Innovate or die?

Innovation here, innovation there, innovation everywhere. Nowadays, everyone seems to embrace it as the ultimate gospel in our capitalist world. The word innovation is so trendy, most of us get the impression that innovation is a necessity for a company to survive. In fact, during an interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook, he even told Bloomberg that "to not innovate is to die." If the king of innovation himself said so, it must be true, right? 

The apparent answer is yes. I mean it is not difficult to find an example from recent history to prove it true. Blockbuster, Polaroid, Borders, Alta Vista, just to name a few. But the most famous example has to be Kodak. For anyone who does not know the story of Kodak, here is a little crash course. Kodak is an American company best known for its photographic film product and it dominated the market during the 80's. However, it then started to decline in the 1990 due to the fatal marketing decision to stay in the film industry rather than moving immediately into digital photography. The decline was drastic, to the point that Kodak filed for bankruptcy in January 2012.     

At first sight, it does seem like the Kodak story fits the "innovate or die" statement perfectly. But at a closer look, it is more revealing than that. It is interesting to note that it was Kodak who first developped the digital camera in 1975. So what happened? In fact, Kodak fell into the "low-risk trap". Instead of investing in a disruptive technology like digital camera, Kodak chose to put the money into improving the quality of photographic film, a low-risk innovation. Adi Alon, a managing director of the Operations Innovation and Product Development Consulting Group for technology consultancy firm Accenture, stated : "Low-risk approach to innovation ... helps maintain the brand, maintain the core offering, but it doesn't result in a significant value creation. And over time, it's going to erode your market position."

"Low-risk innovation is a trap that many companies fall into," he explains. Unfortunately, the king of innovation Tim Cook and Apple itself might have just fallen victim to this trap. With its 37 versions of iPod, 23 iPhones and 16 iPads, Apple is basically making different iterations of the same technology. Adding more and more visually stunning features cannot hide the fact that Apple's growth seems to have plateaued. 

Besides choosing the right innovation, to survive in the fast-paced market is also about what you do with your innovation. "More often, it's an inability to do things that have to follow innovation. It's really about getting stuff done," states Cliff Oxford, the CEO at Oxford Center for Entrepreneurs. "Getting stuff done means packaging, selling, delivering and collecting money to increase revenue and profits," he further explains. One can even argue that with an impeccable marketing strategy, one can sell anything to anyone, regardless the quality of the product. 

Beats by Dre is the prime example in this case. While the quality of their products is not bad per say, Beats' headphones are often regarded as overpriced in the audio-lover community. The reason Beats electronics is able to sell their products with such high price tags is perceived value. "You've heard of Beats by Dre, and your mom and dad probably have too. But if you ask them to name another audio company, they might have some trouble unless they're audiohead ... Perceived value is really the name of the game that Beats electronics is winning," says Marques Brownlee, a Youtuber and technology reviewer. 

To conclude, the statement "innovate or die" is only part of the truth. The correct statement should have been : "innovate while avoiding the low-risk approach and increase the perceived value of your innovation, or die." But who wants to put that as the title of their article. Undeniably, "innovate or die" is a powerful statement. It is simple and captivating but lacking foresight. Don't be fool by it, it is just another advertising trick to get more readers, just like I use it as the title of this article.     

Ut4M 2015

If you want to talk to God, run an ultra.

-- Dean Karnazes --

Pursuit of a dream

Ultra Tour des 4 Massifs (Ut4M), 166km, 10000+m of vertival climbing, 4 mountains ranges, all in 53 hours time limit. If you think you can comprehend the distance, think again. I still remember the first time I heard of Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB). I was so in awe. One day I will complete one, I told myself. However, to participate in UTMB, one needs points, points earned by completing other trail running courses. 

And there was me in the beginning of April and there was Ut4M. A course very similar to UTMB but there is no need of qualifying points and anyone who is brave enough can participate. I wasn't sure if I would still be in the Alpes region next year summer and most probably I won't have time and money to participate in enough races to qualify for UTMB. Ut4M might be the only chance to realize my dream. I felt like I was running out of time, and afraid if I didn't give it a try, it might never happen. So I signed up for Ut4M.

The truth is I was no runner. In fact, running had always been my least favorite workout. Yet I chose to do an ultra, simply because I knew it was all about hard work. I was no natural athlete but I believed hard work would carry me far enough. My goal was simple : complete the course within time limit. Besides work and some short runs during weekdays, I spent large portion of many weekends alone in the mountains, doing 40-50km hiking each time, accumulating vertical kilometrage. It was such a long preparation and difficult mental adjustment that it was hard not to take the race seriously. Actually, I had never taken any races as serious as this one before, to the point that I started having recurring dream of running late for the starting time.

