiosity, I have a new quote for myself lately:

“I’m a curious person – so curious many cats were killed.” Kevin Chan

On October 3, 2010 I wrote an entry about Starbucks, and it’s so interesting that it’s worth a revisit. The good news is, gone is that stupid policy. The bad news? It’s getting increasingly difficult to find a table at Starbucks.

October 3, 2010

… But today something even more ridiculous and unheard of happened: I was advised to leave and come again for revision at designated time. Apparently I have never encountered similar incidents at other Starbucks. This really surprised me, and therefore, I was quite upset. I decided to have a conversation with the manager to get to know why they came up with such a policy, and also gave her a 20-minute lecture on how I think Starbucks should treat their customers. Yes, the partner and the manager certainly had a bad day, having chosen to ask the wrong customer to leave, but I also took my own risk – reacting so vigorously in public is certainly not a good option these days, given that I may be videotaped and introduced on Youtube or hkgolden forum. But as a loyal customer to Starbucks, I have the right to enjoy Starbucks’ services, while also have the responsibility to report any problem I find.

I won’t admit that I’m a geek, or a fanboy. I’m just a digital native who embraces new technologies faster than others, and appreciates great technology. What constitutes “great technology”? Those are technology that are advanced, unheard of, but at the same time easy to use, and beautifully crafted. That’s easier said than done. So far it seems only Apple has achieved that. But when others (even Samsung) come up with products like that, I’ll for sure welcome that without thought.

Anyway my stance in technology is not what I’d like to talk about today, though. I’m just pissed by tech lately. As I said in the last entry, new tech aren’t exciting these days. I thought about buying a budget Windows 8 tablet, so that I can install Photoshop on it and I can carry it to work and edit photos with ease. But on a second thought, I gave up that idea because budget tablets (and in Windows 8 terms tablets = full-fledged computers) mean compromised devices — slow, poor battery life, heavy, you name it. So I’d rather bring my old (6-year-old) Mac to office and do some serious stuff. How does it perform? Superbly.

Another thing that pissed me off was price of ram. Well, performance of my other Mac at home hit the bottleneck lately. I wanted to upgrade that to 16GB of ram, only to find that ram price had risen. I was looking at around $450/8GB a few months ago, but it cost $490 for one yesterday. WTF?

So, I’ve decided to wait, not for ram price to drop, but for a Mac instead. Yes, I’m so ready for a new Mac.

August. It’s this time of the year again, when a hot boring summer comes which vaporizes any mood for doing anything. After I’m back from my trip to Japan, life becomes a tranquility again. It seems I need new excitement in life; however that’s an easy conclusion that is hard to achieve.

Work-wise July had been OK. I continue to do things that enrich lives, something I promised myself some time before. But how do I enrich my own life? After all, work can’t constitute a life completely. One has to play. I thought about getting new gadgets, but in this summer even gadgets get boring. E.g. MBA is just a modest update; rMBP has not yet been released; GX1’s successor GX7 has no real technological breakthrough (and I don’t have much chance to utilize a new camera, or lens, anyway). Yes, gadget is a second interest for me, but it just doesn’t excite me recently.

What about another trip? “I want to go on a trip on my own,” I said. “Cool, let’s go together,” said Thomas. So my friends and I suggested a weekend getaway to Taipei (again), but it seems it won’t materialize in the short term. Perhaps it’s time to really go on a trip on my own?

And then there’s my plan to learn driving. Yes, I’ll have the written test next Tues. But for some reason I just can’t concentrate to study. Well, who would fail that simple test? (Actually my DSA did..) But sadly I heard that it’ll take a while before you can take the road test, so I was advised not to start learning so fast. That means I’ll have to find ways to occupy my life in the meantime.