Economics of Face Masks (PES)

Continuing my discussion about difficulty of buying masks (here), why is supply of masks so low. The material cost of making a face mask is around HKD 0.22 and the selling it for HKD 15 for a average quality masks suggest big money...REALLY BIG MONEY!!! So, why can't suppliers just hit the "Produce" button, increase …

Economics of Face Masks (PED)

The Coronavirus that has hit Greater China region and beyond since January 2020 has led to a super surge in the demand for face masks globally. Having lived in Hong Kong for many years, face masks supply are relatively abundant since SARS took place in 2003 and hence, it was a shocker that face masks …

2019 TOK Essay Rambling 3 “Present knowledge is wholly dependent on past knowledge.” Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge.

The word "wholly" stands out. Wholly brings to mind the words "completely" and "wholesome". In some ways, this essay is probably the most straightforward out of the six TOK questions as it requires the the discussion of present and past knowledge, two very familiar TOK concepts. It is beyond doubt that there are a lot …

Throwing money at a company and making it a Monopoly

In the world of venture investing, Softbank stands out to being the biggest, boldest and hostile investment firm in the world. The founder and chairman is the charismatic Masayoshi Son, who once held the distinction as the richest person in the world during the tech boom in the late 1990s as well as the unenviable …

TOK Essay Rambling 2 “There is a sharp line between describing something and offering an explanation of it.” To what extent do you agree with this claim?

The word "sharp line" stands out sharply and it is a point that needs to be directly addressed. When I see the word "Sharp line", I think of words that suggests distinction, clear difference, unambiguous, differentiable. This question is interesting because it is comparing description vs. explanation. But it is important not to be hung …

2019 TOK Essay Rambling 1: “Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not” (Pablo Picasso). Explore this distinction with reference to two areas of knowledge.

In the following weeks, I will share some of my thoughts on each of the 2019 essay questions.  These comments are not meant to be model answers because there is no such thing as a correct answer for these essays.  The discussion is also not meant to be complete. Rather, these posts are used to …

Are workers truly “discouraged” or not?

Mathematically, we know that the labour force is the summation of those who are employed and unemployed. Employed are those with a job (duh) and unemployed are those who do not have a job and are actively looking for one. Let's not get into the semantics of what"actively looking for one is"...just like "actively revising …

Batman and Robin in Business

I have recently taken an interest in looking at the top level management in very large Chinese businesses and I have noticed an interesting pattern. The founder, as we would expect, is someone who has great vision for the company, charismatic and interestingly not necessarily highly educated. A great visionary is someone who is able …

Low unemployment rate could be BAD?

The Unemployment rate is a common measure to reflect how much of the labour resources are being used in the country.  It is measured with the formula For example, if the labour force of a country is 10,000 people, and the number of people are unemployed is 300 people, then the unemployment rate is 3%; …

Imagination from Zero to One

"Every moment in business happens only once. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system . The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won't make a search engine. And the next Mark Zuckerberg won't create a social network. If you are copying these guys, you aren't learning from them. Of course it's easier …