Author: ericaeyoung

Nurturing connections to form lasting friendships

Published by ericaeyoung

Two years ago, I joined a Hong Kong Science Park delegation to participate in a Geneva exhibition. While there, I met a Sri Lankan professor who radiated energy like an elastic band pulled taught and his appearance further reinforced this visual. He personifies everything I’ve come to feel about Sri Lanka: genuine, inquisitive and bubbling over with enthusiasm about the country’s future. Serendipitously, my Airbnb hosts were a warm Sri Lankan family, who also welcomed him into their home. This gave us the opportunity to build a foundation for friendship. We celebrated Sri Lankan new year together, which is where I got my first taste of both the food and culture.This wonderful experience stuck with me. Last November I applied and was accepted to a Vipassana meditation course in Kandy, Sri Lanka. Afterwards, I had the chance to reunite with that professor. When I told him about my meditation experience, he immediately called his close friend and shared my recent experience. Without hesitation, this stranger graciously offered me free accommodation at a retreat he had designed and built in …

Personal storytelling through visualizations

Published by ericaeyoung

The most ubiquitous way to share personal experiences and stories is through photos. Relatively speaking, they are quick to create and can be instantaneously shared. They’re great for capturing a feeling or special moment, but rarely show change over time or the relationship between two or more ideas. Video does a much better job of displaying these nuances, which is why it has become such a popular medium for storytelling. Collages, photo books, and yearbooks were all born of the desire to provide more context to photos and document experiences. Data visualizations require more data points, a decisive angle and time to craft. However, they can capture a story more holistically, distill information into key points, help share learnings easily, and provide an opportunity for reflection. Finally, the tools to create these types of visuals are available to all and becoming much easier to use.Data visualization and the quantified self My first exposure to data visualization was through an Edward Tufte course in 1999. He is considered a pioneer in the space and his passion is contagious. These days, dynamic visual displays of data …

Vipassana meditation and seeds for innovation

Published by ericaeyoung

First, here’s a high level summary of the technique and goal of Vipassana meditation as a primer. Basically, you use your own body sensations to internalize the belief of impermanence and stop the negative feedback loop of craving and aversion. You do this by first sharpening your mind to feel those sensations (using a separate meditation called Anapana Sati). You then use Vipassana to experience these sensations, both positive and negative, without reacting to them and maintaining equanimity. The long term goal is obviously enlightenment, but the byproduct is an extremely sharp mind that is able to feel any sensation throughout the body and free of the emotional turmoil that cravings and aversions generate. The reason you look inward is because while concentrating on an object or word does help quiet a busy mind, it doesn’t allow you to sharpen it. Also, wisdom gained through first hand experience is the most tangible and visceral.Vipassana meditation experience As part of my self exploration process, I decided to attend a 10 day silent meditation retreat in Kandy, Sri …

88 Days and counting

Published by ericaeyoung

It’s an auspicious day to start planning for my 2nd ultra marathon. It’s also worthwhile to look back and share lessons learned from my first multi-day race last fall, in the hopes that it will motivate me to do it all over again. Last November I competed in Action Asia’s Nepal 3 Day Ultra Marathon in the 60k category. When I signed up, I never expected to actually place. I wrote it down as a stretch goal in my training diary and quickly forgot. It wasn’t until 15 km into the first race day that the goal truly felt within reach. Race staff told me that the female front runner was only 100 meters ahead and openly laughed at my shock. While I never managed to catch her, I am extremely proud of my sub-12 hour time. The course and scenery were magnificent, with views of the Annapurna range and trails along terraced rice paddies. I’ve never been to Mongolia and can’t wait to run through it’s rugged landscape in June. This time I set myself a new stretch goal …

Designing a process for self exploration

Published by ericaeyoung

Since a number of people have asked about my self exploration process and shared their desire to do some exploring themselves, I thought I’d write up my experience thus far. Not only is it helpful for me to document the process, but also reflect on it. I welcome any feedback and questions!Background My initial intention was to stay and grow with my previous company for many years. As soon as I realized that it wouldn’t be possible last August, I decided to leave. This gave me the unexpected opportunity to reflect on what was missing both personally and professionally. First and foremost, I allowed my health to deteriorate while I was working there. That’s why I made sleep, eating healthy and physical exercise such a priority for the first 3 months of my break. Then I tried my best to reflect on the professional experience and decided that I should evaluate my next role based on skill fit, team fit, and mission fit. At a minimum, I had to feel confident that I’d add significant value …