The fact that I was a first-timer, having no clue of what to expect during the race, I was extremely nervous as the race day approached. The week before race day, I was feeling out of breathe, my heart was beating out of proportion. I wanted to sleep more but ended up with a few nights of insomnia. I knew the pressure was self-imposed, it was just anxiety kicking in. That week was mentally agonizing to me. All I wanted was to start the race as soon as I could.

Judgement day

Finally on 21 Aug 2015, at 8am, judgement day. I was suprisingly calm at the starting line. Probably I had accepted my fate. Finish or no finish, I just wanted to get over it. In any endurance race, it is always best to start slow and never go into the red zone too soon. For the first 40km, the Vercors portion, I took it slowly but never stayed too far behind. When I reached Vif at 5pm, I felt relatively fresh and I still had a few hours in front of the cut-off time. Plus my friends were there in Vif welcoming me. Able to talk to people I know for a while certainly did good to me.

The race really started at Vif. Most participants I crossed by during the day were doing only the Vercors 40km race. I have to admit that seeing them getting into buses and finisher T-shirts hurt me psychologically. Knowing that they will be sleeping in their cozy bed tonight while you still have 120km to go, you have to question youself : why you choose to do this shit? I had the same thought at Vif. But since my body was still fresh, it was easy to move on.

After Vif, all who left were people doing the full course. Until Laffrey, I was still fine but I could feel the fatigue already. While the front runners were amazing physically, I came to realize that most participants' mindset was not to test how fast they could finish, but to see how far they could go before the time barrier cut them off. We, participants, all had different life during normal days. But on this day, we came together and we were all runners, searching for our own limits. It was clear that nobody was doing it for glory because there wasn't any. We all were there to see how much we were able to keep on going.

There was a van at very refreshment check points to transport participants who abandonned back to Grenoble. It was always there ready. It was very easy to just stop the suffering, walked away, and hopefully forgot about it. Passing by each check point, seeing more and more people abandoned, the temptation to stop was increasingly appealing. The idea of giving up surfaced when I was in between Laffrey and La Morte. I was like : Shit! It comes too soon! It was at this moment that I had accepted the fact that I might not complete the course.

Lowest point at the the highest point

When the night fell, the race became entirely different. At night, the vision was greatly reduced. The runners were quite far apart between each other that sometimes I found myself alone in the dark. It was so quiet that my heartbeat and my breathing became the dominant sound. By the time I reached La Morte, it was almost midnight. The desire to quit was intense. At this point, I still kept my time margin manageable. So I took a nap in hope of boosting my morale.

I always have the tendency of forgetting to eat whenever I am in my own bubble doing some hard effort. After half an hour of nap, I felt so disorientated when I woke up and I made my biggest mistake during the race : I continued on without eating much at La Morte. I only realized about that when I was already half way up to Pas de La Vache. I was already having difficulty chewing down food, now I only had cold chocolate bars in my bag. Pas de La Vache was the highest point of the entire course. Climbing it while running low in energy reserve, I suffered alot. Running out of breathe, I seriously felt like dying. It was an exposed climb, cold wind kept blowing strong during that night. I literally stopped to rest for every ten meters I advanced.

That climb was a tedious conversation with myself. At some point, I sat down and I felt like I was just done. I was just in another world. I just remember seeing all the stars in the sky. I switched off my headlamp and just trying to take in deep breathe. All my thoughts were just gone, the daily life, work and school, all gone. Probably the view or probably the chilling wind, goosebump spread through my body. That feeling for me was really special. That was some really distilled existence.    

The descent from Pas de La Vache to Poursollet was unforgiving too. It was steep and slippery. Some passages were so damn gnarly and scary, especially when my legs were weak. Although it was only 10km from La Morte, it took me 5 grinding hours to reach Poursollet check point. From that point, the sun would rise soon and I knew I would be able at least to reach Riouperoux. At Pas de l'Envious, I saw the sunrise. It was great to see sunlight again after a long long night.

After another long descent later, at around 9am, I reached Riouperoux check point. My legs were just beat up after all. I nearly lost all my time margin. However I was satisfied of what I had done and I had no wish to continue anymore. Although only 25 hours had passed since the starting line, I felt I had experienced a whole year worth of time. I wanted to give up but strangely I didn't have the guts to walk up to the official to annonce so. I had never knew that to give up it needs courage too.  It was a decision so final that I couldn't do it on my own. So I waited for my friend Louis to come. We talked a little bit, only then I abandoned officially.

Gaining elevation

After I came back to Grenoble, I did go to see the arrival of final finishers. It was so emotional to see them fighting until the end. That will power in their eyes, that tenacity in their mind, these weren't something that can be taught. They were the prove that normal people could also archieve the unimaginable. I felt elevated because I knew I had walked among them, although not until the end.

It is a bummer that I didn't finish what I had set to do. I just don't have what it needs to finish the course this year. You could say I could have gone further on instead of stopping at Riouperoux since I still had some margin. I felt and still feel the same too. But in the end, I guess I would say : what important is not the destination, it is the action. I don't regret my decision. I am still new in trail running and this is just my first try at ultra. Imagine if I had actually succeeded. I think this success would do more harm than good. Success makes you overlook many things. In defeat, you will see a bigger picture.

