Shaun T. Dy's Business & Economics Perspective Blog

  It's no secret that I had bad grades in elementary and high school. There's always this distinction between huan-a (which may no longer be offensive, and refers to anybody of the Malay-Indo race ) and the lan-nang (our people). However, I prefer to call myself hua-lang (華人, Huárén) over lan-nang. Early last year, I wrote about why the old Sin Jiang textbooks were written the way they were . Barely anything can be understood by the non-Chinese speaker! It's funny but true! Honestly, we were even forbidden from romanizing, and we had to use Zhuyin Fuhao--something no longer applicable with Standard Chinese! Taiwan is still left using Zhuyin. Zhuyin may be best rendered as obsolete as the Alibata for standard writing or inputs. The Chinese schools in the Philippines all operated under a single standard. Learning Chinese was often characterized by the "死記硬背 sǐ jì yìng bèi" or "Memorize to the point of death" mentality (read here ). People had to learn Hokk...

It's April Fool's Day, and what's April Fool's Day without some friendly humor? Here's some crazy stuff I found on Facebook: This one is way too ridiculous. I confess I'm a fan of Bok Korean Fried Chicken. However, I still prefer Bonenone Korean Chicken at A.S. Fortuna, Banilad, which still tastes better IMHO. My only problem with Bonenone is the difficulty in getting a parking space. However, Bok in IT Park can be a quick fix. So far, no restaurant should be stupid enough to give free chicken, for bringing a live chicken .  This Mang Inasal ad made me think, "Cool, there's mocha ice cream." However, the description from the Facebook page made it a clear joke. Looking at the caption, "Pwede ring hindi." meaning "Maybe not," with the laughing icon proves it's just a joke! This one would be totally a joke. Hopefully, Dairy Queen will offer mint chocolate after this joke. It's definitely not advisable to swallow toothpaste....

High School Philippine History Movement Yes, you read it right! I found a hidden gem that I should've read years ago! It's the book Nationalist Economics by the late Alejandro Lichauco, who is part of the magnificent IBON Foundation. It's a shame I refused to read it. I should've read Lichauco's book instead of the late Lee Kuan Yew's book From Third World to First . What a shame that I didn't look into the details that LKY was a dictator, that Flor Contemplacion was indeed innocent, and that Singapore is a state comparable to Nazi Germany. As I bought my copy of Nationalist Economics from the Trust Me Bro School of Economics--I'm now convinced that the Filipino First Policy caused us to succeed! LKY ruled Singapore for 31 years, meaning it's a frightening thing indeed! Six years is the magic number ot establish a benevolent rule!  Who should we all listen to? Should we listen to foreigners or should we listen to our fellow Filipino? We must think st...

Tax season can be stressful. I think about how easy it becomes to overlook certain stuff. One can be distracted by either happy events or sad events. I remember how I accidentally signed the wrong document when my paternal grandmother died of old age. I remember how I could easily forget receipts until I started to document them. Memory should be the least reliable tool ever. I tend to get mad whenever I become forgetful. We end up excessively scolding others for their bad memory. I even end up either (1) scolding others too hard, or (2) being too hard on myself. That's why I've grown critical of the education system itself. Just imagine that even honor roll students are forgetting what they learned back in high school. Right now, I even have to download notes to relearn stuff that I learned in college . This may be the best picture for college, especially for those without a board exam. I didn't take the board exam since I'm a business administration graduate. I confes...

Let's face it that the market will never be all yours. That's what Adobe needs to learn as it still continues, it's really bad business practices. It's a good thing that I asked around before getting Affinity Photo. Adobe Photoshop's usage is really plain bad. In economics, there's such a thing as the law of substitutes. If something is too expensive, get a more affordable substitute. It's like,  don't get an iPhone if you can't afford to buy an iPhone. It's like why I would still prefer a Samsung or a Xiaomi over an iPhone. An iPhone is too expensive for my taste, even for a guy with somewhat expensive taste! As I look into Adobe's subscription (which will cost me PHP 3,000+ per month) vs. a one-shot purchase for Affinity in my Windows account, we know which is better. Affinity Photo works in nearly the same way as Photoshop does. My only minor complaint is that I couldn't make animated GIFs with Affinity Photo alone. Hopefully, Canva...

It's no secret that Adobe was the get-go for those who grew up in the 1990s. Who can remember using some of the programs like Aldus Pagemaker, Adobe Photoshop (and the term Photoshop got popularized, as a synonym for editing), and Adobe Acrobat. Unfortunately, Adobe's disgusting practice of a  super expensive subscription-based business model is really foolish. I watched this video and I have every right to agree. Did Adobe think that they would dominate the market forever and that people would stay loyal to them? Just looking at the video I shared gives me good reasons to leave Adobe for good. Why would I pay PHP 3,000+ (per month) for nostalgia if I could pay PHP 1,000+ for ownership of at least one Affinity program? Affinity Photo has given me the basics of what I need (and want). Sure, I'm willing to pay some extra money so Affinity Photo can help produce animated GIFs. Otherwise, one may get used to creating the frames manually, then using another program to create the...

If there's anything I want to say--only economically illiterate people would vote for Teodoro Casiño's promise. The chances are that (1) it's all for a vote, or (2) he doesn't understand what he's doing. In my case, I assume that Casiño is simply saying it, all for a vote instead of the second option. Chances are that he's only saying it, for a vote. Because nobody in the right mind would push a PHP 1,200 minimum wage, given the condition of the job market! I would like to write this article because what he's pushing is inflationary . It's because no matter how much you look at it, #SahodItaasPresyoIbaba is plain bad accounting (read here ). How can you increase wages without increasing the prices of goods and services? Business & Plans   I wrote about opening #SahodItaasPresyoIbaba stores nationwide . Until now, nobody has ever bothered to do the challenge. Why haven't they opened a single successful #SahodItaasPresyoIbaba store? As one would lo...