Reflecting on a year of pop-up dinners

Published by ericaeyoung

Almost one year ago, a casual conversation over coffee became an ongoing experiment in crafting immersive dining experiences to build lasting connections through engaging dialog. Six dinners and many tweeks later, I’m beginning to hone in on the building blocks that form a foundation for success.While Hong Kong is an extremely social city, almost all interactions happen outside the home. Apartments are small and kitchens even smaller, so people rarely entertain in their own space. This creates an unfortunate dynamic where conversations tend to be artificially shortened by local restaurant dining customs and there’s usually a point when participants must “ante up” in order to continue the discussion. Interactions don’t have the opportunity to organically unfold over time in a relaxed atmosphere. One of the few exceptions to this rule are junk boats, where the people are captive for a full day and the financial obligations are sorted in advance. However, this environment is not conducive to deep discussions because there are so many stimuli competing for attention. Hong Kong expats often find that while they have many casual friends, they are missing the deeper connections …

Silent treatment

Published by ericaeyoung

You’re not going to hear from me this holiday season. No phone calls, no emails, not even a tweet! I’ve decided that for my birthday I’m going to treat myself to a 10-day Vipassana meditation course. If any of you are familiar with these courses, you’ll catch the sarcasm in the word “treat”. It’s 10 days of silence: no speaking, no writing, no reading, no technology, no exercise, no stimulants. It’s redeeming quality? I’ve chosen to do the course in Sri Lanka, so the food should be wonderful, though we eat our last meal each day at noon :p.How did I come to this decision? While I have dabbled in mindfulness meditation before, I had never seriously considered a course like this until a few weeks ago. Luck favors the prepared, and I was luckily prepared when a new mentor walked into my life. He challenged me to focus more of my efforts on introspection, reflection, and self awareness. As I explored ways in which I could do this, it became obvious that while I …

Regression to the mean

Published by ericaeyoung

It’s about time for me to regress to the mean. For those of you who have read Daniel Kahneman‘s best seller, you’ll understand where I’m coming from. He talks a great deal about luck, optimism and probability – all of which have been in my favor for far too long. Some of you have heard my casual explanation for the world’s way of “re-balancing” in the past, but he does a great job of explaining it in a much more scientific way.The reason is simple. When I signed up for the ultramarathon 3 months ago, I never expected to actually place. I wrote it down as a stretch goal in my training diary and promptly forgot about it. It wasn’t until check point 3, 15 km into the first race day, that the goal truly felt within reach. The staff told me that the female front runner was only 100 meters ahead and openly laughed at my shock. While I never managed to catch her, I am very proud of my sub-12 hour time. The …

White sheet of paper

Published by ericaeyoung

Hard to believe that my last update was in back in October 2013! While I haven’t had any motorcycle adventures since, I have had my share of zip lining in Laos and dog sledding in Sweden. Hope your adventures are equally as varied and exciting!Throughout high school, I handmade yearbooks to express my interpretation of each school year. At the end of my senior edition I reprinted this famous Calvin & Hobbes comic strip, which was Bill Watterson’s last (until recently). It seems even more appropriate now than it did then.As many of you already know, I have resigned from One Earth Designs and my last day was today. It has been an amazing journey, chalk-full of learnings and wonderful memories that I won’t soon forget. Rest assured – I have no plans to leave Hong Kong! Permanent resident status is just around the corner and my support of the HK start up scene will continue for now through Invest HK.While I was initially staring at a white sheet of paper, it didn’t stay that way …

Heaven’s here on earth

Published by ericaeyoung

Hello all! As promised, here’s the non-Kickstarter and barely work-related update that I promised back in August. Hope all of you are well and enjoying whatever activities are filling up your days!Right now I’m sitting outside with beer at a tranquil retreat called Natural Home, nestled in the bamboo forest of Moganshan, China. It’s about 5 hours by motorcycle southwest of Shanghai. This last week has been unbelievable, not only as a result of the scenery (which was magnificent), but also by reminding me of things I haven’t had time to think about recently. For some reason, Tracy Chapman has been on repeat in my head since we set off :].There is something truly freeing about traveling by motorcycle that I’ve never experienced before. Your senses are somehow heightened and you interact more directly with your surroundings. Riding reminded me of the freedom an open road offers and I now understand why people are drawn to it despite the danger. I’m very fortunate that my friend offered to share this experience with me. We road …