Einstein is right. Time is relative. 25 hours can mean an eternity. Running an ultra is trully a religious experience and this is my way to commemorate Grenoble and all the years I have spent here, huge ups and downs, just like Ut4M.

Special thanks to Louis, Cyprien, Thibaut, and Eugene

A grumbling hermit in a mountainous shell

This entry is a essentially rant. I am sick of hearing people telling me : you should travel more, don't always stay in the mountains. There is a reason why I travel not as often as I used to be. Not that I hate travel, on the contrary, I adore adventures. I had booked a one-way ticket, flied to Sicily alone and slowly figured my way back to Grenoble; I had travelled to India for a month with my mom without any planning beforehand; I had travelled to Tunisia during its unstable time after Arab Spring without any planning; and I had hitchhiked multiple times in several countries. 

By mentioning all the above, I have to admit that I might have the intention to brag. But all I mentioned are stories, great stories even. That's exactly the point of travel for me : stories. As travelling is getting easier and easier, I have seen too many people travel to places and all they care about are beautiful photos, photos that are later to be posted on social media to impress other people they don't know. However breathtaking the scenery is, they won't trully know because they are busy looking at their cameras and selfie stick, trying to get the right angle for the perfect shot. And then move back to hotel as soon as possible, with wifi go back into their own bubble with their phones.  

A quote from a movie I love so much, The Beach, pretty much sums up my thought, 

The only downer is, everyone's got the same idea. We all travel thousands of miles just to watch TV and check in to somewhere with all the comforts of home, and you gotta ask yourself, what is the point of that?

I don't hate travel, I just hate tourists-consumers I meet during the travel. Photographer-wannabes with huge cameras and tripods, narcissistic technology-slaves with their selfie sticks, youngsters who have no intention to be there but dragged by their parents to travel with them and now complaining about internet connection, all of them are pollutants, or like how they are described in The Beach, parasites.

Recently I read an article which inspired me to write this entry. It is in French but I find the final paragraphe really true, from which I quote and translate, 

If travelling has became a to-do-list to cross out, then travelling doesn't make you an interesting person.   

(http://www.vice.com/fr/read/tourisme-et-narcissisme-199).

I still travel, but not to famous places anymore. I try to avoid easily accessible tourist hotspot, and travel more and more to places not many people know. That is why I stayed for only a few hours in JiuFen, an incredibly popular spot in Taiwan, but stayed for four full days in Kinmen, a tiny rural island where foreigners are rarity. 

That is also why I prefer to stay in Grenoble mountains during the holidays, spending most of my time doing outdoor sports. Alpine mountains fit the inaccessible criteria, the scenery is always amazing, and sport and nature are good for health. To get a beautiful view, one has to climb. In that way, mountains always ensure an experience, the one that takes your breathe away, literally and figuratively. People you meet in the mountains tend to be very friendly. Since everyone is sharing the same experience, you can feel the connection between you and them, eventhough they are strangers to you.    

To many ignorant people, I might seem like a hermit in my mountainous shell. May be I am, but at least it is still better than a pollutant, a parasite.   

Villard de Lans to Grenoble

Fire and Blood, Rust and Dust

Mad Max : Fury Road is overloading with fire and blood, rust and dust, and overall madness. The stunts are crazy, the characters are crazy, everything is crazy. I was so damn hyped for this movie, eventhough technically I have never seen the previous three Mad Max movies before. When I was small, I merely remember a scene or two from Road Warrior. The very first trailer of Fury Road really got me hooked in, espcially that sand storm scene at the end. This trailer was so good that I actually worried if the movie was able to match with it. 

This afternoon I watched it and I love it! This is a stand alone film, so one doesn't have to watch the previous three beforehand to enjoy this. The story is simple, not much dialogue, but it sells best what it aims to sell : actions. The movie goes way beyond what the trailer shows. To understand how crazy the movie is, 90% of the scenes showed in the trailer represent only the first 30 minutes of the movie, and the pace of the rest of the movie stays pretty much the same level of craziness throughout. It might sound like Transformers 4 but it is not. Unlike Transformers 4 in which the shots are too dynamic, the shots in Fury Road is clean, static, and wide-angled, which is less tiring and more enjoyable to look at. Transformers 4 is bad in so many ways anyway, so it is not fair to compare Fury Road with it.

The fact that this afternoon when I went to watch Fury Road and there were so few people in the theater made me sad. Screening around the same time as Age of Ultron, Fury Road is overcast by the shadow of Marvel. I really hope that it won't be overlooked. Gotta give credit to the director for keeping the movie rated R and not some PG13 bullshit. He certainly understands that Fury Road needs the R rating. It is an awesome movie. It is a lovely experience to go mad!